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Posted: **Fri Apr 17, 2026 10:41 pm**

Should be noted also that another PILI film, Demigod: The Legend Begins, will be coming in the second half of 2026!

Posted: **Sun Apr 19, 2026 10:08 am**

"Dead Mountaineer's" set is a treat, especially the well-researched and information-packed commentary from Michael. I wish DC would release more films from Estonia, but in the podcast episodes (related to the Dead Mountaineer's Hotel) I've listened to they did not sound very enthusiastic.

Posted: **Sun Apr 19, 2026 11:58 am**

Thank you! I’m always very nervous when my commentaries are reviewed by people who share a nationality with the film, but I’ve now had two Estonians being very polite about it.

Posted: **Sun Apr 19, 2026 12:56 pm**

eerik wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 10:08 am "Dead Mountaineer's" set is a treat, especially the well-researched and information-packed commentary from Michael. I wish DC would release more films from Estonia, but in the podcast episodes (related to the Dead Mountaineer's Hotel) I've listened to they did not sound very enthusiastic.

You’d think The Last Relic would be right up their alley!

Posted: **Mon Apr 20, 2026 12:21 am**

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2026 6:47 pm What are these like, as far as tonally when it comes to 'fairy tales'?

I’ve now watched all the films in the set and I can say that they’re all very much children’s films but all different in their own ways. Snow White is a very much straightforward adaptation of the source material but is strengthened by some pretty good color cinematography, nothing essential but a good introduction to the Snow White legend for kids.

Frau Holle still remains a interesting experiment (the contrast from the relatively realistic sets of Snow White to the Frau Holle’s minimalist worlds was an interesting experience) more than an actually good film but I found myself much more appreciative of Katharina Lind’s performance that allows just enough charm to slip out of the spoiled Pechmarie to make her fate seem unnecessarily cruel as a result.

Meanwhile Little Red Riding Hood shifts from charmingly quaint fairytales to almost downright horror at points, not helped by the almost-certainly traumatizing costumes designed for the animal characters, particularly for the wolf and the fox who seem to be just a bit too overly excited in their roles. There’s an annoying comic relief bear and a child in what I can only assume is a rabbit fursona.

I’d love to know what happened stylistically during the 15 year gap from Little Red Riding Hood to The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs because you can imagine how big of a shock it was to go from what basically amounted to storybook retellings only slightly more budgeted than a public access episode to high-budgeted adventure comedies. But ignoring the whiplash between styles, I had a lot of fun with this one. There’s a clear sense of fun behind the scenes and it creates a lovely movie, it’s not a great movie mind you and I think the film honestly peaks before we enter the Devil’s cave, but it’s nevertheless a fun way to spend 90 minutes.

Snow White and Rose Red is probably my favorite of the set. Seemingly inspired by films like Three Wishes for Cinderella, it’s a wonderfully delightful mix of earnest fairytale retelling and occasionally hilarious moments of comedy (at one point the titular characters let a bear into their house after commenting that it has sad eyes) that makes for a warm, lovely closer to the set. Nevertheless, it pails in comparison to the other 1978 Eastern Bloc fantasy romance/comedy film involving a sorcerer and transformations surrounding a man and a bear titled Ordinary Miracle, although that one’s a bit more of a downer.

Is this set good? That’s subjective, but for anyone with kids, you really can’t go wrong showing them these films and there’s such a warm feeling I got watching these films (except for the terror inducing Little Red Riding Hood) that I’m still glad I got this set even if I couldn’t say there was any genuine masterpieces in it and I would absolutely buy a second volume if one ever emerges.

Posted: **Mon Apr 20, 2026 3:51 pm**

MichaelB wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 11:58 am Thank you! I’m always very nervous when my commentaries are reviewed by people who share a nationality with the film, but I’ve now had two Estonians being very polite about it.

I grew up in the 90s and 00s. Local cinema production and distribution was in a complete collapse, so local films were never even an afterthought, but with music and other cultural output of the time, if you liked something local and thought it was good, you always had to clarify it with "[pretty good] for something Estonian" -- meaning we put our own work in a separate category, always well below the foreign material we saw on TV, heard on the radio, or read about in the magazines. I am conditioned to never expect any foreigner to have any idea of anything Estonian whatsoever. So, listening to somebody talk so in-depth about "Dead Mountaineer's" Hotel, things and people related to it, even a lot of stuff I didn't know or never bothered to learn about, was kind of a bizarre experience. Something similar happened to me some years ago when I was on a business trip to Colombia. One of my co-workers there started talking to me about Metsatöll and Veljo Tormis, which baffled me... How would he know about them? Turned out that during slower shifts he was curious about the culture of his colleagues ten thousand kilometres away. Embarassing, because my exposure to Colombian culture, a country dozens of times larger and significant than my own, up to that point had only been Garcia Marquez and Shakira.

Anyways, coming back to the commentary track, unless my memory completly fails me at the moment, this is probably the first foreign audio commentay recorded and published for and Estonian film. Not just in English but probably any (non-Estonian) language.

PS. I was secretly hoping for Luarvik Luarvik the band to get mentioned, and it did!

Peacock wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 12:56 pm You’d think The Last Relic would be right up their alley!

That would likely be my first recommendation for them as well. It is the most popular, beloved, and quoted Estonian film of all time after all. Dennis Bartok did mention it when they were discussing Kromanov's previous work, and he described it as "interesting" in a very nonchalant way. I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it. "Dead Mountaineer" was obviously sort of a passion project which he wanted to do even before Deaf Crocodile Films in it's current state had formed. On a positive note, this experience with Deaf Crocodile should make the people at Tallinnfilm a lot more enthusiastic about working with them (or others) again.

Posted: **Mon Apr 20, 2026 3:58 pm**

I spent the first few days of my honeymoon in Tallinn in 2002, during which I discovered Veljo Tormis, and I’ve been enthusing about him ever since.

In fact, I’m surprised I didn’t namecheck him in the commentary, although admittedly there wasn’t an obvious reason for me to have done so. I did mention Arvo Pärt, but he was much more on topic—and of course so was the band Luarvik Luarvik!

Posted: **Mon Apr 20, 2026 7:17 pm**

eerik wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2026 3:51 pm That would likely be my first recommendation for them as well. It is the most popular, beloved, and quoted Estonian film of all time after all. Dennis Bartok did mention it when they were discussing Kromanov's previous work, and he described it as "interesting" in a very nonchalant way. I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it. "Dead Mountaineer" was obviously sort of a passion project which he wanted to do even before Deaf Crocodile Films in it's current state had formed. On a positive note, this experience with Deaf Crocodile should make the people at Tallinnfilm a lot more enthusiastic about working with them (or others) again.

I asked Dennis about if would consider releasing The Last Relic on the Discord and his response was:

We have definitely given this some thought, yes!

So seems like there’s a chance for more Estonian cinema to emerge from Deaf Crocodile beyond Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel.

Posted: **Mon Apr 20, 2026 8:01 pm**

There's been a few Estonian restorations in recent years I'd love to see get released - the films of Leida Laius, Sulev Keedus' Georgica, and Kaljo Kiisk's Madness come to mind first. The latter seems like something DC could be interested in.

Posted: **Mon Apr 20, 2026 9:56 pm**

I mentioned Madness briefly in my commentary:

Now, I suspect there’s a decent chance that you’ve seen Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris, in which case you’ll probably have recognised Juri Järvet here, who played Dr Snaut, one of the scientists on board the space station orbiting the planet Solaris. The previous year, 1971, he’d played the title role in Grigori Kozintsev’s magnificent adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Although another slightly earlier Järvet film has more resonance here—Kajlo Kiisk’s bizarre Madness, from 1969, which saw Järvet essentially playing the Inspector Glebsky part, as a Gestapo agent charged with investigating the inhabitants of a mental hospital in search of spies who have gone undercover towards the end of WWII—and, like a great many films involving people going undercover in mental hospitals, this isn’t an experience that leaves him mentally unscathed. Grigori Kozintsev said of Järvet that “he was above all a man of spiritual intelligence, which isn’t a question of the number of books read, it’s about the natural, organic qualities of his talent. They can be developed, but not bought.”

Posted: **Mon Apr 20, 2026 10:19 pm**

Calvin wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2026 8:01 pm There's been a few Estonian restorations in recent years I'd love to see get released - the films of Leida Laius, Sulev Keedus' Georgica, and Kaljo Kiisk's Madness come to mind first. The latter seems like something DC could be interested in.

I think Madness is actually getting a release from Cultpix as part of their brand new line of Blu-Rays later this year

Posted: **Tue Apr 21, 2026 9:24 am**

I know the Estonian Film Institute released a couple more films on Blu-ray. Is there anywhere to import these to the UK for a decent price?

Posted: **Tue Apr 21, 2026 1:50 pm**

TMDaines wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2026 9:24 am I know the Estonian Film Institute released a couple more films on Blu-ray. Is there anywhere to import these to the UK for a decent price?

They are sub-par quality, not recommended all. The three they released were The Last Relic (Viimne reliikvia), Spring (Kevade), and Dead Mountaineer's Hotel. All from old restorations with MPEG2 (!!!) video and low bitrate Dolby Digital audio. Only good things, if I remember correctly, were descriptive audio tracks (in Estonian of course) and blind-friendly menus for increased accessibility.

Posted: **Tue Apr 21, 2026 5:46 pm**

I'm hoping Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (a title I have wanted to see released in the US/UK for ages) does well so the Estonian Film Institute may be more willing to work with Deaf Crocodile, Radiance, Second Run, or whoever may be interested in more of their films. I can see Kevade being more at home with the latter two, but The Last Relic is a Deaf Crocodile title all the way

Posted: **Wed Apr 22, 2026 10:09 am**

eerik wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2026 1:50 pm
TMDaines wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2026 9:24 am I know the Estonian Film Institute released a couple more films on Blu-ray. Is there anywhere to import these to the UK for a decent price?
They are sub-par quality, not recommended all. The three they released were The Last Relic (Viimne reliikvia), Spring (Kevade), and Dead Mountaineer's Hotel. All from old restorations with MPEG2 (!!!) video and low bitrate Dolby Digital audio. Only good things, if I remember correctly, were descriptive audio tracks (in Estonian of course) and blind-friendly menus for increased accessibility.

Thanks for letting me know!

Posted: **Mon Apr 27, 2026 6:06 pm**

This is me in pure wish fulfillment mode, but what are the chances of other nationalities getting something like the Soviet Animation series? I ask after discovering Garik Seko whose work is absolutely phenomenal, but probably not famous enough to get his own outside of Czech release.

Posted: **Mon Apr 27, 2026 7:01 pm**

knives wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 6:06 pm This is me in pure wish fulfillment mode, but what are the chances of other nationalities getting something like the Soviet Animation series? I ask after discovering Garik Seko whose work is absolutely phenomenal, but probably not famous enough to get his own outside of Czech release.

I’d love a Hungarian animated shorts set with films like The Diligent Girl and the Lazy Girl or I Like Life A Lot.

Posted: **Mon Apr 27, 2026 7:36 pm**

knives wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2026 6:06 pm This is me in pure wish fulfillment mode, but what are the chances of other nationalities getting something like the Soviet Animation series? I ask after discovering Garik Seko whose work is absolutely phenomenal, but probably not famous enough to get his own outside of Czech release.

If Canadian International Pictures isn't going to do more with NFB Canada besides the one Animation Night compilation and occasional extras, they could definitely do a robust series of releases just on animation.

Ladislaw Starewicz has also been neglected since DVD. Would love a collection of his short films, plus The Tale of the Fox. Seems like there's a restoration of that and The Mascot.

Posted: **Tue Apr 28, 2026 6:20 am**

FlickeringWindow wrote:Ladislaw Starewicz has also been neglected since DVD. Would love a collection of his short films, plus The Tale of the Fox. Seems like there's a restoration of that and The Mascot.

I don’t know what the situation is now, but when I looked into doing Starewicz for the BFI some twenty years or so ago there was an insuperable barrier in the form of his granddaughter’s wholly unrealistic revenue expectations.

Posted: **Mon May 04, 2026 1:19 am**

That's too bad. Ca. 2003 there was a feature-length compilation of some of his French-period shorts that circulated in MK2 cinemas in France, specifically as a weekend-and-Wednesday matinee for schoolchildren. They looked really good and everyone in attendance had a blast as I recall.

Posted: **Fri May 08, 2026 9:58 pm**

What A Disgrace wrote: Mon Sep 12, 2022 12:18 am Specifically, they have The Sheperdess and the Seven Songs, Village House, and Dhuin.

Have they mentioned anything about these since? I’m a major Hindi language film buff and The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs has been sitting on my watchlist for six years now.

Posted: **Sat May 16, 2026 3:41 am**

Pre orders are up for Toomorrow

TOOMORROW, 1970, Screenbound Int’l, 94 min. 21 year-old Olivia Newton-John stars, pre-GREASE fame, in this utterly bonkers Mod-Pop / Sci-Fi musical about a multi-racial group of London art college musicians whose songs are the cure to the computer sterility suffered by the alien Alphoids, circling Earth in their crystal spacecraft. "It's the only thing Planet Earth can teach us: the vibrations of Youth," as the androgynous Alphoids, led by veteran British actor Roy Dotrice, tell Olivia & band. A jaw dropping, must-be-seen-to-be-believed combination of “Josie & The Pussy Cats” and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, the film is filled with super-groovy Sunshine Pop tunes, student protests and carefree sexual hijinks -- plus aliens. (The Alphoids’ glimmering ship is like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude on ecstasy, one of the film’s highlights.) Directed & written by the great British filmmaker Val Guest (the first two QUATERMASS films, THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE) in his most Pop-friendly, CASINO ROYALE-style, TOOMORROW was produced by James Bond 007 co-producer Harry Saltzman and veteran American music impresario Don Kirshner, who were intent on creating another The Archies/The Monkees style sensation. The other band members include guitarist/vocalist Benny Thomas, fringe-jacket wearing drummer Karl Chambers (who played with Philly-area groups like MFSB and Archie Bell & The Drells), and keyboardist Vic Cooper – but it’s clearly Newton-John with her irresistible smile, blonde locks and dollybird clothes that’s the superstar of the group. (Her slang dialogue of “Not you, you drongo!” is a great throwaway nod to her Aussie roots.) Released for barely a week on its original 1970 run and unseen for decades, TOOMORROW has been restored by the British Film Institute and Deaf Crocodile from the original 35mm negative for the first time. “Sure, I dig it. We’re too much. We’re Toomorrow.”

Special Features:

Archival video interview with director/writer Val Guest, conducted by The Guardian newspaper (1998, 60 min.)
“The Nose Has It” (1942, 8 min.) – delightful WWII propaganda short about the danger of spreading germs, directed by a young Val Guest and starring comedian Arthur Askey
“If I Could Turn You On” (1969, 13 mins, dir. Bernard Coyne) – stark experimental film documenting an avant-garde performance at the Camden Roundhouse, one of the locations used in TOOMORROW
New audio commentary by author & music historian Andrew Sandoval.
“Toomorrow: Musical Humanism Through the Stars” – new visual essay by film critic Celeste de la Cabra (12 min.)
New visual essay by Someone’s Favorite Productions featuring a 1988 audio interview for the British Entertainment History Project with director Val Guest discussing his work on TOOMORROW, moderated by Roy Fowler (10 min.)
Blu-ray authoring by Vital Passenger
New art by Beth Morris

Deluxe Edition Bonus Content:

Hard slipcase featuring new artwork by Beth Morris
60-page illustrated booklet
Transcript of 2002 Q&A with Val Guest at the American Cinematheque, conducted by Dennis Bartok
New essay on Val Guest & Yolande Donlan by Deaf Crocodile’s Dennis Bartok
New essay by film critic Walter Chaw (Film Freak Central)
Limited to 1250 units

and

Hoffmaniada

HOFFMANIADA – 2018, Soyuzmultfilm, 78 min. One of the most luminously beautiful and richly detailed stop-motion features in recent memory, Russian director Stanislav Sokolov’s masterwork finally arrives in North America. Adapted from the writings of famed Gothic fantasy author E.T.A. Hoffman (best known for The Nutcracker & The Mouse King), HOFFMANIADA is a visually stunning cross between Henry Selick circa JAMES & THE GIANT PEACH and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and Mozart’s The Magic Flute, filled with operatic dreams, clockwork automatons, fire salamanders, witchcraft, love, magic, and the legendary city of Atlantis. Interweaving plots from three Hoffman stories (“The Sandman,” “The Golden Pot” and “Little Zaches Called Cinnabar”) with the real-life drudgery of the writer’s job as a government clerk, the film utilized over 150 stop-motion puppets and was the first feature project in decades from legendary animation studio Soyuzmultfilm (THE SNOW QUEEN). Featuring the voices of Vladimir Koshevoy, Slava Polunin, Natalya Fisson and Anvar Libabov. “Maybe the most ambitious stop-motion film ever made in Russia … The puppets and animation in Hoffmaniada are breathtaking.” – Animation Obsessive.

In Russian with English subtitles.

Bonus Features:

“A Black-and-White Film” (Chyorno-beloe kino) – 1984, 19 min. Sokolov’s early stop-motion gem follows a man who drifts away from his own party and into memories of his childhood days.

“Hoffmaniada: Frame By Frame” (2018, 23 min., dir. Kevin McNeer) – a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of HOFFMANIADA.

“Not Only Human” – new visual essay by animation historian John Adkins of Animation Obsessive.

New commentary track by animation producer and podcaster Adam Rackoff, podcaster and film critic James Hancock, and filmmaker and podcaster Martin Kessler.

Original trailer for film (with English subtitles).

New video conversation with acclaimed British stop-motion animator Barry J.C. Purves and Deaf Crocodile’s Dennis Bartok discussing HOFFMANIADA, Purves’ own career, Ray Harryhausen and KING KONG (2026, 40 min.)

Blu-ray authoring by Vital Passenger.

Deluxe Edition Bonus Content:

Hard slipcase featuring new artwork by Beth Morris.

60-page illustrated book

New written interview with director Stanislav Sokolov.

New essay by animation historian Maria Tereshchenko.

New essay by documentarian and film critic Kevin McNeer.

New essay by film critic Walter Chaw (Film Freak Central).

Limited to 1250 units

Posted: **Sat May 16, 2026 3:52 am**

Also for folks who don’t listen to the Deaf Crocodile podcast, they’ve mentioned that deluxe editions will be limited to only a couple releases a month rather than compromising all titles but that they will be replaced by limited slipcover editions while booklets are set to become 48 pages but will now be included inside both limited and standard releases.
They did mention one of the deluxe editions will be for Soviet Animation 4 and that another seems to be for a film from a director with several Deaf Crocodile releases already (we do know that Lemonade Joe is coming so I’m placing my bets on that one)

Posted: **Sat May 16, 2026 6:52 am**

TechnicolorAcid wrote: Sat May 16, 2026 3:52 am booklets are set to become 48 pages but will now be included inside both limited and standard releases.

A double-win for customers. The booklets I've seen from them have been very padded with pics, presumably to make a page count that would fit that standard hard box slip.

Posted: **Sat May 16, 2026 6:53 am**

And that sounds as though it’ll be good for shelf space too.

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