celtheory

[celtheory]

Le Roi et L'oiseau - Dir. Paul Grimault - 1952/1980

[celtheory]

Rikki-tikki-tavi (USA v USSR)

Rikki-tikki-tavi was adapted into a twenty minute animation. Twice. First by the Ruskies, around 1965 and then once more stateside in 1975. 

Aleksandra Snezhko-Blotskaya took the helm for the Reds at Soyuzmultfilm.  In the American corner was some lightweight named Jones. But it wasn't just the directors who bare an uncanny resemblance:

There's a ton of other stuff that looks the same...

And if that isn't enough to convince you, they also both say "the end":

The  If you look at any single frame comparison above it would be fair to say that the descriptions in the source material could account for the similarities, like a creative co-evolution. Taken as a whole, it seems much more likely that Jones’ production took direct inspiration for some of the shots.

I don’t think this discredits Chuck Jones, and a couple of lifted frames aside, the American productions take top honors for dynamic camera angles, sticking close to the source material and the panty-moistening baritone of narrator Orson Welles. 

The Russians somehow find time to animate every shot at 24 frames per second. They also sub their anglos for authentic Indians, which is interesting because Kipling’s story has been interpreted to represent a Victorian assumption of British superiority and its faith in the inherent goodness of empire building. 

Alas, the Americans lost any of their hard-stolen credibility by allowing someone to produce out this turd of a DVD case:

And when you're done vomiting in your mouth you can look at this instead:

So that's that. Two wonderful films. And Chuck Jones might have been a very, very small thief. We’ll all get over it.

Excerpt from Chuck Jones version on YouTube:

Full Aleksandra Snezhko-Blotskaya version with subtitles on Youtube: