Plasticine Crow

Plasticine Crow (Russian: Пластилиновая ворона, translit. Plastilinovaya vorona) is a 1981 Soviet clay animation by Aleksandr Tatarskiy (T/O Ekran studio). Animation divided into three independent parts (Picture, Game and But maybe, but maybe...).

Plot synopsis

Picture

This first part tells kids about the three painting styles – landscape, still life and portrait.

Lyrics for the first part were composed by Alexander Kushner.^[1]

Game

This part narrates about the children game where the player periodically opens and shuts his eyes. Every time the player opens them he's amazed as the new details appear.

Lyrics for the second part were composed by Ovsey Driz. Performed by Leonid Bronevoy.^[2]

But maybe, but maybe...

This part is sung by storytellers who have forgotten the details of the fable of The Crow and the Fox, best known in Russian in the version by Krylov, and who are trying to remember it on the fly.

Thus, instead of the crow from Krylov's story, a dog appears, and then a cow, and even a Hippopotamus. The original fox is also replaced by an ostrich and then by a street cleaner.

At the end of the entirely distorted fable, a distorted moral is given: Don't stand and don't jump, don't sing and don't dance where there is construction in progress or heavy load hanging. (This is a pun on the two common Russian danger signs – "Don't stand under heavy load" and "Beware! Construction works in progress!").

The lyrics for the third part were composed by Eduard Uspensky.^[3]

Voice cast

• Leonid Bronevoy
• Grigory Gladkov
• Lev Shimelov

Censorship

The Soviet censorship wanted to decline the film because they saw it as "ideological nonsense". Xeniya Marinina and Eldar Ryazanov saved it by showing "The Crow" in one of the releases of their "Kinopanorama" in contrary to the Soviet censors.

Interesting facts

• Creation of the film required about 800 kg of soviet plasticine. Because of withered colors the plasticine was dye-colored.
• The music in the third part of the film was intended to sound in the ordinary tempo, but its total length appeared to be longer than the animation created (8 minutes instead of 5). While Tatarskiy was in doubt the voices arrived. Then the genius decision came when Tatarskiy remembered how the gramophone-recorded voice of Lenin was restored by varying speed of phonation. He griped the recording to the necessary length (5 min) and the song acquired its recognisable sounding.
• The music in the third part is borrowing heavily from the Irish folk song Whiskey in the Jar. The beginning of the second verse of the song in this part is based on George Harrison's song My Sweet Lord.

Notes

1. ↑ (Russian) Song about the paintings
2. ↑ (Russian) Here I see...
3. ↑ (Russian) But maybe Crow…

External links

• Plasticine Crow at the Internet Movie Database
• Plasticine Crow at Animator.ru
• Translation into English of the song from the third part