A collection of three short films. Although the intention of the Merry-Go-Round series was mainly to springboard young talent, in this edition, there was not a single "young" director - the two men had already directed a few critically-acclaimed full-length (10 minute) "solo" films of their own, while Galina Barinova (Petrov's wife) was on her seventh mini-film. For all three, this would be the last "Merry-Go-Round" they would ever participate in.

Barinova's film is on the shorter side even for her, and quite simple (though well executed).

The highlight of the three is definitely Anatoliy Petrov's. The art direction is amazing. It looks beautiful, and its realistic portrayal of the underwater world reminds me of Miyazaki's "Ponyo" (which came much later). He did a lot of research and all the animation, too (because of course - who else could have done it?). The plot reminded me of some other films: Bardin's The Ugly Duckling (2010) and Yelena Petkevich's Forest Tales (1997). Unlike in Bardin's film, nobody is really maliciously mean to our main character - the denizens of the deep are simply afraid, and he does not end up friendless - although the very end of both films is the same. Whereas with "Forest Tales", the main difference is in the ending: that firefly finds other fireflies like himself at the end (just like here), but comes to realize that the light of home is what he really desires.

Valeriy Ugarov's entry is a lot of stylistic wackiness and nice animation, but seems to lack (at least, for me) a really strong central idea, unless it's simply that underlings can often be more nasty than their bosses.