Product Details

• Format: Full Screen, Color, Black & White, NTSC, DVD, Box set
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 4
• Studio: Jove Film
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000KPQ2FW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,666 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

SOUNDTRACK LANGUAGE(S): RUSSIAN, ENGLISH. SUBTITLES: ENGLISH. From 1924 to perestroika the USSR produced more than 4 dozen animated propaganda films. They weren't for export. Their target was the new nation and their goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. Anti-American, Anti-British, Anti-German, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist, some of these films are as artistically beautiful as the great political posters made after the 1917 revolution which inspired Soviet animation. A unique series. With a unique perspective. Includes interviews with the directors of the animated films which are still alive and commentary by a leading Soviet film scholar. Two hours of documentary and six hours of animated films: 1. American Imperialists; 2. Fascist Barbarians; 3. Capitalist Sharks; 4. Shining Future.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating? Yes! Entertaining? Not exactly..., June 29, 2007

By 

Tryavna (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Animated Soviet Propaganda: From the October Revolution to Perestroika (4 DVD Set) with ENGLISH SUBTITLES (DVD)

Extremely difficult to evaluate both for content and presentation, this collection offers a fascinating glimpse into the cultural life of the former Soviet Union. As the title implies, all these cartoons are heavily propagandistic. They were designed to instill the values of patriotism, self-sacrifice, and collectivization in the Soviet populace. As such, it's sure to appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of the USSR or Cold War. Likewise, the animation itself is generally compelling and frequently beautiful, so animation buffs are going to find this collection very rewarding.

However, as propaganda, these cartoons are extremely didactic and heavy-handed. Even viewers already familiar with classic live-action Soviet cinema will be shocked at some of the messages these cartoons convey. For instance, in "Someone Else's Voice," cute Disney-like birds drive a magpie out of their forest for singing an American jazz song, preferring quiet conformity instead. Other cartoons contain songs praising Stalin and advocating blind obedience to his policies. Many are also abstract, with protagonists that are rarely individuated in the way Americans expect. Characters are usually bland, too-good-to-be-true representations of an idealized Soviet type. Ultimately, it's very difficult to identify with them in any meaningful way. As a result, most viewers aren't going to watch these cartoons for fun in the same way they might watch Bugs Bunny or Donald Duck. Intellectual curiosity really trumps aesthetic enjoyment here, which means that this collection certainly belongs in university libraries but may not get much play-time at home.

Yet I don't want to scare anyone away. The company that produced it, Films By Jove, deserve all the support they can get for releasing films this obscure. Nevertheless, even their presentation has pros and cons.

Pros: the cartoons are organized thoughtfully, given good transfers, provided with more than adequate subtitles, and supplemented with special features totaling about two hours.

Cons: the subtitles are non-removable (which will irritate animation buffs), and the extras aren't really as in-depth as they should be. Each of the four documentaries contains the same two-minute opening and includes long excerpts from the cartoons themselves. They are basically explanations of what you've just seen rather than explorations of the historical context. Sometimes these explanations are helpful. How else could anyone figure out a bizarre cartoon like "Interplanetary Revolution"? (Footnote: if you haven't seen the 1924 Soviet sci-fi film "Aelita," you're probably never going to get it, even with the docu's explanation.) Still, I'd like to have learned more about how these cartoons were made. How were the cartoonists trained? How did their techniques differ from animation studios in Hollywood? What was the censorship process like? These questions don't get addressed satisfactorily. Fortunately, some PDF files are available on Jove's website, and I encourage viewers to check those out.

It's also worth pointing out that film preservation in Eastern Europe is in a notoriously sad state of affairs. If you've ever purchased a DVD from Ruscico or Second Run, you'll know that companies frequently have to rely on what's made available to them. As a result, some of these cartoons are fragmentary ("China in Flames"), lack original soundtracks ("The Vultures"), seem to be cropped ("The Shareholder"), or use such dark prints that they're almost indecipherable at times ("Tale of a Toy"). But knowing how difficult it can be to track down good film elements from Eastern Europe, I'm willing to cut Jove some slack. Potential consumers just need to be aware of these problems.

If you buy this set, I have some advice. By far, the best of the four documentaries is the one of the last disc ("Onward to the Shining Future"). If you watch this docu first, you'll get a much better sense of the historical context, and you'll be alerted to look for certain recurring images: capitalists are always depicted as either fat and greedy or ugly and hypocritical, etc. To get used to these cartoons, it's also best to start with disc 2 ("Fascist Barbarians"). Some of these compare favorably with propaganda cartoons created by MGM, Disney, and Warner during WWII. "Kino-Circus" is one of the funniest cartoons in the entire collection, and some of the later ones on this disc are among the most visually imaginative. ("The Pioneer's Violin," "Attention Wolves!" and "Tale of a Toy" are disturbing but beautiful.) I also recommend that you seek out "A Hot Stone" and "The Millionaire" early on, since they're the best cartoons in the collection. In my opinion, "The Millionaire" is the only one that equals the manic genius you'll find in Tex Avery's work. Finally, it's worth supplementing this collection with some of the less propagandistic animation that Soviet studios were producing during the Cold War. Not all cartoons from the USSR were this abstract and didactic. If possible, you should try to pick up one of the volumes in Jove's "Masters of Russian Animation" series. In terms of content, those cartoons are much more palatable.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Soviet satire invites us to look in the mirror, October 14, 2007

By 

Eugene Schiller (Honolulu, Hi United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animated Soviet Propaganda: From the October Revolution to Perestroika (4 DVD Set) with ENGLISH SUBTITLES (DVD)

In his commentary, both on disc and in the accompanying booklet, Prof. Igor Kokarev gives a moving and informative account of life under a repressive Soviet regime. It's true, Soviet artists worked under severe ideological constraints, and certainly, none of the works presented here are untainted by politics. And yet, does it really matter? Let's take the first and best of the four chapters - "American Imperialists": Who can argue, for instance, with "Black & White" 's passionate denunciation of American racism, "Ave Maria" 's pacifist view of the Vietnam War - or the notion that money can buy political power and influence, as in the hilarious and high-styled "The Millionaire"? Tarasov's "Shooting Range", which deals with the exploitation of the working class, scores an aesthetic bulls-eye, as do "Mr. Wolf" and "Mister Twister" - tales of corporate greed and hypocrisy.
On a more upbeat note, Atamanov's "We Can Do It" makes the astounding proposal that all nations can work together for peace.
Propaganda?? These are universal themes, developed with humor, imagination and impeccable artistry.
It's a well-packed four-disc set, but the technical quality varies - unsurprising, when one considers some of the source material dates back to the silent era. The color spectrum appears reasonably vibrant, (as in "Songs of the Year of Fire" and "Shooting Range"), but in general, production values lack the gloss of Jove's "Masters of Russian Animation" series and recent restorations by Krupny Plan. It could have been better. Still, as an historic and aesthetic document, highly recommended.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Miserable context, January 30, 2008

By 

Myshkin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animated Soviet Propaganda: From the October Revolution to Perestroika (4 DVD Set) with ENGLISH SUBTITLES (DVD)

There's little point commenting on the content of the films themselves, they are fascinating. But if you're going to release a set of obscurities based in specific historical circumstances, you've got to help the viewer a little! The documentaries are awful. What's worse, the subtitles are mostly a digest and not translations of the words at all, as if the producers were worried a modern audience wouldn't detect the propaganda message... and you can't turn them off!