Red Cartoons: Animated Films from East Germany

This collection of 16 shorts made between 1974 and 1990 by animators at DEFA—the state-run studio of the German Democratic Republic—were chosen from the archive kept at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Produced for adult audiences, the pieces vary in quality and style from one director to another, and all are to a certain extent propagandistic, although not in the heavy-handed sense one might expect. The themes range from encouraging camaraderie among the population, to chiding state employees over insensitive treatment of ordinary citizens, to bemoaning the general apathy over public problems such as air pollution. The tone shifts from the whimsical in several of the earlier films to a more strident one in the films made between 1988 and 1990, when the Communist regime was collapsing. In fact, three of those four shorts—made by Klaus Georgi and Lutz Stützner—show flashes of real anger: in one, an endless string of official limousines is towed out of a ditch by a single civilian car; in another a huge monument has to be turned around to face in the “right” direction. Ultimately, however, Red Cartoons is of more historical than artistic interest. DVD extras include a “behind-the-scenes” slide show about DEFA, director bios and filmographies, essays, and a bibliography. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)