I think Samsonadze's films were interesting in the 1970s but get noticeably worse as the 1980s go on (was it a general tendency of Georgia-Film as a whole?). The art style becomes cruder and the animation less smooth (in general, it seems to become more amateurish, like when the studio was just starting out in the 1930s and 1940s).

Allegedly based on something written by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (1658-1725). However, I haven't been able to track down the source - if anyone knows, please let me know.

The first cartoon by Leonid Zarubin added here. He directed 26 films, but I've never seen any of them before. Honestly, I only added this one because it was easy to translate - it's not exactly bad, but nor is it that interesting.

Of his films on animator.ru, Oleshka Belyye rozhki has some interesting screenshots at least - I might check that one out.

Thank you, Eus. I was wondering why it was plural.

The "chamberlains", at. 3 m 30 s in tha animation, refer to Austen Chamberlain, one of the leader of the britisch conservative pary and foreign minister, architect of the Locarno treaty, for which he got the nobel peace-price in 1926, that created peace between France & German, co-signed by Italy and Belgium garanteeing Germany's western border, making it enter the predecessor of the UN, and binding the European nation to settle their conflicts by negociations not with war. He also Brought England in the Kellog-Briand treaty. His brother Neville, from 1937 till 1940 was the prime minister of Brittain also trying to keep european peace by giving sudetenland to Hitler in the Munich treaty from 1938. At the time of the animation, both brothers were leading members of the conservativer party, but Neville was internationally not yet in the picture. Both were trying to keep peace in Western Europe, not so much in the third world. That'ds wat the animation refers too. Also how sudetenland was givens away to Hitler, was not very considerate toward Czechoslovakia to whom it belonged.

I actually like this one more than the original - the songs are equally as memorable (and they seem to run all the way through the film without break, more so than in the original), and a lot of other things are done better. The sleuth is a fun new addition, I like that the backgrounds are no longer in crayon but more similar in style to how the characters are drawn, and the story, while still minimal, is stronger (with no more dubious tricks by the "heroes" like dressing up as bandits to trick the king). I guess it's because Livanov was director - I think he cared more about polish than Kovalevskaya did. Shame it was his last director's credit in animation, but I suppose he went on to bigger things.

My English is too bad. :D

I think this one is well-done and charming. Educational, too.

Frankly, I can't say I like this film much as it is rather mean-spirited and amateurishly-made. Also, it makes only a very half-hearted attempt at getting its intended message from the Ministry of Health across. It feels like by this point, control over effective use of public funds was not a priority in the country (which was in the midst of a sort of revolution). And while this allowed some really interesting animation to get made by accomplished artists, it also unfortunately allowed for stuff like this.

Back in 1973, director Ivanov-Vano had gotten a similar assignment and actually made something pretty decent.

I think the idea of #1 was done much better by Fyodor Hitruk in 1962 (The Story of a Crime). #2 and #3 have kind of interesting animation, though they all have a rather amateurish quality (like most or all of the Lennauchfilm animations I've seen so far).