This is one of the highest quality and most original soviet animations ever. It is about a Captain, Cpn. Vrungel and his crew as they race in an international regatta while a high-profile theft of a priceless statue from a museum is investigated. The depressed card-playing transporter of the statue stumbles onto Vrungel's boat by coincidence and joins their crew, which leads them to be followed by two gangsters who have to steal the statue back for their boss, whose lips are only seen until the last episode when his identity is revealed. The statue, the gangsters are in turn followed by a British secret agent.
This is a show in around a dozen episodes (as IMDb says , 88 mins. in total). The show takes the heroes on insane adventures, from rescuing squirrels from a burning forest and them trying to sell them, to washing ashore in Hawaii. They might go to the pyramids, and in the end the regatta possibly ends in Britain. The classic joke from the start of the show is that their boat is named "PABEDA", which means "victory", but the first two letters get torn off and it says "beda" which now means "misfortune".
The most unique thing about this show is the animation. Imagine South Park type of cut out characters, only imagine the characters MUCH more detailed, their clothes, their faces, their hands, they are just incredibly beautifully drawn and animated! The show also combines live film footage, still photography and other unusual effects to create weird images. For instance the parts when they are sailing on the sees usually have a filmed ocean as a background. The animation alone is a complete treat. It really affords so many new effects and movements and jokes. There is also normal animation used at times. Also with the animation are incredible backgrounds which have a lot of work put into the textures and colors.
The music is great, especially the main theme - what a classic soviet melody! Throughout the show, characters sing their own songs which are really entertaining to watch and they are all very good. The music really adds a lot to the show, from adding a serious tension when necessary, to having a light sunny sea-faring atmosphere when it's smooth sailing. The music of this show gets imprinted into your soul.
One thing I love a lot is the use of different languages and accents and parodies of other cultures. The two gangsters go off on crazy non-sensical Italian rants, so does an American one-legged Captain of another ship who always cracks me up. Another main character is a British secret agent, I think his name is 00X, who is a suave big toothed guy.
This show is absolutely kid-friendly, there's almost no scary or bloody scenes here, except for the comedic mafia chasing them, so there is guns involved. But all little kids in Russia loved this show. Anyone would fall in love with these guy's adventures. The whole show is a very happy one, and very very funny. It has awesome elements of spy, adventure, technology, geography and music, and of course friendship. 10/10, this is beyond classic, this is just a part of every little kid's life who grew up the soviet union. And also it is made with incredible care, love and talent.
