Director: Vitold Bordzilovsky
Release Date: 1966
Rating: ★★★½
Review:

Proud Little Ship © Soyuzmultfilm‘Proud Little Ship’ is a Soviet propaganda film, which is clearly directed to children.

Three little boys make a small red ship as a copy of the famous cruiser ‘The Aurora’. This little ship sails the seas and is greeted with enthusiasm among all the people of the world.

There are some mean militarists who try to destroy the little ship, but they do not succeed. These militarists are drawn extremely silly, while the rest of the people are drawn rather realistically and appear as noble and gentle. Nevertheless, these drawing styles blend surprisingly well. Moreover the design and choreography of movement is often gorgeous.

All the action is silent, while the story is told by a narrator, who provides the clearest propagandistic message of the film: “the proud little ship sailed as a messenger of a happy life, which, as spring after winter, would certainly come to all people”.

Although ‘Proud Little Ship’ is overtly propagandistic, it’s also an enjoyable and beautiful film. One almost forgets that the message is not concerning world peace, but the ‘glorious’ communist revolution…

Watch ‘Proud Little Ship’ yourself and tell me what you think:

‘Proud Little Ship’ is available on the DVD box set ‘Animated Soviet Propaganda’