Sunday, 5 July 2026 at 7 pm
Čudesna šuma
Voices: Josip Marotti, Ljubo Kapor, Ivo Rogulja
Directors: Milan Blažeković, Doro Vlado Hreljanović
Screenplay: Sunčana Škrinjarić, Fred Sharkley
HR, US • 1986 • 85' • animated
The Elm-Chanted Forest is full of happy animals, and in it stands an old enchanted oak that is said to offer protection to anyone who seeks shelter beneath it. One day, a painter named Paleta arrives in the forest and falls asleep beneath the enchanted oak. When he wakes up, he realises that he has gained the ability to communicate with the forest animals. He meets the beaver Sharptooth, the bear Mato, the fox Lili, and the hedgehogs named Do, Re, and Mi. Meanwhile, the evil Cactus Emperor learns that Paleta is in the forest, which greatly worries him because, according to prophecy, a human will end the cactus reign…
The Zagreb School of Animated Film gained worldwide fame for its lucid, often ingenious short films, and it was one of its products, Dušan Vukotić's Surogat, that became the first non-American animated film to win an Oscar. However, the informal school, gathered under the auspices of the Zagreb Film studio, never embarked on the great and very demanding undertaking of producing a feature-length animated film. It was not until 1986 that Zagreb's Croatia Film and the creator Milan Blažeković ventured into this, in co-production with an American partner, the New York-based company Fantasy Forest Films, Inc., established for this very purpose.
The source material was an original story by Sunčana Škrinjarić, credited in the film's credits as the screenplay, for which the dialogue was written by Fred P. Sharkey, who also wrote the lyrics for the songs, to music by Dennis Leogrande and Arsen Dedić. In some places, Doro Vlado Hreljanović is also credited as director, while Blažeković is credited with “animation direction” and character design; however, in the film's credits, Hreljanović is only listed as a producer, while Blažeković received credits as one of the animators, a character designer and the (sole) director.
As the first Yugoslav feature-length animated film, The Elm-Chanted Forest was something of a phenomenon on the domestic scene and was widely enjoyed, but its American production partner failed to get it into cinemas there. For American standards, the old-fashioned drawing and animation, paired with the old-fashioned story, were unattractive, so the film premiered on television, on HBO, and was later released on video (VHS). Four years later, Milan Blažeković and Croatia film, this time without an American partner, produced a sequel, The Sorcerer's Hat.
Comment by: Damir Radić
Tickets for the screening on 5 July at 7 pm can be purchased online HERE, as well as at the KIC box office one hour before the screening.