Háry János

In the 1980s a large number of Hungarian cartoons were made at Pannónia Filmstúdió. Over 10 years, 20 animated feautre films have been made here. This is a world record. During this period, for example, the world-famous "Vuk" (The Little Fox), "Fehérlófia" (Son and the White Mare), "Macskafogó" (Cat City) were made. This great musical cartoon was made in 1983 and is completely unknown in other countries. In Hungary it was broadcast on television. The music is fantastic. In Zoltán Kodály's opera he works on Hungarian folk songs. Quality music is combined with brilliant visuals. Sour verbal and visual humor characterizes the whole movie. Anyone who hasn't seen it may regret it.

In 2017, the film was digitally renovated. I hope it is not only presented in Hungary.

You can watch it here: háry jános rajzfilm mtva filmarchívum

Nemzeti Filmintézet Magyarország Filmarchívum (National Film Institute Hungary Film Archive) entry

(translation) In the cartoon based on Zoltán Kodály's song play, the caricaturing point of view, folk decorative art and folk dance choreography also play an important role.

What is it about?

In the cartoon adaptation of Zoltán Kodály's song play, the anecdotes of the old soldier come to life. During the adventures that merge historical reality and fairytale fantasy, we see how the imperial army came to Nagyabony to take her away from her wedding and enlist her as a hussar, how she saved Mária Lujza's carriage on the border of snowy Burkus (Prussia) and sunny Galicia. How Johannes Háry tames the wildest horse in the Vienna imperial stable, how he defeated Napoleon's army with a couple of handsome hussars, and how he finally said no to Mária Lujza, the daughter of the Austrian emperor (and at the same time Napoleon's wife 22 years younger) and left the wooden image the imperial court, which was preparing for the wedding of the two, to return to Nagyabony to his bride, Örzse.

What makes it special?

János Háry is the first full-length Hungarian cartoon made for television. Its characteristic is that the director started from an already existing musical material and builds heavily on the color and form world of folk ornamentation.

Folk art floral designs surround the residents of the imperial court when the hussars walk around the palace with the ladies of the court. When the people of the Vienna Burg prepare for the wedding of Mária Lujza and the Hungarian hussar, floral ornamentation moving to the melody of the song beginning with "Gyújtottam a gyertyát a völegénynek" punctuates the silhouette of the harsh Viennese cityscape.

Realistic movement stylization plays an important role in the film: in the dance choreographies, such as the village recruiter and the courtier visiting the imperial court, we see realistic rotoscope animation of the filmed folk dancers of the Miskolc Avas Dance Ensemble.

The film shows Háry, an eternally optimist, old man with a thick sense of humor, telling stories at the pub table, without colors, only with contour lines. The fantastical excesses of the veteran hussar's antics (funny adult tales), however, are embodied in vividly colored animated sequences. Cartoon gags make the stories told from a particularly distorted point of view ironic and even more removed from reality.

How was it made?

The film was made for the Kodály centenary and was shown on television on Christmas Day 1983. Many of the orchestral and choral compositions of the originally more than three-hour song play are also heard in the long one-hour film. The musical material of the stage play (conducted by János Ferencsik) accounts for half of the playing time, and the plot of the song play is equally emphasized. The well-known Hungarian folk songs are sung together with the text, when the state of mind of the characters, Örzse, Háry, or Mária Lujza, who is galling after Háry, needs to be felt (but never in the "gaping performance" of the drawn characters). But sometimes they can only be heard instrumentally as a bridge between the different meanings (e.g. "For the good horse soldier"), so the film does not turn into a bunch of folk songs.

The film's two most memorable performances by the voice actors: Háry as the old storyteller of the village pub is speak by the rumbling baritone of Gyula Szabó, and Péter Haumann lends a French-rasping, palm-crawlingly affecting voice to Ebelastin, who plays the role of the intriguer.

The film mixes graphic and animation styles. Ornamental, caricaturistic and realistic modes of representation can be found in each scene. Through the graphic styles, each character takes on a different character: the elderly inhabitants of the village are archaic, the young Hungarians in the village are realistic-idealized, the imperial soldiers and the Viennese courtiers are stylized in a caricature-grotesque manner.

Where is its place in (Hungarian) film history?

Just as János Garay's 1843 narrative poem "Az obsitos" predates Petöfi's 1844 János vitéz, so Richly's Háry is the brother film of Marcell Jankovics' cartoon "János vitéz" (Johnny Corncob). But while the Kukorica Jancsi (Johnny Corncob)/János vitéz (John the Brave) is a figure with an adolescent romantic spirit, János Háry/Johannes Háry is more down-to-earth, down-to-earth, and profane. There are also many overlaps between the creative team of the two films. While Zsolt Richly designed the backgrounds of János vitéz (Johnny Corncob), the animation director of János Háry, i.e. The designer of the character movements in the film, was Marcell Jankovics.

Want a memorable scene?

In its animated version, one of the most lyrical moments of the film is Háry's return home from the Austrian imperial court. The final scene of the film is exceptionally dramatic and uplifting, given the uplifting and gloomy tone of the folk song beginning with "Felszántom a császár udvarát"(I am plowing the emperor's yard), in which János Háry, after refusing the hand of the emperor's daughter, asks her to marry him and returns to his village to marry his love, Örzse.

Under the image sequence of the homecoming, in the barely three-minute scene, the condensing power of animation based on morphosis and transformation is shown, which is one of the guiding motifs of Richly films. We alternately see Háry from the back, from below, from under his seven-mile boots/soles, and from his eyes. While marching through mountains and valleys, forests and fields from Vienna to Nagyabony, the landscape is constantly changing, the character is stripped of his hussar armor and spurred boots, and he reverts from the emperor's soldier to a simple peasant girl. (This scene is a nice counterpart to the wandering of the faithful Örzse, who follows her fiance everywhere in the first half of the film, when she takes food from the village to the border between the frozen Burkus and sunny Galicia for her lover.)

The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre recommend.

Phantasmagorical Hungarian animation and folk opera that often feels like a marriage between Baron Münchausen and Fantasia, if the Baron were on shrooms that is. It tells the epic, mythical-in-scale tale of a Hungarian hero whose adventures and exploits are bigger than the world, and all of them are depicted with the most lively, colorful, imaginative, constantly morphing imagery that knows no boundaries, sometimes reaching surreal proportions. He can lasso a snowballed complete house just to save a maiden, defeat Napoleon single-handedly, tame a wild horse that can tear apart a palace, etc. When Napoleon asks for a bigger map, it literally covers the whole army, an annoying French nobleman literally turns into a fly, a gaggle of boys literally multiply into a grand choir Fantasia style, etc. Every few seconds there is something imaginative and colorful to look at, and it is backed by a grand symphony orchestra.