POLAR POSES (EARLY ACCESS FOR PATRONS ONLY) (Patreon)

Frames from one of the first Soyuzmultfilms (the largest Soviet studio), IT'S HOT IN AFRICA (1936). I feel they are at least on par with Norm Ferguson, or (even) Bill Tytla at Disney at the time. 

They illustrate a main point of animation's appeal for me; the drawings form a compelling series of graphic deigns. The roots of print illustration and cartooning in character animation lasted much longer in East Coast studio animation. Led by Disney on the West, the forms became more "believable" so the characters were more "in the round", convincing characters convincingly moving across convincing sets. I delight in drawings that are always drawings. They can be equally "convincing".

Here is the Russian cartoon ...unfortunately the original sound is missing. It's spacier without any  sound. "Rubberhose" on steroids, but also with some daring camera action. The delight of artists still crusading, learning what they're doing. (You can see the notes  for the camera pan on the left as the monkey climbs the tree at the  beginning! ) In mainstream animation today, the camera action is gratuitous, but slick and slippery. I can sense that they are not experiments, but made by rote using computer technology.

https://youtu.be/u2BiAP4goV0