Runtime: 81 minutes
Directed by: Marcell Jankovics
Starring: As this is animation, the voices of Gyorgy Cserhalmi, Vera Pap, Gyula Szabo, Mari Szemes
From: Pannonia Filmstudio
Here's yet another film I discovered via Letterboxd. In this case it was seeing a film that someone I follow wanted to see and I hadn't heard of it so I looked it up and it was a Hungarian animated film that took a few years to complete. I then noticed its incredible animation style and it being available on YouTube with English subs and I HAD to see it soon.
To give an example of the animation:
Besides how amazing it looks, the score is also rather interesting. Onto the Letterboxd review, as there actually isn't a succinct plot synopsis for the movie out there.
I've mentioned this often recently but (Letterboxd) is tremendous for discovering motion pictures that I hadn't heard of before and even hardcore film buffs may not be familiar with them either. In this case it was noting someone I follow wanting to see this movie; I looked it up, saw that another follower had very strong praise for it, noted that the image used here as the movie's poster does reflect the animation style used, and that it's easy to watch online as there's a copy on a certain popular streaming video website with English subs, and I HAD to watch it.
Basically, this is a Hungarian animated film which tells several Hungarian folk tales in an overarching story of several princesses being rescued. The plot... it involves a dude born from a horse (I don't know either) and he's a very strong person; he teams up with two people to do battle but he does most of the work on his own. I don't know much about Hungarian animation or its folk tales, but I mean this in the nicest way when I state that it's rather weird. I know that behind the Iron Curtain you got plenty of strangeness and this certainly is a strong example of that.
The main reason to see the movie, though, is the incredible animated style it employs. It's better seen than described. There are some clips to watch online too if you want a taste; I think it looks amazing; there's so many colors used, the image constantly moving; as others have said, it's like a kaleidoscope and there's plenty of symmetry too.
I definitely haven't come close to seeing a style quite like that before so I was blown away the entire time by what was unfolding before my eyes. I could only imagine what the experience is like if you're high on drug. If I could see it on the big screen it'd be incredible. The story itself has no surprises (except for the weird moments that happened throughout) so that's not the reason to check this out. The numbers 3 and 7 play prominent roles in the tale.
Also, even though it's animation and you may think, “Oh, it's based on folk tales, it'd be fine for kids”, I would say no. Besides the odd stuff there is a lot of penis and vagina related imagery. Like I said, stuff behind the Iron Curtain is rather perplexing at times. No matter, I rate this movie very happy and I am so happy I discovered this gem.
I'll return tomorrow night with... something or another.
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