The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights
About The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights
A tsar returns after a year to find his wife has borne a daughter and is dying. He marries a new queen who owns a talking mirror. When it says the princess is fairer, the queen sends Chernavka to leave the girl for wolves. Chernavka lets her go. The princess reaches a house of seven bogatyrs, keeps house for them, and refuses their offer of marriage because she is promised to Prince Yelisey. The queen, dressed as an old woman, gives her a poisoned apple. The dog dies trying to stop it. The brothers hang a crystal coffin in a cave. Yelisey asks the sun, the moon, and the wind; only the wind knows the cave. His kiss wakes her. The queen smashes the mirror and dies when she sees the princess. The wedding follows, with the seven brothers there.
Cast & crew
More about The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights
Ivan Ivanov-Vano directed and shared the script with Yuri Olesha, from Pushkin’s 1833 tale. Aleksandra Snezhko-Blotskaya was second director. Yuri Nikolsky wrote the music. Lev Milchin was chief artist, with Viktor Nikitin as second artist. Nikolay Voinov photographed. The reel is timed at 31 minutes 48 seconds. Soyuzmultfilm released it in 1951. The studio lists drawn animation and rotoscoping.
Themes
Making
Olesha and Ivanov-Vano keep Pushkin’s witnesses: sun and moon have not seen the coffin, and the wind has. The queen’s death is grief and a smashed mirror, not a chase.
Look
Nikolay Voinov shot Milchin’s drawings, including the coffin hung on chains in a cave and the rotoscoped passages the studio credits list without naming the shots.
Music
Yuri Nikolsky wrote the score under Popova’s reading of the poem and the spoken roles.
Preservation
A Soyuzmultfilm print of 31 minutes 48 seconds survives.
Notes
- Maria Babanova voices both the queen and the mirror. Galina Novozhilova is the princess. Aleksei Konsovsky is Yelisey. Zinaida Bokareva is Chernavka.
- Vera Popova reads Pushkin’s verse. Valentina Sperantova is the moon.
- The seven brothers are split among Anatoly Solovyov, Mikhail Nazvanov (also sun and wind), Andrei Abrikosov, Mikhail Troyanovsky, Nikolay Litvinov (fifth and seventh), and Mikhail Tsarev.
- Animators include Fyodor Khitruk, Vladimir Arbakov, and Renata Mirenkova.
- Nikolay Prilutsky recorded the sound. Nina Mayorova edited.
Scenes
- The mirror tells the new queen that the princess is fairer.
- Chernavka is ordered to tie the girl up for the wolves and lets her go instead.
- An old beggar hands over the apple; the dog dies with it.
- The coffin hangs in the cave until Yelisey, sent by the wind, kisses her.
- The queen breaks the mirror and dies at the sight of the bride.
Influenced by
- The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights (Alexander Pushkin, 1833)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1951. Сказка о мертвой царевне и о семи богатырях.webm)
