Le mystère de la troisième planète

Have said many times about being a fan of Soyuzmultfilm, and consider most of their output of what has been personally seen (which is a vast majority of it, while needing to see more of their later work) classic level. This applies to all decades and genres, am especially fond of their 1950s work and their fantasies and adaptations of classic literature. As well as their animation techniques such as rotoscoping and cut out and those that use pre-existing classical music.

'The Mystery of the Third Planet' is one of not many forays into science fiction for Soyuzmultfilm, but it is a highly intriguing, beautifully done and quite excellent film. Even if it is not quite as historically significant as their, and Soviet animation's, first science-fiction animation 1953's 'Flight to the Moon' (also great, but to me this is the better film) directed by Zinaida and Valentina Brumberg. But so what? The quality matters much more, and this delivers on that in big spades. It is one of their best (relatively) later animations, in the top half quality-wise of their output and one of the better sci-fi animated films to exist in my view.

Occasionally, the visuals are ever so slightly over-elaborate in the more action-oriented moments and the momentum is not always there.

Also wish it was longer too, under an hour is not long enough.

Conversely, the animation is great. The backgrounds are gorgeously surreal as are the alien images (sometimes in a wonderfully nightmarish way), the character designs are imaginative at their best (that for Gromozeka especially, the arms are especially cleverly done) and the colours are full of atmosphere. It is hard to forget the soundtrack too, sometimes quite funky but also beautifully orchestrated and atmosphere-enhancing. Really liked the characters, a colourful bunch, with a likeable lead in Alisa, a not too scary but menacing enough villain and a comical character in Gromozeka that didn't grate.

From start to finish, the story is always immensely engaging, full of charm and far from cold emotionally. Some nice inventive moments too, it is cohesive, it never felt predictable and as far as animated films seen recently this is up there with among the most unique narratively and there is a clever twist regarding the villain. To me, the relaxed and not hurried pace was appreciated as was the at times surprisingly optimistic tone, the mystery element is suspenseful and intriguing and while the action is not fast and furious it still excites.

In conclusion, excellent. 9/10

A cult soviet classic that is cherished by lots of people, especially those who grew up with it. Although made in 1981 it still looks excellent. It's by far the best sci-fi cartoon out of the Soviet Union that has everything in it: exciting adventures, space travel, strange creatures, space pirates, suspense, excellent animation, great music and a brilliant story.

The story is based on one of the books by Kir Bulychev, a sci-fi writer, who wrote a whole series about Alice's adventures. Some of them were translated into English. And because it's based on book and a script that is written by the same writer the story is solid, so that even adults find it interesting. There are common characters in all of these stories and the central one is Alice, a little girl whose father, professor Seleznev, is a biologist working for a zoo. And since it's 22-d century and many distant star systems have been explored and space travel became very common, the zoo is filled with space animals from other planets and so Alice gets to fly with her father once in a while to explore unknown worlds - this time in search for rare animals. Another common characters across the books are space pirates that are always up to something bad and Alice, being a curious girl, always getting into some sort of dangerous adventure. Kids of the future are very advanced intellectually and physically, and so Alice is already doing some scientific research in some of the stories. I guess that's one of the things that draw kids to these stories.

A few words about the English versions of the film and where to find them. Original Russian version with English subtitles that are not particularly well translated and of poor video quality is available on YouTube http://youtu.be/cTxIp_pMOk4. There is also a dubbed English bootleg US version called Mystery of the third planet (dollar store version) 1987, which retained the full video and music but with some significantly altered dialogues and added narrative which are not original - it is still watchable. http://youtu.be/NWTPMCD3SeQ. I have a review of that. There is also a third version of the cartoon called Alice and the Mystery of The Third Planet (1995), another US bootleg dubbed version. This one had the original music and sound all removed, 8 minutes cut out from the beginning of the film and a new narrative added. The dialogues, however, are nearly identical to the original, which is the only good thing about this version. It's also available on YouTube http://youtu.be/3lEoewc7Yns. This is also watchable but I wouldn't recommend any of the two bootleg versions. I'm hoping to get a new subtitled English translation on YouTube soon in HD quality so check back soon.

Futurama meets Yellow Submarine? All of that in ways, but this is certainly unique, while also having that distinctly Russian blend of colourful fantasy laced with sweet melancholy (toska?). The plot is of a scientist and his peppy daughter, together with a bearded pilot, on a quest to preserve rare animals from across the universe and, in so doing, encounter bandits. In many ways, like a Studio Ghibli adventure movie. It's good guys vs bad but I kept zoning out on plot details beyond that - it's hard not to among such luscious, analogue visuals and music. It's the kind of thoughtful psychedelia befitting of 1981-era with its inventive array of landscapes, characters and ideas, all backed by some wonderful soviet-era synth sounds and electric folk music. Compared with similar animation, it's not as dark as, say, Fantastic Planet (Le Planete Sauvage, 1973) but is equally as interesting to look at and groove along to. At 48m, I wished this was twice as long.

This show is just amazing , definetely worth a watch ( recommend the original with sub titles the american dub is not good and made the characters quite blunt and removed all the original amazing soundtracks )

this show is over 40 years old yet still has the awesome nastolgia and vibe to it , a true diamond of its age , despite it not being as modern its still very good , this show deserves more credit and its sad to see people just overlook the show due to its age.

What I can see is an unimpressive cartoon with very limited imaginative material. A flying cow - that's brilliant! A superhuman intergalactic villain that walks about in an ugly coat with a turned-up collar and resembles a poor pensioner - that's fantastic! A rectangular parallelepiped that jumps and changes colour - that's groovy! A fictitious bird that looks like a slightly tuned-up parrot - wow! A couple of evil robots (blocky and with an AI of a child) that can be easily defeated with the help of good old judo - that's outstanding! You can continue this list yourself. Get over it, this cartoon was good for its time (and for its place - the whole idea was the winner in those grey USSR days) but now it is almost unwatchable to me.

Not everything is junk of course. I like the idea of mirror-flowers that have memory of their own. One of the landscapes presented is quite picturesque. And the space suits of the main three characters are very believable and have a nice colour scheme. Apart from these features there is nothing else to admire.

There was a proper sci-fi animation film from those days but unfortunately I do not remember the title and the country that made it (it started with some swift vehicle running through the landscape somewhere on a distant planet and continued delivering mind-blowing landscapes and creatures). One day I hope to find out what it was.

If I want a sci-fi animation film, I go for a Japanese flick ("Last Exile" IS great, "GITS: Stand Alone Complex" IS impressive). Usually Japan does not disappoint: tons of fresh ideas are wrapped up in an eye-candy jacket of lines and colours.

As to this very cartoon... It's passable at best. I can only agree with the opinion that it really shows potential. And I can only wish it had been made in a different way (more imaginative characters and creatures, better dialogues, detailed robots, menacing villains, etc.).

It is a drag (I would recommend this one only to those who have fits of nostalgia) - 4 out of 10 from my side is an objective mark, I think. Thanks for attention.