Old cartoons

[CountVonNumenor]

I would like to open this thread in order to bring back some pleasant memories. One cartoon I've grown with was "Hungarian Folk Tales" (Povesti din folclorul maghiar). It is originally a cartoon made a few decades ago by our Hungarian neighbors, and was brought on our (Romanian) television in the early 2000s (the animated series itself started in 1980, but has been going until 2011, counting an entire 9 seasons). Earlier today, after a random search on YouTube, I had the luck to get over it. Initially, I found 40 of the episodes that got translated in my language. After that, I found another set of 100 episodes in English, which was quite pleasant. If if now I'm almost 17 and in my childhood I was a great enemy of the fairy tales, I still enjoy watching them, and I like to make comparisons between Romanian and Hungarian story themes and motifs, which I find very similar in many places (probably do the geographical and cultural area where I live).

The episode shown below is one of my favourite:





It is fun that Hungarian Folk Takes can actually be found on an official channel on YouTube, where all the episodes have been uploaded at high quality and voiced over to English (with subtitle options as well). https://www.youtube.com/@HungarianFolkTales

Funny enough, we used to have a lot of cartoons brought from neighboring countries, be it from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and so on, just voiced over to Romanian for the young audience. For Hungary, we had both Hungarian Folk Tales and Tales of Mathias Corvin (Povestiri despre Matei Corvin), probably one of the better known kings of Hungary. Even now I can remember the jingle that cartoon was opening with...

 

[SoundOfRayne]

Reading this post and subsequently checking out a few of the Hungarian Folk Tales leaves me feeling pretty bittersweet.

I always find hearing stories from people about the kinds of media they grew up with and were inspired by fascinating because, well, I don't have many memories from my childhood that I feel that kind of strong connection to. That's not to say I didn't watch any cartoons growing or didn't enjoy them- I certainly did- but I don't think I can speak about any of them with the same reverence that I hear about from YouTubers I enjoy watching about childhood media like Steve Reviews, Defunctland, or Jordan Fringe. And that's a shame, since it's only after growing up that I've started taking more interest in the passionate workings behind children's media.

As for the Hungarian Folk Tales themselves, I watched about 5-6 of them at random from the channel list. They're insanely charming. Even though I know if animations like this aired on satellite or cable television in the States they'd be laughed off the air, there's just an awkward earnestness about these shorts that makes it easy to overlook the clearly limited production in their animation and voicework.

A couple of things surprised me about them that set them apart from the kind of cartoons I grew up with. The first being a lack of adaptation. Most cartoons based on stories, folklore, nursery rhymes, or the like re-frame their narratives into (for the time) modern day settings. It's done to try and connect to viewers better, since as long as the tone and message of the narrative was maintained, the setting could be largely interchangeable. Not these shorts, though. These are about as direct an adaptation as I could imagine.
Speaking of tones and messages though, can we just appreciate the casual cruelty these folk tales have? Call it a symptom of growing up under Disney-fication, but the cartoons I watched when I was young typically reserved mentions of violence and death for major narrative purposes; noble sacrifices from heroes or the defeat of a truly evil villain. And then I watch First the Dance, then the Feast, and after the kings are forcibly stripped of their authority, they're casually pushed into a giant pot of beans and drown in it, and the people keep eating from that same pot. It's so morbid, and the folktale just doesn't give it any weight at all. And it's not even the only one. The Miraculous Bird, the beloved family pet crow is just unceremoniously axed and cooked when a wanderer throws down some money for its meat. Brother Fox, the wolf character is beaten within an inch of his life by an angry mob and literally "barely survived." And the tale just goes on like, "Yep. Tuesdays sure do be like that, huh?" Honestly, I found it hilarious.

I ended up really enjoying watching these, and I'll probably come back to check out a few more as I get time for it. As for my favorite I've seen, I'll give it to The Diligent Girl and the Lazy Girl. Straightforward as it is, I like stories that clearly want to pass good values to their viewers, and the message of "treat others well, and you'll be treated well in kind" is a pretty universal one I can get behind. It might not be the most entertaining, but I genuinely liked it.

 

[yankop]

A ton of memories came back while reading this post. Back in 2020 when I had a lot of time in my hands I got to rewatch a lot of cartoons and series I used to watch when I was younger and even archived some of them. Having this conversation (about cartoons) with friends that live in the same area as you will be a lot of fun, I highly recommend it (I have done this with friends and we went on and on about what our favourite cartoons for what felt like hours). But the quality of cartoons in my country is dropping drastically. This might be because I am now older and have started to disconnect with the younger kids but new cartoons feel completely different in terms of animation (from what I've seen there are almost no 2D stuff airing, just "fancy" 3D ones) and jokes. Either I'm right about the quality or I've just grown up.

 

[CountVonNumenor]

As for the Hungarian Folk Tales themselves, I watched about 5-6 of them at random from the channel list. They're insanely charming. Even though I know if animations like this aired on satellite or cable television in the States they'd be laughed off the air, there's just an awkward earnestness about these shorts that makes it easy to overlook the clearly limited production in their animation and voicework.

I think it is also part of the fact the series started long ago. As far as I understood, it began in 1980, as part of a cultural movement in Hungary. And for a cartoon made in the Eastern Bloc before 1989, it actually does look good. Like I said, I had the Hungarian Folk Tales, Bolek and Lolek (a cartoon made in Poland in the 1960s) and Tales of Mathias Corvin as part of the old programs coming from neighboring states. They do have their own charm however. And then, there's the Soviet animeted adaptation of Treasure Island, the one that turned into a meme last summer thanks to their depiction of Dr. Livesey:

A couple of things surprised me about them that set them apart from the kind of cartoons I grew up with. The first being a lack of adaptation. Most cartoons based on stories, folklore, nursery rhymes, or the like re-frame their narratives into (for the time) modern day settings. It's done to try and connect to viewers better, since as long as the tone and message of the narrative was maintained, the setting could be largely interchangeable. Not these shorts, though. These are about as direct an adaptation as I could imagine.

It seems to be some sort of custom in our area to keep stories in their original setting, as in a way they are considered to have a timeless value. People are just not interested to adapt them to modern times, as the original setting is considered to be just as effective. Out of all the stories presented in Hungarian Folk Tales, it seems that First the Dance, Then the Feast might be the most recent story in terms of setting. There are a lot of indicators that seem to set it in the late days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire:

• the town hall has a picture of the Emperor, which looks like an obvious caricature of the portrait of Franz Joseph (Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary from 1848 to 1916), as well as hoisting the red-white-green flag of Hungary 
  
• the Gendarmerie sent to calm the situation seems heavily inspired from the Hungarian gendarmes of early 20th century (as seen below)
  

• the troops sent to the town are obviously based on the Austro-Hungarian Army; those could be from one of the common army (K.u.K - kaiserlich und königlich) regiments, but the know on the trousers might place them as part of the Hungarian troops, the Honved (Royal Hungarian Landwehr)
  

• the double-headed King is actually quite a fun reference to the ruler of Austria-Hungary; just like I mentioned earlier, the two heads are to symbolize the two great titles of the ruler - Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, title established after the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867
  
• the other king seems to have a loose, extremely stylized resemblance to that of King Ferdinand of Romania
  
• and just as I mentioned in the opening post, the soldiers brought by the invading king have a very strong resemblance, even if stylized, to the Romanian uniform worn through the First World War - they even got right the unique shape of the field cap and the "petlițe" (arrows) on the collars (fun fact: the green arrows were used by the light infantry - the Vânători/Chasseurs)
  

Speaking of tones and messages though, can we just appreciate the casual cruelty these folk tales have? Call it a symptom of growing up under Disney-fication, but the cartoons I watched when I was young typically reserved mentions of violence and death for major narrative purposes; noble sacrifices from heroes or the defeat of a truly evil villain. And then I watch First the Dance, then the Feast, and after the kings are forcibly stripped of their authority, they're casually pushed into a giant pot of beans and drown in it, and the people keep eating from that same pot. It's so morbid, and the folktale just doesn't give it any weight at all.

There is an interesting comment I have seen thrown around about this episode, but I have not managed to confirm it. There are people who say that, besides being just a simple story told by peasants to make jokes on the ruling class, it is also apparently a mockery of the Hungarian Bolshevik Revolution of 1919. Short story: Hungary became a republic when the Empire dismantled, a Bolshevik party took power due to people not being satisfied with the previous regime and several wars are triggered against the Romanians, Slovaks and Serbs in an attempt to recover lost territory. Hungary lost the war, Romanian troops occupied Budapest, and the Bolshevik regime was replaced with the rule of Admiral Horthy (which would last until late WW2).

It seems to be a thing about stories from out area of Europe to have a level of violence and cruelty still maintained. Similar to many stories from the West, before they were greatly sanitized by people like the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Andersen or Disney. I guess the Disney-ification process just never happened here. And besides morbid themes, Hungarian Folk Tales also had a few cases of nudity being presented in a children's cartoon. For that, I will just quote from TVtropes (as I can confirm after seeing said episodes):

Nipple and Dimed:

• In "The Princess Three Pigs and Three Birthmarks", the protagonist asks the princess to show her stomach and breasts in exchange for selling her the dancing pigs. Two of the three birthmarks depict the moon and the sun, and they're right over her nipples.
  
• In "The Mayor's Clever Daughter", the titular character is given a riddle by the king: she must come to honor him, but she may not come on foot, ride on an animal, or sit in a coach, she must bring tribute and must not, and she must not come either dressed or naked. As if trying to mock the trope, she solves the last part by dressing down to her undershirt on top, and nothing below the waist, showcasing her buttocks and pubic hair. When the king asks why she chose to hide her bosom, instead of her private parts, she answers that her privates were gifts from God, while it was her who grew her breasts, so she's ashamed of them.
  

Yet just like in the case of dark themes, I find it funny how the perception of nudity in cartoons has changed. A few years ago, I was watching a very old French animated series for kids - Il était une fois...l'Homme (Once Upon a Time...Man). The cartoon, or better said the original series from 1978 (it got several reboots and spin-offs in the 1990s and then in the 2000s), was basically a recap of world history up until that point. For me, it will probably remain best known for the intro, always in the music of Bach. That also featured a large amount of nudes, especially in the first episodes. What I find funny is that. at least in the case of Hungarian Folk Tales, there have been some issues with specific episodes when they were brought to Romania for broadcast. Again, to quote TVtropes (oh, also a fragment about gypsies/Romani I really forgot about):

Values Dissonance:

• A few episodes contain a surprising amount of nudity, occasionally averting Barbie Doll Anatomy. This did not cause problems when aired in its native Hungary, but it did when a dubbed version played in Romania.
  
• Many, though not all, episodes routinely depict dark-skinned and/or Romani characters as evil or untrustworthy while most heroes and heroines are white-skinned, blue-eyed, blond-haired, and good-looking. Even episodes produced post-2000 stuck to this tradition. This has struck a nerve with international viewers when the English translation of the series boomed in popularity on YouTube. One episode, "The Fairy from the Oak Tree", notably removed sections of the ending, where the Roma characters are killed and have their bodies dragged around.
  

Anyway, fun times and most likely a perception that has greatly changed at local level in the past few decades.

I ended up really enjoying watching these, and I'll probably come back to check out a few more as I get time for it. As for my favorite I've seen, I'll give it to The Diligent Girl and the Lazy Girl. Straightforward as it is, I like stories that clearly want to pass good values to their viewers, and the message of "treat others well, and you'll be treated well in kind" is a pretty universal one I can get behind. It might not be the most entertaining, but I genuinely liked it.

The Diligent Girl and the Lazy Girl is also a story we have in Romania, the only difference being that we have it known as Fata Babe si Fata Moșneagului. The two stories are pretty much identical. Also as a fun fact, we actually do use in common speech the metaphor "fata babei" if we are to refer to someone as being selfish and/or lazy and greedy.