“I know no genre or area in this country that has been capable of greater achievement than the art of animated films. In their own genre they have conquered a more prestigious place in the world of cinema than the also excellent Hungarian non-animated filmmaking, not to mention that these sudden gleam-like films are often among the most authentic documents of our times. We can get to know more of the period in question through these charming and grotesque, comic and tragic, shocking and playful films than from a multitude of scholarly analysis.”
Elemér Hankiss, one of the most well-known Hungarian social scientists.
The beginnings of Hungarian animation reach back to the thirties. Advertising was flourishing at that time in Budapest. The best graphic artists, painters – often representing the avant-garde – created posters and the corporate images of big companies, the slogans were figured out by the ‘greats’ of literary life. Gyula Macskássy, János Halász and Félix Kassovitz founded their film studio in this inspiring atmosphere. Their commercials which were created using the various animation techniques were not only successful with the clients but with the public as well. According to a film critic of the time people often went to the cinema to see these commercials. All members of the great generation of Hungarian animated-filmmakers of the thirties started on the road to world fame by commercials, becoming celebrated directors: John Halas in England, George Pál in America and Jean Image in France. Only Gyula Macskássy stayed here and created Hungarian film animation. After World War II he started Hungarian animated motion picture art, in spite of the great poverty and ever oppressive ideological pressure. The first Hungarian color animated film was completed under his direction, an adaptation of a Hungarian fairy tale entitled The diamond half-crown of the little rooster, then The two pepper oxen some years later. In this film they did not imitate neither Disney films, neither the Soviet animated films set as an example before them by official powers. They had found their own style which first and foremost drew on Hungarian folk art. Puppet and graphic films for children were done one after another, but the real breakthrough came with Ceruza és a radír (The pencil and the eraser) and Párbaj (Duel) directed by Gyula Macskássy. These films were already made for an adult audience, with a serious philosophical message for which they had found the suitable visual form. In these years of the Cold War Hungarian animation was perhaps the only one capable of breaking through the Iron Curtain and having significant success at “Western” festivals too.
A new generation had also appeared alongside Macskássy: Attila Dargay, who transposed the Disney style into Hungarian conditions and achieved unprecedented popularity among the public, György Kovásznai, who made artistic films of painting animation, Sándor Reisenbüchler’s films of a particular collage technique bore great humane ideas while Marcell Jankovics was successful with his few-minute philosophic films at festivals both in Hungary and abroad. Very strong personalities appeared. The “Budapest school” meant diversity in styles and techniques. Pannónia Film Studio proceeded in different direction at the same time. The technical and stylistic diversity prevented growing rigid with routine and raised the studio to the heights of being one of the most successful workshops in the world.
In the seventies another generation grew up: Ferenc Cakó brought a new technique with films of sand-animation, while Kati Macskássy created a new genre, animation documentary. István Orosz and Líviusz Gyulay had already been renowned graphic artists, thus it is no wonder they enriched Hungarian film animation with a particularly high standard of forms and visual world. The greatest moment was when a young director of animated films, Ferenc Rófusz won the most well-known prize of the motion picture industry, the Oscar, a first for Hungarians with his film entitled The Fly. In this period it was animation that found that particular delicate balance, there was no gap between art movies and popular movies. These shorts were immensely successful among the Hungarian audience and reviewers, while winning numerous prestigious prizes at different festivals of the world. Pannónia Film Studio was one of the islands of excellence which shone with a bright and clear light in the blur and misery of Eastern Europe. This light shone all the way to London, New York, Montreal, and Hollywood professing that the creative human spirit is alive even in the darkness of Eastern Europe, that the fire of human spirit is flaring even in a soulless system.
Today Hungary is no longer a great power in animation, the former workshop of Pannónia shriveled up fighting for survival. Private film studios are constantly formed and go bankrupt. We hope that in spite of all ill-omened prophecies, in spite of all global expansion there is a chance of development, as a vast number of young talents are tying their wings nowadays.
Katalin Macskássy