The Brave Sailor
About The Brave Sailor
A huge whale eats whatever it meets, until one small cunning fish is left. The fish tells the hungry whale to try a man. The sailor the whale swallows builds a grate from scraps of logs and sets it in the whale’s mouth on the way out. After that the throat is narrow. The short is drawn from Kipling’s “How the Whale Got His Throat,” in the Just So Stories. The Russian title is Отважный моряк.
Cast & crew
More about The Brave Sailor
Viktor Smirnov directed. Vladimir Suteev wrote it and was the art director and an animator. Pavel Mershin photographed, uncredited on the titles. Alexey Sokolov-Kamin composed, billed as Alexey Kamin. Soyuzmultfilm released the black-and-white drawn short in 1936. One timing is 10 minutes 14 seconds. Another is 9 minutes 35 seconds. The same sailor returns two years later in the studio’s film of Kipling’s rhinoceros story.
Themes
Making
Suteev draws Kipling’s throat story as one meal and one grate. Smirnov’s reel ends when the whale can no longer swallow what it used to.
Look
Pavel Mershin shot the animation. He is not named in the titles.
Music
Alexey Sokolov-Kamin wrote the score, credited on screen as Alexey Kamin.
Preservation
A black-and-white print of about ten minutes survives.
Notes
- The fish is the one who points the whale at a man. The sailor is the one who builds the grate.
- Mershin’s name is left off the titles.
- The composer’s screen credit is the shorter name Kamin.
- A Commons file is labeled 1920x1080.
Scenes
- The last little fish sends the whale after a man.
- Inside, the sailor builds a grate from log scraps.
- He sets the grate in the mouth as he leaves. The throat stays narrow.
Influenced by
- How the Whale Got His Throat (Rudyard Kipling)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons ((1920x1080) Отважный моряк.webm)