The ban on animated films, in contrast to feature films, was a rarity in the USSR: usually "dubious" projects of Soyuzmultfilm were wound up at the production stage. A few of the cartoons that ended up on the shelf after the filming was completed cannot be considered completely banned - they were shown several years later. However, there are also animated films that became available to the public only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. What did the censorship dislike about them?
1949: "Ambulance"
In 1949, Soviet animators filmed a ten-minute satirical tape on a topical political topic. According to the plot, in a country where beggars and ragged hares live, a newspaper message spreads with unprecedented speed: thanks to the generosity of the businessman Udav, each oblique will be given “seven new skins”. This causes jubilation among the long-eared. However, their joy was short-lived. Strange posters appear everywhere, saying “Smoke cigarettes!”, “Every hare - a carrot stew!”, And the “Mr. Boa's plan” itself turns out to be a clever trap that deprives hares of their last belongings.
As an employee of the Research Institute of Cinematography of VGIK, Georgy Borodin, said in an article in "Cinematography Notes," a picture ridiculing the American Marshall plan to help post-war Europe was personally banned by the Minister of Cinematography Ivan Bolshakov. The cartoon was called “ideologically vicious” and “anti-artistic”. The paper signed by Bolshakov emphasized that the authors "grossly distorted" and "vulgarized" the theme of "reactionary imperialist policy."
How exactly this manifested itself is not entirely clear: in general, as Professor Alexander Fedorov showed in a hermeneutic study, Ambulance is close in artistic design and implementation to other anti-Western cartoons of 1949 (Mr. Walk and Alien Voice). There is a version that the tape was not personally liked by some of the high-ranking officials.
For screenwriter Alexander Medvedkin, "Ambulance" remained the only "test of the pen" in the animation genre, but he continued to shoot politicized propaganda films, mostly documentaries. And the directorial career of Lamis Bredis, who previously shot, for example, the cartoon "Uncle Stepa", ended there. Later he was only a cartoonist and teacher at animation courses at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. Now "Ambulance", preserved in the funds, is available on the Internet.
Promotional video:
1968: "Glass Harmonica"
Political turmoil also affected the fate of the cartoon-parable "Glass Harmonica", filmed by director Andrey Khrzhanovsky at the Soyuzmultfilm studio based on the tale of Lazar Lagin.
Before the eyes of the cinematic leadership, the animated film appeared on August 21, 1968 - the day the Soviet troops entered Czechoslovakia. As a result, it was banned: in the tape they saw a hint of the Soviet bureaucracy. Even the postscript, made by the authors at the request of the censorship, that the plot unfolds “in a bourgeois society”, where “disunity and brutality of people” reigns, did not help. The ban on Glass Harmonica marked the end of the thaw era in Soviet animation.
The plot revolves around the fate of a master musician with a glass harmonica, who finds himself in the city of the "Yellow Devil", inhabited by animated characters from artists such as Pieter Bruegel, Hieronymus Bosch and Sandro Botticelli. The musician is trying to free the inhabitants of the city from the dictatorial "power of money", which, according to the authors, corrupts human souls.
One of the main characters - "the man in the bowler hat" - was borrowed from the painting of the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte, who died a year before the shooting of the cartoon. The attitude of the Soviet government to surrealism was traditionally negative - even the fact that Magritte was a member of the Communist Party did not save the situation. There are many frightening images in the tape, the appearance of which was motivated by the same disfiguring power of money.
When publicity was announced in the Soviet Union, "Glass Harmonica" was planned to be shown, but due to lack of film, the premiere was again postponed. Andrei Khrzhanovsky continued his directing career mainly in the genre of cartoons for adults. He owns such famous films as "Autumn" (about Pushkin) and "The House That Jack Built".
Another "forbidden" animation
Many sources claim that the "adult" satirical cartoon "Your Health" by Ivan Aksenchuk was banned. In reality, there was nothing contrary to socialist morality in it - along with the widespread trade in alcohol in the USSR, there was also a promotion of a healthy lifestyle. The cartoon was shown at the box office and even received an honorary diploma in 1966 at the XXII International Sports Film Festival, held in Italy.
Christina Rudic