THE LITTLE MERMAID is one of many filmed Soviet versions of classic fairy stories. Anyone familiar with the Disney animated version of this story will find this tale unrecognisable, containing as it does a beautiful young woman who is forced to give up her magical elements in order to live on dry land amid polite society. The film contains the usual morality, humour from a village idiot, and low key romance, but it's also very mannered and dated. There are moments of ethereal atmosphere where it's all worthwhile, but overall this is quite stodgy and unappealing, lacking the proper sense of wonder and magic.

Definitely worth a watch even if the dialogue is in Russian. Subtitles could be obtained easily on-line. Even though the film does not strictly adhere to Anderson's original text, and there are many modifications to the plot, the retelling is refreshing with enchanting setting, costumes and acting, a feast for the eyes. Beautiful soundtrack and dance sequence. Do not expect many special effects since the film is old. Indeed, a treasure of the Russian-language cinema. Expect this to be a touching film which will move you and provokes your thinking. And by the way, the actor playing the Prince looked oddly like Zac Efron or Ian Somerhalder.

I couldn't imagine a more beatific opening 15 minutes for a live action adaption of "The Little Mermaid". All my hopes for a eastern European fantasia (this film was made as a collaboration between Bulgaria and USSR) came true, in bright multicolored fire-works, dreamy mermaids(whose costumes are a bit dated, but still oddly effective), lovely period costumes, and wondrous underwater photography(the merman with the violin will stay with my years).Unfortunately things dry begin to dry up once our daughter of sea, reaches dry land to get her man. The story is simple enough; girl rescues drowned sailor and falls in love with him, to become human she sells her most prized possession first her flowing green hair, and eventually her voice to an old witch.The prince has mistaken another princess as his savior, but is unmistakably drawn to our heroin.She has a sidekick in a village fool, whose simple stupid-heartedness is ultimately what saves her, sort of. In any event it ain't the prince, and it's nice to see the ugly buffoon, usually the minor comic relief, take a place of mythological importance. Still without animated talking fish pals backing her up, she can only take this so far.The elegance of the waves gives way to the tediousness of courtly life, where contests and intrigues play themselves out, to their inevitable end. Which in keeping with the early accounts and legends, sees our girl facing a tragic end. My favorite version is where she turns into sea foam when she dies, and serves as an explanation for why the sea is so frothy. It sounds about right to me anyway.It's over all a beautiful Soviet fairy tale, which should delight fans of fables, Han's Christian Anderson (one of my mother's favorite films was the 1952 Hans Christian Anderson, musical way, way, loosely inspired by his life), and fan's of Disney's "The Little Mermaid.

A lovely, haunting film reminiscent of the Czech film, THREE NUTS FOR CINDERELLA, RUSALOCHKA is a relatively faithful adaptation of Andersen's tale, "The Little Mermaid." In this film, the mermaid does not have to give up her voice to the sea hag, but she does exchange her blue hair for legs. There are other slight variations from the source story, but, for the most part, this is a very satisfying, touching retelling of the classic story for those of us who like our fairytales told properly without Calypso singing lobsters and valley-girl patter. As far as I know, this is only available in Russian.