Larisa Malyukova (in her book Сверхкино, p.162) thinks that this film was the prototype for the popular recent "Masha and the Bear" animated series. Olifirenko was one of the few puppet animation directors (and a good one, at that) who kept working at Soyuzmultfilm during the 1990s while the studio was falling apart (most of them left to work at Christmas Films studio on the "Animated Shakespeare" series for the Brits, or at Garri Bardin's "Stayer" studio).

There's a rather detailed (perhaps too detailed) review analysing of the "hidden meaning" of this one over at Kinopoisk.

I think Olifirenko's next film is even better, but rather difficult to translate. Not sure if I'll manage it, though I'd like to try.