I will probably never watch this movie again.

Not because it is bad.

Because the experience of watching Son of the White Mare again could never top the experience of watching it for the first time.

And you know what’s crazy? This is…drumroll please…my final reader’s request. And the reason I left this one to last was because the requester simply asked me to review “something Eastern European” and I just chose this because it looked interesting. I picked this one almost at random.

And it ended up being…well, we’ll get to that.

Son of the White Mare, (or Fehérlófia in its native Hungarian) is a 1981 film by filmmaker Marcell Jankovics, who created the first feature length Hungarian animated film, Johnny Corncob. He also, apparently, worked with Disney on Kingdom of the Sun, the abortive first attempt at creating The Emperor’s New Groove. And damn, while I wouldn’t give up Groove for anything, I do really want to see what Jankovics would have cooked up.

Anyway, White Mare is an adaptation of a narrative poem published in 1862 by László Arany, itself based on ancient Eurasian folktales. When it was initially released, it flopped hard and even to this day it’s something of a polarising film in its homeland. Outside of Hungary, however, it’s almost universally acclaimed, particularly within the indie animation space. I’d bet good money that this movie is shown to every animation student at CalArts because I kept seeing images I recognised from Gravity Falls, Steven Universe and Adventure Time.

It’s a hugely influential film, but not necessarily an easy watch. That’s not to say that it’s disturbing in its subject matter, or that it’s a complicated film to follow. In fact, the story is incredibly simple, just about the simplest type of story you can tell: a prince goes on a quest to rescue princesses and slay dragons.

The movie begins with a white mare running through a dark forest being chased by mysterious, shadowy beings.

She escapes and gives birth to a boy that she names Treeshaker and tells him a story of the Forefather and the Queen of Heaven who had three sons.

The sons were lonely and so the Forefather created three princesses to be their brides. But the princesses were too curious and freed the dragons that were chained in the dungeon beneath the world. The dragons broke free, took over the world and took the three princesses for their own. So, when he comes of age, Treeshaker goes on a quest, meets his two brothers, teams up with them, and eventually rescues the three princesses and defeats the three dragons.

See what I mean? Very simple story. However its imagery is so surreal, so visually dense and so laden with symbolism that you have to focus to avoid just drowning in it.

Most traditional animation uses static backgrounds, with the characters animated over them. Jankovics instead treats the backgrounds and characters as one and the same, animating them both, with both planes running into each other. It creates an incredible, surreal, dreamlike effect that is like nothing I’ve ever seen in either Western or Asian animation. It’s why, even with a plot simple enough that it could be memorised and told around a campfire, you sometimes lose track of what’s going on if you’re not paying attention.

This was, at least partially, by necessity. Hungary in the eighties was controlled by a despotic government intent on silencing and controlling all possible dissent.

Therefore, if Jankovics did intend this as a critique of the communist regime, he would have to hide it under a thick layer of symbolism for his own personal and professional safety.

This ambiguity has lead to criticism that the movie is ultimately just a visual showcase with no deeper thematic weight beyond its visuals.

To which I say, even if that was true, have you SEEN the visuals?

I feel like I’m burying the lede here, somewhat.

This is my new favourite animated film.

It is like nothing I have ever seen.

I watched this with my eyes like saucers and my jaw on the floor.

If you’ve never seen it, I urge you to see it with every fibre of my being.

***

Let’s just say that my appreciation for Hungarian animation has increased by around infinity percent from my last encounter. This is a movie that is unique, so visually beautiful, so utterly without peer in what it is trying to do with the medium of animation that finding fault with it seems pointless. To find fault, you’d have to compare it to something equivalent, and there is nothing equivalent.

It stands alone, in every sense.

Which is, why, after thirteen and a half years of doing this blog, I’m breaking a cardinal rule.

FINAL SCORE: 100%

NEXT UPDATE: As per usual, I’ll be taking December off to focus on writing. I’ll have the usual Christmas wrap up and then see you all 08 January 2026 for the next review.

NEXT TIME: God, fifties movie posters went so hard.