Bolek & Lolek Travel the World
The Polish television cartoon 'Bolek i Lolek wyruszają w świat' (Bolek and Lolek Travel the World) aired from 1968 to 1970. Bolek and Lolek, two brothers with a passion for travel, were entrenched behind the Iron Curtain. In Soviet-controlled Poland, passports were outlawed, so foreign travel could only be experienced through imagination.
Each episode of the show starts with Bolek and Lolek in front of their globe, bored and ready for another adventure. Bolek would curl up his fist, knocking on his and Lolek’s head to jumpstart their imaginations. He would then spin their globe. Wherever Bolek’s finger landed, they would travel.
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Still from the animated film 'Na tropach Yeti' (On the Trail of Yeti) from the series 'Around the World With Bolek and Lolek' 1970, photo: Animated Film Studio in Bielsko-Biała/YouTube
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In Złote Miasto Inków (Golden City of The Incas), Bolek and Lolek travel to the Inca Empire. The extinct empire still exists in their imagination, and they meet an Inca tribal chief tied up by a bandit. The bandit steals the chief’s treasure map and goes off to steal the Inca’s gold, ending their empire. Bolek and Lolek free the Inca chief and hatch a plan to stop the thief. They end up in town where the gold is stored, and they try using traps, such as a door opener that shoots out water, to stop the bandit. In the end, the bandit steals the gold, but his unfamiliarity with Incan culture leads to him being stopped by Bolek and Lolek. The boys replace his gold with rocks and slingshot him out of the empire.
The ancient Inca Empire, the largest in Pre-Columbian America, dissolved in 1553. But it was resurrected in Bolek and Lolek’s minds. It reminded them of what their homeland Poland could turn into. Poland’s physical boundaries still existed but were being eroded under Soviet rule. By imagining the renewed Inca Empire, Bolek and Lolek imagined that Poland could also someday regain its sovereignty.
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Still from the animated film 'Na tropach Yeti' (On the Trail of Yeti) from the series 'Around the World With Bolek and Lolek' 1970, photo: Animated Film Studio in Bielsko-Biała/YouTube
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In Gran Premio Argentyny (Argentina Grand Prix), Bolek and Lolek race in the Argentina Grand Prix, a former Formula One race. Their race car is brought in from Poland, but we can clearly see it’s a Soviet-produced car, as it stalls multiple times throughout the race. Bolek and Lolek fortunately – and comically – get help from other disadvantaged drivers. One, riding a bicycle inside a wide car facade, hooks the brothers and their car to the back of his. And Bolek and Lolek win the race with the help of the Grand Prix police on horseback, who use their smoke guns to jumpstart Bolek and Lolek’s car.
Bolek and Lolek are pushed forward with the help of drivers representing other countries. The show suggests that their car, like Poland’s progress, would not be stalled. Poles after Communism would be able to travel to see what other countries had to offer. In 2004, Poland joined the European Union, which gave Poles the right to travel freely to any country inside the European Union. In 2006, Robert Kubica became the first Polish Formula One driver.
Cycling through
In another episode, Bolek and Lolek arrive on the Orinoco, one of the largest rivers in South America. They encounter the Orinoco crocodile, a rare animal. Naturally, the crocodile wants to eat other animals it encounters. Bolek and Lolek try to save that prey, like a family of otters, by getting on a speedboat and delivering them to safety. The episode ends with Bolek and Lolek saving the animals and the crocodile falling asleep, waiting for another day to eat an animal.
In their adventure, Bolek and Lolek manage to save the animals without killing the rare crocodile. At the end of the episode, we see that the boys were staring at a crocodile in a shallow pond at a zoo. Yet again, they managed to travel far away, and entertain themselves and demonstrate their values, without leaving home.
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Monument to Bolek and Lolek in Bielsko-Biała, photo: Monkpress/East News
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Traveling to new heights
Bolek and Lolek travel to the Himalayas in Nad Tropach Yeti (On The Yeti Trails). They attempt to reach the highest point, Mount Everest. But a Yeti Monster follows them, trying to stop their expedition by stealing their food, destroying the trail, and grabbing their climbing rope. The boys’ fortunes change when they are saved by the Yeti Monster during an avalanche. The relationship swings back and forth, however, as the boys revive the Yeti Monster, then they chase him after he steals their backpacks. The chase leads the boys to the top of Mount Everest. By accident, they achieve their goal, and the episode ends with the boys back in the real world, where Bolek is standing on his Mount Everest, which consists of stacked furniture and a few books.
The fictional Yeti Monster represents Bolek and Lolek’s fears: they fear the daunting challenge ahead of them, running from it until they decide to chase it themselves. In the end, viewers see that two boys at home can travel to great mountains, and scale them, with imagination and will.