OK

final one

for all the marbles,

this one doesn't have an illustration bc i think it was just a kids novel but i haven't been able to find ANYTHING about it on my occasional internet queries:

kids is staying with his (grandmother?) in the woods and she warns him not to look a fox in the eyes bc they're tricksy and will swap places with you. obviously that's the first thing the little boy does and gets body snatched by a fox who uhhhh proceeds to pig out with his new little boy human hands and the boy has to trick the fox into looking him in the eyes again to switch back...

i cannot express how much these are from memory, that's how internalized these artists and writers have become, they're a part of me now

The second one is likely Stellaluna.

final version:

And the kid Anna is based off of is actually this sweet peasant girl who is rescuing her best friend whom everyone else thought drowned and whom no one cared for because mirror shards got in his eyes and he only saw beauty in snowflakes while everything else was just disgustingly foul to him. Except he didn’t drown because he was whisked away by the snow queen.

Like this girl gives her shoes to the river to find out he didn’t drown. Her hair ribbons to the birds to find out who took him. Works her hands raw to get to him and has to suffer a mental breakdown because she got SO FUCKING CLOSE to saving him and he won’t even look at her because he wants to solve this puzzle the snow queen gave him.

There was a Soviet animated movie from 1957, that doesn’t brush over any of the things you just listed.

You get Gerda on her journey, meeting all of those people that both hinder her quest and help her, with older women from different regions of northern europe, as well as several princesses who aid her

also the art style and animation is absolutely gorgeous and I always feel like it’s a shame that older Soviet animation is barely recognized around the world 

And this is something that unfortunately is literally a case of “dumping the baby with water”. The art, the vision, the designs, the storytelling and the approach to olden tales, fairytale, folk tales, children’s books and poems etc, is beyond FAR BEYOND than you may imagine.

Some notable moments of Soviet Russian Animation include (not in any particular order but my own brains spitting images):

The Hedgehof In The Fog (1975)

Which is considered revolutionary and is still a staple of Russian speaking cultures and is regarded as an important piece of Animation in freaking Japan (aka the nation of Animation). If you want to deep dive into the unique stop motion art and the importance of this piece, Google away.

Another animation I love is “Fedora’s Grief” (1974).

A short animation about how objects left unattended and uncared for will not serve you, the human. It’s such an essential part of the Soviet Experience of the common person, which is hard to describe to people who were born to abundance.

I would also love to cite The Cat Leopold (1975-1987), which, for me, forever describes the naiveté of the simple, common soviet person, as we today love citing, “People Are Not Their Governments”.

This one is the antithesis to Tom & Jerry, for all it’s worth: there are tow mice forever taunting the cat, and in each episode the cat asks them, “let’s live in friendship”.

YouTube had a whole archive of the old Soviet animations. If you are looking for beauty and design, and art - these were all state sponsored, and thus - had funds for their visions. No, not all of soviet animation and film was any kind of USSR propoganda (looking at you, US cinema, 30s Batman in black and white), and to some very confusing extent, you see many animations honoring source material or being innovative in their own right, regardless of authority.

Some beautiful animations I would love people to know about:

This series, named “Kitten Named Gav” (1976-1982)

“Gav” is literally “how” as in barking sound. So it’s about a Kitten named “bark” and his little cat adventures with his friend, a puppy.

Sleeping Beauty (and 7 princes) (1951)

The Frog Queen (1954)

The Cat, That Wanders By Itself (1964)

[Yes, cats feature often, and in positive context]

“The Flower with Seven Colours” (1948)

Ugly Duckling (1956)

And you know what, this one, is just. It’s about a polar bear cub, ok? Looking for his polar bear mother.

Umka (1969)

This Wikipedia Article openjng paragraph kind of encapsulates the bleak acknowledgment of the art, stating:

All in all. Yes, the Soviet Animation, in context of today, is the baby thrown out of the window of history with the muddy water, and I, for one, will not stand for it.

I wish more people knew about those beautiful artworks.

(These are real photos from the Florida caverns, we were sadly not allowed to bring the Yue Qingyuan plushy into the caves. Here is him in a less cool cave.)