The funny thing is that this is just the basis for so much classical music! Honestly, I find the composition in this cartoon impressive. Sure, it's funny - and perhaps that was meant to be the main mark against it. But take it far enough, and it can transcend the ridiculousness and become moving.

And even if it doesn't, it can still be lots of fun. Shostakovich did it in his wonderful operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki".

A later animated film with the same musical idea was Garri Bardin's "Bang! Bang! Oh-oh-oh!" (1980).

>>1
To be even more precise, the usual Russian word for caterpillar is the female гусеница (gusenitsa). But the word used in this film is the male червячок (chervyachok), which means "worm" - usually "earthworm", but potentially a caterpillar too (I have the impression that in the past it was used like that more often than now - another example is Tsehanovskiy's 1929 cartoon "Post").

Seems like maybe Suteyev specifically chose the word that would cause the more transformational character change.

As for the original story, it had a beetle instead of a caterpillar.

>>2
>Well, absurdity and meaninglessness are almost characteristic of films of the 1980s and 1990s.
I can only partly agree. Although there were certainly many of those made, I think that there was also a simultaneous trend for more deep, meaningful films. It was no accident that Aleksandr Petrov got his artistic start precisely in that era...
I think that more than in any other period (especially the late 1980s - in the 1990s, the economic factor made itself felt more and more), it was a time when the directors were answerable only to themselves. They could show their best and worst parts, for good or ill. Such a situation could not last long, and indeed didn't, but there were a lot of interesting films made... alongside pointless ones like this one.

As I understand it, caterpillars are usually ugly, while butterflies always have beautiful wings, so caterpillars must be male and butterflies female. At the same time, Vietnamese also has the same problem: "Swimming" and "sailing" are the same thing. There is a song like this : I go to swim/play the boat (Em đi bơi/chơi thuyền).

This is really an excellent film and even a little scary. Perhaps, it should not be watched while we are eating. :D

First time I'm seeing this one - I had earlier seen the 1995 cartoon from Belarusfilm. Although the art style in that one's more punchy, I like this film better. All of the characters are likeable, while in the 1995 one only the sorcerer's daughter really was.

Also, it's not so obvious in English translation, but the language the characters speak in is rather beautiful, with many uncommon/old-fashioned phrases (this is probably why the previous translation had so many mistakes).

This film seemed to be very famous in Vietnam in the 1980s. Ever since I was very young, I heard about it : Баранкин, будь человеком! (повесть).

Well, absurdity and meaninglessness are almost characteristic of films of the 1980s and 1990s. This film reminds me of the Australian children's series I watched as a child. Typically as : Round the Twist. Or : About the Knight Who was not Afraid of Anyone 1.

As close to "purely for entertainment" as Soviet animation got. This one seems to have no point to it that I can see other than to showcase some funny antics.

This was almost Babichenko's final film, made when he was 74 years old. He had earlier retired from Soyuzmultfilm at 60, but came back to work for the TV animation studio Ekran/Soyuztelefilm 10 years later and made six more films. He only returned once more in 1980 to make a very short one for the Olympics.

But his better films were definitely made earlier in his career, I think (for example, "Spring Melodies", "The Liu Brothers").