Klubok

a little ewe. an old lady. each part of Eastern fairy tale. charming story about miracles and its price. about greed and desire without limit. about image and fall of a dream. about events, meetings and shadows. it is only a little jewel. shining, modest but touching. a kind of lesson about basic values. gentle invitation to respect measure. a Christian parable. or only good example of real precise animation. its flavor is so seductive ! few puppets and new form of Aladin lamp. nothing else. and warm of emotion as cinnamon powder in a book page. in fact, only a meeting. out of age. fresh for every new view. and wise. like a fairy tale for deep childhood evening.

Unless I misinterpreted this Nikolai Serebryakov-directed animated short, greed is the topic of this story. Using puppet-like characters, it's an interesting film based upon folk tale about an old lady and a ball of yarn.

This dressed-in-rags old woman is walking along one day when she spots this ball of yarn. After picking it, the ball changes into a little dog, made out of wool. In short, the dog is magically used for the lady to crochet anything she fantasizes. At first, she knits herself (within seconds) a nice warm coat. Then, thanks to the little pooch who is almost akin to a magic lantern, the lady knows has a woolen house.

The problems arise when curious neighbors see the house and the woman immediately doesn't want to share her good fortune. From that point, so as not to use spoilers, the woman ruins a nice thing for herself by getting carried away with needs, not wants. I don't know if you could call this a parable, but it's obviously a morality play and it's well-done.

Once again, we see something really different in this "Masters of Russian Animation, Volume One," now available on DVD.