Studio: Goskino
Short Synopsis
The cartoon is a political satire of the New Economic Policy, the limited return to private trade that Lenin introduced in 1921. A grossly fat NEPman, a profiteering businessman, lies sprawled on the ground, his belly swollen with everything he has gobbled up. Around him gather the figures of the old order who feed on the new prosperity: a priest and other hangers-on, and a painted lady who flirts from inside a medallion frame. A worker and a peasant arrive and deal with him. A boot labelled "Taxes" stamps down on the NEPman's stomach, and the worker puts his boot into him as well. In the final scenes the Red Army joins the worker and peasant, and the parasites are hung up as ornaments on a Christmas tree: the "toys" of the title.
Why It Matters
- The drawing style is pure newspaper caricature brought to life, simple outlines on white with labels written on the objects, and the jokes land with the brutality of a political poster. The stamping "Taxes" boot is the kind of literal visual metaphor the Soviet avant-garde loved.
- It is generally considered the first Soviet animated film, made by Dziga Vertov, better known for documentaries such as Man with a Movie Camera (1929). It shows animation being used from the start of Soviet cinema as a tool of state propaganda, a role the medium kept in the USSR for decades.
Notes and Trivia
- The designs are based on the political cartoons of Viktor Deni for the newspaper Pravda.
- In Russian, "toys" also refers to Christmas tree decorations, hence the pun of the ending.
- Vertov made the film at the same studio, Goskino, where he produced his newsreel series Kino-Pravda.
- See also: The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), another early example of animation as propaganda.