Customer Reviews

Animated Soviet Propaganda: From the October Revolution to Perestroika (4 DVD Set)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fascinating collection of really beautiful animated films.

Unfortunately, they are marred by some very obtrusive English subtitles, which CAN'T BE SWITCHED OFF, they are rendered into the video stream.

This is deeply upsetting, because the value of the films is in their visual impact, not their text, and the ugly subtitles are ALL OVER the frame.

This four-DVD release gathers together what may be some of the most ideologically garish cartoons of the 20th century. And yet, if you look past that and revel in the method and artistry of these animators, artists and directors, you will be amazed. In fact, these films often display rather daring artistic expression for their times - apparently permissible if the anti-Americanism was sufficiently rabid. (Reviewed in Russian Life)

If you're looking for a 4 disc set of Soviet era animated propaganda, "Animated Soviet Propaganda: From the October Revolution to Perestroika" is for you.

I satisfied my curiosity by viewing Disc 1, and can see why this series might be of major interest to historians or those wanting to learn more about the Cold War. On the other hand. The Soviets were not very good cartoonists, and their propaganda is so sterotyped and heavy handed as to be a complete turnoff. As a result, this compilation is apt to be a large bore to contemporary viewers. On the other hand, Russian citizens in the mid-twentieth century may have been more receptive.

In my memory, American propaganda in the visual arts never portrayed the Soviets in such a crude, unsophisticated fashion. The German Nazis, however, protrayed them in cartoons as bestial and rapacious barbarians