This first video is “Hedgehog in the Fog”.

An award-winning animation feature by Yuri Norshtein. Winner of the following awards:
- Outstanding Film of the Year (London UK 1977)
- Winner of 2nd Prize (Sydney Australia 1978)
- Winner of 3rd Prize (Chicago USA 1977)
- Tokyo All time animation best 150 in Japan and Worldwide: Hedgehog in the Fog “№1 Animated film of all the time” (2003)

This animation is really excellent. Suddenly, I’m curious about Russian animation, and I find “Polygon”:

An animated film by Anatoly Petrov of 1978. An outstanding feature in term of realistic technique. It won the following prizes:
- Official Selection Oberhausen, Germany 1979
- First Prize Yerevan, USSR 1978

Ah – it becomes clear that these are both from the same production studio: Soyuzmultfilm. From Wikipedia:

Soyuzmultfilm (Russian: Coюзмультфильм, translated as Union Animation) is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union.

…and continuing:

The Studio was founded in 10 June 1936 under the name Soyuzdetmultfilm (Союздетмультфильм – abbr. from Union Children’s Animations). The name was changed to Soyuzmultfilm on 20 August 1937. Initially comprising only a few scattered workshops, Soyuzmultfilm grew quickly, soon becoming the Soviet Union’s premier animation studio. The studio produced exclusively traditional animation until 1954, when a “puppet division” was founded and the first stop motion-animated film released. The puppet division would later also make cutout-animated films.

During the Soviet era, the studio employed a maximum of over 700[1] skilled labourers and released an average of 20 films each year (the highest number was 47, in 1973).

The 60s, 70s and 80s saw the release of many films whose characters became an integral part of Soviet culture: Winnie-the-Pooh (Винни-Пух), Crocodile Gena (Крокодил Гена), Karlsson-on-the-Roof (Карлсон, который живёт на крыше), The Musicians of Bremen (Бременские музыканты), Three from Buttermilk Village (Трое из Простоквашино), Nu, pogodi! (Ну, погоди!), Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане), The Mystery of the Third Planet (Тайна третьей планеты) etc.

The variety of animation styles and the unprecedented degree of artistic freedom given to its many animators made Soyuzmultfilm perhaps the most diverse of the world’s major animation studios.

Soyuzmultfilm’s creativity was fueled in part by the unique conditions of the Soviet Union which made it possible for the studio to disregard the commercial appeal of its films. Because animators were paid by the Academy of Film regardless of how well or how poorly their products sold (though they were not, in fact, “sold”), they were free to pursue their artistic vision without giving a thought to finances.

Whoah!

RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEAObel8yIE&eurl=ht…

Émile Cohl created Fantasmagorie in 1908.

To make this film, Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing-with variations-on top of it until he had some 700 drawings. In 1908, chalkboard caricaturists were common vaudeville attractions and the characters in the film look as though they’ve been drawn on a chalkboard, but it’s an illusion. By filming black lines on paper and then printing in negative Cohl makes his animations appear to be chalk drawings.

COOL! This animated film – the first ever – turns 100 this year. Wikipedia has the dirt on the creator, Emile Cohl.

RTFA: http://www.bratstory.com/about.html

Beginning with the History of Saudi Arabia and its first monarch, King Abdullah Aziz Ibn Saud, HOME – The Aramco Brats’ Story mixes old and new media with the stories and commentary of average Western citizens to explore such topics as: Desert Storm, the Royal Family, the discovery of Oil in 1937, expatriate life within the region and the Western Media’s portrayal of Arabs and Islam. Throughout the film, the audience comes to realize that the reporting they have witnessed, the small vignettes of footage they have seen, and the rumors they have heard are not indicative of the overall Arab culture. One of the most interesting facets of the film is found in the understanding these interviewees carry regarding the acclimation of the Islamic world into the new millennium’s Global Village. This privileged group of children and adults have, in their own way, inadvertently developed a Third Culture without denial of religion, race, color, or creed that is representative of the future earth culture, with a goal that is nothing shy of world peace.
HOME-The Aramco Brats’ Story is one in the first of a series of films that will, without a doubt change the world. If you’ve ever held an opinion about the events of this day and age, or wanted to know more about the Arab world, this film is a must see. You will leave inspired, humbled, and enlightened.

[EDIT: 2007-10-20]
Following up on a comment to the Aramco Wikipedia entry… Rachel mentions that there’s a vibrant ex-pat culture “on the compound.” I wouldn’t know anything about that, but this video seems pretty relevant. Here’s hoping for a Bay Area screening. East Bay.

Can someone explain what is meant by the suggestion that Aramco kids can’t return to the Aramco compound once they’ve grown up? It appears, from the Wikipedia entry, that Aramco still does business with US firms… so I would imagine that there are still lots of kids living there, whose parents are from all over the world.

Is the “Aramco compound” simply a fortress of commerce, beyond which you cannot pass without some strange clearance?
[/EDIT]