The Russian version of Winnie the Pooh
I've talked quite a bit in this journal about Japanese animation and how much I love it. (And I'm sure I will talk a lot about a lot more in the days to come.) But long before I'd even heard of Japanese animation, there was another style of animation that I loved just as much, if not more. It was the Soviet-era cartoons that I used to watch as I was growing up in Russia -- so cute and whimsical and quirky, and so happily willing not to take themselves too seriously.
I have recently come across a post about one of my favorite of those cartoons, which literally made me have to slap a hand over my mouth not to yell out loud, since I didn't want to give the people who work with me yet more reason to think that I was crazy. *g*
But... But... It's Winnie the Pooh! It's the Winnie the Pooh I grew up with, not the Disney Winnie the Pooh that you see everywhere you turn in this country. He's grumpy, and self-centered, and lovable, and he's voiced by the *perfect* actor; the *only* Russian actor (the only actor anywhere, as far as I am concerned) who could possibly do credit to Winnie the Pooh. And then there is Piglet! And the Rabbit, and the Owl, and oh, those cartoons were so cute!
There is a link in the comments to that post that lets you download the first of the three Russian Winnie the Pooh cartoons. It's sort of annoying, though, because it's divided into two parts, and the only way you can download the second part for free is to wait more than an hour after downloading the first part. So, I downloaded it for you (ah, the sacrifices I must make for all of you. *g*), and re-uploaded it to a place that wouldn't force me to split the file up.
So here it is: http://s65.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1TBNP2EZ2LSVY0RJWZOV8WYLH2
This link is only good for a limited number of downloads, so please let me know if the link is no longer working, and I will try to upload it for you again.
This is the very first cartoon, which is based on the first chapter of Winnie the Pooh, about Pooh and the suspicious bees. It's all in Russian with no subtitles, but it should be fairly self-explanatory. If you really want a translation, you can go here, and read the first chapter of Winnie the Pooh in English. The cartoon is mostly faithful to the book, except that Christopher Robin is replaced in this part by Piglet, because Christopher Robin does not appear in the cartoons at all. (I have read somewhere that this was because the real-life Christopher Robin wrote to request that he not be included in the Russian cartoons, but I find it hard to believe that the real-life Christopher Robin would really write from England to the Soviet Union, *or* that he would really have been listened to if he did write... But *shrug* I could be wrong.)
If enough people express an interest, I will try to dig up the Russian Winnie the Pooh DVD that either my parents or my brother have at their house, and put the second and third cartoons up for you, as well. The second cartoon is about Eeyore and his birthday, and the third cartoon is the one about Winnie thr Pooh going to visit the Rabbit. (The screencaps in the Russian Insider blog post I link to above are from the third cartoon.) I was planning to find that DVD anyway, because I have a sudden intense *need* for Russian Winnie the Pooh icons, but if you'd like me to upload the other two cartoons, I might need some help with ripping them from the DVD and turning them into .avi files for you.
I have recently come across a post about one of my favorite of those cartoons, which literally made me have to slap a hand over my mouth not to yell out loud, since I didn't want to give the people who work with me yet more reason to think that I was crazy. *g*
But... But... It's Winnie the Pooh! It's the Winnie the Pooh I grew up with, not the Disney Winnie the Pooh that you see everywhere you turn in this country. He's grumpy, and self-centered, and lovable, and he's voiced by the *perfect* actor; the *only* Russian actor (the only actor anywhere, as far as I am concerned) who could possibly do credit to Winnie the Pooh. And then there is Piglet! And the Rabbit, and the Owl, and oh, those cartoons were so cute!
There is a link in the comments to that post that lets you download the first of the three Russian Winnie the Pooh cartoons. It's sort of annoying, though, because it's divided into two parts, and the only way you can download the second part for free is to wait more than an hour after downloading the first part. So, I downloaded it for you (ah, the sacrifices I must make for all of you. *g*), and re-uploaded it to a place that wouldn't force me to split the file up.
So here it is: http://s65.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1TBNP2EZ2LSVY0RJWZOV8WYLH2
This link is only good for a limited number of downloads, so please let me know if the link is no longer working, and I will try to upload it for you again.
This is the very first cartoon, which is based on the first chapter of Winnie the Pooh, about Pooh and the suspicious bees. It's all in Russian with no subtitles, but it should be fairly self-explanatory. If you really want a translation, you can go here, and read the first chapter of Winnie the Pooh in English. The cartoon is mostly faithful to the book, except that Christopher Robin is replaced in this part by Piglet, because Christopher Robin does not appear in the cartoons at all. (I have read somewhere that this was because the real-life Christopher Robin wrote to request that he not be included in the Russian cartoons, but I find it hard to believe that the real-life Christopher Robin would really write from England to the Soviet Union, *or* that he would really have been listened to if he did write... But *shrug* I could be wrong.)
If enough people express an interest, I will try to dig up the Russian Winnie the Pooh DVD that either my parents or my brother have at their house, and put the second and third cartoons up for you, as well. The second cartoon is about Eeyore and his birthday, and the third cartoon is the one about Winnie thr Pooh going to visit the Rabbit. (The screencaps in the Russian Insider blog post I link to above are from the third cartoon.) I was planning to find that DVD anyway, because I have a sudden intense *need* for Russian Winnie the Pooh icons, but if you'd like me to upload the other two cartoons, I might need some help with ripping them from the DVD and turning them into .avi files for you.