Two Films from Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg

Here are the films The Lost Letter, uploaded by Niffiwan, and The Night before Christmas, uploaded by Eus347. I've only watched the first, but when I'm in the right mood for a rotoscoped film I'll make sure to watch the second.

The Scarlet Flower on YouTube

 

This movie isn't quite up to my low feature lenth standard of 45 minutes but it's worthy of inclusion here for those who can stand the awkward rotoscoped characters. 

Jerry Beck Resigns from Cartoon Brew

I'm quite shocked that Jerry Beck has resigned from Cartoon Brew. I wonder what will happen to the readers who preferred his articles to Amid's. Will there be somebody new who will take his place? We can only guess what some of these projects of Jerry's are. My guess is that he's producing an animation project or two. I suppose I should have suspected this from his earlier history considering how he resigned from Streamline Pictures. I'll miss his posts on Cartoon Brew. What do you think about this surprising event?

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/site-news/a-final-word-from-jerry-77692.html

Son of the White Mare Posted on YouTube

Here's Marcell Jankovic's film Son of the White Mare. I hope you enjoy it.

If you want to buy it, copy and paste this url to Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Feh%C3%A9rl%C3%B3fia-Hungarian-cartoon-version-Director/dp/B001P82XPG

Later, in the evening, I found Johnny Corncob was on there too with English subtitles

Redirected to the current available version on June 15th, 2018. I had to get rid of the old two videos because they were http and BlogSpot now runs on https and going back to this post ruined it for that reason. I couldn't re-upload Johnny Corncob. A YouTube copyright block has been placed on Johnny Corncob by 4kids Network or somebody pretending to be them. Not just for the English version but the Hungarian one too! Since when do they own the rights? This needs to be reversed.

Havoc in Heaven and 1001 Nights Available on Youtube

Havoc in Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZs0gQed9tMSuClzPPM7AxR5eOs0kZ5ks

1001 Nights
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZs0gQed9tMQBW1sZ4zC4iecr9K0HtElX

I found two classic animated films from the 60's on YouTube, the Wan brothers classic Havoc in Heaven and the other, a film for people under eighteen to avoid, the Mushi Pro film 1001 Nights. These links don't work unfortunately, so you'll have to copy the URL. This new version of blogger is a nuisance.

Of Stars and Men on YouTube

Here is my personal favorite of the Hubley films. It's the most ethereal and explores the relationship of human beings to the universe. It's an educational film, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it. Click on the YouTube button to reach the other parts. Thanks to liquidnature13 for the upload.

Evolution of Soviet Sports Cartoons

Russian sports cartoons seem to be intermittent for a while. The first, A Calm Forest Meadow, is in a very Disney-like mold, like a Silly Symphony in its forest setting and initially meandering pace before it goes into a happenstance sports game between rabbits and unsuspecting bears. The second, The Champion, is about a skiing race with an amateur dog who practices and ends up in a race with other youngster-like animals and a cocky wolf. Again, there's quite a bit of pre-action, still much like a Western cartoon, even if there's not a Western sports cartoon with such a focused plot. The third, Who is the First?, involves four young bicyclists who race through a forest, more event focused than the earlier cartoons, though the race meanders quite a bit. It's a more focused race.

Skip ahead five years after that, and there's Unusual Match where soft toys play against professional rugby wooden figurines. This one focuses on the home team aspect and in its longer time, about 20 minutes, shows how the participants practice and prepare for the game. In the sequel, the game is water polo. Both of these shorts show sophisticated competition, the first more than the second. In dramatic play and style, I think these show many strengths over co-director Boris Dezhkin's later solo films.

The skiing film isn't really a sports cartoon, it just has prototypes to the characters in Shaybu! Shaybu!, the next hockey film. Shaybu! Shaybu! is a hockey cartoon. It's about two teams, both human players this time, a blue home team and a red visiting team of pushy horseplayers, Dezhkin's usual formula. The main character is the person who apparently tends the rink where the game is played. It's an atmospheric trip through the game, the pre-game, the reactions of the crowd, and a comic while tense version of the game itself.

From what I can tell, few of the characters have any identities beyond what's shown on screen, most of them appearing to be nameless. There's the generic forest animals in the early cartoons. After that, it's dolls and then people with no names. There's nameless major characters in US sports cartoons as well, but they seem to flow in reverse, nameless knockoffs of well known characters. This happens frequently in Goofy cartoons.
















Does seeing these give you any ideas for future sports animations? I'd like to see some rocket races to Mars, or any number of things so long as they're good with real, dynamic competition.