Freelance animator Steve K. Simons and Greek historian Sonya Nevins work together to create animated reproductions of imagery from real Greek vases. Topics they have covered include athletics, warfare and the symposium. Each of their videos is supplemented with online teaching materials and several have been used in museum and outreach contexts. This 2016 showreel provides a brief introduction to their work and it is followed by a clip of their 2014 project “Hoplites! The Greeks at War” for an exhibit at the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology at the University of Reading.
Return from Olympus [Возвращение с Олимпа] (1969)
This is the first in a series of five twenty-minute films based on Greek heroic mythology that were written by Aleksei Simukov and directed by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya between 1969 and 1974, at the end of her long animation career in the former Soviet Union (see also “The Argonauts,” “Labyrinth: The Deeds of Theseus,” “Perseus” and “Prometheus”). They were produced by Russian state animation studio Soyuzmultfilm on behalf of the Ministry of Education and are considered the most important movies about Greek myth ever made in the USSR.
“The Return from Olympus” draws upon the common ancient motif of Hercules as a benefactor of mankind, but the story it depicts is wholly modern. It takes a philosophical approach to the hero which emphasizes his humanism while skillfully weaving in contemporary Russian political concerns: Hercules wishes to return to earth after becoming a god, and after reviewing his labors and engaging in a debate about free will and divine authority (with Zeus’ eagle), he realizes that he needs to stay on earth and help mankind overcome challenges such as Nazism, fascism and militarism, which take the form of the famed monsters from his labors.
More: http://www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/59
watch 6 min: 0-3.10; 15.25 to end
Icarus and the Wise Men [Икар и мудрецы] (1976)
This eight-minute Soviet production from 1976 by famed animator Fyodor Khitruk for Soyuzmultfilm transforms the story of Icarus from one of hubris and heedlessness into one of ingenuity and perseverance, as the hero keeps trying to find new ways to fly, in spite of the skepticism and narrowmindedness of the community elders (whose views are expressed in pithy Latin phrases). The motif of resistance to authority, which is so prevalent in 1970s animation, is on clear display here, as is Khitruk’s distinctive and imaginative artistic style. In the midst of the period of detente from the Cold War, “Icarus and the Wise Men” offers its audience a simple yet profound philosophical meditation on the ideas of freedom, creativity and daring in the face of cynicism and opposition.
Khitruk went on to direct another Classically-themed short in 1982 called “Olympians,” which is filled with imagery of the ancient games and which itself was influenced by the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
Mighty Mouse: “The Trojan Horse” (1946)
Terry Toons production, 6 minutes
This is the 25th short in the “Mighty Mouse” series, produced by Paul Terry of Terry Toons, which also produced an “Aesop’s Fables” series during this period.
In this short, the story of the Trojan War is retold with the mice as the Trojans and the cats as the Greeks. After a ridiculously Orientalizing introduction to Priam’s court featuring sexy belly-dancing female mice, the cats are shown deploying the horse. The mice call on Mighty Mouse to save the day. He swoops down from the heavens and succeeds in fighting off the cats. The Trojan mice win the battle and Mighty Mouse is rewarded with lots of love from the sexy lady mice.
Just like Homer, right??
Titles of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (1966)
Richard Williams, who created the 2015 animated short film “Prologue”, animated the title sequence for the 1966 comedy based on the plays of the Roman playwright, Plautus. The motif of houseflies in the sequence recalls the pervasive fly problem that existed on set.
“The Centaurs” (1921)
One of the earliest clips in this collection is a 2-minute fragment, which is all that survives from a lost 1921 film called “The Centaurs” by Winsor McCay (USA: Rialto Productions). McCay was a comics illustrator, vaudeville performer and early animation pioneer, best known for his comic strip “Little Nemo in Slumberland”. His very fine linework, naturalistic depiction and focus on the female figure clearly influenced Disney’s Centaurs in “Fantasia” twenty years later.
More: https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/the-centaurs-a-fragment-1921/
TedEd: “Four Sisters in Ancient Rome” (2013)
One of three short features on which Dr. Ray Laurence (Macquarie University) has collaborated, featured by TedEd & BBC
“Prologue” (2015)
This six-minute film from 2015 was directed by Richard Williams, best known for his animation work on “Who Killed Roger Rabbit?” It is intended to be the opening scene of a feature-length film based on Aristophanes’ play “Lysistrata.” “Prologue” took twelve years to make, as Williams hand drew each frame (over 6000 in total) on a single sheet of paper. It was nominated for an Oscar award for Best Animated Short Film in 2016.
Notably, this was not Williams’ first engagement with material from the ancient world — he also created the animated credits for the 1966 film, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
http://vodzilla.co/blog/features/prologue-an-oscar-nominated-short/
“Speech of Aristophanes: Plato, The Symposium 189d-191d” (2005)
France: M. Prokosh films by Pascal Szidon
Animated Antiquity 