This film, in my opinion, only deserves a B grade, or a score of 4/5 according to Russian standards. Because it contains too many slogans and noises, which makes the story heavy (Even though I was born and raised in a communist country, I also felt that the message from the film was very forced). Of course, in return, the soundtrack is very good and the images have documentary value about Soviet life in 1946.

The film's content begins like someone writing a postcard to wish someone a happy birthday. Even, in my opinion, that was a son who left home to fight and sent a letter to his beloved mother in his hometown. The story moves continuously like someone looking at a collection of postcards, and of course, those "postcards" contain the history of a city. Perhaps after my generation, that is, persons were born in the 2000s and later, whom will find this form difficult to understand.

This film almost heralded the three golden decades of Soviet animation. I am sure !

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Just for fun, for most countries in the world, those three decades are very beautiful memories, because they are probably associated with the prosperity of welfare, media, entertainment... but for Vietnamese people only have obsessions of separation, loss, war, poverty and deception. Therefore, in the 1980s and 1990s, when the governments of the Soviet Union (inherited by Russia) and the United States promoted a large number of books and films, which were released in the mid-twentieth century, there was a phenomenon like this : Although Vietnamese people received it very warmly (because they all have attractive and humane content), they hardly understood anything.

Actually, I can say that the twentieth century was very scary in the minds of Vietnamese people, that's why they always talk about war and identify history with war. What is considered the most beautiful in the modern Vietnamese worldview often focuses on the early stages of life (school age, teenage love) or rural landscapes. That concept is now breaking like glass as the economic crisis spreads, and as for me, I am also trying to escape such a simple way of thinking. Regardless, our world has transformed profoundly since the Internet dominated the media. Now Goebbels's formula is no longer true, because too much information confuses the crowd and increases distrust.

While this one captures some of the magic of the season, I think it also continues the decline of the series that had already been noticeable in the previous episode.

The earlier episodes had straddled the line between childhood and adulthood, and the scripts had had something for all ages, but these later episodes became more purely for children.

Also, the animation style became simplified (no more "shading"). Probably because the studio was on the verge of being closed at this point, and was growing rather desperate to find a way to avoid its fate (perhaps the only reason it lasted as long as it did was because the Yeltsin people wanted to make sure they won the 1995 elections first).

Other animated versions of this tale (both also quite good):
Fox and Wolf (1936) - earliest surviving Soviet colour animation - unfortunately, the last 10 minutes didn't survive
Be Caught, Fish (2005) - part of the "Mountain of Gems" series, this one has an irreverent Ukrainian flavour

This story seems to be very popular in Eastern Europe, because it is related to the very familiar Damsel-in-Distress motif from the Middle Ages (only Europe, while not popular in Asia - where marital relations not free). Within just a few minutes when I posted the subtitles on Opensubtitles, there were about 30 downloads - a not small number for a little-known site.

It's interesting to think about how this lighthearted, snowy film (based on a mixture of northern European pagan and Western Christian folklore) was made at a time of horrific existential war, in a southern Islamic city surrounded by flat, semi-arid plains...

As a film, though - I like the song, and I think the film itself is pretty charming. But as New Year films go, the Soyuzmultfilm studio made a much better one three years later (and a few more classic ones soon thereafter), and I also prefer the 1937 "Silver Rain" made at Mosfilm.

This story still remains topical to these days. It seems that as the quality of life improves, the method of educating self-defense awareness becomes increasingly poor. In 2022, in a large city of Southern Vietnam, a rather unreasonable robbery occurred, but when I saw what happened, so I exclaimed that : This is the phenomenon of The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats. In the security clip, an intruder knocks on the door and threatens to force two children to give him the iPad. It must also be known that that morning their parents went to work and left them in the motel room. Đồng Nai ("deer-field") is an industrialized metropolis, where most residents are migrant workers and have very low incomes. The event also speaks to the seriousness of dependence on technology, because now Vietnam's Ministry of Education is also very worried about this issue.

However, that is still just a small problem and can be forgiven, but what about more complex issues such as : Sexual abuse, labor abuse and especially the use of force against children ? In the last days of 2023, there were at least three events that shocked Vietnamese society and even caused parliamentarians to question the Minister of Education :

1. Poisoning at school : A principal was suspended for 15 days for skimping on rations, causing every 2 students to eat the same small packet of instant noodles ; Some schools have had a series of students having to go to the emergency room after eating lunch ; Many students had stomachaches after buying snacks outside the schoolgate, some of which were found to contain drug powder.

2. A parent blocked the street and beat his son's classmate, forcing the schoolboy to go to the emergency room with a very serious brain condition.

3. A music teacher was locked in class by students, whom used disparaging words and then beat her until she fainted.

This is just a summary, because the real situation is much more serious and complicated. What I always think about is, what is the point of books still being sold on the streets, when no one wants to read them and if they do, they won't understand them ?

This is a relatively famous story in Vietnam, but it turns out there is no official text. I could only find one English-Vietnamese bilingual text that was quite outdated, even the Vietnamese translation was also poor (almost w-by-w). It is said that the film adaptation was shown on Vietnam Central Television (VTV) long before I was born. In my generation, it is not that popular anymore. It's funny, even though it's a very Russian story, but only English students know it.

>>1
Thanks for that, Cynir. Although it seems to me that the problem of the clerk in this film is rather different than in the story you describe - almost the opposite problem, even.
I think there must be a number of films on this site with a similar theme to the problem you speak of, but the one that immediately comes to mind is Ivanov-Vano's animated feature "Lefty" (1964). (although he kind of botched the ending in my opinion and made it way more confusing than it should be - the original story's was clearer and better)

This same story was earlier adapted in 1956 as "The Wondrous Well" by Vladimir Degtyaryov. Personally, I like that version better. It is more true to the original story and feels more magical (though less brightly-coloured). Also, the lazy sister in it is more genuinely lazy and deserving of her punishment than in this one - in this version, she does actually try to do the work, it's just that she never learned how and so messes it up.

The characterization of Grandpa Frost in this version seems inspired by the narrator/grandpa of Leonid Nosyrev's films (many of which aren't on the site yet, unfortunately).

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your point of view), the original story's darker elements have been removed or toned down in this adaptation - and even though it's quite beautifully done, I can't help but be disappointed by that. The godmother is more like a "good witch" in this version (not in the original), and the film makes it seem like her cat unsuccessfully tries to hijack her original plan. But in the original story, Masha's husband was meant to be the cat all along - and it was Masha's rejection of him and of her godmother's riches that leads to her "happy ending" (she originally throws her godmother's key into the well, then the cat jumps into the well after it and is never seen again). Otherwise, it ends like it does in the film.

So in trying to make this version more "child-friendly", the story kind of loses its point.