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100 Greatest Animated Shorts / Hedgehog in the Fog / Yuri Norstein

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Russia / 1975

In 1979 Russian animator/director Yuri Norstein’s debut feature Skazka Skazok (Tale of Tales) was first screened. After initially being quietly released to a few festivals by the Soviet authorities, in the next five years the film would build an almost mythical reputation among critics and animators. Although still little seen, it is often described as the Citizen Kane of animation and was voted the greatest animated film of all time by a large international panel in 1984 and once again in 2002.

Tale of Tales, like a lot of things that are truly original and unique, requires an effort on the part of the audience to appreciate it. It has a cerebral, dreamlike and fractured narrative which sets it at odds with the Pixar and Disney animated features we are conditioned to experiencing. For these reasons it does divide opinion, but is undeniably one of the most significant animated films of all time.

Hedgehog in the Fog is the precursor to Tale of Tales and shares many of the same qualities. It has the same bittersweet poetic style and fragmented storytelling containing lots of tiny seemingly unconnected events that the viewer tries to somehow link together to create a meaning, the same way we experience each day, and remember our life. It also shares the same beautiful animation style as Tale of Tales; an intricate mixture of different techniques learned by Norstein over years of working for different directors at the Soviet Animation agency Soyuzmultfilm. All in all the film is incredibly rich and multilayered, both visually and in its content.

The main technique is a basic cutout style, perhaps the simplest of all animation methods, but the way Norstein does it is more delicate and subtle than anyone has accomplished before or since, to my knowledge. At times the 2D characters seem totally three dimensional . This animation is embedded in complex multiplane backgrounds and foregrounds, which means that, like the story, the characters often seem tangled in complexity and obscured by fog. These environments seem to be raised and lowered in and out of focus as the story changes and layers of semi transparent paper are overlaid which when raised up cause the elements below to melt away, like memories or dreams.

These characters and background elements are like flattened 3D models, often constructed with mixtures of drawings and paintings combined with real natural elements like fur, bark and leaves and water. This creates an effect of murkiness and depth, the already desaturated natural tones reduced almost to dusty grey monochrome by the layers of ‘mist’, which can also be off putting to audiences used to the polar opposite of traditional bright cartoon colours.

In the story a young hedgehog walks through the forest. We learn from the childlike poetic narration, which reflects his thoughts, that he is off to meet his friend the bear cub to sit and gaze at the stars, something they do regularly. En-route he is stalked by a large owl who and sees a beautiful horse, half submerged in a foggy valley. The hedgehog decides to take a detour to explore the valley and investigate the horse. Immersed in the fog, mysterious creatures and objects loom in and out of view, a majestic hollow tree, a dog who helps him, a sinister bat the owl who frighten him. Eventually the hedgehog falls into a stream and gives in to fate, allowing the water to carry him away, but is rescued by something that talks to him from underwater, possibly a fish. He finally reaches the by now very worried bear cub, who we have heard calling to him and who is relieved to see him. They sit and watch the stars, the bear is happy and comfortable again but the hedgehog has been changed by his experiences, he cant stop thinking about the beautiful horse and the new world he has experienced.

Like Tale of Tales the short seems to work on many levels. A simple fairy tale that children could enjoy, as a story about the human condition and maybe also saying something about Russian history and its people, although that’s the part I wouldn’t really get. The hedgehog is happy in its simple life with its friend the bear, but it sees the horse, something beautiful and unobtainable, entranced and drawn to wandering off into the unknown. Like a naive outsider in the big city, he meets many characters good and bad, is menaced by evil predators, loses his possessions and his way, but is rescued by the kindness of strangers. He comes out if all this wiser and perhaps more fulfilled and when he returns to his place next to the bear cub he has changed. He has gone off lived a life and seen the good and bad in world while the bear cub has stayed wide eyed and innocent. That’s the overarching theme that I got out of it, although each of the hedgehog’s experiences seems to contain its own mini parable., open to interpretation. Does the hedgehog represent a woman with dreams and ambitions and the bear cub her home-loving husband, is the hedgehog a child starting to grow up and living its life and eventually returning to its parent, or is the hedgehog the Russian people and the bear Russia? Russian filmmakers often had to disguise their views or risk prosecution, so this story within a meaning within a story approach came naturally.

Audiences approaching the film expecting a linear cartoon story with an obvious meaning can find it pretty puzzling, but as with many films made in the 1960s and 70s, those who approach it with a willingness to go with it, do a bit of work and meet it halfway can get a lot out of it.

Note: The 100 greatest animated shorts is an list of opinions and not an order of value from best to worst. Click here to see all of the picks of the list so far. All suggestions, comments and outrage are welcome!

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