"Karlson vernulsya" or "Karlson Returns" is as the title already says the second from a duology of animated Russian short films. It runs for slightly under 20 minutes, so basically the same as the first. Animation style, humour and storytelling are also similar. There seems to be an antagonist early on, a cleaning woman at Karlson's house, but the longer the film continues, the more it becomes obvious that she is not evil at all. And in the end, she is pretty likable in fact. I guess this combination of Soviet animation and Swedish literature (Astrid Lindgren) was not a success: First of all, the animation is basically on a level that was done in the United States more than a decade earlier already. Yes you can go and say it is retro, but I personally did not like it and it is nowhere near to the Cheburashka tales from the same time (around 1970) for example. The story is okay, but this is mostly due to the good base material and I cannot really credit Stepantsev or Larin for that. There are flaws actually when it comes to taking a closer look at details etc., so the execution was certainly a bit shoddy here. It baffles me that this is considered one of the best from the Golden Age of Soviet Animation and the IMDb rating is also way over the top and not realistic. I give it a thumbs down. Not recommended.
Review of Karlson Returns
