神鹿之歌 Ének A Csodaszarvasról (2002)

Plot / Synopsis An animated history lesson for Hungarian schoolkids. Divided into four sections, "Song" is inspired by the Siberian and Finno-Ugric legends about Creation, in which the world begins with characters who are only half-human, one being half-bird, the other half-bear. The narrator delves into the origins of Hungarian culture, the Iranian and Turkish influences that impacted the society, and finally the story of Stephen, the emperor who brought Christianity to the country and shifted the capital west in an attempt to link with Europe. Using a mainly choral soundtrack, pic takes itself very seriously, with no attempts at humor as the lengthy saga unfolds. Review: This animated movie meant to show Marcell Jankovics's total devotion and love to our country... Unfortunately, its NOT very entertaining for everyone, and foreigners might simply find it dull. And they're not to blame at all. Looks like this one's been made to "stay in the family". The truth is: It looks more like like a strange ethnographic study on the Hungarian race... Otherwise, its a "complete" movie in its own theme, so if you want to watch some really original animation (horribly dated for it's time, unfortunately) ideas for like 90 minutes, or you're interested in our thousand years old myths and legends, it is definitely worths a watch. Why not. However, this movie is pretty much like a compilation of Jankovics's earlier series, "Mondák a magyar történelemből", which was way better (it was spot on, at the time it was made, and the episodic nature of these stories fits much better into a series of short cartoons, than a long, and extremely fragmented one), so If you can speak our language, I'd recommend that instead of this movie.