Dr. Seuss on Mushrooms

You don’t need to understand Russian to enjoy this Russian rendition of Dr. Seuss’ classic, "The Cat in the Hat". This animated gem from 1984, one moment before the arrival of Glasnost and Perestroika, is both psychedelic as well as highly surrealistic.

The Russian cat in the hat appears in the house with a mushroom in his hand like feline Ken Kesey, and takes the two bored Russian kids on a wild trip between heaven and earth on a kind of childlike acid test, which at times brings to mind western psychedelic animations from the 1970s, especially the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

Aleksandr Petrov art directed this animated adaption of a Dr. Seuss poem for the Yekaterinburg-based Sverdlovsk Film Studio. Petrov later won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for The Old Man and the Sea (1999).