“Bremen Town Musicians” is a fairy tale story of the writers of the Brothers Grimm. The same name is also given to the Soviet musical cartoon of 1969, created using the drawing technique, composer of which was Gennady Gladkov. The main characters of the fairy tale “Bremen Town Musicians” - Donkey, Cat, Dog, Rooster - pets who left their farms because of their uselessness and cruel treatment from the owners who are sent to the city of Bremen to earn musical performances there, but so they don’t get there.
In the Soviet animated film "Bremen Town Musicians" there are a few more main characters. Together with the four described above, Troubadour travels - an elegant and slender blonde, the soloist of this wandering ensemble, who during an unsuccessful performance near the royal castle falls in love with the Princess. The list of heroes of the "Bremen Town Musicians" also contains robbers led by Atamansha. These characters are the antagonists of the main characters. The cartoon "Bremen Town Musicians" today can be called one of the most popular animated films in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Story tale
The heroes of the "Bremen Town Musicians" once come across a house in which the robbers rest after another predatory campaign. Friends decide to scare the bandits with noise. The idea works - the robbers, having heard strange and frightening sounds that are heard behind the window, leave their home in fear. A little later, the bandits decide to send their scout there. The messenger gets into the house at night. After a few moments after that, an arrow flies out from there - scratched, bitten and scared to madness.
Here is what the unfortunate hero of the Bremen Town Musicians told his comrades - the poor man who did not fully understand what really happened to him that night in the house:
- First, the Witch scratched his face (in fact, as the reader knows, this was done by the Cat who first attacked the person who entered).
- Then the troll grabbed his leg (the scout of the bandits was bitten by the Dog).
- Soon after this, the giant struck him with a terrible blow in strength (Donkey kicked the robber).
- Later, a mysterious creature, making terrible sounds, drove him beyond the threshold of the dwelling (as we understand, the Rooster voted and flapped its wings).
Hearing this terrible story, the frightened bandits decided to leave their refuge and never return there again. Thus, the heroes of the “Bremen Town Musicians” - Donkey, Rooster, Cat and Dog - took possession of all the riches that were robbed and hidden in this dwelling.
The plot of the Soviet cartoon
Once roaming artists perform in front of a royal castle. The Princess is present at the performance. The main character of the cartoon "Bremen Town Musicians" falls in love with her at first sight, and the young lady of royal blood reciprocates him. However, the king expels the musicians after they unsuccessfully perform one of their numbers, so that the minstrel is temporarily deprived of the opportunity to see his beloved.
In the next key scene, the characters discover a gangster's house. Having overheard the conversation of the robbers, friends find out that Atamansha and her three assistants want to rob the royal motorcade. A little later, friends drive out the bandits from the hut, and dress themselves in their clothes and then kidnap the King, who is tied to a tree and left in the woods near the bandits' hut.
Soon, the kidnapped King hears someone nearby singing a song about unhappy love. The king begins to call for help, and soon, to his delight, Troubadour appears. The minstrel rushes to the hut, where they and their friends make the noise of a fight and a pogrom, after which they leave it as a winner and free the King, who, in gratitude for his salvation, takes him to his daughter. After that, the festival begins in the castle, where the friends of Troubadour could not find a place. Donkey, Rooster, Dog and Cat at dawn leave the palace in a sad mood. However, Troubadour was not going to abandon his comrades and, together with his chosen one, soon joined them. The company of musicians sets off for new adventures already in an expanded composition.
Who are the characters in the cartoon "Bremen Town Musicians"
At first, the troubadour was thought of as a buffoon and had to wear a cap on his head, but the creator of the cartoon, Inessa Kovalevskaya, rejected this version of the hero’s appearance, proposed by production designer Max Zherebchevsky. Once, in a foreign fashion magazine, she saw a boy dressed in tight jeans and a haircut, like members of The Beatles, and decided that her character would be like him. The prototype of the Princess is the wife of one of the screenwriters of this animated project, Yuri Entin, Marina. The heroine was awarded a funny hairstyle with tails sticking out in different directions by assistant to the production designer Svetlana Skrebneva.
Bandits and the King
Forest bandits were copied from the heroes of the comedy films of Gaidai - Coward, Experienced and Dunce, which were embodied on the screen by artists Georgy Vitsin, Evgeny Morgunov and Yuri Nikulin. The king was invented similar to the heroes of the actor Erast Garin, who at that time often played similar characters in various fairy tales, such as Cinderella, Half an hour for miracles. The prototype of Atamansha is the wife of the director Vyacheslav Kotenochkin, Tamara Vishneva, who at that time worked as a ballerina in the Operetta Theater. Oleg Anofriev, who voiced this heroine, tried to make his Ataman speak in the manner of actress Faina Ranevskaya.
Who sang in the "Bremen Town Musicians"
Initially, it was thought that different artists would perform the songs of the heroes of the “Bremen Town Musicians”, photos of which are posted here. The song of Atamansha was proposed to Zinovy Gerdt, the parts of the Donkey and the Dog were to be performed by Oleg Yankovsky and Yuri Nikulin, the Cat was supposed to speak in the voice of Andrei Mironov, and the King in the voice of George Vitsin. However, on the night of the recording, only Oleg Anofriev arrived at the Melody studio, who appeared in it only then to say that due to his illness he would not be able to sing his part. As a result, almost all the songs from the cartoon were performed by Oleg Anofriev, who could not only sing the part of the Princess, and she went to the vocalist Elmira Zherzdeva, classmate Gennady Gladkov. The donkey in this cartoon spoke with the voice of the poet Anatoly Gorokhov.
Critic reviews
Director Inessa Kovalevskaya after the release of the cartoon was accused of being under the "corrupting influence of the West" and in an amateurish attitude to her work.
There was an opinion that during one of the performances in the Kremlin Palace, the singer Oleg Anofriev, at the moment when he sang the phrase "Tempting vaults will never replace freedom for us," circled the entire hall in which there were also members of the government, which, as was later claimed in the media, they were hostile to the performer of the song from the animated film "The Bremen Town Musicians" shortly after, as if they had forbidden her to sing. Oleg Anofriev himself claims that this is not true, because in Brezhnev's times he never performed in the Kremlin Palace.
Finally
In 1973, the continuation of the animated film “The Bremen Town Musicians” was released, entitled “Following the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians”, in which a new character appears - the Ingenious Detective, sent by the King to track down the missing daughter and return her to the palace.