Product Details

• Directors: Yuri Norstein
• Format: Animated, Collector's Edition, Color, Director's Cut, Import, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: December 9, 1999
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1582170223
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578,244 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

(Albert Miller, Animation Arts Department Faculty Woodbury University (producer of the critically acclaimed "Animation Legend Winsor McCay."))

"At last a rare opportunity to own seldom seen, breathtakingly beautiful Russian animation. All the works in the "Masters of Russian Animation" collection, including a dazzling film-to-tape transfer of Yuri Norstein's powerful and moving masterpiece "Tale of Tales," are a visually artistic treat for the eyes. And there is a chance to see drawings inspired by the great Alexander Pushkin."(Albert Miller, Animation Arts Department Faculty Woodbury University (producer of the critically acclaimed "Animation Legend Winsor McCay."))

Product Description

YURI NORSTEIN is universally considered the most remarkable director to emerge from the current generation of Russian animators. Although his body of completed work is less than 80 minutes in length, its impact has been so profound that he is regularly ranked one of the world's greatest contemporary directors.

Most of his films were made by the same small team, his wife the artist Francesca Yarbusova, his cameraman the late Alexander Zhukovsky, and the late composer M. Meyerovich.

All of the films included in this edition of the Norstein Collection were digitally re-mastered from new 35mm prints under the supervision of Zhukovsky, to whom it is dedicated. Films included in the video: TALE OF TALES, HEDGEHOG IN THE FOG, HERON AND CRANE, FOX AND RABBIT, BATTLE OF KERJENETS (co-directed with I. Ivanov-Vano) and 25th-First Day.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Genius, July 10, 2000

By 

"celophaine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masters of Russian Animation: The Complete Works of Yuri Norstein [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Yuri Norstein is arguably the single greatest animator of this century. Yet, most of us in the West have never heard of him. Norstein studied film under the great Russian filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein, father of the montage and was a contemporary of Andrei Tarkovsky. Yet, unless you are a student of film, you probably have never heard of them either.

Genreations of great film works from Russia have been hidden from the general public. While I have had only glimpses of Norstein's works in the past and have been forever haunted by their erie beauty, I never thought there was enough interest for someone to put out a collection such as this. The producers have done an excellent job. The film-to-tape transfers are a huge improvement from even the old broadcast masters I remember which played on PBS (and introduced me to his works in the first place).

It is difficult to describe his style.Try to imagine a children's story book that moves, but you don't know if the "pictures" are drawings, photographs, or 3D. Everything seems to blend in and out of a pervasive fog. When you see these images for the first time, you cannot help but be awestruck. Then, while you are swooning over the lyricism of the montages, you look at the dates they were made, and then you can't move.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must have., November 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Masters of Russian Animation Yuri Norstein : Battle of Kerjenets, Seasons, Heron and Crane, Hedgehog in the Fog, and Tale of Tale [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a must have for all lovers of animation. Norstein has the ability to create a magical world and it all comes from within. I can only say that seeing is believing.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Excellent Norstein Collection, May 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Masters of Russian Animation Yuri Norstein : Battle of Kerjenets, Seasons, Heron and Crane, Hedgehog in the Fog, and Tale of Tale [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For anyone who's doubted Amazon's depth of inventory, witness "Masters of Russian Animation". Until recently inaccessable to Westerners, Norstein - all these great animators, in fact - is a revelation. Such wonderful images and storytelling, such complex subjects. All this despite the amazing constraints under which the films were made. Really a treat.