8 Soviet fairy-tale movies that you can watch ONLINE for free
You will find the most magical, amazing and colorful movies in our selection – watch them and be transported back to childhood.
1 ‘Cinderella’, 1947
One of the most popular Soviet movies is based on Charles Perrault's fairy tale. Director Nadezhda Kosheverova came up with it during the Great Patriotic war years; and the script was ready in the Spring of 1945. The result was a light and sparkling fairy tale about a capricious king, who is constantly going to go to a monastery, a caricatured stepmother and a charming Cinderella. By the way, actress Yanina Zheymo was 36 years old at the time of filming, but this did not prevent her from making her heroine truly young and fabulous. In 2010, the black-and-white movie was colorized.
Watch the movie online for free here.
2 ‘Sadko’, 1952
This is a fairy tale with fragments from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, Indian elephants and a Phoenix bird. A Novgorod merchant sets sail for distant shores: after many adventures he returns home and realizes that there is nothing better than his native land. Director Alexander Ptushko's spectacular big screen adaptation of the fairy tale impressed not only Soviet audiences, but also foreign audiences. ‘Sadko’ won the ‘Silver Lion’ at the Venice Film Festival and was even released in the U.S., twice.
The first time as a movie filmed in the USSR with its original title. And the second time as ‘The Magical Voyage of Sinbad’. American producer Roger Corman decided to shorten the movie, inviting movie school student Francis Ford Coppola to create a synopsis. So, the plot moved from Novgorod to Kopasand, Sadko became Sinbad and Lyubava became Lyuberia. The names and surnames of Soviet actors were also replaced with more understandable to English-speaking audiences.
Watch the movie online for free here.
3 ‘Morozko’, 1964
The director of the movie Alexander Rowe is considered to be one of the Soviet Union’s outstanding storytellers.
He gave volume and sincerity to the folk story about a wicked stepmother, who decides to destroy her kind stepdaughter Nastenka and orders her to be taken to the forest to freeze to death. In the end, all the characters get what they deserve: Father Frost (or Morozko) gives the modest Nastenka a rich dowry, while her half-sister Marfusha gets a chest with ravens.
Watch the movie online for free here.
4 ‘Aladdin's Magic Lamp’, 1966
Aladdin becomes the owner of a magic lamp, in which a wish-granting genie has been imprisoned. The young man falls in love with a princess named Boudour, but, in order to win her hand, he will have to use the magic he has acquired…
Emphatically theatrical, the movie really does resemble a beautiful dream about a fairy-tale land, where genies appear in tongues of flames and a goat can drive out an evil sorcerer.
Watch the movie online for free here.
5 ‘The Deer King’, 1969
A fairy tale about love and magic based on a play by Carlo Gozzi. King Deramo wants to marry, but does not know how to know that the feelings of his chosen one are sincere. For this purpose, the wizard makes a statue that laughs when it hears lies and remains serious when the truth is told in its presence.
The fairy tale will appeal not only to children, but also to adults: ‘The Deer King’, with all the magical entourage, is also a story about unhappy and happy love.
Watch the movie online for free here.
6 ‘Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair’, 1970
Tsar Eremey owes a debt: one day, he wanted to drink, but he could only go to the well after he promised the underwater Chudo-Yudo to tell him something he didn’t know. What he doesn't know is that he will soon have a son. And the water lord would demand that he give him the child…
This fairy tale story is more than half a century old, but it hasn’t lost its charm. Among other things, thanks to Georgy Milyar’s acting, who played Chudo-Yudo. His monster turned out to be creepy, but very cute.
Watch the movie online for free here.
7 ‘Ma-ma’, 1976
This musical is based on the fairy tale ‘The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats’ and co-produced by the USSR, Romania and France. A mother goat teaches her kids how to recognize the predator, but the wolf still manages to deceive them. However, the protagonist comes up with a way to get her kids back and take revenge on the enemy. The fairy tale was shot in a revue format: wolves, goats, sheep, squirrels and other animals sing, dance and even ice skate. The movie also stars artists from the Bolshoi Theater and famous clown Oleg Popov.
Watch the movie online for free here.
8 ‘Along Unknown Paths’, 1982
A schoolboy named Mitya goes at the request of his grandmother to her relative, who turns out to be Baba Yaga and finds himself in a fairy tale. The movie features a whole host of fairy-tale characters, from the creepy Kashchei and the one-eyed Likho to the whispering Nightingale the Robber and Vasilisa the Wise, who rides a bicycle.
The crossover movie imperceptibly transports the audience from the real world to a fairy-tale world, almost real, but in which any miracles are possible.
Watch the movie online for free here.
