The Adventures of the Little Chinese

1928 Animation 24 minutes Directed by Mariya Benderskaya

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About The Adventures of the Little Chinese

Two peasant boys flee China. Their puppet journey takes them from place to place until they reach the Soviet Union, where Young Pioneers take them in. The film is silent stop-motion, and the children are patched puppets.

Cast & crew

More about The Adventures of the Little Chinese

Mariya Benderskaya directed and animated the puppet short at Mezhrabpom-Film. V. Leventon submitted a verse scenario to Glavrepertkom in August 1927. The committee accepted the finished film in May 1928 and asked for a new, better text. Samuil Bendersky is credited as cameraman.

Themes

Background

The boys’ welcome is staged as a Pioneer reception, the children’s organization the Soviet studios used when a story needed a happy arrival in the USSR.

Making

The 1927 application was written in verse. Glavrepertkom let the film through in May 1928 only if the titles were rewritten.

Look

Samuil Bendersky photographed the puppet stages. Benderskaya animated the two boys as patched figures moving through a series of sets.

Preservation

A 24-minute print survives.

Notes

  • The Russian title is Приключения китайчат.
  • It runs 24 minutes and is silent, with Russian titles.
  • Benderskaya’s previous puppet short was Moydodyr; the next was The Wolf and the Crane.
  • Wikidata’s studio credit is Mezhrabpom-Film, not Goskino or Soyuzmultfilm.

Scenes

  • The two patched puppet boys start their wander from China.
  • Young Pioneers greet them once they reach the Soviet Union.