Which animations have shaped your childhood? Which ones did you show to your own children?

From my childhood I can still clearly recall the catchphrase “We’ll try again next week”, as said by ‘Magilla Gorilla’ at the end of each episode, as well as the slogans  from ‘Jamie and the Magic Torch’ – which seems a bit silly now, but back in the day it wasn’t. My big favourites were the Polish animations ‘Bolek and Lolek’ and ‘Enchanted Pencil’. I was lucky to see the GDR version of the “TV Teddy Bear”, an animation character who wished goodnight to the children. Also the puppet animation ‘Sandmann’, who came each evening with a different vehicle. I had a real Sandmann puppet and a ceiling lamp with three vehicles, I can still remember its music. One of my dearest summer memories from my childhood is when at my grandparents’ house by the lake Balaton the ‘Saturday Night Film Cocktail’ was running on TV. Although I was not allowed to watch movies that were for adults, my parents promised to wake me up after their movie ‘Menő Manó’ came. Among the Hungarian series, my favourites were ‘Pityke’, ‘The Mézga Family’ and ‘Vuk’. I also liked ‘Cat City’ and the intro of TV Sport.

With my children we have watched ‘Krtek the Mole’, ‘Pom-Pom’, ‘Fireman Sam’, but the best one was ‘Pettson and Findus’, we just couldn’t get enough of it.

At high school, you were learning how to design toys. How does that actually work? What do you think of the toys these days? 

When I was admitted to the Secondary School of Visual Arts, I wanted to be an advertisement designer, because among my family’s friends there was someone who had this job, and he really did cool stuff, and as a bonus, his kids had a lot more Jedi toys than me – I thought there is a connection. At school, my specialization classes were led by István Budavári, an industrial designer, but we had textile and sculpture classes as well. First and foremost, we had to design toys for children, such as sand toys or cuddly animals. But we started to have more and more opportunities to try animation, we often went to Studio Pannónia. It was a great adventure to participate in the international ASIFA project ‘My home in Europe’, we worked on it tutored by Kati Macskássy, and the whole toy design class contributed to the Hungarian animation that was sent for competition. Back in the day, the magazine ‘Film, Theatre, Music’ published an article with pictures about it. Those who were more interested in animation than in toy design could do the high school final exam with a film – and I chose this. My degree film ‘July’ was shot on 35 mm film, in Studio Pannónia.

It is different in each generation what kind of toys children prefer. It makes me happy to see that toys that once were popular don’t disappear completely, like board games, puzzles, cards, educational toys. It basically depends on the parents what they buy for their kids, but it is excellent that there is still space for toys made with artistic attention. I’m also pleased to see that Lego has lost nothing of its popularity since my childhood, and those who grew up playing with it a lot are likely to grab a cool set even as adults.

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Today’s parents can of course try to give their children tablets or smartphones as late as possible, but the most important question here is how often they themselves use these devices; no sane parents should expect that their children won’t want to touch digital stuff day and night if they see the parents doing the same. It would be insincere to blame parents who give their preschool kids tablets. 60 years ago, parents who had TVs were doing the same thing: while the children were watching some programme, they had some peace and quiet. It is not bad to find out what kind of games our children play on the tablet, since it is quite crucial at what age they start killing zombies and look at the blood splashing, while the bones are breaking loudly in the background.

Besides your usual teaching tasks, you also organize camps and workshops for children and high school pupils. Can you tell a bit about your experiences?

If the participants arrive with some motivation and have an idea about what is going to happen, they are excited and can’t wait to start. This is really gratifying, every teacher dreams of a class where you don’t have to waste a great part of your energy on discipline and attention issues. However, it is also very important how the teachers do their job. Should we start with small tasks? Or dwell more on a certain thing? Should the students soon get a sense of achievement? Even classic animation techniques can work very well if they are approached in smaller steps, but students prefer to invest more energy into the newest technology – and this is logical and completely natural.

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These days we are flooded with animation which is made quickly with digital tools. You, however, create and teach puppet animation. Can this technique survive this era?

Well, I am teaching a technique that belongs to the museum, let’s just admit this. It might seem an extreme opinion, but it is only partially so. I am convinced that the days of feature puppet animations are over. In the last 100 years, puppet animation had a pathway through which it tried to perfect itself, seeking more and more sophisticated visuals, true-to-life movements etc., whereas computer animation in the last 30 years was actually doing the opposite, trying to “imperfect” the artificial, sterile, flawless world and bring it closer to the human world. These two pathways finally met. Today, when we watch a feature by Laika or Aarman, studios not even a specialist can make the difference between a puppet and a CGI character without watching the making-of film. With shorts it’s another story, animation students or people interested in classic techniques will still fiddle around with puppet animation. Its charm and uniqueness might still take them under its spell; this magic is nothing else but its palpability and its realness.

Looking at it from a wider perspective, the situation instantly seems brighter. Making quality animation becomes easier every day, even at home, and animation as a genre has always been known for its wish to experiment and the ability to renew itself.

When I teach puppet classes, some pupils tell me that they were looking forward to this more than any other subject. Then again, at the end of the class some of them realize that this is the thing they are surely not going to do in the future. Some colleagues of mine from the Metropolitan University said that it was high time for a puppet animation diploma film. Well, I can only agree.

What are the pupils’ and students’ ambitions at Jaschik Art School and at the Metropolitan University?

At Jaschik we teach animation and motion picture for different age groups. The “small” kids also learn general knowledge subjects besides the art classes, they take the high school final exam, and a year later they do the speciality exam. Some students change their mind in the very first year and choose a different speciality, but we also have people coming to us from other classes. We have entire classes of motion picture, this means 30 pupils in a year, but from them only the most dedicated ones will stay in the field or carry on studying animation and filmmaking on a higher level. At the Secondary School of Visual Arts – where a motion picture class has a lot less pupils – the situation is similar. The “big” kids come with more definite plans. Our adult students who attend full or part-time courses can clearly say what technique or task they are more interested in.

Students from METU and other universities can have a closer look on the profession during their studies. They have the chance to meet specialists, go to studios, fulfill tasks in real settings, and get feedback at festivals. They have an idea of serious work, when you have to face the audience and other professionals. The institutions support this kind of learning, because this way they can guarantee that the degree they give out really means that someone is prepared for the industry.

You have started the ‘Kiskakas’ [Little Rooster] series at MoME. Do you consider it important that students can show their first works in public? What kind of platforms do they have for this?

Things have improved a lot since the first ‘Kiskakas’. The event started in order to bring recent animations from Hungary and other countries to the audience. Hungarian animation has already been on a world-class level, in the time that is called “golden age”. After the regime change, however, the heart of this genre has skipped some beats in our country and the concerned artists and members of the audience could hardly perceive a weak pulse.

Fortunately, this is already history for the younger generation. Now, young artists have plenty of forums where they can submit their animation ideas. The process is self-sustaining, and this is just wonderful. The more good animations are made, the more organizations, studios, producers and other contributors appear to support them. Our good animations are known in other countries, too, so our young creators have more chances. After some decades of absence, we are on the best way towards a new golden age. What could be more exciting?

Among many other works, you have made the modern TV Teddy Bear spot, shown before the children’s evening programme. How did you start the project? What did you want to save from the old version? 

The producer András Erkel, by then a consultant of MTVA, contacted me with the idea. He asked me if I wanted to make a new spot. They wanted it with a retro technique, so we kept the good old wire frame in the puppets and the cork under their feet. We had to design the puppets so that they resembled the old ones, but were also different. The concept was basically set, we knew that it would be moved from the evening time slot to the afternoon one, so we could skip the toothbrushing. They came up with the idea that the Bear should have a little sister and should do modern things, in a modern environment. Well, the viewers didn’t like most of this stuff, so it was not really welcomed. Of course, the same happened to the old Bear, when the Kasperl appeared – but because of the internet the critical feedback is louder and faster. We had not much time and even less money for the production, and I made the mistake of wanting to do as many tasks as possible by myself. I’ve learned a lot by the time the project ended. But this whole story has disunited the field, there were colleagues who were with me, others against me. The audience was not divided. They all hated it. After three months, it was taken off, and they got their old teddy bear back.

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While teaching, do you have time to work on your own films?

No, I don’t, and this is not OK. It is not enough that I sometimes make my own puppets together with the students. For me, it was always a pleasure to assist at the students’ creation process, to be their midwife, to contribute with what I could and I was so happy to see that something good came out. But I have my own plan for a new film that has been waiting for a long time to be born, so it’s high time to rethink the future. Or rather the present.

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Translated by Orsolya András