The Substitute (1961) Surogat (original title)

Director:

Dusan Vukotic

Writer:

Rudolf Sremec

Genre:

Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

Simple story about the man who comes to the beach and uses inflatable objects for all of his needs. |

Plot Keywords:

Beach | Satire | One Word Title | Surprise Ending

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Directed by
Dusan Vukotic

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Rudolf Sremec

Original Music by
Tomislav Simovic

Cinematography by
Zlatko Sacer

Film Editing by
Tea Brunsmid

Art Direction by
Zvonimir Loncaric

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Zdravko Pavicic	....	assistant director

Art Department
Dusan Vukotic	....	drawing

Sound Department
Mladen Prebil	....	sound recordist

Animation Department
Leopold Fabiani	....	assistant animator
Rudolf Mudrovcic	....	assistant animator
Dusan Vukotic	....	animator

Music Department
Tea Brunsmid	....	music editor

Production Companies

• Herts-Lion
• Zagreb Film

Also Known As:

"Surogat" - Yugoslavia (original title)

Runtime:

Croatia:10 min

Country:

Yugoslavia | Croatia

Language:

None

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Herts-Lion

Movie Connections:

Featured in Animated Century (2003) (TV)

Classic animated short, far too little known

"Surogat" (mostly known in English-speaking countries as "Ersatz") was the first film produced outside the USA to win an Oscar for "best cartoon". While there were many great "foreign" cartoons in previous years, "Surogat"'s Oscar was auspicious in that it marked the point at which the mainstream of American animation took notice of such work. In view of the course American animation eventually took, it's easy to see why.

"Surogat" itself shows evidence of American influence, specifically from the UPA studios. UPA's animators developed a style (really a range of styles) taking cues from modern art and graphic design. Figures were rendered iconically; what they stood for was more important than their exact resemblance to what they depicted. UPA used this style to tell fables for a presumed adult audience, and avoided cuteness and slapstick.

"Surogat" is an adult fable as well, but obviously director Dusan Vukotic and writer Rudolf Sremec didn't feel bound by UPA's anti-slapstick rule. Otherwise, their film could easily pass as UPA product, though it outdoes all but UPA's very best work. The figures consist of simple geometric shapes, and most of their movements are either parallel to one of their edges or else curvilinear in the manner of "rubber-hose" animation; in other cases, they simply "pop" from one pose to another. (An acquaintance of mine called it "a bunch of triangles and shapes hopping around." "The Simpsons" effectively parodied the style by taking advantage of attitudes like that.) Despite this minimalism, the characters are identifiable as characters, and within the boundaries of fable the story works just fine.

UPA's main influence on American animation lay not in its "artistry" so much as the way its style was easy to copy, and to transfer over to "limited" animation for television, a growth industry at the time. TV animators also watched cartoons like "Surogat" for potential shortcuts they could use in their work. (I believe one immediately influential aspect of "Surogat" was its music, a sort of advanced semi-jazzy big-band/orchestral piece that wouldn't be out of place in, say, a "Jetsons" episode.)

However, when a new-generation of animators went to work for Hanna-Barbera and attempted to take their work "back to basics", they took artistic cues from UPA and other "artistic"/"iconic" work of the 1950's which influenced H-B. Hence, the influence of "Surogat" shows up in such recent work as "Two Stupid Dogs", "Dexter's Laboratory", "The Powerpuff Girls", and (the most self-consciously "artistic" of this group) "Samurai Jack".

Unfortunately, "Surogat"/"Ersatz" is very hard (at least for Americans) to find on video. Janus put it on a collection of short films, but this would appear to be out of print; however, it may be found in some libraries, especially those with older or larger video collections.