Happy Merry-Go-Round (Russian: Весёлая карусель, romanized: Vesyolaya karusel') is a long-running Soviet and Russian-Japanese animated anthology series created by Anatoly Petrov and Galina Barinova for Soyuzmultfilm in 1969.
It was conceived as a proving ground for experimental animation by beginning directors based on riddles, rhymes, songs, absurd stories and so on.
[2][3] The series aired in 1969 as a collection of four short traditionally animated cartoons by a team of newcomers, originally under the "artistic guidance" by Roman Kachanov.
[4] Despite heavy criticism from the head of Goskino for "using children's cinema as a proving ground for abstract art", the anthology got a lot of praise on its release, and the team continued the production, attracting new people.
[5] Among those who made their directional debut in Happy Merry-Go-Round were Eduard Nazarov, Valery Ugarov, Garri Bardin, Aleksandr Davydov and others.