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Director: Joško Marušić
Release date: 1979
Rating: ★★★
Review:
This dark and surreal film starts with fishing villagers saying goodbye to their men who go out fishing on the sea. But when they’re gone, the fish suddenly come to the shore…
‘Fisheye’ is animated very well and knows a sickly color palette with its pale yellows, greens and blues on a black canvas. There’s some great moving perspective animation of the fishing village. The film contains a grim atmosphere, but in the end is too one-dimensional to make a lasting impression. The abrupt and inconclusive ending doesn’t help.
Watch ‘Fisheye’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Fisheye’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Nedeljko Dragić
Release date: 1974
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
This animated short is very akin to the later ‘Satiemania’ by Zdenko Gašparović. The film features drawings and paintings on a white canvas, which change and morph in a stream-of-consciousness-like fashion.
The short starts with rather Saul Steinberg-like images of a man walking, while changing into all kinds of forms, figurative and abstract. The man then changes into a driver, while all the metamorphosis continues. This part contains some spectacular perspective and moving background animation.
The films then shifts to a party scene, in which a very cartoony mouse and cat form a running gag. From this point the film seems to say something about modern life and modern Western commercialism. As the film progresses, the images get more and more agitated, as if depicting the stressful life in the modern city. The film ends with another walking figure, showing a lonely man on an island inside.
‘Diary’ is a tour de force of imagination, and the images never cease to amaze. Nevertheless, the film’s purpose remains puzzling and leaves the viewer with more questions than answers.
Watch ‘Diary’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Diary’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Zlatko Plavinic
Release date: 1973
Rating: ★★
Review:
This is another very short gag cartoon from the Zagreb studio. In this short a man and a woman haggle for paid sex, or are they?
This cartoon features a monochrome ochre background, cartoonish designs, and dialogue in gibberish and loud nos. The single gag unfortunately is too lame for words.
‘Okay!’ is released on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Radivoje Gvozdanović
Release date: 1972
Rating: ★★★
Review:
This is a very short cartoon not clocking even one minute in which a man gets bunt at a stake. When the flames reach him he starts to pray…
This is a one gag cartoon that is over before you know it and a great example of the quirky humor that prevailed in the Zagreb Film studio.
Watch ‘Prayer’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Prayer’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Zlatko Grgić
Release date: 1971
Stars: Maxicat
Rating: ★★★
Review:
These are three very short episodes of the Maxicat series, which consisted of 24 episodes in total. These feature a very cartoony cat with a big nose experiencing Pink Panther-like adventures on a grey, featureless canvas.
In the first Maxicat finds a magical hat, in the second he eats spaghetti, and in the last he finds a flying broom. All three are short and classic gag cartoons with the dialogue-less action being accompanied by very jolly music. As these three episodes prove, Maxicat is an enjoyable series from the very creative Zagreb Film Studio from Yugoslavia.
Watch some Maxicat episodes yourself and tell me what you think:
These Maxicat episodes are available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Gosce Vaskov
Release Date: 1996
Rating: ★
Review:
‘Mass in A minor’ is the first computer animated film made in Croatia.
This single fact must be the sole reason to watch the film. Otherwise, ‘Mass in A minor’ is utterly forgettable. The short is an unremarkable mood piece with flames as its main theme. The motion is perfectly set to Marijan Brkić’s new age music, but this cannot save the film, which has a cheap, ugly and utterly primitive look.
‘Mass in A Minor is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Darko Kreč
Release Date: 1995
Rating: ★
Review:
In this latter-day Zagreb Film studio short two grains change into a prince and princess who waltz around a remote water mill.
This film combines live action footage of the water mill with cell animation of the prince and princess. Unfortunately, the film is hampered by its poor story, its mediocre designs, and unremarkable music by Ozren Depolo. If anything this film makes clear that in the post-communist era the Zagreb Film studio was severely struggling. With films like these one can feel the Zagreb school dying.
Watch ‘Last Waltz in the Old Mill’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e7MHIJpTdY
‘Last Waltz in the Old Mill’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Goran Sudžuka
Release Date: 1992
Rating: ★★
Review:
‘Paranoia’ is a short film (lasting only four minutes) about a young man who thinks he’s followed on the street.
The film is set in monochromes, with strong black and white contrasts. Sudžuka indeed includes in his images a reference to Corto Maltese, a comic hero by Hugo Pratt, an artist with a similar palette. Sudžuka’s own style is much more angular than Pratt’s, however, and more confined to the 1980s. The film looks well, but is hampered by its trite ending.
Watch ‘Paranoia’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Y3ejFg5U4
‘Paranoia’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Milan Trenc
Release Date: 1990
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
When a spoiled, rich brat is about to smash his piggy bank to pieces with a large hammer, the piggy bank flees. While the boy and his family are looking for him, the piggy bank has a good time at the fair.
This is a rather lightweight film, based on a story by Milan Milšić. Trenc uses a lot of different designs in this film, with the piggy bank itself being the most conventional. Like many other Zagreb films from this later period, the film is hampered by limited animation and an ugly electronic score, this time by Davon Rocco.
Watch ‘The Big Time’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Big Time’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Director: Krešimir Zimonić
Release Date: 1988
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘Butterflies’ is a film from the Zagreb Film studio, when the once famous studio was already in its decline.
‘Butterflies’ is about a young woman who imagines the different lives she can lead with some very different men. This film uses strong, angular 1980s designs and colors by co-writer Magda Dulčić, and has a rather stream-of-consciousness-like structure, with a lot of metamorphosis and designs that verge on the abstract. The animation ranges from very limited to full, and from serious to cartoony. Unfortunately, Igor Savin’s ugly electronic score and Dulčić designs make the film feel dated, and more a product of its time than a timeless classic.
‘Butterflies’ is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 