MovieChat Forums > Alenkiy tsvetochek Discussion > The Russian (Soviet) "Beauty and the Bea...

The Russian (Soviet) "Beauty and the Beast".

posted 14 days ago by TheMan18 (12520)
2 replies | jump to latest

Yeah, this animation from 1952, lasting less than an hour in its original form (around 42 minutes) is essentially a Russian/Soviet version of "Beauty and the Beast", made a decade after the French Jean Cocteau version "La Belle et la Bete" (1942) came out but nearly 40 years, 39 to be close, before we saw the Disney version in 1991.

For anyone interested in either version, definitely DO give this Soviet one a look, I think online you may ever find it with Russian subtitles.

Although for contrast, for example, the witch in this one is more evil and the cursed man is less of a jerk than the Prince in that movie, and to my knowledge, for the most part, you don't get any enchanted objects here like in the Disney flick. No dancing and singing cups or alive clocks and candles etc, and maybe its fine as it is. You be the deciding judge.

And I wouldn't be too surprised if the makers of the 1991 Disney version also saw this one and got some ideas from it, even though the original story, French I believe, dates back all the way to 1800s.

The Scarlet Flower (1952) - aka - "Alenkiy Tsvetochek".

[–] TheMan18 (12520) 14 days ago

Sorry, I also meant to say, with English and other FOREIGN subtitles.

[–] TheMan18 (12520) 14 days ago

Notorious well known and also much criticized for his "music" Bulgarian-born Russian male pop superstar Philip Kirkorov even had a SONG "Alenkiy Tsvetochek", and it was one of the most earliest songs of his career, released in 1990, and obviously inspired by this fairy-tale and possibly this Russian animated movie.