Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)

Hedgehog in the Fog is a 10-minute animated film directed by Yuriy Norshteyn and written by Sergei Kozlov.  The studio which produced the film, Soyuzmultfilm, was run so that the financial success or failure of a film did not affect the animators' paychecks.  As a result, the animators experimented with a variety of styles, free from the concerns of marketability.  This film, in particular, has a charming, yet slightly dark animation style featuring characters and settings made from painted paper cutouts, animated to give the impression of three-dimensional movement.  Hayao Miyazaki has listed Hedgehog in the Fog as one of his favorite animated movies of all time.