Hungarian Cartoons and Animated Films as a Product of The Cultural and Historical Context

Situated in East Central Europe, Hungary is a country filled with beautiful landscapes and charismatic people. The medium-sized European state holds around 10 million people which speak one of the most unique languages that I know, Hungarian, also known as Magyar. I find this country beautiful because of its rich culture that is being kept alive by its inhabitants. The traditions of the country are important, such as the folk crafts tradition, which includes embroidery, decorated pottery and carvings. One reason why Hungary takes a special place in my heart is thanks to its people. Getting the chance to meet a few Hungarians in my life made me learn to appreciate the relaxed, fun and open-minded nature of them. Hungary’s constant respect and celebration for its unique culture and traditions have gained my interest and appreciation over the time.

Besides its music and literature historic culture, animation has not been a stranger to this European country. It is known for being able to express its history through well-animated films and cartoons and reach worldwide recognition. The history of Hungarian animation starts in 1914 and carries through the modern day. Due to the two World Wars, Hungarian animation went through a great amount of changes and faced many challenges caused by the unstable and violent war years, which forced a large amount of animators to immigrate to other countries in order to make a living.

As everything has a start, I will look over the beginning of Hungarian animation, which started in 1914. The first ever animated film in Hungary was an animated cut-out cartoon entitled Zrib Odon (1914) made by what is believed to be the ‘father of Hungarian animation’, Istvan Kato Kiszly. He took it upon himself to create several other cut-out cartoons such as Janos Vitez (1916) and the caricatures of Marcell Vertes (1918) that were made for the evening news bulletin named Evening. Thanks to his initiative in the animation industry, Kiszly managed to open doors for the animators to come. This meant a large amount of animated films, such as stop-motion, puppet-animation and experimental films would be created over the decades. However, the birth of actual animation studios started after the 1930s, in which promotional material, such as newsreels and advertisements were being made. Animation suffered from a diaspora of talent, due to the international conflicts that took place during both world wars. Among the artists who left for work abroad were: George Pal, John Halas and Etienne Raik. During the Communist era, all animation efforts are transferred to the Pannonia Film Studio in 1959. The artistic freedom of the animators was constrained and controlled by the state, but it was also ensuring the survival of the artistic medium. Gyula Macskassy, Attila Dargay and Marcell Jankovics become key figures in this communist era due to their different approach to storytelling, much different from than Western filmmakers. Examples of their work include: Parbaj (Duel) (1960), directed by Gyula Macskassy, which showcases two characters, the Scientist and Mars, and their fight between the good and bad use of atomic energy, Variations on a Dragon (1967), by Attila Dargay and Sisyphus (1974) by Marcell Jankovics. Due to the fact that filmmaking was controlled by the Communist state, filmmakers had to be open to more than one interpretation in their storytelling if they wished to pass the government censors. This meant that many hidden messages were placed within the stories that often depicted the reality of the era and its constraints. On the bright side, since the films were state-supported, it enabled the freedom to explore different graphic styles and techniques. Thus, they managed to create beautiful and fresh imagery.

During this era, the Hungarian animators were focusing on animation depicting the folk tales and legends of their land, this being a safe move, politically speaking for the Hungarian animation industry. Animation takes a big step in 1951, when Edit Fekete and Gyula Macskassy create the first colored animation called The Little Cock’s Diamond Halfpenny. The production of the animated film started off as black and white, around 1941, but got delayed to the complications that war caused at that time. As I said above, animators were focusing on folktales and legends. Hungarian mythology is characterized by myths, legends, folk tales and fairy tales. Unfortunately for the country, most of it is believed to be lost. One of the most important sources of this country’s mythology is the folklore, because many mythical persons remain in folk tales, folk songs or legends.

One of the key figures in the history of Hungarian animation are the folklore tales. The Hungarian Folktales animated series was created by the Kecskemet film studio during the time Hungary was a socialist country. The film studio needed a new concept, a fresh idea, but unfortunately, the studio lacked funding for a new cartoon storyboard which was a huge hold back. That was when Marcell Jankovics came up with his idea that would change the animation industry forever. His idea consisted of a cartoon based off Hungarian folklore tales. As I mentioned above, this idea would change the game for this European country, as it turned out to be a huge success for the years to come and still manages to be one of the Hungary’s animation staples, I would say. The series features 100 episodes full of Hungarian symbolism. The folktales are centered around fairies, princesses and whimsical creatures. Every episode has its special and unique decorative elements to it to enhance their authenticity. The creators used the decorative art of a certain countryside region for each episode. The mixture of folk art, music and tales are well combined in the episodes, which have unique imagery, occasionally coming across folk humour in the dialogues. Thanks to the natural presentation of the storytellers, the viewer is able to experience something special through this animated series. To better understand why these folktales have become such a staple in the Hungarian animation, I will give 3 examples of Hungarian folktales that have been my personal favourites over the years and analyze how these products of Hungarian tradition and mythology have come so far.

The Water Fairy tells the story of a grown poor miller, who will be made rich by the fairy of water if the miller gives her that ‘ardent animal’ he has been unaware of it. But turns out that this ‘ardent animal’ is just their own child. They protect the child in vain as the fairy of water abducts him nevertheless then separates the miller from his wife as well. The wife, with the help of a mysterious old woman, tracks them down but the fairy of water manages to separate them once again. As in every tale, they meet again at the end of the story.

The Slipper Tearing Princesses is the folk tale centered around an old king and his daughters. The king finds himself distraught because his daughters tear their slippers at midnight every night and so he promises a great reward to anyone who would find out where his daughters are these slippers apart. A shepherd boy manages to solve the mystery by watching and following the girls through the night. He finds that the girls are travelling to hell, where their slippers are torn because they sing and dance with the devil until dawn.

The Prince Who Wanted To Live Forever is the tale of a prince who did not want to die. Therefore he left for the Land of Immortality to meet the queen. After a time he wanted to visit his parents but turns out that three thousand years had passed without his notice and so he was no longer able to find his parents. The Death finds the prince and wants to take him away, but his only escape is the shoe of the immortal queen which could take him back to the Land of Immortality where he still lives if he has not died yet.

All 3 examples given above have in common the beautiful and simple animation that is characteristic to this series. The colour palette is carefully chosen and adapts to the situation and mirrors the emotions within that specific shot, for instance, blues for feeling of sadness or lost and red tones that often indicate intense feelings like rage or dangerous situations. Story-wise, the folktales are pretty much accurate to the hungarian mythology. The tales were depicting many mythical creatures that form the folk tales, such as demons or the devil himself, which is a big motive in hungarian folklore, princesses, fairies of different elements, such as the fairy of the water and many more. Marcell Jankovics made sure the tales are accurate and managed to translate these stories into simplistic, yet captivating animated episodes.

I believe that the blend of the creative medium that is animation and the fascinating tales of the European land turned out to be a massive success for the Hungarian animation. Its intense mythical characters and captivating stories all captured in a beautifully and simple animated series was enough to capture the interest of not only children, but also an older audience. Many of the episodes were translated by Baroness Orczy, who was a Hungarian author best known for her The Scarlet Pimpernel novels. Her translated collection of the folktales helped children discover and enjoy the captivating stories.

I find that Hungarian folk tales have special features that make them different from other nation’s tales. They feel “homegrown” and really close to Hungarian’s hearts. That is why it might almost feel like these tales are the raw manifestation of “the soul of the Hungarian people”.

The culture and tradition of Hungary are very important for its people and they are not afraid to dig deep in order to find even more information about where they came from. Enek a csodazvarvasrol (Song of the Miraculous Hind) is a 2002 animated film directed by Marcell Jankovics that centers around the origins of Hungarian culture and tradition. It is a mythological and historical film that tells the story of the Hungarian people, from the birth of the first humans up until the nation was Christianized.

The animated film is divided into four sections. “Song” is inspired by the Siberian and Finno-Ugric legends about creation, in which the beginning of the world starts off with two characters who are half-human, one being half-bird and the other half-bear. The story of the animation delves into the origins of the Hungarian culture, the Iranian and Turkish influences that impacted the society and finishes off with the story of Stephen, the emperor who brought Christianity to the country. I find the animation in this film to be bold and extravagant, in which various styles alternate each other with various levels of quality. The styles used in this animated movie range from very stilted realism to intense fluid psychedelic madness. However, the intense animation combined with the monotone Hungarian narration might not be foreigner’s cup of tea when it comes to animated films. The film is rather considered an animated history lesson for Hungarian school kids, as it has little to nothing to offer to non-Magyars. Nevertheless, this Jankovics mythological and historical film remains important for the Hungarians as it depicts its country’s culture and tradition.

I believe that animation is inspired by many factors, such as history or culture. Hungarian animation decided to celebrate its literature by giving life to the characters of various novels or poems, such as Vuk (The Little Fox) (1981) which is an animated film based on the novel by Istvan Fekete and Ludas Matyi (Mattie the Goose-boy) (1977), also an animated film based on the epic poem written by Mihaly Fazekas. The blend of animated film and literature also proved to be a success for the 1894 animated historical film entitled Dalias Idok (Heroic Times) directed by Jozef Gemes. The film is an adaptation of a 19th-century epic poem written by Janos Arany. The film won an award at the 1985 Annecy International Animated Film Festival for its unique and remarkable visual style, which resembles oil painting. In other words, literature and animated films can come together to create a unique product that reflects the culture of its country.

In conclusion, there is no denying that Hungarian animated films have been often inspired by the history, culture and traditions of its own land. We can observe that Hungarian animation did not hold back from exploring different aspects of its history and culture and managed to come up with unique and captivating products that reflect the country’s most important treasures.

Bibliography

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