Twelve Months (1980)
…………………………………………………
Twelve Months Movie Review
Twelve Months is a 1980 Soviet-Japanese animated fairy tale film directed by Yugo Serikawa. It’s such a good, very pleasant flick.
………………………………………………….
“The Foolish Man is what he should be called“
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
A young girl meets the Spirits of the Twelve Months when she is sent out during a winter snowstorm to collect galanthus, a flower that blooms in April, for a needy young queen. It’s a very sweet story which is very much a traditional fairy tale in its tone and feel, and being a big fan of fairy tales, I ended up really liking the film for those reasons.
I personally found the dialogue rather subpar and sometimes quite childish as is the movie’s tone and character behavior at times, especially during those school lessons which felt ridiculous to me. The movie definitely is intended for smaller audiences, but still it’s so sweet, charming and elegant that it successfully woke the inner child in me and I was quite satisfied with the end product.
Anja is a fine, charming protagonist and of course the Queen is annoying, but in a good and somewhat realistic manner. I personally really found the movie problematic for only making these two characters cross paths together well past the first half and later have them interact only in a scene or two, but that’s only because the two had such a genuinely strong relationship and memorable interactions with each other that I wanted much more of that in this film.
The voice acting is fine for the English dub standards, but obviously weak by any other reasonable standards. I found the score excellent, but only two musical numbers were used in the beginning and ending respectively, and I wanted more for sure. The themes are solid and I loved the emphasis on nature here.
…………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………..
As for the animation, it’s lovely for the standards of the cheaper early eighties, though not as great-looking nowadays. The character designs are weak themselves, but I found some of the imagery superb and the fantastical elements are greatly utilized. The humor, emotional investment and its fairy tale roots are the standouts here leading to such a strong in the end co-production between these two countries and it’s a very underappreciated flick in its own right.
Twelve Months certainly has somewhat weaker animation and dialogue, but the storytelling is pretty strong, the characters are solid, the score’s great and the film’s fairy tale feel is wonderfully achieved throughout. It’s in the end a rather respectable Soviet-Russian co-production and a pleasant surprise by all means.
