Published on 06/22/2013

Professor Balthazar is probably the most famous Croatian professor in the world, a popular figure of cartoon movies, familiar to millions of children throughout the world. It has been created in 1967, that is, 46 years ago, by Zlatko Grgić, a member of the lagendary Zagreb School of Animated Film. On June 21st 2013 Google placed the professor on its front page. Professor Balthazar was equally popular among children fourty years ago, as is today.

Professor Balthazar was created in 1967 by Zlatko Grgić within the Zagreb School of Animated Film in Croatia

Google showed famous Croatian Professor Balthazar on its front pages on June 21st 2013, offered in hrvatski, that is, in Croatian language.
Hrvatska = HR = Croatia.

The creator of Professor Balthazar is Zlatko Grgić (1931-1988), and the name was coined by Zdravko Štalter. His name is written in Croatian as profesor Baltazar.

Zlatko Grgić in 1967, Zagreb, in creative mood working on Shoe Inventor - the first film from the Professor Balthazar series.

The fascinating history of the Zagreb School of Animated Film (a term coined by a famous French film theorist Georges Sadoul) is described in enormous monograph prepared by Zlatko Sudarić (ed.): Zagrebački krug crtanog filma, 1-4, Zavod za kulturu Hrvatske i Zagreb film, Zagreb 1978. (The Zagreb Circle of Animated Film: Part 1 has 462 pp, Part 2 has 243 pp, Part 3 has 355 pp, Part 4 has 517 pp, altogether 1577 pp, covering the period till 1978 only! Parts 1 and 4 contain rather detailed summaries in English.) The two photos above and below are from the monograph.

About twenty people participated in the project of Professor Balthazar, and we mention just a few more names from this very creative team: Ante Zaninović, Boris Kolar, Milan Blažeković, Zlatko Bourek, and Tomica Simović - the author of lovely music.

The team that started the Professor Balthazar series in 1967 in Zagreb: Zlatko Grgić (on the left), Ante Zaninović, Boris Kolar, Zdravko Pavičić

Professor Balthazar is popular throughout the world even today. The episodes have been shown with great success in many countries, like Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Iran (!), USA, Australia, New Zealand, etc. The Professor is especially popular in Scandinavian countries.

We provide some of the cartoon movies, produced by The Zagreb Film, in original Croatian language first:

In English and other languages:

Formated for CROWN by Darko Žubrinić
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