It's often frustrating when I try to watch an unsubtitled piece of Soviet animation, particularly when I have absolutely zero knowledge of the Russian language, but sometimes actions can speak louder than words. 'Bobik in Barbos' House (1977)' is an appealing little cartoon that no doubt would have entertained millions of children back in the late 1970s, since it's full of all the mischief and mayhem that youngsters enjoy in their television. Bobik and Barbos are two canine neighbours, and the latter belongs to a grumpy old man who apparently lives alone. One day, after the old man has left the house, Barbos invites his friend into the home, and the two systematically begin to make a complete mess of the place, raiding the refrigerator, knocking over a saucepan of tomato soup and falling asleep in the master's bed.
The film, directed by Vladimir Popov, runs for just nine minutes and features some rather standard traditional animation, but it has a certain charm about it that you can't overlook. The three voice artists (Yuri Nikulin, Oleg Tabakov, Aleksandr Pozharov) do a good job of bringing their characters to life, and the two dogs have such lively personalities that you wouldn't mind getting to know them yourself. There are, of course, lots of fun moments: the slipping and sliding around on the spilled tomato soup, the brief dream sequence in which the dogs imagine themselves as the masters of the old man, and a truly touching ending in which a guilt-ridden Bobik returns to the house to clean up the awful mess he helped create. This is a nice film that is worth watching if you ever get the chance.
