Although the later 1950 film with the same name (which stays much closer to the original literary source) is probably better known, this earlier 1930s version (made in the first year of Soyuzmultfilm's existence, when it was still called Soyuzdetmultfilm) is a lot of fun. A great jazz soundtrack and lyrics. This was Ivanov's follow-up to his big hit of the year before, which has unfortunately been lost (only the 1950s remake survives). The animal musicians here are given a prominent appearance, though they originally have nothing to do with the story. But they were popular, so they were in! Much the same logic as the appearance of Mickey Mouse or Betty Boop in stories that had nothing to do with them in American animation, of which Ivanov was a big fan (and this was the main source of conflict between him and fellow director Ivanov-Vano - a conflict that Ivanov-Vano eventually won simply by living longer, and the escalating Cold War didn't hurt).

Like the later 1950 adaptation, I managed to translate this one in rhyme, with the same number of syllables per line, and close to the same meaning. I also, in a first for me, did it entirely while on an airplane, using the on-flight wifi.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't want to watch this one when I first came across it many years ago, just because I thought it looked too different from the original Dr. Seuss art style. Boy, was that a mistake! This is a great adaptation, even if it's not entirely faithful (for example, Thing One and Thing Two are missing - but, at least for my part, are not missed).

The art direction is great. The bright colours, strong lines and psychedelicism reminds me of Ugarov's Music Box with a Secret, while the character design and constant transformations reminds me of Saakyants' The Fox Who Couldn't Do Anything (both from 1976). It was done by Aleksandr Petrov before he felt he found his true voice as an artist. That came later that year on Night, directed by Vladimir Petkevich (who worked as an animator on this one).

I think it may also have been the first-ever Russian Dr. Seuss adaptation. At the time, Dr. Seuss was almost unknown in the Russian-speaking world, and Karayev only discovered him through the large collection of English-language children's books owned by the family of the famous children's writer Chukovsky. Karayev would go on to direct 3 more Dr. Seuss adaptations before (I'm guessing, but it's not unlikely) more stringent copyright enforcement on unlicensed adaptations by Western firms in the 1990s made it impossible to make any more. The one he made 2 years later, Welcome!, might be even better, although it's a close call.

The Animation Stories blog wrote a short review back in 2015, writing: "The theme of escaping into a land of fantasy from boredom of home or school is rather typical for the Soviet cartoons of the era of Stagnation, so Cat in Hat (Cap), with its protagonist, a safe entertainer who does not forget to clean the room before children's tired mother returns from work, falls perfectly within the scope of Soviet cartoons of that time."

Certainly the screenplay would have raised no concerns - it falls squarely into the broad, encouraged category of "stories that make children learn to be better people". I'm not sure if "escaping into a land of fantasy from boredom" was that common of a theme, though. I can think of Ara, bara, puch! (1986) by Vladimir Pekar, and Time Out (1984) by Priit Parn, but both of those are edging into the Perestroika era already, rather than the so-called "Stagnation" (as is true of this one, too). If you're really stretching, you might include Anatoliy Petrov's And Mama Will Forgive Me (1976), but boredom is really not the dominant theme of that one. I suppose you could also include Music Box with a Secret (1976), but again, boredom is not the reason for the escape into fantasy there. Well, I suppose Ugarov's At the Back of the Class series (1978-1985) also generally fits.

There are a few other animated films based on stories by Kharms currently on the site: The Journey (1989) and Pack! (1990). They're pretty interesting, and this one is as well, though maybe less so - but it definitely has fast-paced, dynamic animation, or the sort that was popular in much of the USSR (especially Ukraine and Russia) in the late 1980s-1990s, and mostly went away once artists switched to using computers. The director had worked on David Cherkasskiy's "Treasure Island" as an animator earlier. The film sticks pretty close to the original story, though the original story actually "ends" with the character falling to his death in the air. A bit of sick joke by Kharms to end the story there - I had to check to make sure that the page had not stopped loading!

5 minutes, 5 maritime safety skits. The animation is very well done and the writing is funny. Animator.ru lists this as the first film of Aleksey Karayev, but I don't know - they don't have a full filmography. Karayev created some of my favourite Russian animated films in the mid-1980s("Welcome" and "Lodgers of an Old House"). But he did these commissions for a bit at the beginning. They are generally pretty well done. He took a break from directing in the 1990s, coming back in the early 2000s, but I haven't liked his later films as much.

A fun little tale with some stylish animation. The director's first film. Her website says that she studied at the Animation Department at the Ural State Architecture and Arts Academy, and she thanks the other students from there in the credits, as well as Aleksey Karayev, a well-known Ural-based animation director who is a professor in the same Academy. So I suppose that the Pchela studio and this Academy collaborated, though only Pchela is listed as the studio.

There has been a trend in Russian animation schools, including in the Urals, of encouraging students to make work that will play well with international audiences (so: wordless, with an English title/credits, and maybe avoiding themes that are too "local"). I guess the hope is to have their students' work be seen in a larger pond, and to increase the chances for the students to get hired abroad. It worked for Chernysheva, as she now lives in France, and was even granted residency in Japan for a time.

This is one of Kovalevskaya's series of cartoons without words based on famous works of Russian classical music composers. She directed these periodically from 1976 to 1993. Like a lot of them, I'm a bit conflicted about this one because it mixes elements I like with others I like less. I often like Kovalevskaya's musical selections, but I don't like her nearly as much as a director. The musical performances are always excellent, since they were recorded by world-class orchestras and conductors. As is also nearly always the case, there isn't much depth or story, but what there is could work well enough if carried along by well-executed mood and movement. I guess, in the end, it works more than it doesn't, despite the backgrounds being drawn in a completely different style than the characters (also true of Kovalevskaya's most famous film, The Bremen Town Musicians).

Inessa Kovalevskaya's last film after being a regular director at Soyuzmultfilm since 1965, although she did come out of retirement to make one more film in 2001. Like the tendency of most of her films, it is based heavily around one or several musical themes, story is very slight, and there isn't much depth in the visuals either. The music is played very well, and I wish the visuals matched it. This film seems to have a similar length and overall idea as her 1984 Pictures at an Exhibition - take a famous composer, take a few of his most famous musical pieces, and show a simple, wordless story roughly based on the world he created. But I think the 1984 film did it better.

I do wonder if this served as inspiration for the 1998 Night on Bald Mountain by the same studio, which has some similarities?

There has been a bit of a trend in this past decade of Russian female animators making 18+ animated films about their love life for their student diploma works. I immediately thought of Out of the Ground, which also has a large woman and a small man and was even made in the same year (though at a different school). It seems like the theme might get a bit predictable, but I do find the art style and technique in this one to be interesting and stylish.

Just a fun and charming little fairy tale film, nothing deep about it. Neither of the directors ever directed another film. They both worked as animators before and they continued working as animators after. I don't really understand how or why this film got made at the Center of National Film, or what the funding pitch was (if any). Boykova previously worked for Master-Film and Pilot, while Fokin worked for a bunch of obscure studios I've never heard of and (once) for Pilot. There is some stylistic similarity to the previous film they both worked on, Ivan / Juan (2003) as well as the films of Aleksey Dyomin.

I've been busy with other things, so I looked for a wordless film to add today because it's quick to do. Not to say that this is a bad film, though - it's a nice story and funny. The only thing I don't really like is that the art style is simple to the point of primitivism - which has become more common in recent decades in Russian animation compared to the films made in the pre-digital era. Although you could say it's better for humour, it also makes it harder for me to connect with what is being shown because it feels more unreal.