The Night Before Christmas
About The Night Before Christmas
On Christmas Eve in Dikanka, the witch Solokha steals the stars and the devil hides the moon so the blacksmith Vakula cannot reach the Cossack Chub. Vakula loves Chub's daughter Oksana, who says she will marry him only if he brings the slippers the empress wears. He traps the devil, rides him to Saint Petersburg, and asks Catherine for the shoes. Chub consents, and Oksana agrees to marry Vakula even without them.
Cast & crew
More about The Night Before Christmas
Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg directed the feature at Soyuzmultfilm, with Mikhail Yanshin sharing the script. The camera operators were Nikolai Voinov and Elena Petrova. The film adapts Nikolai Gogol's 1832 story “The Night Before Christmas.”
Themes
Background
The picture belongs to the early-1950s stretch of Soviet animation made under Socialist Realism, when literary classics were a safe source.
Making
The animation uses rotoscoping, called Éclair in Soviet studios, for the human figures. The score is drawn from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Look
Nikolai Voinov and Elena Petrova operated the camera. Figures were rotoscoped, a method Soviet animators called Éclair.
Music
The score uses music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose opera Christmas Eve is based on the same Gogol story.
Preservation
Public domain in Russia. Issued on videotape by Krupnyy Plan, in the VHS set “The Best Soviet Animated Films” from Studio PRO Video, on a 1995 Soyuz VHS, and on Soyuz DVDs including “Gold Collection of Favourite Animated Films.”
Notes
- Mikhail Yanshin voices Chub, Vladimir Gribkov the devil, Vera Maretskaya Solokha, Liliya Gritsenko Oksana, and Nikolai Gritsenko Vakula.
- Alexey Gribov is the narrator, and Alexei Zhiltsov voices the village head.
- The devil jumps out of a sack on Vakula's back after a visit to the Cossack Patsyuk.
- Catherine hands over the slippers with the writer Denis Fonvizin standing nearby.
- In Russia the film is in the public domain.
Scenes
- Solokha gathers stars into her sleeve while the devil pockets the moon.
- Vakula seizes the devil by the tail and orders a flight to the empress.
- Catherine, amused, gives the smith her slippers.
Influenced by
- Nikolai Gogol's story The Night Before Christmas (1832)
Also available
- Soyuz DVD, Gold Collection of Favourite Animated Films
- Studio PRO Video VHS, The Best Soviet Animated Films
