Watching Soyuzmultfilm's output has given me great pleasure for nearly a decade now and it is a shame that a lot of their output is worthy of more credit than it gets. It is very rare to find a studio where what has been seen of theirs, which is a vast majority in my case, has never been less than decent. With their best work being as good as Russian animation gets. That's refreshing when one sees at least one misfire with most studios and some studios that don't have a single good effort and their best being average at least.
Aleksandra Snechko-Blotskaya's 'The Tale of the Golden Cockerel' is not one of Soyuzmultfilm's best known, but it is wonderful and deserving of more popularity. It does Alexander Pushkin's, one of Russia's finest and most influential writers whose work Soyuzmultfilm has adapted more than once and consistently excellently, story that is told in verse justice. And is a little more accessible than the great Rimsky-Korsakov opera (am more familiar with that).
Everything is wonderfully done. Absolutely loved the animation, which did make me pine for the return of traditional animation. As great as the rich colours and distinctive character designs are it's those pretty incredible-looking backgrounds and landscapes that are especially good here and that is the case of a lot of their work this decade.
Music, an important thing for me to talk about when reviewing, is lush and atmospheric, stirring sometimes as well. The writing is sensitive and doesn't try to either over-complicate or dumb down, so target audience is never in question, while the story fills the short length well without over-stretching or cramming too much in.
Characters are similarly well realised and faithfully written and voiced very plenty of enthusiasm without being theatrical.
Overall, enchanting. 10/10.
