*Insert bland anime joke here.*
Super Mario Boards
Bob Craples
Koopa con Carne
Can't help you much with animation from my own country, since Romania's animation industry is laughably unimpressive, and those few projects that take off are either too niche to have an audience or just plain crap.
There's this old classic cartoon, "Mihaela", which is nostalgic for many who grew up during the communist era. That was the '70s-'80s alright—while youse Western folks were having your cool Transformers, Akiras, and Simpsons, daddy Ceaușescu (Cha-oh-shess-coo) was giving us exclusively 1 hour of TV content featuring budget, politically-correct Felix the Cat, but as a young girl on a bike, and her friendly beasts. In my headcanon, she is the one who Johnny Bravo settled for once she struck legal age.
Most Romanian cartoons from that era only had silent protagonists. Gopo is a famous example. A notable animated production that had dialogue in it was, rather interestingly for that time, a 1-hour sci-fi flick called "Space Mission Delta". Haven't watched it myself and, unfortunately, I can't find a subtitled version.
In the wake of the digital age, there have been people who made their own indie cartoons and published them on the web. One on-going Romanian web series that stood out and that I still watch and enjoy to this day is RObotzi, a slice of life cartoon following the mischiefs of two robots in a run-down storage. However, it is rather static and has a lot of dialogue; they indulge in clever puns, playful poetry, and a lot of vulgarities, so I won't post it here to keep the content PG-13.
There's this simultaneously cringy and amusing Ren and Stimpy-looking shit from Moldova (has English subtitles):
So, yeah, I can't exactly boast an array of interesting productions from where I am. I've done these listings mostly so I potentially enrich your knowledge on animation, seeing as how you are passionate on the subject. That isn't to say that this part of the world doesn't have some rad things to offer though, so buckle up for a round of international treasures!
Infiltrating Central European territory, you'll note the existence of a wonderful series of Hungarian cartoons that are animated retellings of tales from Hungarian folklore. These old cartoons got so popular, they were dubbed in English and published on an official Youtube channel dedicated just to them! Go give 'em a watch!
Further west, in the Czech Republic, you'll encounter an entire stop-motion animation scene with a rich history and crazy talented animators. To name one influential Czech filmmaker, whom even AVGN made a review on, you have Jan Švankmajer, the king of surreal stop-motion animation, who made this among many others:
This was a brief write-up on Eastern/Central European animation from my humble knowledge. You were probably expecting series suggestions or the like; unfortunately, much as I would love the animation industry to flourish to such an extent in my country, it probably never will if there isn't some sort of movement. When it comes to Romanian cinema though, that is a completely different story, one that I might be able to gush upon and go into detail like there's no tomorrow.
I'll end with an old mesmerising Armenian short that might reminisce you of Felix Colgrave's style.
There's this old classic cartoon, "Mihaela", which is nostalgic for many who grew up during the communist era. That was the '70s-'80s alright—while youse Western folks were having your cool Transformers, Akiras, and Simpsons, daddy Ceaușescu (Cha-oh-shess-coo) was giving us exclusively 1 hour of TV content featuring budget, politically-correct Felix the Cat, but as a young girl on a bike, and her friendly beasts. In my headcanon, she is the one who Johnny Bravo settled for once she struck legal age.
Most Romanian cartoons from that era only had silent protagonists. Gopo is a famous example. A notable animated production that had dialogue in it was, rather interestingly for that time, a 1-hour sci-fi flick called "Space Mission Delta". Haven't watched it myself and, unfortunately, I can't find a subtitled version.
In the wake of the digital age, there have been people who made their own indie cartoons and published them on the web. One on-going Romanian web series that stood out and that I still watch and enjoy to this day is RObotzi, a slice of life cartoon following the mischiefs of two robots in a run-down storage. However, it is rather static and has a lot of dialogue; they indulge in clever puns, playful poetry, and a lot of vulgarities, so I won't post it here to keep the content PG-13.
There's this simultaneously cringy and amusing Ren and Stimpy-looking shit from Moldova (has English subtitles):
So, yeah, I can't exactly boast an array of interesting productions from where I am. I've done these listings mostly so I potentially enrich your knowledge on animation, seeing as how you are passionate on the subject. That isn't to say that this part of the world doesn't have some rad things to offer though, so buckle up for a round of international treasures!
Infiltrating Central European territory, you'll note the existence of a wonderful series of Hungarian cartoons that are animated retellings of tales from Hungarian folklore. These old cartoons got so popular, they were dubbed in English and published on an official Youtube channel dedicated just to them! Go give 'em a watch!
Further west, in the Czech Republic, you'll encounter an entire stop-motion animation scene with a rich history and crazy talented animators. To name one influential Czech filmmaker, whom even AVGN made a review on, you have Jan Švankmajer, the king of surreal stop-motion animation, who made this among many others:
This was a brief write-up on Eastern/Central European animation from my humble knowledge. You were probably expecting series suggestions or the like; unfortunately, much as I would love the animation industry to flourish to such an extent in my country, it probably never will if there isn't some sort of movement. When it comes to Romanian cinema though, that is a completely different story, one that I might be able to gush upon and go into detail like there's no tomorrow.
I'll end with an old mesmerising Armenian short that might reminisce you of Felix Colgrave's style.