Soviet Classics

Soviet cartoons are a distinctive tradition of animated films that blend art-house poetry with children’s storytelling, created largely within the state studio system rather than a commercial market. They range from energetic slapstick, like Nu, pogodi!, to quiet, philosophical works such as Hedgehog in the Fog, often favoring mood, atmosphere, and music over fast-paced gags. Visual styles are diverse—puppet animation, cut-outs, painterly hand-drawn films—but generally closer to illustrated storybooks than to glossy commercial animation. Narratives frequently adapt folk tales and classic literature, delivering clear moral lessons about kindness, honesty, friendship, and solidarity, while occasionally carrying subtle ideological messages of their time. Because they were not built to sell toys or merchandise, many Soviet cartoons feel unusually introspective for “kids’ cartoons,” becoming small, self-contained art films that adults can appreciate as much as children.