The Wild Swans

The Wild Swans (, Dikiye lebedi) is a 1962 Soviet traditionally animated feature film directed by the husband-and-wife team of Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and Vera Tsekhanovskaya. The film is based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. Unusual for Soviet films of this period, and especially for animated films, it was produced in widescreen. It was produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow.
==Plot==
The princess Elisa and her eleven brothers live in peace and happiness until their father marries again and brings home a new queen. She turns out to be an evil witch. With her magic, she tries to curse Elisa, but Elisa's good heart repel the curse. Instead, the queen resorts to blackening Elisa's face and dirtying her hair, making her unrecognisable. She also attempts to turn the eleven princes into black, ugly birds, but because of their good hearts, the curse is only partly successful: they turn into beautiful white swans.
The queen chases them out of the castle, and the next morning, Elisa is chased out as well because her father didn't recognise her. Left with nothing, she sets out to find her brothers. After many years, she finally finds them, and after learning from a crow that the curse can be broken by herself, she has to knit eleven sweaters out of tall, burning nettles, and has to take a vow of silence until the last sweater is finished and not be distracted.
While she works on the sweaters, she meets a king who falls in love with her and lets her live in his castle. However, an archbishop conspires with the King's fiancé, his (the archbishop's) niece, to get rid of her by making people think she is a witch. She is almost burnt on the stake, but at the last second, her brothers come to the rescue. She throws the sweaters over them, the curse is broken, and she is able to tell her story and return the king's love.
==Home video releases==
* DVD: Золотая коллекция любимых мультфильмов – 4. PAL, no subtitles. Contains: The Wild Swans, Argonauts (20 min), The Boatswain and the Parrot (series 1–4, 38 min), A Blue Puppy (20 min)
* VHS and MPEG-4 versions containing only the film
==Cast==
Character 	Original 	English
Eliza 	Valentina Tumanova	Unknown
The Queen 	Elena Ponsova 	Unknown
Good Old Woman 	Elena Ponsova 	Unknown
The Crow 	Elena Ponsova 	Marvin Miller
The Young King 	Viktor Sergachyov 	Unknown
The Bishop 	Erast Garin 	Unknown
The Monk 	Sergey Martinson 	Unknown
The King Father 	Anatoliy Shchukin 	Unknown
Narrator 	Askold Besedin 	Marvin Miller
Eliza in Childhood	Klara Rumyanova 	Unknown
===Additional Voices===
*Robert Chumak
*Konstantin Ustyugov
==Creators==
 	English 	Russian
Screenplay by 	Evgeny RyssLeonid Trauberg 	Евгений РыссЛеонид Трауберг
Lyrics by 	Mikhail Volpin 	Михаил Вольпин
Directed by 	Mikhail and Vera Tsekhanovskys 	Михаил и Вера Цехановские
Production Designers 	Nathan LernerMax Zherebchevsky 	Натан ЛернерМакс Жеребчевский
Art Directors 	Boris KorneevDmitry Anpilov 	Борис КорнеевДмитрий Анпилов
Music by 	Alexander Varlamov 	Александр Варламов
Director of Photography 	Elena Petrova 	Елена Петрова
First Assistant Cameraman 	Svetlana Kashcheeva 	Светлана Кащеева
Sound Engineer 	Boris Filchikov 	Борис Фильчиков
Character Animation 	Elena HludovaVictor ShevkovValentin KushneryovRenata MirenkovaLidiya ReztsovaN. ChernovaFaina YepifanovaKonstantin ChikinTatyana TaranovichVladimir ZarubinBoris ButakovIvan DavydovVyacheslav KotyonochkinTatyana PomerantsevaO. SysoyevaL. RybchevskayaN. AvstriyskayaE. VershininaK. MalyshevV. MaksimovichV. RogovErast Meladze	Елена ХлудоваВиктор ШевковВалентин КушнерёвРената МиренковаЛидия РезцоваН. ЧерноваФаина ЕпифановаКонстантин ЧикинТатьяна ТарановичВладимир ЗарубинБорис БутаковИван ДавыдовВячеслав КотёночкинТатьяна ПомеранцеваО. СысоеваЛ. РыбчевскаяН. АвстрийскаяЕ. ВершининаК. МалышевВ. МаксимовичВ. РоговЭраст Меладзе
Assistant Directors 	Lidiya NikitinaElena Turanova 	Лидия НикитинаЕлена Туранова
Assistant Editor 	V. Turubiner 	В. Турубинер
Script Editor 	Z. Pavlova 	З. Павлова
With the Voice Talents of:	Valentina Tumanova as ElisaElena Ponsova as the Queen, the Old Woman, and the CrowVictor Sergachyov as the young king Erast Garin as the ArchbishopSergey Martinson as the Royal Majordomo Anatoly Shchukin as the KingRobert ChumakKonstantin UstyugovAskold Besedin — as narrator and singing voice of the young king 	Валентина Туманова (Элиза)Елена Понсова (королева, старушка и ворона)Виктор Сергачёв (молодой король — речь)Эраст Гарин (епископ)Сергей Мартинсон (приказчик короля)Анатолий Щукин (король)Роберт ЧумакКонстантин УстюговАскольд Беседин (от автора/молодой король — вокал)
Executive Producer 	G. Kruglikov 	Г. Кругликов
==Art features==
The film expert Pyotr Bagrov in the analysis of the Soviet "andersen's" filmography puts the animated film "Wild Swans" on a special place, separating its literary basis from other fairy tales of Andersen: "It, in general, and not the fairy tale. It is an ancient Danish legend". Respectively, other, in comparison with other animated screen versions, appeared also a graphic manner in which the tape is created: "The extended, "Gothic" people and rocks — and at the same time the plane, medieval and primitive image". Bagrov also notes typical for game cinema, but rare in animation parallel installation.
==See also==
* History of Russian animation
* List of animated feature-length films
==References==
==External links==
* The Wild Swans at Animator.ru
* 
* (Official Russian)
* (Russian with English subtitles)
* (English No.1)
* (English No.2)
* The Wild Swans at myltik.ru 
ru:Дикие лебеди (мультфильм)
Category:1962 films
Category:Films based on fairy tales
Category:Films based on works by Hans Christian Andersen
Category:Russian animated films
Category:Soviet animated films
Category:1960s Russian-language films
Category:Soyuzmultfilm
Category:1962 animated films
Category:Works based on The Wild Swans