Top 10 best children’s films of the USSR

The genre of children’s films was very popular in the USSR. Every second film released on the big screens of cinemas in the Soviet Union was made for children. With the collapse of a powerful country, this genre was somehow forgotten. Currently, filmmakers only occasionally shoot children’s films, trusting modern children’s films of foreign production. Agree, the last few generations have grown up on Harry Potter and Star Wars.

During the Soviet Union, dozens of good family films were made. So let’s remember USSR children’s films list of the best.

10 Welcome or No Outsiders | 1964

The picture, which opens the top of the best children’s films, is the full-length debut of the brilliant Soviet director Elena Klimov. The film tells about a boy who was unfairly expelled from a children’s camp, but he secretly stayed there. His friends are forced to protect the guy from the evil administration.

Children and adults saw this film in different ways. If for juvenile viewers it was a picture of friendship and comradeship, then adults easily saw in the plot a satire on Soviet double standards and bureaucracy. Perhaps the tape would not have been released to the public. Soviet censorship would not have allowed such a provocative picture to be viewed. But Nikita Khrushchev himself gave the go-ahead to show the film. By the way, the head of the Central Committee of the CPSU was removed from office a few days after the premiere of the film.

9. Scarecrow | 1983

Rolan Bykov is known as the greatest comedian and director, but it was he who staged the most poignant Soviet drama for children, Scarecrow. The picture about a girl who took on someone else’s betrayal and became an outcast who is subjected to bullying did not gain popularity with the viewer in the year of release. On the contrary, the film was condemned for the cruelty that children should not be shown.

Opponents of the picture, which occupies the 9th place in the list of the best children’s films of the USSR, said that in the Soviet Union there was no such bullying of peers over peers, and the film provokes the public. But they had nothing to oppose to the statement of the author of the book “Scarecrow”, on which the picture was shot, that he wrote his creation based on the events that happened to his granddaughter.

8. Elusive Avengers. Trilogy | 1966

If you thought that the trilogies started filming in Hollywood, we dare to disappoint you. Long before The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, Edmond Keosayan made three films about children fighting in the Civil War. If the picture “Ivan’s Childhood” was filmed about children for adults: it was distinguished by gloom and cruelty. It’s the other way around in this trilogy. There are much less moralizing here than the reckless and funny adventures that happened to the guys.

According to Hollywood tradition, the third part of The Elusive, which occupies the 8th place in the top of the best children’s films, turned out to be much worse than the first two.

7. Guest from the future | 1985

The words from the song “Beautiful Far Away” are familiar to all residents of Russia, whose age has exceeded 20. Despite the internal processes gaining momentum within the country, which led to the collapse of communist ideology, the picture, which is one of the best children’s films, instantly gained cult status. The leading lady Natalya Guseva became the most desirable girl in the Soviet Union. And the performer of the role of the robot, Evgeny Gerasimov, thanks to his brilliant game, got a seat in the City Duma. But the main victors were the screenwriter and author of the primary source Kir Bulychev, and the director of the film Pavel Arsenov, known for the fairy tale “The Deer King”.

6. You never dreamed | 1980

In Soviet cinema, first love was shown in a playful way, they say, these are not real feelings, but only echoes of experiences. But in the picture “You never dreamed of” the opposite is true. The film tells about high school students who are in love with each other. The plot of the film, which occupies the 6th place in the top of the best children’s films, was taken from Galina Shcherbakova’s book “Roman and Julia”, which she wrote, inspired by the story of Romeo and Juliet. To avoid analogies with Shakespeare, the filmmakers changed the names of the main characters. For example, Yulia became Katka. The 16-year-old schoolgirl was played by 23-year-old Tatyana Aksyuta. But the high school student was actually played by a high school student. According to experts, Nikita Mikhailovsky coped with his role at a professional level, not inherent in many actors of that era.

5. Adventure Electronics | 1979

The mini-series about the friendship of a guy and a robot is in the middle of the list of the best children’s films in the USSR. Stunning in soulfulness, the story of Electronics fell in love with all viewers of the Soviet Union. And the main song “Winged Swing” instantly pops up in my head at the mention of the name Syroezhkin. It is interesting that the action of the picture takes place in Moscow, but they filmed “Electronics” in Odessa. Those viewers who knew the capital very well did not like it.

4. Moscow-Cassiopeia | 1973

In Soviet films, cosmonauts were portrayed as superheroes without fear or reproach. And this was not surprising, because after the war, the heroes of the country were representatives of this particular profession. Only Tarkovsky, in his Solaris, dared to present the astronaut as a man with his own fears and weaknesses. The rest were forbidden. But director Richard Viktorov brilliantly got out of this situation by sending children to conquer space. In the picture, which occupies the 4th place in the list of the best children’s films of the USSR, there is a place for jokes and scientific observations, fears and exploits. It was a Soviet response to the American Star Trek, where, at times, adult characters behaved like children. Here it’s the other way around.

3. Adventures of Pinocchio | 1975

Every American viewer has watched at least once a cartoon about Pinocchio, shot by the great Walt Disney. In our country, the wooden boy is also known, but he is different from his American counterpart. The two-part musical about Pinocchio, which won bronze in the rating of the best children’s films, is familiar to every inhabitant of the Soviet Union. And the song “Bu-ra-ti-no” instantly became a children’s hit. Interestingly, the roles of the cat Basilio and the fox Alice were played by Rolan Bykov and Elena Sanaeva, being husband and wife. And Faina Ranevskaya was supposed to play the turtle Tortilla, but it did not grow together. The woman was afraid for her health, because the shooting took place in the distant Belarusian Republic.

2. Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors | 1963

Alexander Rowe’s film is saturated with communist pathos. Therefore, he does not look with such sensations now as before. But still, the director shot a bright motion picture with great actors.

The action of the film, which took silver in the rating of the best Soviet children’s films, takes place in the world of Crooked Mirrors, where everything is distorted, presented in reverse. The thin ones here are shown plump, evil-kind, tall-low. The girl Olya finds herself in this world, where she encounters her double, who embodies all her worst qualities. Looking at herself from the outside, and analyzing her own shortcomings, she, with her understudy, saves the inhabitants of the kingdom from the evil aristocrats.

1. Adventures of Petrov and Vasechkin, ordinary and incredible | 1983

The path to the big screen for Petrov and Vasechkin was unusual. These characters Vladimir Alenikov originally came up with for Yeralash. The audience liked the guys so much that it was decided to launch a full-length film about the adventures of schoolchildren. The two-part comedy immediately became a success with the mass audience. A year later, the continuation of the picture, which is the leader in the rating of the best children’s films of the USSR, “Vacation of Petrov and Vasechkin” came out.

The music from the films was no less popular than the films themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L1lIWSfe-k