The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1984 film)

The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Russian: Ска́зка о царе́ Салта́не, romanizedSkazka o tsare Saltanye) is a 1984 Soviet traditionally animated feature film directed by Lev Milchin and Ivan Ivanov-Vano and produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. It is an adaptation of the 1831 poem of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin. There are few words in the film besides those of the poem itself, which is read from beginning to end by the narrator and the voice actors. Some portions of the poem are skipped.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan
Directed byLev Milchin
Ivan Ivanov-Vano
Written byAleksandr Pushkin (libretto)
Lev Milchin
Ivan Ivanov-Vano
StarringMariya Vinogradova
Mikhail Zimin
Roman Filippov
Lyudmila Ivanova
Narrated byAvangard Leontyev
Edited byNataliya Stepantseva
Music byMikhail Meyerovich
Release date
  • January 1, 1984 (1984-01-01)
Running time
56 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian

The movie was adapted in English in the 1990s by Films by Jove for the series Stories from My Childhood.

Plot

edit

Nearly identical to that of the original poem.

Three maidens under a window spun late in the evening ... And then much that was: both love, and slander, both treachery, and miracles, and set of magic adventures, and thirty three athletes, and, of course, happy end ...

Adventures of the brave tsarevitch Gvidon, the great tsarevna-Swan and the tsar Saltan will remind that love, fidelity and strength of mind always win!

Creators

edit
English Russian
Directors Lev Milchin
Ivan Ivanov-Vano
Лев Мильчин
Иван Иванов-Вано
Scenario Lev Milchin
Ivan Ivanov-Vano
Лев Мильчин
Иван Иванов-Вано
Art directors Lev Milchin
Ivan Ivanov-Vano
Лев Мильчин
Иван Иванов-Вано
Artists Irina Svetlitsa
Igor Oleynikov
Marina Ignatenko
I. Troyanova
V. Maksimovich
T. Gerasimenko
G. Stepanenko
L. Alyokhina
Ирина Светлица
Игорь Олейников
Марина Игнатенко
И. Троянова
В. Максимович
Т. Герасименко
Г. Степаненко
Л. Алёхина
Animators Marina Rogova
Nikolay Fyodorov
Anatoliy Abarenko
Andrei Ignatenko
Vladimir Zarubin
Yuriy Meshcheryakov
Marina Voskanyants
Antonina Alyoshina
Aleksandr Panov
Vladimir Krumin
Sergei Avramov
Viktor Likhachyov
Марина Рогова
Николай Фёдоров
Анатолий Абаренов
Андрей Игнатенко
Владимир Зарубин
Юрий Мещеряков
Марина Восканьянц
Антонина Алёшина
Александр Панов
Владимир Крумин
Сергей Аврамов
Виктор Лихачёв
Camera operator Mikhail Druyan Михаил Друян
Executive producer Liliana Monakhova Лилиана Монахова
Composer Mikhail Meyerovich Михаил Меерович
Sound operator Boris Filchikov Борис Фильчиков
Script editor Raisa Frichinskaya Раиса Фричинская
Voice actors Mariya Vinogradova
Mikhail Zimin
Roman Filippov
N. Boronina
A. Pokrovskaya
Lyudmila Ivanova
Anastasiya Zuyeva
Nikolai Grabbe
Boris Novikov
A. Zolotnitskiy
Мария Виноградова
Михаил Зимин
Роман Филиппов
Н. Боронина
А. Покровская
Людмила Иванова
Анастасия Зуева
Николай Граббе
Борис Новиков
А. Золотницкий
Narrator Avangard Leontyev Авангард Леонтьев
Editor Nataliya Stepantseva Наталия Степанцева

Reception

edit

Fellow film director Yuri Norstein, who had previously worked with Ivanov-Vano, praised Tsar Saltan's direction:

Ivan Ivanov-Vano was the first to use the motifs and techniques of folk art in animation. From his studies at Vkhutemas, education in the traditions of the Russian avant-garde, excellent knowledge of world artistic culture – all this was reflected in his work. From an art historian’s point of view, he could be called a formalist; he was not afraid to experiment. This director’s experiment was "The Humpbacked Horse", which has become a classic. In it, Ivanov-Vano combined everything: love for Russian culture, usage of poetry, knowledge of the profession, and good command of the entire arsenal of animation of that time. He used Disney’s technology to create a powerful innovation – a Russian film. The merit of the artist Lev Milchin was of course essential to Ivan’s creation, for all his life he never parted ways with him. Their last work was ‘’The Tale of Tsar Saltan’’. It was the perfect tandem - the irrepressible nature, the warrior-man, fanatic, tyrant Vano. Intellectual to the core, he did not permit anything superfluous; he understood everything, acute to the grotesque Milchin. For several decades, its elements, its natural habitat – remained a Russian fairy tale.

Home video

edit

The Tale of Tsar Saltan was first released on home video in the early 1990s, by film association Krupny Plan. Several years later, Krupny Plan again issued the film, in a VHS collection that contained other animated adaptations of Pushkin's fairy tales. The film was later released by original producer Soyuzmultfilm. In the 2000s it was reissued on DVD by both Soyuzmultfilm and Krupny Plan, and in 2003 with Soyuzmultfilm's collection "A Gold Collection of Favourite Cartoons”.

See also

edit
edit