I have to say I am pretty shocked to see this half-hour animated short film by director and writer Yuriy Norshteyn receive such favorable reviews and rating. I guess this is mostly because of the film's style. Everything about is is so Soviet from start to finish: the animation, the music and probably also the story. Still I have to say I did not find it memorable at all. It looks much older than it actually is (35 years old) and yes, in this case, it is a negative aspect. The only positive thing about it is that there is no spoken dialog in there, so people from all over the world can enjoy it without subtitles, even if they do not speak Russian. But I don't think they want to. This film is really only for a very small group of film lovers, not for broad masses. And I do not belong to this group. Not recommended and "Tale of Tales" is also a pretty pretentious title that sounds full of itself.

Not much to add really to what's already been said before, and so well too. Tale of Tales is one of the finest Soviet animations ever made alongside Hedgehog in the Fog, and one of the most powerful and poignant of the entire animation medium too. The visuals are really striking, atmospherically coloured and impeccably detailed, several of the images are enough to stay with you forever and the symbolic ones are really quite meaningful. Tale of Tales is scored wonderfully too, all of it fits with the visuals like strawberries and cream whether ethereally beautiful in the retrospective moments or hauntingly rousing in the war/battle images. The story and atmosphere are rendered adeptly, the story is structured into three sections, each of them is firmly focused and full of emotional impact and they follow and overlap one another with no signs of jarring or clumsiness. The retrospective moments are nostalgic and poignant, the middle section is just gut-wrenching and the idealism of the final section shows some hope, contrasting beautifully with what's been seen before. Tale of Tales is well-paced, it allows the visuals to breathe and resonate nor does it descend into tedium, and the powerful, affecting and nostalgic atmosphere is incredibly well-done. To conclude, a fine example of a Soviet animation masterpiece and one of the finest examples too. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Perhaps the greatest animated film of all time, Tale Of Tales remains an artwork of extraordinary substance. The film showed that animation can be art, but most importantly serious art. Its unusual but unforgettable animation perfectly expresses the passing of time. All the scenes in the film are imaginative. Some are just gorgeous, like the one with the snow falling down. Most importantly Yuriy Norshteyn's art is about the fundamentals of light, literally drawing the subject out of darkness and portraying it with the luminosity of a Rembrandt portrait and the simple poignancy of a children's book illustration. To put it simply, Norshteyn uses animation to fully express and represent the essence of cinema itself. The film runs for 26 minutes, but it has a lot more to say than many films that run for two hours. The human experiences represented here are universal. Tale Of Tales receives my highest recommendation.

Seems that my comment is the first one with some negative words. Yes, I dislike this animation film. It's long, it's dark, and it's monotonous. This film doesn't make me experience any strong emotions but just makes me drowsy. If I had to name the best animation film ever, I would pick up "Hadashi no Gen" (1983). That one really gave me unforgettable emotions. As to this black-and-white sequence, even though it does have genuinely artistic sketches, it is a kind of underground animation for artists themselves. It retells the history of the XX century of our country before and after the "VOV". I find the representation of the happenings too unimpressive and common. In general the artwork is not beautiful. The classical music can be listened without these crude images.If you think that I'm absolutely unprepared for this kind of "rough" animation, it's not true. One of my favourite cartoons is about Alisa, which is also very "unpolished".The best cartoon by Mr Yuriy Norshteyn is "Yozhik v tumane" (1975), in my humble opinion. That one is simple and excellent while this one is complex, awkward, and unpleasant. I also find the name of this cartoon quite misleading. It is really a bold title, which is not backed up by anything truly impressive. And I don't want to come back to this animation film again – re-watching it is an artistic torture to me.When I have more time, I shall add a few more lines here.But I do respect the unique structure of the film and it does have a couple of cute sequences - therefore I give it a 5 out of 10, which is not a bad mark after all. Thanks for attention.