{"id":36467,"date":"2021-12-31T08:30:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T13:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=36467"},"modified":"2021-12-29T19:09:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T00:09:27","slug":"the-bootleg-files-new-years-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/31\/the-bootleg-files-new-years-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: New Year’s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 790: <\/strong>\u201cNew Year\u2019s Eve\u201d (1948 Soviet animated short). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> Not that I can determine.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> It fell through the cracks.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: <\/strong>Maybe in an anthology collection of Soviet-era cartoons.<\/p>\n

Here we are at the end of another year, and to say goodbye to 2021 I decided to lean back into the Cold War era and dig up a wonderful but obscure animated short from the Soviet Union that takes place on New Year\u2019s Eve. The film, not surprisingly, is called \u201cNew Year\u2019s Eve\u201d and it is one of the most delightfully odd relics of the house that Lenin built.
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\u201cNew Year\u2019s Eve\u201d focuses on the Russian version of Santa Claus, who is known as Grandfather Frost. Back in Stalin\u2019s day, the Soviet authorities allowed Christmas but not on December 25 \u2013 instead, the holiday took place on January 1.<\/p>\n

In this short, Grandfather Frost has a problem \u2013 he procrastinated about getting a Christmas tree for Red Square in Moscow, and with 15 minutes before the new year he is without that required holiday accessory. Grandfather Frost\u2019s grandson is a pilot who flies a rocket plane \u2013 he calls the old man from a radio phone urging him to get the tree in Moscow before midnight brings the new year.<\/p>\n

Grandfather Frost, accompanied by two talking rabbits, goes into the woods in search of the perfect tree. He ascends a staircase of clouds to get advice from the moon \u2013 depicted as a crescent moon with a human face \u2013 and is pointed to a certain part of the forest. However, a forest goblin guards the trees and does not want Grandfather Frost to engage in arboreal slaughter.<\/p>\n

Grandfather Frost might be elderly, but he is hardly behind the times \u2013 or, at least, the Soviet idea of modernity. While the forest goblin shows him imagery on a miniature screen of a serene past, Grandfather Frost offers proto-television glimpses of Soviet technology and construction at its best. The forest goblin ruefully admits that the modern future is better than the bucolic past, and he allows Grandfather Frost to have a tree once the old codger\u2019s grandson comes zooming into the woods in his rocket plane.<\/p>\n

With no time to spare, Grandfather Frost, the talking rabbits and the tree are zipping through the skies in the young pilot\u2019s aircraft. They arrive at Red Square and set up the tree seconds before midnight, which leads to a celebration of toys parachuting from the skying and children dancing around while dressed as foxes, rabbits and mushrooms.<\/p>\n

What is truly striking about \u201cNew Year\u2019s Eve\u201d is the funky nature of the animation. The film looks nothing like the animation coming out of Hollywood in the late 1940s, but instead feels like a forerunner of the psychedelic pop art of the late 1960s and early 1970s with its playful surrealism and wild imagery. Indeed, Grandfather Frost could easily fit into the \u201cWhen I\u2019m 64\u201d number from the film \u201cYellow Submarine.\u201d The use of color is especially striking, with the rich red robes and flowing white beard of Grandfather Frost standing out in the creepy darkness of the woods.<\/p>\n

And the holiday dance of the children in their cosplay costumes is especially rich in its imaginative designs \u2013 it has such a bold modern style that makes the output from the Hollywood studios of the time seem rather juvenile in comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Year\u2019s Eve\u201d was co-directed and co-written by Olga Khodatayeva and Pyotr Nosov, prolific Russian animators whose output is not well known beyond animation historian circles. If this film is any indication of what they were capable of making, I would love to dive into their other works.<\/p>\n

I am not aware of \u201cNew Year\u2019s Eve\u201d having any theatrical release in the U.S. \u2013 certainly not in the late 1940s or early 1950s when the slightest hint of expressed admiration of the Soviet Union could kill an American\u2019s career instantly. I do not believe that the film has ever been presented on a U.S. home entertainment label, but there is an English subtitled version (and unauthorized) posting on YouTube \u2013 although that version is presented in rhyming couplets that may not be a literal translation of the original Russian-language screenplay.<\/p>\n

Discovering \u201cNew Year\u2019s Eve\u201d is a great way to close 2021 and herald the arrival of 2022 and the prospect of more bootlegged beauties to enjoy. Happy New Year, folks, and I\u2019ll see next week in 2022.<\/p>\n