This cartoon is the only, and the best to date, animated television adaptation of the work of Robert Lewis Stevenson - The Strange Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And although the cartoon is intended exclusively for children, I would not call it too childish, in it in a very rare case, for children's cartoons, serious themes and motives for reasoning over the two facets of the human personality, its parallels, for in each of us there is a piece of something dark, terrible gloomy, malicious, almost otherworldly and at the same time noble, pure, immaculate.
I have seen the film adaptations of this legendary opus of 1920, 1931 and 1941 and I have something to compare with, of course, if you evaluate it as the “highest” work of mass art, this animated film is unlikely to “directly” compete with them, for example, with the same brilliant images and characters built once by Spencer Tracy, Fredrik March or John Barrymore.
However, expecting to see a very, very childish and naive, stupid fairy tale in the spirit of Walt Disney cartoons, I was very mistaken, a wonderful TV show appeared before me, with a stunning atmosphere of gloomy (almost Gothic and mystical) Victorian London of the late 19th century, an incredibly tempting, uneven plot, talented director and very good characters, so infrequent for cartoons of this level.
Even despite some flaws of animation, and in some places there is a lack of drawing, incompleteness, apparently the creator of the cartoon was in a hurry to pass the "cartoon performance" by the deadline, but such impressions do not spoil, viewing is extremely entertaining and despite 50 minutes of timekeeping, you do not get tired at all.
This cartoon without any doubt is a wonderfully executed and performed performance of unknown actors and a stunning work of an unknown director - Australian Warwick Gilbert, about whom there is absolutely no information, but everything is so professionally done that despite the absence of other directorial works from this gentleman, I would like to shake his hand firmly. So amazingly executed voiceover (I want to pay tribute to our voiceover translators from television), so professionally served characters that when watching it does not arise the thought that the picture is for children!
The wonderful detective intrigue around the main character, Dr. Henry Jekyll and his dark half - Mr. Hyde, not as tragic as in the first three screen adaptations according to Stevenson, but the complete lack of blood, the pavilion "style" of the narrative, and the stunning soundtrack - makes viewing the tense, complex, multifaceted, and the terrible deeds of Hyde, his evil infernal laughter (the scene with the first appearance, the birth of a villain under the unforgettable disco-funk rhythm is generally worthy of recording in movie textbooks) and at the same time the main hero is constantly struggling with a positive soul, you experience the merity of the main man, the mercifulness of the soul, you almost a positive soul. Alas, this story is natural, those who try to understand the true nature of evil, its root cause suffers a terrible fate, this was stated not only in the work of Stevenson, but also in Lovecraft, Edgar Poe and many, many others.
8 out of 10