The Golden Key

1939 AnimationFantasy 72 minutes Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko

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About The Golden Key

Papa Carlo makes the wooden boy Buratino. A golden key is meant to open one particular door. Around that door stand Karabas-Barabas, Duremar, Basilio the cat, Alice the fox, the girl Malvina, Pierrot, and Artemon the poodle. The film mixes actors with stop-motion puppets.

Cast & crew

More about The Golden Key

Aleksandr Ptushko directed. The script is credited to Aleksey Tolstoy and Nikolay Leshchenko, from Tolstoy's The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino, which Tolstoy took from Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. The Russian title is Золотой ключик.

Themes

  • a wooden boy
  • a key and one door
  • a puppet theater owner
  • Buratino
  • Papa Carlo
  • golden key
  • Karabas-Barabas
  • Malvina
  • Ptushko

Look

Nikolai Renkov photographed the live action and the puppet work.

Technique

Actors share scenes with stop-motion puppets.

Music

Lev Shvarts wrote the score.

Preservation

A Commons transfer of the 1939 film is online.

Notes

  • Sergei Martinson, Nikolai Bogolyubov, Olga Shaganova-Obraztsova, and Georgy Uvarov are in the cast.
  • In 2009 a Russian television musical drew on this film and on a later remake.

Scenes

  • Papa Carlo finishes the wooden boy.
  • The golden key is brought to the door it is supposed to open.

Influenced by

  • The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino (Aleksey Tolstoy)
  • Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi)

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