IN 1995, Malibu producer Joan Borsten and her husband, the Russian-born actor Oleg Vidov, were poring over a library of animated films produced at Moscow's Soyuzmultfilm Studio when they discovered buried among the children's classics other films that caught their attention.
These were no Disney-like fairy tales or Russian folk stories. Instead, these animated short films intended for the Soviet masses painted a sinister portrait of life in capitalist America.
"Black and White," produced in 1933, depicted a highway with an endless row of blacks lynched on telephone poles. "The Millionaire," made in 1963, told the story of a rich American woman who leaves $1 million to her pet bulldog, who becomes so wealthy and powerful that he eventually is elected to Congress. And in the 1979 animated short "Shooting Range," a jobless American youth finds work in a carnival shooting gallery only to discover the evil, greedy owner is now charging double -- for people to use the youth as target practice.
Soviet-era animation: An article in Sunday Calendar about a DVD anthology titled "Animated Soviet Propaganda" stated that famed Russian animator Boris Yefimov, who was interviewed by the anthology's producers, had died. Yefimov, who turned 106 in September, is alive.
Soviet-era animation: An article in the Feb. 4 Calendar about a DVD anthology, "Animated Soviet Propaganda," said that famous Russian animator Boris Yefimov, who was interviewed by the anthology's producers, had died. Yefimov, who turned 106 in September, is alive.
The anthology is divided into categories titled "American Imperialists," "Fascist Barbarians," "Capitalist Sharks" and "Onward to the Shining Future: Communism." The DVDs include interviews with Russian film school professors, directors and animators, including famed animator Boris Yefimov, who was 101 and died two years after being interviewed.
The earliest film in the collection is "Soviet Toys," made in 1924; the last is "History of the Toy," an anti-fascist film made six decades later.
Borsten is president of Films by Jove, which acquired worldwide distribution rights to many of the Moscow studio's animation library.
"After the Bolshevik Revolution, about 200,000 [Communist] party members inherited a land mass of mostly illiterate people," said Borsten. "Lenin said film was the best media for propaganda. Within the film genre, animation was by far the easiest way to say what was bad and what was good."
Joseph Stalin, who succeeded Lenin, ordered the building of the state-run animation studio after becoming enamored with a Walt Disney film festival held in Moscow. But while many of the films produced at the studio beginning in 1936 were based on European and Russian folk tales, some were blatant political propaganda designed to show America and the West in the worst possible light.
