"Excellent Russian Medieval Battle Animation" Topic

Battle of Kulikovo, 1380. Russians vs. Mongols. Watch from 10:15 to the credits. This one was made by Russian Ortodox church. Russian monk fighting single combat is based on the myth/historical account. 2 kids run away from home to fight with an army overslept and saved their own father by accident. One regiment with white bearded general is in reserve. The rest is not important, there is almost no dialog, so subtitles are not really needed, just enjoy the art: YouTube link

Pretty AWESOME! Thanks for the link!

Very cool. I liked the dream of demons being vanquished by angels. The animated fighting is very well done. Reading up on the battle on Wikipedia, it appears that the details in the film follow that narrative closely….

Great, just what the world needs more religious tainted views of history to inspire/mislead/brainwash new generations. Nice animations nevertheless.

I have to say. I have seen Protestant religious cartoons, Islamic religious cartoons, nationalist religious cartoons (yeah, my country right or wrong is a religion in my eyes). They all look the same. I will give this one some uniqueness in the coloring and the good work it looks like it to me on uniforms. But the themes, the music, the representation of characters is timeless in this type of stuff.

Still thanks for bringing it to our attention.

@bruntonboy: That's the medieval mindset to a nicety. And modern religious conviction is more medieval than not. To portray any medieval battle in a modern milieu is distortion. Better leave all medieval movies to the religious Judeo-Christians, otherwise, what we get is modern crap masquerading as history. If you don't like the religious content, what you are really admitting is that you don't like the middle ages, because the religious world view was core to literally everything. Even those (few?) who didn't believe in their hearts still practiced openly. The very few infamous "devils in flesh" who flouted "the church" nearly always fared very badly. And most of them recanted their wickedness before the end so that they could embrace the last rites.

Awesome. I really enjoyed the animation. Too bad there are no subtitles.

As to it being "religiously tainted," I would posit that to the combatants involved this would have indeed been a religious battle and they are far more likely to have perceived it through a religious lens than through the analytic lens of modern western society. Maybe I can see a quibble with how this film could potentially be used to "brainwash," but as artwork I think what they've done here is far more true to the subject than a coldly rational portrayal. But maybe I'm being too philosophical for a miniature games forum ;-)

Yes, this one has strong religious overtones. It was commissioned by Russian Orthodox church and sponsored by Russian government. I stated that in the beginning and religious message was expected.

Nevertheless this is spectacular piece of art and a source of painting inspiration for our hobby.

In case you are interested, the first 10 minutes was a story of the monk Peresvet who fought a single combat with Mongol champion in the beginning of the battle. He was a great warrior, but got tired of killing people. He was also forced to help Mongols to collect tribute under his duke orders.

Before the battle Grand Duke of Moscow Dimitrii goes to famous monastery to ask for advise and blessing from the priest there. At the same time priest tells his ex-warrior monk Peresvet that it's OK to kill to protect his brothers and gives him blessings to go and fight the Mongols. Meanwhile, Russians from all over gather and murch towards the Don river to fight hordes of khan Mamai.

Thanks for your comments Great war ace- I appreciate the importance of religion in the middle ages mindset, that is obvious to anyone who has studied history at anything above the most superficial level. If this cartoon had been produced in the middle ages than it would be understandable, the point here though is that this isn't a medieval work- but a modern piece propagating a medieval view with an obvious modern political message. So I find it rather worrying, even if from a wargamer's view a rather nice piece of work.

I rather liked the charge of the singe horseman lopping off heads in succession- reminded me of some of those early computer games. Still as I say, worth watching.

Could you tell me what the "modern" political message of the film is? To me it's just a rehash of old religious legendary material intended to be accepted at face value. There are, as I said, believers in the modern world, and their beliefs haven't changed significantly from the middle ages if they are conservatives. I expect that Russian/Greek Orthodox believers probably contain a disproportionate number of "medieval" believers, just as the RCC does. And I'm not saying that this is bad. Believing in religion is a valid path for anyone who takes it….

Now that's a cartoon…… Almost a cemercial for those lovely zvezda plastic sets. May they not go out of business