ANI-MOVIE, *The Magic Pony

Russia is one of the overlooked sources of animation when most people think of the global impact of cartoon media. The Little Humpbacked Horse was a 19th Century fairy tale that Pyotr Yershov wrote which went on to become a popular ongoing ballet starring the stock Soviet fairy tale character of Ivan the Fool. In 1947, a 55-minute animated feature was created by Ivan Petrovich Ivanov which was one of the first Russian movies to receive an English dub that even Walt Disney was impressed with. With film restoration not being a priority in most parts of the world, the original cut of the film was in danger of being unwatchable, so in 1975 Ivanov decided to remake the same story, only this time it was expanded to 73 minutes with additional songs and slightly different animation. The original version had classic fluid movement to it, even though the remake did maintain the appearance of this but appeared a little trippy for its time with some scenes done from different angles and alternate backgrounds, along with an entire chapter involving a giant whale.

A long while back, a young Russian boy named Ivan lived on a farm with his two lazy brothers who think of him as a dumbbell, even though he found out that a heavenly mare ascends from the sky and has been the one eating their hay. The angelic horse tries to shake Ivan off when he catches her and won't be shaken off. In return for her freedom, the godly steed gives in exchange a pair of tall black stallions along with a magical talking girl pony called Zip who can also trot into the air. Ivan's brothers take the two stallions to the capitol city where the Tsar favors them, but Ivan arrives with Zip to claim true ownership of the horses and becomes the Tsar's personal horse groomer. This seriously ticks off the prior stable keeper Spalnik who continuously tries to sabotage Ivan's position by convincing the Tsar to send him off on quests to gather various treasure. This included capturing a firebird, kidnapping a foreign princess, and find a magic ring which has him freeing an enormous whale from a curse after eating too many ships. Ultimately, Ivan's adventures get him aged up into an adult and married to the very princess he kidnapped against her will, all thanks to the help of his noble friend Zip.

The remake was dubbed into English in 1977 under the title The Magic Pony featuring cartoon royalty such as Hans Conried and Jim Backus, along with young actors Erin Moran and Johnny Whitaker. The dub is good with Backus and Conried being over the top, although the Americanized pop songs they put in place of the original Russian songs is not all that welcome. A restoration of the 1947 film has been successfully completed which also received its own English dub, but the 1977 edition is a better fit for American audiences. The remake is available on VHS and DVD, but not on any official streaming services at this time.