Koshka, kotoraya gulyala sama po sebe

Virtually unknown nowadays, even in its home country of Russia, 'The Cat Who Walked by Herself' is an endearing children's film directed by Ideya Garanina and produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. It is based upon Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Cat that Walked by Himself," which was first published in 1902. As far as I've been able to tell, the film uses a variety of animation techniques, including puppetry, stop motion and traditional animation, blending it all into an interesting tale of the origin of the civilised human and his millenia-long partnership with several species of domesticated animal. The story is narrated by a seemingly omniscient cat, who reminds a young child of an agreement struck long ago by the Cat and the Woman. The voice of the feline (whom, having absolutely no knowledge of Russian, I have been unable to identify) is a brilliant narrator, her voice at once carrying a sense of quiet arrogance, pride, dignity and everlasting knowledge.

Just as the Cat recounts, there was once a time when every animal was wild. Even Man (voiced by Nogon Shumarov), who was endowed with such slowness that he was a terrible hunter, lived in squalid conditions, always hungry for more food. However, the arrival of Woman (Valentina Ponomaryova) had the effect of civilising the dirty and rather dim male. After finding her husband a nice cave in which to dwell, the cunning Woman hatches a scheme to further improve their lives. By calling upon the almighty elements around her (fire, the Sun, the Moon) with a sort of mystical chant, she entices various animals to attach themselves to mankind in exchange for something they desire. For the dog, it is the leftover bones from dinner; for the horse, it is mouthfuls of delicious hay; for the cow, it is protection from predators. All the while, the quietly calculating cat – "who always walked by herself" – observes from the shadows and declares the foolishness of the animals who are surrendering their freedom.

This film is certainly not a masterpiece, but there are snatches of definite brilliance in many scenes throughout the short 70-minute running time. For example, the sequence detailing the extinction of the elegant quagga, at the hands of merciless human hunters, was heartbreaking to watch. My favourite scene would probably be the one in which the Cat attempts to understand why a cow's milk is pure white; it is such a wondrous flurry of colours, as the feline plummets through flocks of vibrant birds, butterflies and flowers in search of the possible answer. I much preferred the scenes with the animals rather than the humans, since I've never been a huge fan of puppet animation, and these segments seem much more dated than the others. Nevertheless 'Koshka, kotoraya gulyala sama po sebe {The Cat Who Walked by Herself}' is an interesting film that I'm glad I watched.

There were a number of reasons for wanting to see 1988's 'The Cat Who Walked by Herself'. Have been a fan of Soviet animation for over a decade, especially the work of Soyuzmultfilm (whose work is exceptionally high quality near-consistently). It's my second film of Ideya Garanina seen, the other being the outstanding 'Cabaret' from 1981. It's also (fairly loosely) based on one of the darker stories of Rudyard Kipling's classic 'Just So Stories', Soyuzmultfilm's third adaptation of Kipling (the other being the earlier and superior 'Adventures of Mowgli' and an earlier adaptation of the same story).

Luckily, 'The Cat Who Walked by Herself' was on the most part a winner, if not always consistent and 'Adventures of Mowgli' is the better work as an adaptation and on its own. It is not one of Soyuzmultfilm's very best, but 'The Cat Who Walked by Herself' is one of their most striking looking ever, one of their darkest (at this time and perhaps ever) and most moving. While not entirely faithful in detail to Kipling's story, the dark tone of the story is maintained and in a way that is as powerful in the animation than as on the page.

It's not perfect. Do agree that the humans and their scenes are not as attention grabbing and beautiful visually and emotionally as with the animals.

Also felt that the music score didn't always fit, sometimes sounding too ominous and wouldn't have said no to it being used sparingly.

However, 'The Cat Who Walked by Herself' is absolutely exquisite visually. It is one of Soyuzmultfilm's most beautiful looking, especially the shadowy look for the animals and the very atmospheric backgrounds. It is also one of their most interesting and most technically advanced, there is more than one animation technique here in a way not seen before with the studio and all are expertly done individually and gel beautifully together. Far from being ambitious experiment gone wrong. The music didn't bowl me over but there are enough parts that are quite haunting and suitably melancholic.

Furthermore, 'The Cat Who Walked by Herself' is beautifully written, loved the honesty and poignancy in particularly the narration. The story is very true in spirit to the dark nature of the original story and is both haunting and moving, the extinction sequence indeed is a heart-wrencher if there ever was one. The animal characters, particularly the titular character, are very easy to identify with and were clearly written with a lot of heart and understanding of what they were about. The voice acting is very good, with Inna Churikoya being outstanding in conveying a wide range of emotions in such a nuanced way.

Overall, very good and nearly great. 8/10.