10 Comments
Oct 24Liked by Animation Obsessive Staff

Great rec! Might be in the running for the top spot in my personal Khitruk ranking haha. Really wish I could find a translation for that animation book of his; I wonder what a trove of insight that would be.

Reminds me of that little article I read a while back about some minor drama about a dude who watches anime at 2x speed. This film might be closest thing to me being in his shoes.

I know this is an animation site (a great one!), but 1 min films are really fascinating to me when done right. The only one I can think of right now that's comparable to this film, even in content, is this little live action short produced by Godard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Sg31zxf38

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Haha, awesome! Thanks for the kind words, and glad you liked the film -- it's one we love as well. Khitruk's book is phenomenal and deserves to be in English. Same with Norstein's Snow on the Grass. They're part behind-the-scenes, part how-to, part memoir, part treatise on creativity. The closest English book in terms of structure is probably The Illusion of Life. One day, hopefully, they'll be translated.

As for that Godard short, it's new to us, but really good -- thanks for sending it along. The one-minute format is hard to do well but, like you mentioned, has so much potential to be great. A minute is a long time if you know what to do with it! Some of the great ad makers have understood that over the years.

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Oct 22Liked by Animation Obsessive Staff

Oh wow love this one! Art out of spite really delivers a nice touch of sarcasm, super smart and funny. ps. We stay the same, I say as I watch a 40sec tiktok at 2x speed

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Glad you enjoyed! This is a film we love -- the audacity gets us. And, definitely, the message is still relevant. We watch videos at 2x speed ourselves when we need to save time!

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Oct 21Liked by Animation Obsessive Staff

I really like that. I think it's funny how long people have been complaining (rightly) about our shortened attention spans.

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Haha, for sure. In some ways, we're still living in the shadow of the post-war era, when TV and modern mass consumer culture started to emerge. There are so many parallels between then and now, even with all that's changed. Glad you enjoyed!

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Oct 21Liked by Animation Obsessive Staff

Khitruk always meant Винни-Пух (a character of its own really, and the voice over!) to me, thank you for this wonderful and educational post, and what a broad talent!

The irony that fifty years later we are now living in a “bouillon cube” world

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Thanks so much! Happy you liked it. And his Pooh series is the best -- we're overdue to revisit it in the newsletter. Easily some of the greatest cartoons ever. Khitruk was the kind of figure who comes along so rarely. We don't often throw around the word "genius," but he definitely was one.

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Oct 21·edited Oct 22Liked by Animation Obsessive Staff

Loved your old bit on the Soviet Pooh, especially noting how much of Leonov is in him. His Pooh always had an air of being a philosopher, drinker and exuberant bon vivant of (forgive the term) ultimate rizz

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Haha, great description! And thank you!

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