Description:

The peaceful and hardworking inhabitants of a little tower-house experience an attack by enemies: the wolf, the fox and the bear. Based on Samuil Marshak's play of this traditional folk tale.

As with some other cartoons of the era, the influence of the Second World War is felt, though it is not directly referenced. Marshak changed the original folk tale so that it became a battle between two sides (originally, the fox and the wolf also came to live peacefully in the dwelling, while the bear came at the end and crushed everyone).

This version of the tale (this particular screenplay) was published in book form in 1947, illustrated by Yuriy Vasnetsov - it can currently be viewed at the Russian National Electronic Library here. In the same year, a more traditional version of the tale was also published, with illustrations by Yevgeniy Charushin.

Marshak's poem was translated to German by Johannes Bobrowski, and then from German to English by Moya Gillespie, published in 1970 as The House in the Meadow. This cartoon is also partly based on A.N.Tolstoy's version of the folk tale The Rooster with the Golden Crest (Петушок-золотой гребешок).

Both a colour and a B&W version of the film were released. The artistic supervisor of the production was Aleksandr Ptushko.

The above videos are not very good in image quality, but it was hard to find anything better. The best version of this film currently available can be found at culture.ru.