by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
I’ve always had a soft spot for animation. More years than not, at least a couple of animated features find their way onto my top 10 list. So, I’m setting out to shine a light on some films that may have passed you by. The idea is to take a look at some underseen gems—so no Toy Story or Frozen here.
Let’s get started.
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Heading into this month, I was expecting I’d have to find something Moana-inspired, to have something to make me feel better about another blatant cash grab success. I don’t often root for films to fail, but this live-action reboot felt even more unnecessary than many of the others of its ilk.
However, in searching for something that had some sort of connection, there really is no other Polynesian story that I could find (which is something worth noting in itself), but I did find another take on a Disney princess that was put on my radar. There has been no shortage of Cinderella adaptations, and recently a Soviet-era animated version caught my eye on socials, and I wanted to take a deeper look.
Director Ivan Aksenchuk basically stuck only to short directing and was the 1991 recipient of the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, however, he had deep training in the hand-drawn school of animation. Though it’s only 18 minutes long, the craft is in every frame. The backgrounds look like legitimate paintings, and I found the character designs to be unique—each character has their own distinctive silhouette and how they are brought to life. There’s a smoothness and simplicity to them and really any asset placed in front of the backgrounds.
Produced by Soyuzmultfilm, the company has no shortage of animated adaptations of classic stories, from tales of Hercules to The Snow Queen and … Winnie-the-Pooh?! The way classic stories get interpreted to fit different cultures—especially one as controlling as the Soviet Union—is fascinating to me. Where the difference is noticeable between the Soviet and more American-style animation of the story is in the non-human characters. This version of the story leans into the fantastical element that comes with fairytales. The Fairy Godmother looks less human versus the Americanized version where it looks like your grandmother in a cloak. Even the animals have a fantastical feel to them in the way the lines are drawn. Once you get to the ball scene, it gets quite trippy, as opposed to the more traditional Disney representation. How the characters are styled in terms of dress is another point of difference between the two styles.
Though there’s no songs like the Disney classic, the score is a real highlight that gives it quite the musical feel. With the base of classical music, it feels more like Fantasia. Even outside of the ball scene, there’s a thread of dance, particularly in some of the cleaning scenes, that carry you along.
Narratively, it’s not exactly a complex story. So, it doesn’t really lose anything being condensed into a shorter format. It’s told completely through narration and doesn’t add anything to the story you haven’t seen before, but for a short, it does its job of propelling you through the story.
Given how many classic stories Akenchuk and his contemporaries tackled, there’s bound to be something that up your alley and, given the time commitment required, find your favorite (even if it’s not Cinderella).
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I’m excited to continue to geek out on some great animated work you may not have had a chance to catch. Next month, feels like a great time for a Looney Tunes dive.
You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Bluesky and Letterboxd