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JennySchillig
Registered User
(7/8/04 5:45 pm)
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Russo-Finnish fairy-tale movies
Thanks to the good people at Mystery Science Theater 3000, I've gotten a taste for the Russo-Finnish fairy-tale movies. (If you remember, MST3K did The Day The Earth Froze, The Magic Voyage of Sinbad--overdubbed to make a Russian folk hero into Sinbad the Sailor in Russian garb--The Sword And The Dragon, and Jack Frost. Jack Frost is the only MST3K version I have on tape.)
Even the good people at Best Brains admit that these movies are actually among the better ones they've MSTed. The one problem is that the plots can be a little goofy and the acting...well, as one Jack Frost riff goes, "I guess there's no Finnish word for 'subtle'." But the photography is excellent, the settings really do convey "long ago and far away," and the music is exquisite.
Part of it is that I really do have a taste for cheesy old children's movies--the kind they showed on UHF channels on rainy Sunday afternoons when I was little. Jack Frost, in particular, has the oddest feeling of familiarity to it. Maybe it was one of those movies.
I enjoy them so much I actually bought two of them. (Thanks to Ruscico, many of them are now or will soon be available on DVD.) There's The Snow Maiden, which didn't really grab me as much...it seemed most characters changed their motivations every five minutes. But I also bought Father Frost...which is the aforementioned Jack Frost under its true name. You can access the dubbed version or the original Russian (and let me tell you, if you thought Nastenka, heroine of Father Frost, had a helium voice in the dub, just listen to the original Russian).
I think that a poster on the MST3K newsgroup put it best...these films are full of great charm, sprinkled liberally with moments of "...the hell?"
So...have any of you seen any of these, and what do you think?
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(7/8/04 6:46 pm)
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Re: Russo-Finnish fairy-tale movies
I have many of them listed on SurLaLune in their DVD format--but not MST3Ked--at:
www.surlalunefairytales.c...films.html
I haven't had the opportunity to watch any of them, not even on MST3K, so I don't have any input.
Heidi
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Kate
Laity
Registered User
(7/11/04 2:43 pm)
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Re: Russo-Finnish fairy-tale movies
I love the ones I have seen so far. I have a copy of Jack Frost, which I had seen before and bought from Rusisco. Heard rumors that The Day the Earth Froze would be released on DVD, but the only place I have found it so faris Movies Unlimited.
I love The Day the Earth Froze! My family is Finnish and I'm working on a cycle of stories based on the pre-Christian mythology of Finland (some of which have already appeared). It will be called Unikirja (Dreambook).
Even when I saw it MSTed I knew I would have to find the film because it is the Sampo story. Pity they make Louhi so cartoonish -- I have always thought she got a bad rap from the "southerners."
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(11/29/04 5:43 pm)
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Re: Russo-Finnish fairy-tale movies
Jenny and Kate,
Just discovered that The Day the Earth Froze and Magic Voyage of Sinbad will be released on DVD in Feb. 8, 2005 on a single DVD. Here it is on Amazon.com.
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
Heidi
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JennySchillig
Registered User
(11/30/04 3:58 pm)
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"Jack Frost" riffs!
I thought that these films had also been released through Ruscico, under their original Russian titles, with English-dubbing tracks...oh well...
Anyway, for those of you MST3K fans out there...here are some of my favorite riffs from Jack Frost, aka Father Frost...
(Opening credits, with several Russian names...)
"All these names are Russian for Alan Smithee." (Alan Smithee is the pseudonym that writers/directors/producers use when the finished film is so bad they don't want to be associated with it.)
(Nastenka tries to finish knitting a stocking so her stepmother won't punish her...)
Crow (as Pee-Wee): "You just keep KNITTING...and KNITTING..."
Mike: "So, the first plot point involves knitting socks. I think we're in for QUITE a ride, guys!"
(Shot of several different roosters crowing...)
"Man. Peter must be walking around denying EVERYBODY today."
(Mushroom gnome--don't ask--disappears and re-appears...)
"Frodo gets drunk and screws with his neighbors."
(As too-sweet-to-be-true Nastenka sings a mournful song...)
"I think her adorabililty is crashing in on itself."
Ivan: You must have a very wicked stepmother.
"Yep...standard issue."
(Wicked stepmother makes ugly stepsister up in order to attract a potential husband. Stepsister's makeup is slightly less subtle than Marcel Marceau's.)
"And a bag over the head completes the look."
"She should just start over from Gene One."
Stepmother: "Not a princess...You are a QUEEN!"
"In that you look like Freddie Mercury."
Crow: "So...the premise of this movie is that everyone is just nuttier than all get-out."
(A few minutes later...)
"Well, Mike, I guess this is just a magical land. ....I HATE magical lands."
(Father Frost shows up, singing in Russian, which the dubbers somehow forgot to dub over...)
Mike: "Wanna translate, Tom?"
Tom (singing): "It's colder than a bucket of penguin poop, it's colder than a polar bear's butt, the dogs are sticking to the fire hydrants..."
(As the frozen Nastenka slowly awakes, we see a shot of Ivan as he notices it...)
"Well, now I can call that Debbie chick...Oh, hi, honey!"
There are tons more...I'll post them as I remember them!
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