Some of the finest animating talents in cinema history have emerged from Russia and the Soviet Union – insect-manipulator Vladislav Starevich, the poetic peer of Andrei Tarkovsky, Yuri Norstein, even recent Oscar nominee Konstantin Bronzit, to name but a few. How soul-destroyingly sad it is to see such a legacy besmirched by execrable trash like this shoddy feature-length cartoon. Co-written and directed by Max Fadeev, who also composed the anodyne soundtrack (he also has a Hollywood career as a songwriter on the side), this NutriBullet puree of myths, fairytales and cultural appropriation revolves around a young boy named Savva (voiced by Milla Jovovich) who goes on a quest to save his village, palling up along the way with a white wolf (Will Chase), a mosquito voiced by Joe Pesci and some other representatives of indeterminate species. Whatever they are, they’re not funny, attractive to look at (the character design is heinous), or particularly interesting, although to be fair my seven-year-old daughter begged to differ. But seven-year-olds have no taste and are hardwired to like anything with big eyes and lurid colours.
