The Night Before Christmas (1951)

Original title

Ночь перед Рождеством

Directed by

Valentina Brumberg, Zinaida Brumberg

Genre

comedy film, fantasy film, Christmas film

Country

Soviet Union

Runtime

50 min

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 20 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a Soviet animated adaptation of a Nikolai Gogol story. It follows a blacksmith and his love interest during a Christmas night filled with magical events. The film uses a rotoscoping technique to create its characters.

whimsicalfolkloricnostalgicslow-pacedromanticwintryclassicalfairy-tale-like

What happens

The Night Before Christmas (Russian: Ночь пе́ред Рождество́м, Noch pered Rozhdestvom) is a 1951 Russian animated feature film directed by the "grandmothers of the Russian animation", Brumberg sisters, and produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow. The film is based on Nikolai Gogol's 1832 story "The Night Before Christmas". The animation features heavy use of rotoscoping, known as "Éclair" in the Soviet Union, and is an example of the Socialist-Realist period in Russian animation. The film is in the public domain in Russia and is widely available on numerous Home video and DVD releases, mostly along with other films. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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