If you've never seen the classic 1975 Soviet animated short "Hedgehog in the Fog," you're about to fall in love, forever.

A favorite among Soviet animation studio Soyuzmultfilm's many beloved hits, "Hedgehog in the Fog" (Ёжик в тумане) directed by Yuriy Norshteyn is a standout. Cute, dark, subtle and dreamy, this cuddly existential treatise is like a happy childhood memory that if overanalyzed reveals a repressed terror.

We could go on forever with countless philosophical interpretations of the plot in this surreal little miracle of animation, but we won't ruin it for you. Suffice it to say that it's about an adventurous hedgehog, devoted friends, the Enlightenment, good, evil, the woods, spiritual metamorphosis, a mysterious and omnipresent fog, a samovar, a bundle, a jar of raspberry jam, juniper twigs and death. With one of the most beautiful tree images in nature or art, brief commentary on the psychological disorders of aggressive predators and a presence of that "some thing" in the water... it's a damn good cartoon.

See for yourself: