An Analysis of the Form and Ideology of Hedgehog in the Fog :: Film Movie Hedgehog Fog Essays

An Analysis of the Form and Ideology of Hedgehog in the Fog The animation, ?Hedgehog in the Fog?, tells the story of an inquisitive hedgehog passing through a wood to visit his friend the bear cub to count the stars. It has won numerous awards for it?s style and originality after it?s release by Yuri Bonsovich Norstein (1941 - to date) and his small crew at the Soyuzmultfilm studios in Moscow in 1975. ?Hedgehog in the Fog? is the fifth of Norstein?s six completed works. All have a deceptive simplicity, a faux naivetà ®ehat begs a deeper understanding of their origins and implications. Norstein has a very original, particular style to his animations and the purpose of this essay is to critically analyse the form and ideology of one of his animations with the intention of discovering what it is that makes his artwork so unique and has led to him being regarded as one of the greatest animators in history?. The method by which this will be done will be to firstly report the elements and functions that went into forming Norstein?s animations and ?Hedgehog in the Fog? in particular, then to analyse how these elements .mix with his personal influences to imply further meaning within his work. The hedgehog?s journey begins as he enters the wood carrying a bag of sweets for the bear, and unknowingly stalked by an owl. He pauses for a moment to entertain himself by calling into a well and listening to his echo, the owl does the same. Continuing he sees a white horse standing in the fog and is concerThed~~s to whether it might suffocate should it lie down, and so enters the fo~ff~.i*eIf just to ?see what it was like?. Once within, the fog itself becomes a great part of the plot, revealing and hiding a number of characters that amaze, help or alarm him, or all three. All the while the bear cub is heard calling the hedgehog, with great concern, in the distance. At one point, becoming enthralled with a large tree, the hedgehog loses his sweets, only to have them returned to him by a dog. Finally after accidentally slipping into a stream and being saved from drowning by a fish the hedgehog finds his friend the bear who fusses over him incessantly having been worried as to his whe reabouts. The film ends with the hedgehog deep in thought about everything that had happened.