Can't help comparing 1951's 'The Night Before Christmas' to 1945's 'The Lost Letter'. Both were directed by the Brumberg sisters Valentina and Zinaida. Both are from one of my personal favourite animation studios Soyuzmultfilm, Russian animation doesn't get much better than their output (have seen a vast majority of them and have liked to love all seen). Both are adapted from stories by Nikolai Gogol, a very interesting writer with a distinctive style.
'The Night Before Christmas', not to be confused with the famous poem, is adapted from the story of 'Christmas Eve' (but also known as 'The Night Before Christmas'), Gogol's first story in the second volume of his "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka". Although not as historically significantly as 'The Lost Letter', the first cel-animated Soviet animated film, 'The Night Before Christmas' is interesting for the heavy use of rotoscoping that is also present in other Soyuzmultfilm works from the 1950s. The story was also adapted live action in 1961 by Aleksandr Rou, enjoyed that version too but liked this more.
As to be expected, the animation is great. As great as the rich colours and distinctive character designs are it's those pretty stunning backgrounds and wintry landscapes that are especially good here, the rotoscoping was effective (there is a heavy use of it but it is not abused) and has held up well with no signs of sticking out like a sore thumb. The music has at times a dream-like and mysterious sound to it and at other times there is a haunting surrealist quality, both in perfect keeping with the magic and wonderful strangeness of Gogol's original story. All in an unmistakably Russian way and it adds to the authenticity, same with the sung sections.
Furthermore, the writing never sounds dumbed down or too complex. On top of the magical atmosphere and suitably grotesque surrealism, there is also at times a romantic charm (the romanticism is also distinctive of Gogol, the movement very much active in his lifetime) and like the original story and the other stories making up "Evenings on a Farm Near Dinkanka" his Ukranian upbringing and its culture and folktale influence can be can be detected. It doesn't feel overstretched or cluttered, even with a lot happening, actually thought the film could have been a little longer but don't consider that a complaint really).
Characters are nationalist (yet another unique characteristic of Gogol's writing) and carry the story beautifully. The voice acting avoids being too theatrical but nobody sounds bored either.
In a nutshell, fabulous. 10/10
