The research is devoted to the study of literary allusions in animated films, the determination of the specific aspects of their use and functions.The allusions to literary texts used in animation can be implicit and explicit in nature and can vary in size. They are elements of intertextuality. Literary allusions structure the film both as a complex, multifaceted text, and as an ironic, parody game of the authors with the audience.They not only form the subtext of the animated film, but also perform various functions, including plot-forming, evaluative-characterizing, comic. A screen product with literary allusions, being an example of diversified structure, cannot be attributed exclusively to an elite or mass type of art.The use of literary allusions is not so common in modern animation compared to other types of allusions. This is due to the fact that deciphering a literary allusion requires a certain cultural background on the part of the viewer, in other words, he or she should be well-read.Since the reading level of the modern viewer is declining, literary allusions used in films are becoming simpler. Structure-forming literary allusions are not so often used in animation, while fragmentary and deconstructed allusions, reduced to a recognizable or replicated literary phrase, become the most frequently used stylistic device.The artistic practice of animation demonstrates that with the help of literary allusion and the techniques of postmodern poetics, it is possible, on the one hand, to create films that will be easily accessible to not only a person familiar with literature and art, but also to an average unsophisticated viewer, and on the other hand, to make a work of mass culture, which includes mainstream animation, interesting to a well-read viewer who is able to detect hidden meanings and an intertextual dialogue with texts of art and culture behind the exterior of the plot and action.The incorporation of literary allusions into the structure of the film's artistic image contributes to the creation of a parody-game effect and opens up the possibility for a multiplicity of interpretations.