Russia Rising: Has the Newly Confident Culture of Putin’s Russia Captured the Magic that America Has Lost?

There is no longer any doubt that Russian energy production will eventually crush OPEC and the once mighty Saudi oil empire. Even now in the Middle East and broader Asia, Russia has happily replaced the weakened American military influence, especially in Syria. Russian Television has increasingly replaced western media as a source of unbiased, hard news. But in addition to all this flexing of Russian muscle, Moscow has found an unexpected way to capture the heart and soul of the world in the cultural arena. That’s very bad news for Americans who have dominated the world culture wars for a century and seem now to be abandoning that prize.

One striking example of this strategic shift is the rise of an extraordinary animated media company that has been called “the new Pixar.” This company is not located in the United States or in the West at all. The company is Animaccord Animation Studio, and it operates in Moscow, but it’s reach is becoming long. Since 2008, it has produced over 50 popular episodes of a children’s cartoon called “Masha and the Bear,” and it’s recently released many of these in English and secured contracts with Netflix and other western distributors.

By itself, that accomplishment doesn’t sound like much of a threat. But aside from achieving Pixar-like quality in just a few years, their creative talent – notably that of creator Oleg Kuzovkov – has struck a chord all over the world by capturing the fresh charm of old American Warner Brothers cartoons or the original Little Rascals. At a time when most children’s media is creatively paralyzed by political correctness and multiculturalism, Masha is free of all those things. Its stories are full of charming drama that can no longer show up in western cartoons. For example: a hyperactive little girl with zero parental supervision who’s a colossal pain in the ass and an actual existential threat to her woodland neighbors. Ethnic costumes and characters with no apologies or multi-culty stupidity. Christmas episodes that are not paganized or winter-solsticized. And, thank GOD, very little compulsive preaching about social issues! And it’s all hilarious. We should learn from this. But we probably won’t.


Cross-Posted at Blog of Monte Cristo.