A Beginner's Guide to Yugoslavian Animation 

If you'd like to support the channel you can donate here: Venmo @Evan-Chester Or www.paypal.me/EvanChester Slight correction, the title and year in the captions at 3:16 are incorrect.

As someone from former yugoslavia it's extremely surprising to see so much anti-consumerism, anti-war and pro inviduality messages in yugoslav animation. EX yugo countries today are extremely nationalist, consumerist and conservative

As a fan of Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Dexter’s lab and Samurai Jack) it’s so cool to discover one of the goldmines of an animation tradition that he drew inspiration from

I met Marušić at an airport in 2018. He remembered me because he was in the film festival jury that had awarded my own animation short in the young creators category. He was very friendly and mentorly, giving me advice I still carry to this day, and schooled me a bit in the history of Zagreb animation, to which I was quite ignorant at the time (and he the leading professor at the university's animation and new media masters programme). I still think about that, and the random chance of us meeting at that airport. The movie he seemed most proud of was Riblje Oko. Apparently he'd also made a feature film, though he promosed to never do it again. Ha.

OMG, Professor Balthazar in the thumbnail! I recognised him instantly after not seeing him for nearly half a century

I grew up watching Professor Baltazar, so it is very interesting to actually find out about the history of the Yugoslavian animation.

Balthazar is still showed on Finnish television today so it's only Yugoslavian animation I know (beside The Elm-enchanted Forest). So it's cool to see other animation from there.

Holy shit, this just unlocked a core memory of me watching episodes of Professor Balthazar on vhs tapes. I had no idea it was from Yugoslavia!

I love how these cartoons gave the UPA style a more cartoonishly abstract look. Something that many cartoons and those PBS Kids bumpers would later have.

Professor Balthazar was well known in the early 1970's here in Italy. State TV showed many episodes on sunday afternoon for the kid's audience.😊

Love how well maintained the RU-vid channel for Zagreb Film is. Would love to have explained how it compares it to its other Central and Eastern European contemporaries.

Balthazar is on tubi at the moment, pls watch before it disappears!

Excellent! I was fairly familiar with Soviet and Czech animators but didn't know much of anything about the Yugoslav industry. I'm hoping to get to Zagreb and then down to Trogir this summer, to explore some family history.

Now we want Czech/Czechoslovakian/ Slovakian animation video, with Jiri Trnka and Jan Svankmajer. And maybe, after that, one about Poland Will be Just good for completing the Eastern Block Animation video series

I'm very glad Yugoslavias rich film history is getting some attention! I would love a video on Yugoslav (black) comedies (including the black wave movement) as well. Cheers from Belgrade!

The cartoon "Surrogate" (Ersatz and The Substitute) in 1962 was the first cartoon outside the USA to win an Oscar, and the credit certainly goes to Dušan Vukotić. Yugoslav animation, especially Zagreb Film started from Soviet style to almost a mixture of classic Disney and folk ornamentation from Eastern Europe and I really enjoyed them as a child. Although Baltazar is my favorite Zagreb cartoon, I still liked the movies "The Wonderful Forest" and "The Wizard's Hat" the most, especially "The Wizard's Hat" where you have a fight against the total ice order established by Emperor Mr. Frost (the music of that composition was composed by Kornelije Kovač). It is a great pity that the war followed and that film did not reach the general public and that it was not dubbed into English, but for me that film is the greatest rise of Yugoslav and Croatian animation. After that comes Hlapić (Lapitch) and the decline of Croatian animation (the last one by Croatia Film was Good night Croatia), which can be seen all over the country. As for Serbian animation, I can't think of anything except Serbian Jet Set and Serbian folk tales in two episodes, but there are quality animators and artists there, the problem is finances who couldn't realize their ideas. Certainly, these are only examples of animation in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Certainly, an excellent critique and explanation related to it.

Thank you/ Hvala from Croatia ❤

I watched a lot of Professor Balthazar in my youth. Thank you for sharing this awesome video.

For anyone that wants to read more about Yugoslav animation, I would want to recommend the book 'Propaganda, Ideology, Animation. Twisted Dreams of History' from 2019. It dedicates a whole section to Yugoslavia, with two chapters focusing on the Zagreb School of animation and the lesser-known struggles of Serbian animation respectively. The section on Zagreb was even written by one of the animations mentioned in this video, the Bosnian animator Midhat Ajanović. I'll also take the opportunity to remind everyone that much of this video is focused on shorts. In terms of the lived-in experience of watching animation growing up in Yugoslavia, there was an immensely diverse mix, though this depended on where you were in the country. For the most part however, many kids in former Yugoslavia had the opportunity to grow up with animation icons from both West and East, whether it be the Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo, or Nu Pogodi and Bolek and Lolek.

God every single clip you show is just so eye catching, they practically had this style MASTERED by the late 50s

Thank you for sparking my interest for Croatian animation. I myself am Croatian and I knew, sadly, very little about it. The video is fantastic!

Awesome video man! I grew up with Professor Baltazar even tho im 18 years old because it was my grandmas favorite cartoon. Even now when I hear the intro the nostalgia overwhelms me.

I'm a Croat, and I fully, absolutely, highly commend your pronunciation of the various Croatian names and sounds (č, ć, ž, š, đ). Of course, "lj" and "nj" aren't quite on, but those are rarely known anyway.. Regardless, Kudos/Svaka Čast 👌👍

They really don't make stuff like this anymore. I am in love with the styles of the shorts from Zagreb film!

This brings me back, I used to watch Baltazar when I was very little, as a matter of fact, I probably have the CD lying around somewhere...

The stylistic look of the abstraction minimal backgrounds and dramatic animation with pose popping, and cartoon logic have definitely inspired so many cartoons like the pink panther, the ant and the anteater, some of looney toons designs and is quite unique.

A Serb is Here. The Magician's Hat had the most baddas sog Car Mrazomor (the Emperor Frostkiller)

Old slavic animation fascinates me, I'm happy this video exists to inform me more about this. I hope this video gets a lot more views than it currently does as I type, this is a great video and I feel more people should know about this.

I'm 50+ Pole and find it very interesting. I knew almost nothing about Yugoslavian animated films of that era - and they are great. Would love to a video comparison of the all post-soviet animation artists. If you wanna taste Poland's one I would suggest the works of Julian Antonisz.

Along with his animations, Miki Muster is also fondly remembered in Slovenia because of his comics

Its amazing how experimental so many of these films are. Id love a more in depth look at these directors!!

Thank you very much for this. I appreciate in particular the effort you have taken to pronounce names correctly, this is vanishingly rare, especially as you do a practically perfect job! Just one small correction--Zlatko Bourek's last name is pronounced Bow-rek--both the o and u are sounded separately, and not Boorek (like the cheese pastry).

Baltazar went so hard as a kid

I see some DePatie/Freleng Pink Panther in a lot of these... what a fabulous find! Thank you for such a fascinating upload; very inspirational!!

Wow, I was not born back then, didn't know we had such profound animations

I'm glad this channel exists. 😊

It would be great to cover the Romanian animation. Their cartoons about Mouseketeers are very popular in Russia, so I would like to know more about the cartoons of this country.

This is like a Yugoslavian version of Disney's Fantasia❤

Cartoon Network once adopted this art style for almost a decade

After a long time man. I really love your videos. I always look forward to them. Keep going man

I never thought i would hear Miki Muster's name outside of slovenian media but its really cool that you mentioned him:)

Thank you so much for making those animation guide videos, so many of those works are criminally underrated, it's very nice to see someone put so much care in talking about them!

It looks like Dexter's lavatory & power puff were Inspired by this

Thanks for making this! These look great.

This is amazing, so glad to know this stuff exists, thank you!

Fascinating vid, thank you!

wowww. Omg I need to look up and watch each of these, thank you so much.

Amazing animation and a great video! So a refreshing subject! A great channel on the whole - subscribed! You have many interesting videos to see, great work!

I’d love to learn about Czech animation. I’m curious about what they’ve produced outside of Pat & Mat, which I grew up on.

Love the videos, man. Keep it up!!!

dude I love these videos on lesser known animation scenes, keep it up!

This is very interesting. So many of these animated films are more an extension of visual art then film/drama/entertainment.

The most important part of Yugoslav animation is that its popularity and impressiveness among the general public came crashing down in 1978 when RAI started airing Grendizer in Italy. Anyone who could receive Italian TV (aka most of the coast) tossed Baltazar immediately, once they saw giant-ass robots. Once private TV stations started broadcasting in Italy, the floodgates for anime opened. By 1984 RAI quit airing anime, but all that anime was then rerun on private TV stations. And for those who wanted darker themes, there was Tiger Mask and Hokuto no Ken. Needless to say, landlubbers from the mainland were quite jealous over their coastal counterparts with access to Italian TV.

One of my favorite Italian animated movies is Allegro non Troppo. It's weird and amazing. The animator also spoofs Disney's Fantasia.

Great video. From Macedonia. Former Yugoslavia. Such a nostalgia😊

Thank you @Kubricklynch for this video ! I grew up in Albania (and partially in Kosovo) and I've seen some of them. However, most post-Yugoslovian war cartoons came from Russia (such as Nu Pogodi). I'd love to see 'A Beginner's Guide to Czhekoslovakian Animation' next time. ❤

Props to you 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 That was very interesting to watch.

I did not know anything about Yugoslavian animation before this video. It was fascinating and I will definitely look up more.

BALTAZAR!Oh wow I loved that cartoon! Happy new year (from Croatia) to all those who know that East Europe ISN'T just Poland,Ukraine & Russia!

This channel is so retrospectively awesome, you deserve a new subscriber from Vantaa, Finland 🇫🇮. 😺👍

Thanx, I have loved seeing this.

Great work!

Holy shit you just brought back my childhood

One of the Yugoslavian animations that I saw when I was a kid in the earlier 2010's was "Cudesna suma". I loved that movie and forgot about it for so many years. Thanks, man, for reminding me of it.

Amazing video!!

This was fantastic. I want to watch all of these, I'll have to come back and get the titles again!

Just catching up on all these videos I missed recently, so well researched and really really amazing man! You should be proud

I love animation but I have a lot to explore. I love that your videos cover new territories of cinema to discover. Keep up the great work!

Thank you! Very interesting video

I remember seeing a bunch of Zagreb films on a PBS show (hosted by Jean Marsh) that came on right after Monty Python back in 77 or 78

Čudesna šuma and Baltazar made my early 90's childhood. Also Znatiželja was really interesting, Inspektor Maska. But Baltazar was pure brilliance. Was showed just before evening news on Croatian National Television

Thank you for this video 👍

Hi I just discovered your channel. It’s exactly what I am was looking for!

I had no idea yugoslavian animation was in a thing before this. Will definitely check out the stuff showed here. Thanks!

thanks! now i want to watch all of them

Finally someone who brings attention to this!!! Glad to see this. You did a great job!

This is amazing

Thanks of this. I'm huge fan of Zagreb and Praga anime schools (legendary A je to and Lolek&Bolek from Praga anime school are out of this world funny, pure joy). Many of their masterpieces shaped my childhood and teenage age. Zagreb school is one of best and most unique anime schools in world, I find it brilliant. Also most "arthouse" imho, in comparison to other influential anime schools in World. I wasn't following it since too many years, but you encouraged me to do so. Thank you, and Happy new Year. P.S. Thanks for mentioning dr. Balthasar, I love this anime endlessly. Just to mention that also Hungarians and Italians back in 70ies- 1990s produced really interesting and magnigicent anime masterpieces worthy of attention. Waiting for part 3.

Great! Greets from Zagreb!

Finnaly. I am glad to see someone covering my countries animation history.

THANK YOU FOR THIS ! ive recently fallen in love with Baltazar as someone who lives where Yugoslavia used 2 be and the coloring style of the cartoon is taking over my coloring style so all my art is like vibrant and shit and im glad to have gotten to know more about this animation era and have even more inspo now :D

My parents grew up watching Professor Balthazar, and I'm so glad somebody talked about this part of Yugoslav cinema. I also wish more people knew about the amazing movies outside of animation, like the ones by Kusturica, Makavejev, Paskaljević, Šijan, Kovačević...

Thanks so much for highlighting Yugoslav animation. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, like most other things, the animation industry fell apart. The Croatian animators eventually made a Hlapic (knows as Lapitch English), a feature length film based on a old Croatian children's book but all the characters were turned into mice and rats and in general it's a very very quaint (if we're being nice) attempt to make something like a 50s Disney animal movie (it's even a musical). It's also 4:3, baffling for a movie from the 90s. Overall it has a feel of a typical cheap direct to video animated kiddie shlock from Europe except it wasn't outsourced to Korea. Then in 2023 the second Croatian animated film was made (counting after Yugoslavia) called Cricket & Antoinette, this time their first CG film. I haven't had the chance to watch it but it looks really really ugly, it's essentially like some A Bug's Life rip off. In Serbia during the 2000s we got the only two feature length animated films to date and very surprisingly, they are both VERY adult oriented. The first one is Film Noir. Even more surprisingly this film is only available in English and not Serbian, it features prolific American voice actors and takes place in L.A. It is a cel shaded black and white CG film, but while all that sounds super interesting it film is T E R R I B L E. Like it's almost insane that it even exists, the story is barely coherent and filled to the brim with extremely lurid nonsense and features very graphic nudity and gore. The animation looks like the worst possible cel shaded PS2 game. It's so absurd that it is honestly worth a hate watch. The second attempt at a Serbian animated film was a little more admirable and well put together. It's called Technotise: Edit and I. This one was actually in Serbian and takes place in Belgrade in the year 2074. It is essentially an attempt at making an anime, a Serbian version of Akira essentially (Katsuhiro Otomo is even mentioned in the film), with some Ghost In The Shell sprinkled in. This again, sounds very interesting, the animation is mostly 2D, with some CG backgrounds, but most of the actual animation is this extremely uncanny digital 2D puppetry which does not fit at all with the fairly realistic drawing style and it clashes real hard with the bits of actual traditional animation. Also most of the shots are drawn in a completely flat one point perspective so it looks really dull, the editing is quite strange too. The story has potential and some ok elements but the dialogue is extremely cringy with so much unnecessary swearing and awkward lines, though this is most appearent when watching in Serbian, for English speakers, I'd compare it to if an entire movie sounded like 4chan posts or TikTok language.

Amazin video, thank you so much! I'd like to make a revew also of the Bulgarian animation

Beautiful

Beautifuly done

Omg it’s Worker and Parasite! Apparently it’s called Vau-Vau I didn’t know that was real

What an exciting, broad introduction to this rich heritage of animation! Many names and titles here were new to me, and I appreciated how you made mention also of animation produced in centers other than Zagreb. Animation and shorts unfortunately tend to be overlooked in film histories, but focusing on these forms makes clear that Yugoslavia was one of the most vibrant and creative crucibles of cinema in the second half of the twentieth century. Indeed, I think the only other country that rivaled it in the arena of animated shorts during that period was Canada, and in both instances strong state investment in the art coupled with considerable creative license for the artists was foundational for these successes. While Yugoslav production was exemplary in so many ways, Eastern European animation in general constitutes a wonderful cultural heritage, and I would welcome further explorations in those national cinemas I don't believe have yet received their own episodes here, such as Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Very good...!!!! Thank you for summoning this...!!!!

Wow, coming from Latvia it's amazing to see how interesting and creative Yugoslavian animation was, honestly I've always kind of hated old latvian animations 😅 Both in style and content. These are really cool.

Man I Remember Watching Most Of These As A Kid. Thanks For Discussing About Yugoslavian Animation.

Wow, I was born in 1995 in a latin country. I don’t think we had many of these. My mom did know about Mr Magoo. But I can see that these characters with big noses and small bodies influenced many cartoons, like the Pink Panther. And also the backgrounds are very similar to Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Thanks, this has been a quiet intresting video! I've been curious the last 5 years or so of what none American cartoons were like. I wish it was easier to find.

Thanks, cool stuff

Thank you, recommended.

In Australia we had Balthazar on television in the 1970's and perhaps some of the shorts mentioned as interludes in programming. Thanks.

great stuff

Great video

Yugoslavian animated film directors in the 60´s were really like "So I was thinking of this movie which would be an allegory for war and about how oppressive our modern society is"

Side note: your pronunciation of Yugoslavian names is amazing