''Plasticine Crow'' (, translit. ''Plastilinovaya vorona'') is a 1981

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

clay animation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

Alexander Tatarsky Olexander Mykhailovich Tatarskyy ( Ukrainian: Олександр Михайлович Татарський; ; December 11, 1950 – July 22, 2007) was a Ukrainian animation director, screenwriter, animator, producer, artist, co-founder and a ...

('' T/O Ekran'' studio). Animation divided into three independent parts (''Picture'', ''Game'' and ''But maybe, but maybe...''). The film was Russia's first

claymation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

film.

Plot synopsis

Picture

The first part tells kids about the three

painting style In the visual arts, style is a "...distinctive manner which permits the grouping of works into related categories" or "...any distinctive, and therefore recognizable, way in which an act is performed or an artifact made or ought to be performed a ...

s –

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

and

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

. Lyrics for the first part were written by

Alexander Kushner Alexander Semyonovich Kushner () is a Russian poet from Saint Petersburg. Biography Kushner was born in Leningrad into a Russian-Jewish family; his father was a naval engineer. Alexandr graduated from the Russian language and literature schoo ...

and sung by Grigory Gladkov, who also composed whole cartoon.

Game

The second part features the story of grandpa and his nephew playing the children game where the players periodically opens and shuts their eyes. And every time they are amazed with looking to something new in front of them. This part was based on lyrics by Ovsey Driz and performed by

Leonid Bronevoy Leonid Sergeyevich Bronevoy (December 17, 1928December 9, 2017, born Leonid Solomonovich Bronevoy) was a Soviet and Russian actor. Though primarily a stage actor in the Lenkom Theatre, Bronevoy also made occasional appearances in films. He was ...

and Alesha Pavlov.

But maybe, but maybe...

The final part is a parody of '' The Crow and the Fox'', best known in Russian with the version by

Krylov Krylov (masculine; ) and Krylova (feminine; ) is a Russian surname, derived from the word "''крыло́"'' (wing). Alternative spellings are Krilov, Kryloff, Kriloff (masculine) and Krilova (feminine). People * Alexei Krylov (1863–1945), Rus ...

. The storytellers (Lev Shimelov and Alexander Levenbuk) can't remember the story plot, and they are trying to recall it. Thus, instead of the crow from Krylov's story, a dog appears, and then a cow, and even a hippopotamus. The original fox is also replaced by an ostrich and then by a

street cleaner A street sweeper or street cleaner is a person or machine that cleans streets. People have worked in cities as "sanitation workers" since sanitation and waste removal became a priority. A street-sweeping person would use a broom and shovel t ...

. At the end of the entirely distorted fable, a distorted moral is given: ''Don't stand and don't jump, don't sing and don't dance where there is construction in progress or heavy load hanging.'' (This is a pun on the two common Russian danger signs – "Don't stand under heavy load" and "Beware! Construction works in progress!"). The lyrics for the third part were written by

Eduard Uspensky Eduard Nikolayevich Uspensky (; 22 December 193714 August 2018) was a Soviet and Russian children's writer and poet, author of over 70 books, as well as a playwright, screenwriter and TV presenter. His works have been translated into 25 languages ...

.But maybe Crow…
/ref>

Voice cast

* Grigory Gladkov * Lev Shimelov * Alexander Levenbuk * Alesha Pavlov

Censorship

At the time of release, the Soviet state officials wanted to ban the film because of (what they described) "ideological nonsense". Nevertheless, head of Kinopanorama television programme Xeniya Marinina and host and film director

Eldar Ryazanov Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov (; 18 November 1927 – 30 November 2015) was a Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter, poet, actor and pedagogue whose popular comedies, satirizing the daily life of the Soviet Union and Russia, are celebrat ...

managed to show cartoon in one of editions of Kinopanorama on

Soviet Central Television The Central Television of the USSR (; abbreviated CT USSR, SCTV ">/nowiki>/nowiki>) was the state television broadcaster of the Soviet Union. Like much of the Soviet media, CT USSR regularly promoted the agendas of the Communist Party. Initi ...

, bypassing the censorship.

Production

* Creation of the film required about 800 kg of soviet plasticine. Because of withered colors the plasticine was dye-colored. * The music in the third part of the film was intended to sound in the ordinary tempo, but its total length appeared to be longer than the animation created (8 minutes instead of 5). While Tatarskiy was in doubt, the voices arrived. Then the genius decision came when Tatarsky remembered how the gramophone-recorded voice of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

was restored by varying speed of phonation. He griped the recording to the necessary length (5 min), and the song acquired its recognisable sounding. * The music in the third part is borrowing heavily from the Irish

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

Whiskey in the Jar "Whiskey in the Jar" ( Roud 533) is an Irish traditional song set in the southern mountains of Ireland, often with specific mention of counties Cork and Kerry. The song, about a rapparee (highwayman) who is betrayed by his wife or lover, is ...

''. The beginning of the second verse of the song ("Но тут лиса бежала...") in this part is based on

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...

's song ''

My Sweet Lord "My Sweet Lord" is a song by the English musician George Harrison, released in November 1970 on his triple album ''All Things Must Pass''. It was also released as a single, Harrison's first as a solo artist, and topped charts worldwide; it was ...

''.

Notes

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0219251
''Plasticine Crow''
at

Animator.ru Animator.ru is a Russian website chronicling the films, people and studios of the animation industry in Russia, the former Soviet Union and (to a lesser extent) the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It also includes a forum, a news block, ...

The Plasticine Crow / Пластилиновая ворона - Russian cartoon with English subtitles
* Translation into English of the song from the third part * ''Авторы сценария и режиссёры: —'' Александр Татарский * ''Художники-постановщики: —'' Игорь Ковалёв * ''Операторы: —'' Эрнст Гаман * ''Композиторы: —'' Григорий Гладков * ''Звукооператоры: —'' Нелли Кудрина * ''Авторы текстов песни: —'' Эдуард Успенский, «А может а может…» * ''Монтажёры: —'' Любовь Георгиева * ''Редакторы: —'' Валерия Коновалова * ''Директоры: —'' Лидия Варенцова 1981 animated short films 1981 films 1981 in the Soviet Union Soviet animated short films Soviet musical-animated films Claymation films Studio Ekran films 1980s stop-motion animated films