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Storyline
A reflection of Russian history and memory. Norstein creates a visual emotional response to a changing Russia, followed in the eyes of the Little Grey Wolf spying on various people's lives, and giving an insight on Russian culture in the 20th Century.
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Anonymous
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The sound of the baby drinking his milk was actually the sound of a puppy, and the sad eyes of the wolf were copied from a magazine picture of a rescued kitten.
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Connections
Featured in
Magia Russica (2004)
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Soundtracks
Utomlyonnoe solntse
Written by
Jerzy Petersburski
Russian lyrics by Iosif Alvek
Performed by
Aleksandr Tsfasman See more »
In 1984, the Animation Olympiad named this as "the most beautiful animated film ever made". Well, that's a mighty tall order to live up to and so I expected a much prettier film than I actually saw. Now this isn't to say the film is ugly, but only portions of the film are pretty. The backgrounds and effects are indeed lovely, but the characters all too often are cutouts that move through stop-motion (almost like those of Terry Gilliam) and they just have a cheap quality about them. The contrast between these moving characters and the rest of the film is pretty noticeable--especially the rather crudely drawn wolf. Plus, while the film is in some ways quite pretty, it's not especially fun to watch or exciting. I really think some of the Russian animated shorts by Aleksandr Petrov that were done after SKAZKA SKAZOK were far more beautiful and impressive--having a narrative that is much more interesting to all ages. SKAZKA SKAZOK, instead, has very limited commercial appeal--being more for the artsy crowd than the average person. Overall, rather pretty but that's about all. Had I not heard all the hype, perhaps I would have been more impressed.