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Thread: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

  1. #1

    Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Before someone in the forum mentioned "Cinema Nirvana" I was already on the way of analysing one of my favourate cartoons.

    "Hedgehog in the Fog" (Russian: ???? ? ???????, "Yozhik v tumane") was never among my favourates when I was a child: it had no songs in it, hardly any words at all and although the plot was straighforward I always had a feeling there was more to it only I didn't get it.

    It was made at Soyuzmultfilm by Yuri Norstein and his little film team in 1975.

    The little hedgehog is on his way through the woods to see his friend the bear cub with whom he fancies drinking tea and counting stars at night. He is so engrossed in the internal dialogue with his friend he does not notice the following him huge owl. All of a sudden he sees a white hoarse in the fog and curious how it feels to be in there enters the fog...

    The cartoon with subtitles in English is ca 10 min long and can be viewed at http://<iframe class="restrain" titl...="0"></iframe>

    Needless to say I watched the film with new eyes now, years later. We need to get lost in order to find that part of the self (the awareness itself?) , to accept the insecurity of shedding many other layer's of the self. In the fog nothing is solid or clear any longer.

    I was also struck by the abundance of water-related imagery (well, water puddle, river, fog, whale/fish) which for me are associated in the first hand with Christianity. However, the idea of the healing powers of water goes back to the prehistoric cults. After his fall into the river the hedgehog gives up grasping for security and comfort of the known and his own understanding of the world ( "dropped off body and mind" ?)

    Turn off your mind, relax
    and float downstream.
    It is not dying ,
    It is not dying.

    (Beatles, "Tomorrow Never Knows")

    Did the hedgehog get baptised in the river or am I reading too much into it??? :wink:

    By the end of the film I see the hedgehog as being transformed by his experience. Nothing is the same any longer.
    So much more one can say of the rich imagery and its symnbolism (all those creatures in the wood, etc)...

    A charming little story, skillfully and beautifully told. I am glad I watched it again now, years later and experiences older. The fears remain basically the same, although the scenery is changing. I now know better than believing the monsters are out there and you can actually run away from them from them. The fog is in my head. Or my head is in the fog. :roll: :lol:

    Gassho,

    Irina

  2. #2

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Hey CinnamonGal.

    Its actually not a hedgehog but a porcupine.
    i havent seen that cartoon since i was about 4 years old i think.... but it is part of my childhood.
    i dont remember anything of it to be totally honest.
    i will watch it again and tell you what i think

    ps

    i also didnt like it to much, i loved other russian cartoons such as " nu pagadi "

    are you russian?

  3. #3

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Zen,

    It IS a hedgehog (if you watch the cartoon you can see it). The title of the cartoon in Russian confirms it (see my earlier post) :lol:

    "Nu pagadi" is a Tom and Jerry look alike, entertaining and charming, but having no depth to it.

    "Hedgehog in the fog" got very high praise from the Japanese cartoonists, I believe, for the story and the way it was told.

    Enjoy the viewing! :lol:

    Gassho,

    Irina

  4. #4

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Zen,

    The story is based on the Russian folk tale and I don't think we can find porcupines in Russia. :roll:

    G/I.

  5. #5

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    yojik means porcupine

  6. #6

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Porcupine in Russian (at least in the area I come from) is called "dikoobraz" Russian: "?????????".
    I would imagine these are the creatures with much longer needles, that I saw for example in Central Asia while here in Sweden just as in Russia I get a visit from the hedgehog now and zen :wink:

    Gassho,

    Irina

  7. #7

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Actually you are both wrong.


    As you can clearly see from this still shot,














    It's Brian May from the rock band Queen.

  8. #8

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    You got it! :lol: :lol: :lol:

    G/I

  9. #9

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Thanks Irina,

    I've never seen it before and I thought it was beautifully done. Thanks for sharing. The horrors and the friends that we find in the fog. (I love the dog part--a bodhisattva no doubt. As is the turtle.)

    I'm not qualified to enter into the porcupine/hedgehog debate. We only have porcupines in the U.S.

    Gassho,

    Linda

  10. #10
    Member roky's Avatar
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    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    i love animation -- the "real world" is so bad that when i want entertainment, it definitely is fantasy of some sort

    an old favorite, "a mouse and his child" -- a great scene in which the mouse/child meet the wise turtle living at the bottom of the sea - they achieve some sort of satori by staring at "the infinite dog", which is an old tin can of "bonzo" dog food, resting on the ocean floor -- the dog on the label is holding a can of dog food, with a dog holding a can of dog food, .......

    and my youngest and i discovered "my neighbor, totoro" long ago, have seen it so many times, never tire of it - i've often said i want to live there -- miyazaki -- we have a stuffed totoro(if jundo is listening, bet he's up on this)

    then, there's the incredible "triplets of belleville" - amazing stuff

    in the "real" character realm:"princess bride"(love the scene with andre the giant and mandy potemkin), and "legend"(tim curry, tim curry, tim curry!), and "time bandits"(in which god screwed up when he created the universe, left some holes in it, and the dwarves have stolen the map which reveals the location of the holes), and "baron von munchhausen"

    gassho, bob

  11. #11

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Thanks Irina for sharing that delightful little story with us. Thinking about what I'm going to say to others in the future is also a big part of my 'mental fog'.

    Gassho,
    John

  12. #12

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Since this is 1975 Soviet film, maybe it's a critique of peasant norms and figuring out a way from going from a feudal economy to a communist economy w/o the need of capitalist degeneration. :P

  13. #13

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Hi.

    Nice one. Enjoyed i immensely.

    May the force be with you
    Tb

  14. #14

    Re: Hedgehog in the Fog (Zen cartoon from the USSR?)

    Thanks for sharing this indeed! I know* ive seen this cartoon before, seems oddly familiar... anywho I really enjoyed it

    Quote Originally Posted by John
    ... Thinking about what I'm going to say to others in the future is also a big part of my 'mental fog'.

    Gassho,
    John
    ^Ditto :S

    Gassho
    Dirk

    *or i could be wrong not the first time ;D

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