*** The analysis is thorough - possible SPOILERS ***
When watching this cartoon, the approach is crucial. If you watch it like you watch "Tom & Jerry", you will perhaps see a boring slide show. The mass culture has made too many people deaf and blind to the true art and beauty.
What makes this cartoon a masterpiece, probably one of the best cartoons ever created? It is superb in every area you'll take, starting with the screenplay that includes ideas, understandable to children yet not trifling to adults. The fog is a metaphor of life; the Hedgehog is a man, striving for something good and soulful. He looks at the starry sky in a pool, while the eagle-owl, the image of primitive and evil people, washes its foot in it. The Hedgehog counts stars with his best friend, the Bear (a more exact translation would be "Little Hedgehog" and "Little Bear"). Counting stars is a wonderful metaphor of what makes man different from an animal: it's a completely pointless action, like wondering, dreaming or art that give life a new quality. The Hedgehog uses a firefly sitting on a stick as a candle (this makes him look like a sorcerer or messiah) but the firefly escapes with its kin in an affectionate dance, leaving the Hedgehog painfully alone. He is awed by the surrealistic image of a white horse that embodies something grand, unreachable, celestial - a sort of religion. The little Hedgehog experiences something similar when he runs into a hollow tree during his wandering in the fog. The tree is giant, probably touching the sky: accompanied by very inspiring music, the image of the tree is one of the most moving in the cartoon.
The eagle-owl and the bat are the dark side of life but the sheath-fish (called "Someone" by the narrator) carries the Hedgehog on its back when he falls into a river and the funny dog helps him to find the lost bag with raspberry jam he was carrying to the bear. The roaming Hedgehog hears the Bear shouting his name worriedly from time to time so he knows he is missed and needed by someone, although he's too busy admiring and fearing the world around him. There are more profound ideas in this 10-minute cartoon: every line in the screenplay is significant.
The cartoon has comic moments as well: the Hedgehog shouts with his weak voice into a well and the hollow tree, or looks at the eagle-owl which is trying to scare him, and says, having turned around: "Psycho!". The Hedgehog says this in a very feminine way and I suspect that, despite the apparent sexlessness of the characters, the hedgehog is a vague image of a woman (he also dances like a ballerina when mocking the swirling butterflies) and the Bear resembles a man (the voices are also of respective sexes).
Both the Hedgehog and the Bear are wonderfully crafted characters: the former is melancholy, passive ("let the river carry me itself" - resignation to the fate), shy and sensitive to beauty or horror. The latter is sanguine, talkative, kind hearted and caring. Translating the language of the movie or even trying to reproduce the voices (especially that of the Bear) is hardly possible.
The drawings and animation are exquisite: each shot is masterful hand-drawn art, with pastel colors and surroundings, gently softened by the fog (water and the tree are photo-realistic; drawing was probably mixed with filmed material). The subtle sounds and a splendid pseudo-classical soundtrack make the cartoon complete.
When watching this cartoon, the approach is crucial. If you watch it like you watch "Tom & Jerry", you will perhaps see a boring slide show. The mass culture has made too many people deaf and blind to the true art and beauty.
What makes this cartoon a masterpiece, probably one of the best cartoons ever created? It is superb in every area you'll take, starting with the screenplay that includes ideas, understandable to children yet not trifling to adults. The fog is a metaphor of life; the Hedgehog is a man, striving for something good and soulful. He looks at the starry sky in a pool, while the eagle-owl, the image of primitive and evil people, washes its foot in it. The Hedgehog counts stars with his best friend, the Bear (a more exact translation would be "Little Hedgehog" and "Little Bear"). Counting stars is a wonderful metaphor of what makes man different from an animal: it's a completely pointless action, like wondering, dreaming or art that give life a new quality. The Hedgehog uses a firefly sitting on a stick as a candle (this makes him look like a sorcerer or messiah) but the firefly escapes with its kin in an affectionate dance, leaving the Hedgehog painfully alone. He is awed by the surrealistic image of a white horse that embodies something grand, unreachable, celestial - a sort of religion. The little Hedgehog experiences something similar when he runs into a hollow tree during his wandering in the fog. The tree is giant, probably touching the sky: accompanied by very inspiring music, the image of the tree is one of the most moving in the cartoon.
The eagle-owl and the bat are the dark side of life but the sheath-fish (called "Someone" by the narrator) carries the Hedgehog on its back when he falls into a river and the funny dog helps him to find the lost bag with raspberry jam he was carrying to the bear. The roaming Hedgehog hears the Bear shouting his name worriedly from time to time so he knows he is missed and needed by someone, although he's too busy admiring and fearing the world around him. There are more profound ideas in this 10-minute cartoon: every line in the screenplay is significant.
The cartoon has comic moments as well: the Hedgehog shouts with his weak voice into a well and the hollow tree, or looks at the eagle-owl which is trying to scare him, and says, having turned around: "Psycho!". The Hedgehog says this in a very feminine way and I suspect that, despite the apparent sexlessness of the characters, the hedgehog is a vague image of a woman (he also dances like a ballerina when mocking the swirling butterflies) and the Bear resembles a man (the voices are also of respective sexes).
Both the Hedgehog and the Bear are wonderfully crafted characters: the former is melancholy, passive ("let the river carry me itself" - resignation to the fate), shy and sensitive to beauty or horror. The latter is sanguine, talkative, kind hearted and caring. Translating the language of the movie or even trying to reproduce the voices (especially that of the Bear) is hardly possible.
The drawings and animation are exquisite: each shot is masterful hand-drawn art, with pastel colors and surroundings, gently softened by the fog (water and the tree are photo-realistic; drawing was probably mixed with filmed material). The subtle sounds and a splendid pseudo-classical soundtrack make the cartoon complete.