The Wild Swans (film)

The Wild Swans
File:Wildswans1962.jpg The Crow explains to Elisa that there is a way to reverse her brother's "swan" curse.
Directed by	Vera Tsekhanovskaya Mikhail Tsekhanovsky
Written by	Yevgeniy Ryss Leonid Trauberg Mikhail Volpin (lyrics)
Based on	The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Andersen
Starring	Sergei Martinson K. Ustyugov Anatoliy Shchukin Askold Besedin V. Tumanova Erast Garin Viktor Sergachev Yelena Ponsova R. Chumak
Music by	Aleksandr Varlamov
Edited by	V. Tutubiner
Release dates	1962 (USSR)
Running time	60 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

The Wild Swans (Russian: Дикие лебеди, Dikiye lebedi) is a 1962 Soviet traditionally animated feature film directed by the husband-and-wife team of Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and Vera Tsekhanovskaya. Unusual for Soviet films of this period, and especially for animated films, it was filmed in widescreen. It was produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow.

Plot

The film is based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen.

The eleven handsome princes are transformed into wild swans by their evil stepmother. Their sister Elisa is game for anything to break the spell. She must knit a nettle into armors for her brothers so they would be human again. But she might be silent for the duration of her task, for speaking one word will kill her brothers. To rescue her brothers, Elisa goes through the hoop, and she nearly dies by burning like a witch.

Home video releases

• DVD: Золотая коллекция любимых мультфильмов - 4. PAL, no subtitles. Contains: The Wild Swans, Argonauts (20 min), The Boatswain and the Parrot (series 1-4, 38 min), A Blue Puppy (20 min)
• VHS and MPEG-4 versions containing only the film.

Creators

	English	Russian
Screenplay by	Evgeny Ryss Leonid Trauberg	Евгений Рысс Леонид Трауберг
Lyrics by	Mikhail Volpin	Михаил Вольпин
Directed by	Mikhail and Vera Tsekhanovskys	Михаил и Вера Цехановские
Production Designers	Nathan Lerner Max Zherebchevsky	Натан Лернер Макс Жеребчевский
Art Directors	Boris Korneev Dmitry Anpilov	Борис Корнеев Дмитрий Анпилов
Music by	Alexander Varlamov	Александр Варламов
Director of Photography	Elena Petrova	Елена Петрова
First Assistant Cameraman	Svetlana Kashcheeva	Светлана Кащеева
Sound Engineer	Boris Filchikov	Борис Фильчиков
Character Animation	Elena Hludova Victor Shevkov Valentin Kushneryov Renata Mirenkova Lidiya Reztsova N. Chernova Faina Yepifanova Konstantin Chikin Tatyana Taranovich Vladimir Zarubin Boris Butakov Ivan Davydov Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin Tatyana Pomerantseva O. Sysoyeva L. Rybchevskaya N. Avstriyskaya E. Vershinina K. Malyshev V. Maksimovich V. Rogov Erast Meladze	Елена Хлудова Виктор Шевков Валентин Кушнерёв Рената Миренкова Лидия Резцова Н. Чернова Фаина Епифанова Константин Чикин Татьяна Таранович Владимир Зарубин Борис Бутаков Иван Давыдов Вячеслав Котёночкин Татьяна Померанцева О. Сысоева Л. Рыбчевская Н. Австрийская Е. Вершинина К. Малышев В. Максимович В. Рогов Эраст Меладзе
Assistant Directors	Lidiya Nikitina Elena Turanova	Лидия Никитина Елена Туранова
Assistant Editor	V. Turubiner	В. Турубинер
Script Editor	Z. Pavlova	З. Павлова
With the Voice Talents of:	Valentina Tumanova as Elisa Elena Ponsova as the Queen, the Old Woman, and the Crow Victor Sergachyov as the young king Erast Garin as the Archbishop Sergey Martinson as the Royal Majordomo Anatoly Shchukin as the King Robert Chumak Konstantin Ustyugov Askold Besedin — as narrator and singing voice of the young king	Валентина Туманова (Элиза) Елена Понсова (королева, старушка и ворона) Виктор Сергачёв (молодой король — речь) Эраст Гарин (епископ) Сергей Мартинсон (приказчик короля) Анатолий Щукин (король) Роберт Чумак Константин Устюгов Аскольд Беседин (от автора/молодой король — вокал)
Executive Producer	G. Kruglikov	Г. Кругликов

Art features

The film expert Pyotr Bagrov in the analysis of the Soviet "andersen's" filmography puts the animated film "Wild Swans" on a special place, separating its literary basis from other fairy tales of Andersen: "It, in general, and not the fairy tale. It is an ancient Danish legend". Respectively, other, in comparison with other animated screen versions, appeared also a graphic manner in which the tape is created: "The extended, "Gothic" people and rocks — and at the same time the plane, medieval and primitive image". Bagrov also notes typical for game cinema, but rare in animation parallel installation.

See also

• History of Russian animation
• List of animated feature-length films

External links

• The Wild Swans at Animator.ru
• The Wild Swans at IMDb
• «The Wild Swans» on YouTube (Official Russian)
• «The Wild Swans» on YouTube (Russian with English subtitles)
• «The Wild Swans» on YouTube (English №1)
• «The Wild Swans» on YouTube (English №2)
• The Wild Swans at myltik.ru (Russian)