Pat & Mat: Playing Cards – in good quality!

Hello, all!

As I'm busy with professional and personal obligations (amongst others, I'm finishing my first book, which has nothing to do with animation), this blog has been on pause for a couple of years now. I sometimes get the bug to go back to it, but the fire quickly gets extinguished by all the other things waiting for their turn. However, sometimes life throws a curveball (or, dare I say, plays its card?) and stops you in your tracks. This is one of those cases. 

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a pristine copy of the final Pat & Mat episode produced by aiF, Playing Cards (frequently known as Karty):

What, how, and why?! These are probably some of the questions you are thinking about, but I'll try to, as briefly as possible, explain the story behind this post.

Exactly 10 days ago, this copy of the film was unveiled to the digital world by a Polish fan who goes by the handle TymekGry. He uploaded it to YouTube via another fan, and also notified me by writing several comments on this blog.

I did not approve those comments. For reasons explained below, my reaction was not astonishment, but rather circumspection. I had to consider the whole situation. Indeed, some days later, the video with the copy disappeared, perhaps never to be seen again?

Of course, this is not how the Internet works. Once it's out there, it's out there. There's no going back to the bunker. Indeed, with just a simple search you could find it even without this post. So, where do I come into all of this?

I was not surprised to see this copy of the film. I had seen it before, many a time, the first of which happened on August 21, 2020. That was the day I met with František Váša in Split. It was a strange time – the summer Split sun made the weather sweltering, and the city was bustling with tourists, but everything was a bit subdued due to COVID-19.

Our meeting was anything but subdued, however. I was really glad to meet a great animator and director of the series, while it also pleased him to meet such a superfan. We didn't have a chance to communicate much via email, so I was thrilled and ready to bombard him with questions. However, as soon as we sat down on the Pjaca square, Mr Váša reached into his bag and took out this:

You can imagine my excitement then! Váša's words were something along the lines of "This is something for you. It's from the original." Of course, I ran home as fast as I could and inserted the DVD into my computer (which is by now long out of use). Before pressing play, I invited my sister in to share this, for me, historic moment. The opening "New Door" intro rolled out in amazing quality, followed by a never-seen credits sequence, then the rest of the episode. The 12 minutes and 40 seconds whizzed through in a blur. Finally, I had seen the entirety of the so-called "missing" or "lost" episode.

The beautiful lettering, one of the last to be done on film

The digital copy of the episode was made from original materials, presumably the original negative. I don't know what the exact purpose was, but this happened many years ago. Judging from the files on the DVD, back in 2009.

Naturally, I wanted to share this with my fellow ajetologists, but it wasn't to be. When he handed me the DVD, Mr Váša also told me not to share it in the open. Lest some old spirits be disturbed. As you might remember, the film was a collateral victim of the conflict between several members of the aiF studio, which made it go extinct. These conflicts were escalated into years-long lawsuits, so there was no point to add fuel to the fire.

I alluded to why in the introduction to my published interview: "As you can imagine, aiF’s break-up was not the most idyllic of splits (on the contrary, lawsuits sprung up) and there is no point in possibly opening old wounds with certain people through my blog."

In the end, I shared this copy with only a handful of people, who were gracious enough to never spill the beans. One of them is an animation pen pal who lives in Texas. He showed it to some kids in a daycare centre he was working in. It was a bit of a silly prank – I joked that the film finally reached its target audience, the USA!

That was that. As agreed, I never made any suggestion that this copy existed, apart from a buried clue. My Pat & Mat filmography page has for years contained the full credits for the episode. Nobody thought of asking me where I got them from, though.

I have to admit I toyed with the idea of releasing the copy online, but I would never do such a thing without previously consulting the people who worked on it, thereby betraying their trust. 

That's how we get to 2024.

When Tymek put this online, he did it rashly, without consultation and by explicitly describing how he obtained it. The person who provided him with the copy did not expect the upload to happen. This is why they later requested its removal.

This is where I felt I had to step in. I had been in contact with the person (who, I should mention, is not the director) before, and we discussed the situation through several emails. The conclusion was the following: what's done cannot be undone. The film is now out there, and let the world enjoy it. However, this will have to be done anonymously. I politely call on Tymek and his pals to remove all the references to the person who sent the copy and how it happened. This is all they ask in return of giving you the episode. Thank you for all you have done.

There was only one thing left to do – have a quick chat with the director, František Váša. He gave his okay for the film to be presented here and beyond. If anything, it's his most singular take on the series (in spite of the fact that he was pressured to include many elements he did not intend to, like the voices). He, along with a crew of a handful of people, worked on it tirelessly for more than a year. 

This was, now, 26 years ago. It's nice that we can finally put the whole story to rest and enjoy the fruit of their labour in a proper way.

This whole story could have been handled a bit better, but feelings were hurt only briefly and now it's time to move on. And by that I mean, of course, that we should be seeing the older episodes in such good quality as well! Until some other time, ciao :)