Soviet fantasy movies

Sadko is based on an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which was based on a Russian epic tale of the same name. In the old Russian city of Novgorod, the merchants are feasting in a gorgeous palace and Sadko is bragging that he can bring to their land a sweet-voiced bird of happiness. They laugh at him, but he is offered help by the Ocean King's daughter, who is mesmerized by Sadko's singing and is in love with him. The hero is destined to visit many lands in his search of the bird. First shown in the USA in 1953 with English subtitles. This entry is for 1962 English-dub by Roger Corman's Filmgroup, which runs about 8 minutes shorter (removes much of the music) than the Russian original (see, Sadko, 1953)

They're two best friends, a million miles from home. On an incredible adventure, beyond the boundaries of space and time. A fantasy about a lonely boy who is transferred from his dull life with his adoptive parents to the land where his real father is the king.

The film is based on the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin’s poem of the same name. In the midst of the wedding party of Prince Ruslan and Ludmila, daughter of Prince Vladimir, the girl is kidnapped by the evil sorcerer Chernomor and the witch Naina. Three former suitors for her hand set out, as does Ruslan, to rescue Ludmila...

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Before a New Year evening Masha and Vitya decide to go to the forest full of fairy tales creatures.

Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors is a 1964 Soviet fairy tale film directed by Aleksandr Rou based on a story with the same name by Vitali Gubarev. Both the surreal story by Vladimir Gubarev, together with the 1964 film, written in a Through The Looking Glass style. Alice-type Soviet girl, named Olya meets her counterpart Yalo, while looking into the mirror. Yalo is an absolute antipode to Olya, for example where Olya is precise and neat, Yalo is absent-minded, careless, etc. The explicit plot relates to Olya learning to see herself differently, but this occurs through an experience in the Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors which serves as a mechanism for commenting on the ability of a society to manufacture a false reality.

A merchant is living in a fairytale Russia of hundreds of years ago. When he is making a journey to market, his three daughters each ask for a present to be brought back...

A young boy finds a magic lantern that contains a genie, and when he frees the genie he's granted three wishes. He uses the wishes to help the princess of Baghdad and her father fight off an evil sorcerer who's trying to take over the kingdom.

A story about a young fox Ludwig XIV Larsen and his friendship with a handsome chicken Tutta Karlson. Based on Jan-Olof Ekholm book.

A fairy tale about a conceited young man and a young woman with a tyrannical step-mother, who must overcome magical trials in order to be together.

Once upon a time there lived a Tsar named Yeremey who went on a year-long journey to take inventory of all he owned. One day he is kidnapped by the underwater Tsar Chudo-Yudo. When a ransom is demanded, the Tsar's family is faced with all kinds of intrigue and treachery.

Dragon is a bloody dictator, who kills every opponent. People live hopelessly, until Lancelot comes to save the beautiful Elsa. Lancelot can only win, if all people become free from fear, that is feeding the Dragon's power. Dragon's multiple personalities, ranging from a "dragon" to a "samurai" to a "Nazi", scare the hell out of all people, except Lancelot. Finally Dragon drops all his masks, to become the most dangerous of his incarnations - "himself". And the battle begins

A little girl Assol met a wizard and it has been foretold: "... it will be a fine sunny day when a beautiful ship under scarlet sail comes and the noble prince will take you away from here. He'll take you to the world of your dreams, where you will be loved and happy." The neighbours told jokes about her, children teased her, but she waited for her prince. She trusted in the miracles and waited. Arthur Gray's rule was "if you can make a miracle, do it!". And he made a miracle for the wonderful romantic girl.

A pair of peasant children, Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the Fairy Berylune. On their journey, they are accompanied by the humanized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, Bread, and other entities.

A palace steward conspires with bandits to kidnap an infant czar's son and an orphan adopted by the czar, replacing the prince with the steward's son. Two decades later the true prince and his foster brother are slaves in a quarry, the changeling grew up as a prince, and his mother has been elevated to the highest position in the state for "saving" the prince, but losing her own child. Then the brothers escape, the changeling prince departs to fight an immortal wizard and vanishes, and the brothers have to deal with the wizard. Which includes stealing a bird-woman from a Mid-Eastern khan and figuring where the wizard's death is.

The story that happened on the farm near Dikanka on the night before Christmas, when the village blacksmith Vakula, having saddled the Devil, brought to his beloved Oksana, the daughter of a rich Cossack Chub, queen's "сherevichki"(the little women shoes) from the capital — St. Petersburg.

A rare astronomical phenomenon — the parade of planets — has a strange effect on several men. The heroes of the film — an astrophysicist, locksmith, salesman, architect, loader, trolley bus driver — are called up for military training, which ends ahead of time. There is a strange pause in their life — no one knows where they are, no one is waiting for them, and they themselves can not rush anywhere. This short respite in a hasty and busy life gives the heroes the opportunity to experience strong and very important feelings for them.

A philosophical and poetic portrait of the famous (or maybe infamous?) Baron Munchhausen. His crazy, yet very merriment, stories, views and behavior is what sets him apart from others. He becomes alienated from the society that failed to grasp his brilliance. In fact, his brilliance is what underlines the faults with the society itself. It's a beautiful yet tragic story that is filled with dense and intellectual dialogue.

The wonderful children’s author Eduard Uspensky has give us Cheburashka and Crocodile Ghena, “School of Clowns” and “Down Along the Magical River”, on which this magnificent film is based, one of the best children’s films of the 1980s-1990s. A very witty, kind and merry film! Just watch Tatiana Peltser alone as Baba-Yaga! Going to vacation at his grandmother’s in a village, the boy Mitya could never imagine that he would become a participant of the extraordinary adventures in a fairy-tale land. And all this because his grandma is Baba-Yaga, albeit a kind one… Together with his grandma Yagorovna, Vasilissa the Wisest, House Spirit and Russian Herculeses, Mitya came out to fight the army of Koschei the Deathless (a fine work by Alexander Filippenko), One-Eyed Evil and Nightingale the Robber (Oleg Anofriyev)…

When a witch transforms her brothers into swans, a young princess must find a way to change them back.

Petro is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long-ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. The mischievous demon Basavriuk, offers a deal, enticing Petro into crime for the sake of fortune. Based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Eve of Ivan Kupala” (“St John’s Eve”) and Ukrainian folk tales.

Based on a classic fairytale "Cinderella" brilliantly adapted by Yevgeni Shvarts.

The queen of a magic kingdom is trying to marry her two daughters...

A wooden boy Buratino tries to find his place in life. He befriends toys from a toy theater owned by evil Karabas-Barabas, gets tricked by Alice the Fox and Basilio the Cat and finally discovers the mystery of a golden key given to him by kind Tortila the Tortoise.

The story, a Communist re-telling of Gulliver's Travels, is about a young boy who dreams of himself as a version of Gulliver who has landed in Lilliput suffering under capitalist inequality and exploitation.

Defeating the terrible dragon, the soldier Ivan returns from the war. The Far Far Away rejoices. The king, also Ivan, is very pleased. He awards the namesake with an order with pearls, appoints a field marshal and offers his wife his own daughter Maria Louise. But the soldier suddenly refuses everything.

An interstellar expedition is sent to study a strange planet. Despite the fact that creatures from various Earth time periods inhabit the world, the natives possess metal swords, even though they should have no knowledge of such weaponry.

At the end of the 22nd century Alisa Seleznyova, her father Professor Seleznyov and pilot Zelyony go on a space expedition to find rare animals for Moscow Zoo. On the way they seem to encounter a mysterious conspiracy led by Doctor Verhovtsev against legendary Two Captains Kim and Buran. The only clue is a talking bird Сhatterer [Govorun] that our heroes accidentally took possession of.

A family hires a babysitter who seems to possess magical powers.

Laughter and Grief by the White Sea is a 1987 Soviet traditionally animated feature film directed by Leonid Nosyrev made at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. The film is a celebration of the culture of the Russian Pomors who live around the White Sea.

This is a story of Ajooba, the masked legend, who was treated as the only protector of the people of Baharistan. Ajooba is none other than Ali, the real heir to the kingdom of Baharistan. Unfortunately for Ali, when he was just born, his father and mother were overthrown by the evil designs of the Vazir. Ali survived as destined and was brought up by a blacksmith who was unaware of Ali's real identity. In the guise of Ajooba, Ali takes up the very difficult task of finding his lost parents and then to re-instate them to the throne with great honour.

Alice follows the white rabbit, falls down a deep hole and discovers a strange Wonderland at the bottom.

Soviet television movie adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy novel "The Hobbit".

Various dwellers of the Russian forest: Leshiy (forest goblin), Vodyanoy (water spirit), Ovinni (barn spirit) Domovoy (house spirit), Anchutka (gremlin) and Rusalka (mermaid) meet at Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut and receive an esteemed guest who appears from nowhere. They gather around one table to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new, that is until the guest grows bored with their antics and seeks fun elsewhere.