The Wild Swans

[osprey_archer]

I’ve always had a weakness for the Hans Christian Anderson story “The Wild Swans,” so when I learned there was an animated Soviet version, directed by husband and wife team Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and Vera Tsekhanovskaya (and conveniently available on Youtube!) of course I had to watch it.

I loved the animation in this film - particularly the spare backgrounds, so that you have the king’s hunting party galloping across a grassland represented by a few tufts of grass on a white background. It gives a sort of medieval tapestry effect that suited the story.

One slight disappointment: the film did away with my favorite bit at the end of the story. In the original, the princess can’t finish the sleeves on the final magical nettle-cloth sweater because she’s been locked up on suspicion of witchcraft, so when her brothers show up in swan form and she throws the sweaters to turn them back into humans, her youngest brother’s arms remain wings - and as he stands there in human form, wings spread, the onlookers cry out, “An angel!”

It’s such a beautiful image (although I’ve always worried how the youngest brother coped with having wings for arms for the rest of his life…) and I was really looking forward to it in the animation. But it didn’t happen! All the brothers get full sweaters and have all their human limbs. Much more convenient than being stuck with swan wings, but not as visually striking.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

In the version I know, the youngest brother gets just one wing - she didn't have time to finish the final sleeve. There's a book by Ursula Synge, Swan's Wing, about him.

[legionseagle]

Nicholas Gray has a version of the seventh brother with one wing story, too.

[osprey_archer]

I think I had a picture book where the poor guy ends up with two swan wings, but of course I can't remember the author or illustrator at this point. One swan wing would probably still cause problems, but it's a LOT easier to work with than two!

[asakiyume]

Echoing rachelmanija--the versions I know involve one arm not both. One of my friends from LJ days had a character in one of his unfinished novels who was essentially that character--a man with one swan's arm. I did a picture of him--you can just see the wing folded under the jacket.

[osprey_archer]

I think I had a picture book that showed a two-swan-wing dude, but perhaps I just imagined it? One swan wing is less angelic but probably easier to live with.

Still disappointed that the movie didn't end with any characters having extraneous swan wings at all!

[asakiyume]

The image in your memory sounds lovely--I bet it's real.

Here's the image from the book of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales we had when I was a kid:

[osprey_archer]

Oh, that's beautiful! I love the roses climbing up the page for a border, and the prince looking sharp in his two-toned tights and his single swan wing.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, in the version I know, it's only one sleeve she couldn't do - one arm - and no angels, just an awkward wing!

[osprey_archer]

Apparently I got the one picture book where the poor guy gets stuck with two wings! Imagine having to go around your life with two wings for arms.

[thisbluespirit]

On the plus side, better balance and more chance of flying than one, so...

[potofsoup]

what? but the last swan is like, so important! that's like, one of the 2 things I remember from the story, is that she doesn't get to finish the last sweater!

[osprey_archer]

My theory, for which I have no evidence whatsoever, is that the Soviet animators felt that Wing Boy looked a little too much like an angel and thus too religious (even though there's an evil inept drunk monk in the film, which you'd think would balance it out), so all the boys get their arms back.