I often think we miss a great deal by turning our face steadfastly westward, and this is so true of all things 'Cinema';animation and film.
The imagery and imagination that hails from the East has always struck me as far superior to all thing Hollywood.
Here is just one name to conjure with...
Farewell Aleksei Balabanov, film-maker
a darkly comic muck-raker
his films delight his post-soviet motherland
a channel4 retrospective, by popular demand? (yes please)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/19/aleksei-balabanov