Hugó, a víziló; animated fantasy adventure musical, Hungary / USA, 1975; D: Bill Feigenbaum, S: Ferenc Bessenyei, Gábor Berkes, László Márkus, Tamás Major
On the island of Zanzibar, the harbor is far away from land and thus sharks always attack people coming from the ships. The Sultan thus orders his assistants Aban-Khan and a Wizard to bring hippos to chase away the sharks. A dozen hippos, including the little Hugo, are abducted from Africa and deported to Zanzibar. The sharks disappear, but since the people forgot to feed the hippos, the animals start eating food from the city. Due to these complaints, Aban-Khan kills all the hippos, except for Hugo who manages to escape, swim across the Indian Ocean and find refuge in Dar es Salaam. There Hugo befriends Jorma, a little boy, but when the animal eats all the crops from Jorma's father's farm, people again turn against him. Hugo is put on trial, but due to Sultan's compassionate speech, the judge acquits the hippo and orders that the kids take care of him.
One of the most famous animated films by the Pannonia Film Studio, "Hugo the Hippo" is a surreal, bizarre and phantasmagorical little flick, but it is honest, heart-warming and with a humanistic message that animals should be treated with compassion. Its weakest link is the dated animation which feels pale compared to modern examples the viewers are accustomed to; forced musical segments; as well as the meandering story (Hugo's best friend, little boy Jorma, doesn't appear all until 45 minutes into the film), but the title hippo is adorably cute—he doesn't speak a single line, but his innocence creates an emotional charge since he suffers from abduction, displacement, becomes an orphan and has to start a new life all over again, with grown people attacking him for eating from their farms. Luckily, the director Bill Feigenbaum allows for several comical moments, some of which are almost cartoonish: for instance, when the sharks attack the ship and see several people hanging from a pole, they imagine shish kebabs on sticks. The Sultan summons the Wizard, who is introduced sleeping wrapped up in paper and floating above ground. The clumsy teacher in Dar es Salaam is so distracted while reading a book that he "shaves" himself with a toothbrush and accidentally places a snake around his neck, mistaking it for a scarf. The most expressionistic and memorable moment is the sole sequence of the abduction: the Wizard creates a robot cowboy on a robot horse which sucks out all the water from a pond, leaving the dozen hippos in a crater. The cowboy then lassoes the biggest hippo, but it pulls the rope so hard that the robot horse's and cowboy's screws start falling apart. This and the sequence where giant vegetable creatures attack Hugo might come off as too scary for some kids, yet the overall story has some distinctive charm and flair. Sultan's final words at the trial are remarkable, showing that even some characters appear to learn and change in the finale: "Unless we can embrace the whole of life on Earth, unless we can manage to learn from Jorma, we are doomed. The fate of Hugo the hippo is our fate. Let there be justice for all living things!"
Grade:++