Customer Reviews

Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood: Beloved Fairy Tales from the Queen to Cinderella

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My daughters absolutely loved these animated fairy tales when they aired on PBS. They were just little girls then; around 7 and 8 years old. They still talk about them fondly even now at 17 and 15. So much so that I decided to try to find them for them to watch again.

The stories are unique, and delightful. The animation is vivid and unusual. Film is slightly grainy; even so, it really doesn't diminish the experience.

Sad to see eagerness in trimming everything to the insipid norms of political correctness. Ivan and his Magic Pony was originally Ivan the Fool and the Gibbous Little Horse. So what if they are "handicapped": some sort of handicap is almost required for this underdog-has-to-win type of fairy tales; and the talking horse is a magic creature, no wonder it is a bit weird.
Another adjustment made for no apparent reason is Pinocchio. The tale by Alexei Tolstoy is about Buratino, and it's a very loose variation on Pinocchio, to the point that it's a story in its own right. Why bring the confusion?
As for the fairy tales, they are all wonderful. I read (or was told) them in my childhood.
The Soviet-made cartoons, whence the stills came, are also posh, if you don't mind dull and grainy look of film.