The Family Elephant 6+
Children’s Classics from Hungarian Film Archives
Hungarian Animated Tales
In the film The Greedy Little Bee busy bees are working hard in a modern, technicized beehive; in The Ball with White Dots a little girl flies over the universe with the help of a monstrous building crane; the title character of Peter and the Robot Man, a curious little boy visits his uncle, a scientist in his laboratory, where an anthropomorphous domestic robot does the housekeeping. By the 1950s and early 60s, modernity with its obsession with urbanization and the development of technology, became the new reality for everyday people. It also opened a new chapter in the history of animated films. Originating in the studios of United Pictures of America (UPA), and the Zagreb School, the wave of modernism reached Hungarian animation at the turn of the 1950s and 60s.
Animation for children in Hungary has been dominated by TV-series in the past 50 years, however, before the production of animation for the public television began in 1968, many directors had dedicated their theatrical short films to the young audience. While the early 1950s are characterized by literary adaptations of classical tales, the end of the 50s and the early 1960s saw a new wave of animations which were modernist both in terms of visual style and content, and used a brand new way of narration. Apart from the modern settings of these film tales, their formal tools and stylistic languages grew considerably simpler. Being based on original scripts and using the universal vocabulary of animation, the short films made by directors such as Gyula Macskássy, György Várnai, Tibor Csermák or Ottó Foky were not limited by language or cultural barriers.
Following the boom of production for TV in the 1970s, the pilot episodes of numerous series can be considered as stand-alone shorts. Many of them achieved success at international film festivals (most important of which is the series Augusta by Csaba Varga) or were later turned into full-length feature films for cinematic release (Leo & Fred by Pál Tóth).
The following selection includes animated short films that are important milestones in the history of animated films for children in Hungary, which stood the test of time and still enchant children and grownups today.
Anna Ida Orosz
animation film historian, programmer of Primanima Festival Hungary
A telhetetlen méhecske / The Greedy Little Bee
Gyula Macskássy (Pannonia Film Studios / MaNDA – Hungarian Film Archive)
Hungary, 1958, digital, 16’
The wasp takes advantage of a greedy little bee failing to collect nectar for the modernised beehive, only to eat it all by itself. The basic idea for this fairy tale film about a beehive where new technologies have been put to use, originated in a commercial that popularized the honey produced in Hungary. The film was competing for the Short Film Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1959.
A piros pöttyös labda / The Ball with White Dots
Tibor Csermák (Pannonia Film Studios / MaNDA – Hungarian Film Archive)
Hungary, 1961, digital, 8’
The city comes to life around a little girl to play ball with her, while she is waiting for her mother to do the shopping. Winning the first prize at the Children’s Film Festival in Venice in 1961, this lyrical short film using (at the time highly innovative) gouache technique was one of the pioneers of the new wave of Hungarian animation in the 1960s.
Peti és a gépember / Peter and the Robot Man
Gyula Macskássy, György Várnai (Pannonia Film Studios / MaNDA – Hungarian Film Archive)
Hungary, 1961, digital, 10’
Peter, a curious little boy, his little sister, Katie, and Felix, their lively dachshund cause a terrible mess at Prof Leonardo’s house, when they switch on a humanoid robot. This is the very first episode of Peti (Peter’s Adventures), which was the first cinematic cartoon series made for children in Hungary; the series (produced between 1963 and 1967) later also got a worldwide release.
Ellopták a vitaminom / Apple Thieves
Ottó Foky (Pannonia Film Studios / MaNDA – Hungarian Film Archive)
Hungary, 1966, digital, 8’
A knitted and a boxing glove attempt to steal a shiny apple from the pantry at night. Featuring everyday objects for personal use, this film is the very first example of Ottó Foky’s amusing object animated short films, which breathe life into the most common objects and parody well-known film genres. The film was in selected in the short film competition at Annecy festival in 1967.
Ebéd / Luncheon
Csaba Varga (Pannonia Film Studios / MaNDA – Hungarian Film Archive)
Hungary, 1980, digital, 5’
A clay lady prepares chicken soup with vegetables in the most peculiar way. This is the very first episode of the series “Augusta”, which collected several prestigious awards during the 1980s at international festivals such as Animafest Zagreb, Berlinale or Hiroshima.
Hogyan lehet megijeszteni az oroszlánt? / How to Scare a Lion?
Pál Tóth (Kecskemétfilm Studio / MaNDA – Hungarian Film Archive)
Hungary, 1981, digital, 10’
The story of a lion tamer who has to cure his lion of his hiccups before tonight’s show. Based on a children’s book by Dorothy Stevenson, this charming short film was the pilot episode of the popular animated television series Leo & Fred, which was also released as a full-length feature film in cinemas in 1987 (Leo & Fred, True Stories about Two Friends). This first episode was in the short film panorama selection of Annecy festival in 1981.