East European Cartoons

Donald Duck, Road Runner, Tom & Jerry and the Flintstones are some of the most popular animated series which kids growing-up in the USA and West Europe enjoyed. In contrast to that, during the cold war, in most of the East European countries these cartoons were not or were rarely broadcasted on state TV. Instead, kids across communist countries had fun watching Lolek and Bolek, Gustav, Baltazar, Pat and Mat, and several other animated characters made in East Europe. Here is my selection of six most popular Eastern European animated series.

1. Gusztáv (Gustavus) - Hungary
Gustav is the first famous adult Hungarian cartoon character. Gustav is developed in 1964., always wears same gray clothes and is full of various human anomalies. Gustav became a well-known character in many Eastern European countries.
In the movie below Gustav is fighting against alcohol use.



2. Pat a Mat (Pat and Mat) - Czechoslovakia "Pat and Mat" follows efforts of two neighbours that try to solve mostly a self-made problem using all the tools you could imagine and building gadgets. However, this leads to even more problems. In the end, Pat and Mat manage to obtain a working solutions applying a very unconventional and very inefficient method. According to the authors manual clumsiness inspires the stories. On top of the humor that series offer also an optimistic view at life is promoted. Pat and Mat never give up until they find creative solution to the problem. They debuted in 1976. and so far around 80 episodes were released.
Trivia: Release of "Pat & Mat: the Game" is announced for 2008. It should be available for PC, Nintendo DS and XBOX360.



3. Bolek i Lolek (Bennie and Lennie) - Poland
Bolek and Lolek are two cartoon characters from the Polish TV animated series of the same title. Characters are based on sons of animator of "Bolek and Lolek". In 1964. they made a first appearance in an animated film. In English, the cartoon was distributed under the name Bennie and Lennie. Apparently, Bolek and Lolek was the only animated movie allowed to be broadcast by Iranian television during and just after Islamic Revolution of 1978.
Trivia: Kaczynski twin brothers that currently serve as the President and the Prime Minister of Poland, are sometimes, by media, called Bolek and Lolek.



4. Nu, pogodi! (You, Just Wait!) - Soviet Union (SSSR) "Nu, pogodi!" is the most popular Russian animated series. It started in 1969. and it follows efforts of the troublesome wolf trying to catch the jackrabbit. The wolf never catches the jackrabbit and hunts always ends with the wolf yelling „Nu sajaz, nu pogodi!“ („You just wait, jackrabbit!). The concept is similar to the concepts of America's Tom and Jerry and Road Runner. Interestingly, the director of "Nu, pogodi!"did not see Tom and Jerry until his son bought a VCR in 1987.
Trivia: An arcade game very similar to Pac-Man based on "Nu, pogodi!" was developed for Poly Play. Poly Play is an arcade machine made in East Germany in 1985 - this is the only arcade machine produced in Eastern Bloc.



5. Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai (The Adventures of Aladar Mezga) - Hungary

Animated series "The Adventures of Aladár Mézga" debuted in 1972. The main character, Aladár, visits every night a different inhabited planet using an inflatable space ship. The script was partly written by József Nepp who also wrote scripts for Gustav. The are two more animated series that deal with Mézga family.
Trivia: The name "Mézga" means bad luck in Hungarian



6. Professor Baltazar - YugoslaviaDefinitely the most popular animated series from former Yugoslavia. 57 episodes were made in period 1967.-1971. Baltazar is an old professor that helps his fellow citizens of Baltazar-City to solve the problems using his ingenious inventions.
Trivia: In 2006. Professor Baltazar was selected to be official mascot of Zagreb, capital of Croatia, by city parliament.

Update: More on East European Cartoons by Chris here.