History Creator / MarcellJankovics

* ArtShift: While finding stylistic unity between background art and character animation has been one of his main goals as an artist, he likes to throw different art styles around a lot too. The best example is probably ''Animation/TheTragedyOfMan'', in which every scene has its distinct art and animation style.

* MandatoryUnretirement: He never gave up on animation, but the 2011 film ''The Tragedy of Man'' was said to be his final film as a director. In the late 2010s, as no other suitable director took on the task, he was "roped in" one last time to helm the series ''Toldi'', which Jankovics definitely considered his final directorial work, and he was sadly proven right, passing away shortly after its completion. A theatrical recut of the series was planned while he was alive, which is set for a posthumous 2022 release.

* PatrioticFervor: Politically, Jankovics was in a rough spot. He felt strongly about his nation's history and identity, all the way from the Hungarian people's (and their relatives') ancient pagan roots to their Christian traditions. His first feature film ''Johnny Corncob'' was met with scorn by Soviet distributors for its blatant nationalism and up until 2021 it wasn't even released in the West apart from Italy. Jankovics held presentations, supervised exhibits and authored books about Hungarian history, and held connections to Hungary's current right wing government party. He believed Hungarian cultural sovereignty and pride have been going downhill since their ancestors came to Europe in the 800s, and supported the country's fiercely nationalistic post-2010 politics. Yet, he was often blasted by other conservatives as being too liberal, and as relayed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Jankovics was not a patriotic extremist, focusing more on his art than aggressive politics -- despite admitting he wanted to use Jankovics as a political asset.

-->''"Why would one imitate reality? Just leave it to living actors! Earthbound reality is not for animation. Animation is a stylized, fantastic world."''
-->-- Jankovics' explanation for his usual DerangedAnimation style

Marcell Jankovics[[note]]MAR-tsell YAN-ko-vich[[/note]] (October 21, 1941 - May 29, 2021) was a Serbian-Hungarian [[RenaissanceMan animation director and animator, art historian, an expert on religion, mythology and folklore, an illustrator, author and briefly a politician]]. He experienced political tension at a young age as Hungary's Soviet-connected regime attacked his family, even blocking his original career choice of an architect. Jankovics begrudgingly became an animator in the 1960s and discovered his a passion for the craft.

* OffModel: One reason so many of his movies have relatively few rigid animation constraints, with ''Johnny Corncob'' even taking inspiration from ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'', was that their animators could go off-model without a hitch, as opposed to wasting precious time and money on training them to keep the character designs and art style perfectly consistent in each scene. This helped speed up production tremendously. Deliberately changing the appearances of characters or environments is also a key component of his metamorphic animation style. As observed by Peter Chung, motion and change is ingrained within Jankovics's character designs.

* DisappearedDad: In his youth, Hungary's Communist regime sentenced his father to lifelong forced labor under fake accusations of crime. Though he was thankfully freed during the 1956 revolution after only a few years of imprisonment, Jankovics was sent to a boys-only catholic school in the meantime to get a patriarchal upbringing.

* ConceptArt: Sadly, very little of it survived or is available to the public. In the 70s and 80s, most concept art done at Pannonia was simply thrown out or carelessly discarded all over the studio floor, with the workers literally trampling all over them. Archiving them was not a priority. However, Jankovics's original drawings for an unmade ''Bible'' adaptation eventually became the basis of his illustrated ''Bible'' book and he kept a personal collection of certain old concept images.

* ''Air India'' (commercial film, 1970)

* NamesTheSame: Shared his name with both his father and grandfather, though the latter used the outdated spelling "Jankovich".

* ''Toldi'' (finished in 2020, released posthuumusly in 2021)

* ''Toldi'' (CompilationMovie of his 2020 animated mini series)

* ''Toldi'' (finished in 2020, released posthoumusly in 2021, an extended CompilationMovie version was tentatively planned before his death)

* MandatoryUnretirement: He never gave up on animation, but the 2011 film ''The Tragedy of Man'' was said to be his final film as a director. In the late 2010s, as no other suitable director took on the task, he was "roped in" one last time to helm the series ''Toldi'', which Jankovics definitely considered his final directorial work, and he was sadly proven right, passing away shortly after its completion. A potential expansion into a feature film was also planned, the future of which is uncertain.

->''Why would one imitate reality? Just leave it to living actors! Earthbound reality is not for animation. Animation is a stylized, fantastic world.''

Marcell Jankovics[[note]]MAR-tsell YAN-ko-vich[[/note]] (October 21, 1941 - May 29, 2021) was a Hungarian [[RenaissanceMan animation director and animator, art historian, an expert on religion, mythology and folklore, an illustrator, author and briefly a politician]]. He experienced political tension at a young age as Hungary's Soviet-connected regime attacked his family, even blocking his original career choice of an architect. Jankovics begrudgingly became an animator in the 1960s and discovered his a passion for the craft.

* ''Animation/{{Kudzok}}'' (''The Struggle'', 1977) (won a UsefulNotes/PalmeDOr for short film)

* ''Küzdők'' (''The Struggle'', 1977)

* PatrioticFervor: Politically, Jankovics was in a rough spot. He felt strongly about his nation's history and identity, all the way from the Hungarian people's (and their relatives') ancient pagan roots to their Christian traditions. His first feature film ''Johnny Corncob'' was met with scorn by Soviet distributors for its blatant nationalism and up until 2021 it wasn't even released in the West apart from Italy. Jankovics held presentations, supervised exhibits and authored books about Hungarian history, and held connections to Hungary's current right wing government party. He believed Hungarian cultural sovereignty and pride have been going downhill since their ancestors came to Europe in the 800s, and supported of the country's fiercely nationalistic post-2010 politics. Yet, he was often blasted by other conservatives as being too liberal, and as relayed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Jankovics was not a patriotic extremist, focusing more on his art than aggressive politics -- despite admitting he wanted to use Jankovics as a political asset.

** In ''Toldi'', he added an extra scene of the titular hero's mother tending to his son as he's on the run and hunted for murder. Jankovics felt it was a huge oversight that this was ommitted from the original poem, as it weakened the family bond between the two. The role of Toldi's mother also had to be axpanded because the story lacked a female character otherwise.

->''Why would one imitate reality?''

Marcell Jankovics[[note]]MAR-tsell YAN-ko-vich[[/note]] (October 21, 1941 - May 29, 2021) was a Hungarian animation director and animator, art historian, illustrator and briefly a politician. He experienced political tension at a young age as Hungary's Soviet-connected regime had it out for his family, even blocking his original career choice of an architect. Jankovics begrudgingly became an animator and discovered his a passion for the craft.

Part of the second generation of Creator/PannoniaFilmStudio's cartoon creators, his career began in the 1960s and he quickly became one of the nation's most revered animators thanks to works like ''Animation/{{Gustavus}}'', ''Animation/HungarianFolkTales'', and the country's first feature-length animated movie ''Animation/JohnnyCorncob''. His short films enjoyed international acclaim, including an Oscar nomination and a Palme d'Or, for which the international press has labeled him the "Hungarian Creator/WaltDisney" or "Hungarian Creator/HayaoMiyazaki". His animated works are characterized by social commentary, a love for mythology and old folk traditions, nationalism, adult imagery, and deeply DerangedAnimation. Jankovics saw animation as a [[DoingItForTheArt form of art and expression over mere entertainment and money-making]], and [[AnimationAgeGhetto argued it should target all ages]]. He greatly disliked escapist futuristic ScienceFiction, special effect-driven blockbusters, conventional {{Disneyesque}} art, and 3D graphics, and he continued to draw his art on paper even after his works had transitioned to [[AllCGICartoon digital]].

His main [[CreatorThumbprint obsession]] was metamorphosis, transforming characters, objects, places, colors, or entire scenes via hypnotically flowing animation and constant motion to [[MetaphoricMetamorphosis express symbolic and thematic meaning]] in ways only the animated medium can allow. This has led to his works being routinely described as psychedelic or trippy, a reaction grew used to but dismissed as superficial, maintaining that his visuals were always designed with serious artistic intent.

Animation was just one side of his life though, which was otherwise defined by his fight for cultural preservation, conservative nationalism and religious-mythological studies. A staunch traditionalist, he wrote innumerable papers, published and illustrated a myriad of books, and held presentations on the meaning of folk tales and primarily European myths, as well as on Hungarian history. His main philosophy was that [[GoodOldWays all values should be derived from humanity's cultural past]] as opposed to progressive ideals. Such concepts influenced many of his animated works, as most of them were based on ancient myths and classic literature.

** In ''Son of the White Mare'', the entire opening scene, the Mare's backstory and the ending are his additions to the story, and he also embellished the story with a lot of symbolism and even a twist reveal. All this was done to preserve some part of his original ideas for the film that were rejected by the censors.

* PatrioticFervor: Politically, Jankovics was in a sort of rough spot. As a staunch right wing conservative with a deep appreciation for the past, he felt strongly about his nation's history and identity, all the way from the Hungarian people's (and their relatives') ancient pagan roots to their Christian traditions. His first feature film ''Johnny Corncob'' was met with scorn by Soviet distributors for its blatant nationalism, and wasn't even released in the Western world (with the exception of Italy). Jankovics would hold presentations and supervised exhibits based around Hungarian history, and had long held connections to Hungary's current right wing government party. In his view, his people's cultural sovereignty and pride have been going downhill ever since the first nomadic Hungarian tribes came to Europe in the 800s, which is one reason he was highly supportive of the country's fiercely nationalistic post-2010 politics. Yet, he was often blasted by other conservatives as being too liberal, and as relayed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Jankovics was not a patriotic extremist, focusing more on his art than aggressive politics.

Marcell Jankovics[[note]]MAR-tsell YAN-ko-vich[[/note]] (October 21, 1941 - May 29, 2021) was a Hungarian animation director and animator, art historian, illustrator and briefly a politician.

Part of the second generation of Hungarian cartoon creators, his career began in the 1960s at Creator/PannoniaFilmStudio, where he became one of the nation's most revered animators thanks to the success of works like ''Animation/{{Gustavus}}'', ''Animation/HungarianFolkTales'', and the country's first feature-length animated movie ''Animation/JohnnyCorncob''. His short films enjoyed international acclaim, including an Oscar nomination and a Palme d'Or, for which the international press has labeled him the "Hungarian Creator/WaltDisney" or "Hungarian Creator/HayaoMiyazaki". His animated works are characterized by social commentary, a love for mythology and old folk traditions, nationalism, adult imagery, and deeply DerangedAnimation. Jankovics was a strong devotee of "{{doing it for the art}}", he saw animation as a form of art and expression over mere entertainment and money-making. A staunch traditionalist, he has written innumerable papers, published and illustrated books, and held presentations on the meaning of folk tales and primarily European mythology. He greatly disliked escapist futuristic ScienceFiction, special effect-driven blockbusters, conventional {{Disneyesque}} art, and 3D graphics, and though his works have transitioned to [[AllCGICartoon digital]], he continued to draw his art on paper up until his passing.

His main [[CreatorThumbprint obsession]] is metamorphosis, transforming characters, objects, places, colors, or entire scenes via hypnotically flowing animation and constant motion to [[MetaphoricMetamorphosis express symbolic and thematic meaning]] in ways only the animated medium can allow. This has led to his works being routinely described as psychedelic or trippy, a reaction he has grown used to but dismissed as superficial, maintaining that his visuals are always designed with serious artistic intent.

In spite of his early successes, Jankovics's line of work was characterized by [[TroubledProduction massive production and distribution hardships]], declining mainstream attention, clashing with studio heads, and somehow always missing out on his award ceremonies (of his 30+ awards, he only received one in person). The final message of ''Animation/TheTragedyOfMan'', which took over twenty years of struggle to complete, may as well be his personal mantra: "''The end is death, life is a struggle. And man's end is the struggle itself.''"