Folk Tales on Screen

Hungarian Animation & Children's Television

Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Hungarian Folk Tales on Screen

One of the most distinctive things Pannónia made was Magyar népmesék (Hungarian Folk Tales), a long-running series of short films, each retelling a traditional tale in a different visual style based on folk art. Beside it, a few directors used animation for personal and experimental work. This chapter looks at the series, its style, and the experimental side of the studio. Titles, dates and credits are from general knowledge and flagged for checking.

Magyar népmesék

The format

A series of short films of about ten minutes or so, each telling one traditional tale, begun in the late 1970s and continued for many years (check the start year, the length and the number of episodes).

One tale, one look

Each episode had its own director and designer, so the series is a gallery of styles rather than a single look, though all draw on folk art (check).

The tales

Stories of princes, poor boys, clever animals, tasks and magic, from the common stock of Hungarian folk tradition, usually with a plain moral (check the sources, such as the folk-tale collections used).

The Folk-Art Style

  • Borrowed patterns. Embroidery, painted furniture, pottery and carved wood supplied shapes and colours (see Hungarian Folk Art & Traditions 1).
  • Flat, decorative images. Many episodes use cut-out or flat-colour figures rather than realistic drawing, matching how folk art decorates a surface (check which techniques).
  • Regional touches. Costume, pattern and music can suggest particular regions (check).
  • Narration. A storyteller's voice carries the tale, which keeps it close to the way stories were told aloud (check).

Experimental Voices

  • Marcell Jankovics. Designed and directed János vitéz (John the Valiant), a feature based on Sándor Petőfi's verse tale, and Fehérlófia (Son of the White Mare), drawing on folk myth and symbol (check the years and the sources, and compare Hungarian Literature).
  • György Kovásznai. A painter and animator whose work was personal, politically alert and visually daring, including a feature known as Habfürdő (check the title, the year and its reception).
  • Shorts for festivals. Short films made for festivals, with no children's audience in mind, where animators could try new methods (check examples).
Tradition and experiment together The folk-tale series and the experimental films may look opposed, but both used the same studio, many of the same artists and a love of design. Folk art supplied a shared visual language, which individual directors then stretched (check against interviews).

Why Folk Tales?

  • A national story supply. Tales were free to adapt and known to almost every family.
  • Cultural policy. Folk culture was supported and celebrated in the period, and such a series fitted official taste as well as popular taste (check, and see the neutral treatment in Chapter 5).
  • Teaching. The series helped pass traditional stories to children who had less contact with village storytelling (check).
  • Export. Folk tales travelled well, since themes and images are easy to understand abroad (check).
A British comparison British television has retold folk and fairy tales too, for example in Jackanory and in Ladybird picture books, but rarely with a different design team for every story (check). The Hungarian series is closer to the Eastern European tradition of artistic tale films, where design led the telling.
Check the details Episode counts, release years, directors and designers for individual tales vary between sources, and a tale may appear under more than one title. Verify against the film archive's catalogue before quoting a credit.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain how folk art provides a ready-made visual style for a tale series, with two examples of borrowed features.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Why might each episode having a different director and designer be a strength? Name a weakness too.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Pick a folk tale from your own country and describe how you would design an animated version in a folk-art style.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Series: Magyar népmesék, short tale films from the late 1970s (check)
  • Style: folk-art patterns, flat decorative images, a storyteller's voice
  • Variety: a different director and designer for each tale
  • Experimental: Jankovics and Kovásznai (check titles and years)
  • Why: a free story supply, cultural support, teaching and export