Parable of the Publican and Pharisee in Film and Animation

Christmas Animation: "Cricket On The Hearth" (1967)

Cricket On The Hearth (1967) is a delightful, animated musical version of Charles Dickens' classic tale. A Cricket on the Hearth, tells the story of a poor toymaker and his daughter whom a helpful Cricket named Crocket befriends on Christmas morning. When tragedy strikes the family, it's Crocket who comes to the rescue and restores peace and happiness.

Leo Tolstoy's "Papa Panov's Special Christmas" (animation)

Papa Panov, an old shoemaker almost too blind to thread a needle, has a dream that Jesus will visit him on Christmas Day.

He anxiously and eagerly waits all day, but his only visitors are a tramp, a roadsweeper, and a pauper woman with her cold and hungry baby.

Despite his disappointment and fading hope, Papa Panov gives them his coat, his money, his soup, and even the tiny shoes he was saving as a present for Baby Jesus.

As night falls and his special visitor still hasn't arrived, Papa Panov thinks himself a silly, old fool.

But then he has another dream, a dream which convinces him his special visitor did come after all ....

This short story of Leo Tolstoy can be read here.

Below is a cartoon based on the original tale, titled "Red Boots For Christmas":

Nikolai Gogol's "The Night Before Christmas" (1951 - Animation)

It is the night before Christmas and devilry is afoot. The devil steals the moon and hides it in his pocket. He is thus free to run amok and inflicts all sorts of wicked mischief upon the village of Dikanka by unleashing a snowstorm. But the one he'd really like to torment is the town blacksmith, Vakula, who creates icons of the devil being vanquished. Vakula is in love with Oksana, but she will have nothing to do with him. Vakula, however, is determined to win her over, even if it means battling the devil.

Taken from Nikolai Gogol's first successful work, from the story collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.

Russian Cartoon: "The Christmas Visit" (1959)

THE CHRISTMAS VISIT (1959)