Желтый аист (The Yellow Stork)

My only major criticism of this cartoon is how stiff the human characters feel. The characters move left and right, up and down, but nothing beyond that is added to the animation to evoke any sense of personality. Even the faces are expressionless; the evil mandarin’s face looks the same for when he is angry and for when he is delighted. I would say this rotoscope technique is greatly improved upon in The Scarlet Flower, which was made 2 years later, by adding more nuanced expressions and body movement for when the characters share dialogue. That Atamonov short also takes better advantage of its gorgeous backgrounds, framing the characters in ways that makes them complementary to the backgrounds. This is in addition to some of the other techniques used with the scenery of the short, like the various lighting effects as well as the multi plane effect, which is used in The Yellow Stork when the camera zooms into the interior of the Mandarin’s throne room. I would love to hear if you agree or disagree with any of the aforementioned. Otherwise, thanks for reviewing the short! Any sry for the long comment.