Fehérlófia

This is remarkable just for going so far out on a limb in terms of feature animation--an entire movie (Hungarian yet!) of sort of Peter Max-type psychedelic visuals in almost blinding day-glo colors. If you were to watch it very stoned on a big screen, it would probably be an incredible experience. Watched sober on a smaller screen, it's basically 80 minutes of very pretty, groovy graphics that are nonetheless somewhat monotonous in impact. The style is a lot like vintage 60s/70s poster art, more about creating a striking design than providing any detailed sense of character or story. So the heroes' quest (based on Hungarian folk tales) is not very involving or exciting, even when they combat dragons--everything is tastefully (if also eye-poppingly) abstract, the protagonists are not much more expressive than stick figures. "White Mane" is a singular achievement, and I'm glad it was made. But it's easier to admire than to love.

My Hungarian friend recommended me to watch this and I'm so grateful I found out this movie exists. It's a masterpiece. The visuals were simply stunning, the animation phenomenal. Such a mastery of motion, color, perspective, framing, flow... Every frame was without a doubt perfectly though out. Experimentation in almost every panel, everything in fluid motion, behind every shot an original thought. The voice acting was so melodical and fitting along with the music. Hungarian is simply a beautiful language.

Then obviously the story, symbolising the cyclical passage of time, sexuality, humanity... Along with subtle nods to the demons of the 20th century.

Alright! We're talking about high-quality movie-making here! Its experimental way is the films strongest feature. Or its keenness about traditionalism? Its up to you, to decide which pars you like better: the funky, vibrant colors, and wacky-trippy movement, or the heavy use of traditional, middle-European folk ornaments?

The white mare give gives birth to a son once again, who grows to be strong enough, to defeat the evil ones, who keep the three beautiful princess' as captives... and even, to find his long lost, and just as powerful brothers on his journey.

The plot for this one has been mixed together, from folktales all around the globe (but mostly, they're from middle-Europe, and eastern, nomad tribes), which makes the story familiar for almost everyone, from everywhere. It reaches back into our most ancient collective memories, and bring up something, that might even be forgotten.

The new-age look of some aspects of this movie, and the respect for folk traditions, surprisingly makes a totally coherent, and unbelievably powerful whole. Which makes it Marcell Jankovics's best directional work ever. This film earned his righteous place, amongst the "world's best fifty animated-films ever", at Los Angeles' animation Olympic.

Anyone, who likes animation, experimental film-making, or just GOOD MOVIES, simply must see this one. No exceptions!

My first impression is I really wish I had had this blu ray back in college when I would hang out with my favorite film school friend who was into super surrealist/abstract art (and his cool roommates) for many stoned hours with watch like Hawking and David Gilmour present: Fractals and the 2001 Jupiter sequence synced to Echoes. Clearly, Marcel Jankovics and his crew pool through fluid, Slippery, angular and playfully metaphorical animation (notice the Dragon looks more like a city or many steel buildings in one) a monumental synthesis of myths we may not be familiar with but absolutely are familiar with is a peak of those kinds of times.

Second impression: Jankovics isn't creating a terribly complex story, and I get if that doesn't draw some into this, but to put it bluntly I don't mind. I don't need this to give me the Feels ala Pixar, I wanted something going in that could challenge how the medium of animation could be challenged and transformed and even transcended, and he and his crew did that and then some. I'm not even sure how many in the world of more modern animation have seen it, but it's hard not to see its influence on like 85% of Adult Swim and even some Anime. But it doesn't need to be remarked upon as influential to be something so compelling; it's through how it makes Myths feel vital that counts, how Shapes and color and the movement of forms is one thing, and finding new ways to create and make new forms is another.

It reminds me of how when one learns about old myths in school, even back to foundational ones like Gilgamesh, that it can sometimes take a little time (maybe too much depending on the teacher) to get into what makes them work. Jankovics doesn't have that problem because he has the propulsion of immersing us in the experience of... wherever this is supposed to be in these kingdoms and forests and what seems like a far out cosmos, places where a Gnome with a Beard can be congruous with a woman who has many tears to shed because of all the time with that seven headed dragon.

It's trippy, maybe the trippiest/trance-inducing movie ever made (a friend I watched it with remarked that this could very well be what we could've gotten with Jodorowsky's Dune), but it doesn't lose sight, at least to me, of the heroes journey and making it a feast for the senses. If they had only managed to snag a Prog-Rock group to do the soundtrack, I guarantee it would have been a Midnight Movie with success on par with the rest of them.

Marcell Jankovics claimed he never used drugs but the entire movie is exactly like a psychedelic LSD trip. The story is full of symbols, but these somehow come from the common heritage and can be understood by instinct. Just like a dream. It is not a piece of art what can be digested easily but those who has sense of psychedelism will love and never forget this movie. I don't want to advise directly how a person can enhance further the effect of the movie but it is not hard to find out what I mean.