Have said many times about being a fan of Soyuzmultfilm, and consider most of their output of what has been personally seen (which is a vast majority of it, while needing to see more of their later work) classic level. This applies to all decades and genres, am especially fond of their 1950s work and their fantasies and adaptations of classic literature. As well as their animation techniques such as rotoscoping and cut out and those that use pre-existing classical music.
1979's 'Hunt', directed by Eduard Nazarov (not hugely familiar with him as a director), is not one of the studio's best and is one of those (highly) appreciate rather than love animations. Do prefer a vast majority of those that fit in the above categories, which applies to their 50s output especially. 'Hunt' is very well executed on the whole however, has a lot of praise-worthy things and its good intentions in its messaging is worthy of a lot of admiration. Do recommend it while not gushing.
As said, there are many good, even great, things about 'Hunt'. The animation is great, especially in the opening scene, that captures busy and not so caring city life beautifully which contrasts very well with the adventures of the boy. And also the sceneries of the Savannah, which are very vivid in its bold attention to detail and rich colouring.
The way 'Hunt' is written comes over as sincere and does well at educating, if not illuminating, without patronising too much. Something that can be a danger with message films/shorts. The story is neither rushed or dull and the messaging about hunting and the environment makes its point without generally being too preachy despite it being very clear what its views on the two are. It is also very relevant today, with it still being something that needs to be addressed, that's what is meant by 'Hunt' having good intentions. The boy is a character worth investing in.
It's not perfect, with its one big downside being for me the music. Which never really fitted tonally, being too firmly stuck in the 70s, and sounds fairly cheap. It would have been better with a subtler, more classical style or without music.
Concluding, very well done. 8/10.
