''Alisa's Birthday'' (, translit. Den' rozhdeniya Alisy) is a 2009 Russian

traditionally animated Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shi ...

children's

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

, directed by

Sergey Seryogin Sergey may refer to: * Sergey (name), a Russian given name (including a list of people with the name) * Sergey, Switzerland Sergey is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. History Sergey is f ...

and produced by Master-film studio. The film is based on a novella of the same name by

Kir Bulychov Kir Bulychev (; 18 October 1934 – 5 September 2003) was a pen name of Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheiko (И́горь Все́володович Може́йко), a Soviet Russian science fiction writer, critic, translator and historian. His magnum ...

about Alisa (Alice) Selezneva, a teenage girl from the future. It is a

spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous product or work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel) does not explicitly continue th ...

to 1981 animated film ''

The Mystery of the Third Planet ''The Mystery of the Third Planet'' (, ''Tayna tretyey planety'', also translated as ''The Secret of the Third Planet'') is a 1981 Soviet traditionally animated feature film directed by Roman Kachanov and produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in M ...

'', from which it draws a heavy influence.

Plot

Alisa Selezneva Alisa Seleznyova () is the protagonist of an eponymous series of Children's literature, children's science fiction books by Russian writer Kir Bulychev. The first novel of the series was published in 1965, with further writings continuing until ...

joins an archeological expedition to the dead planet of Coleida. There are well-preserved cities from the past, yet all of planet's inhabitants had died centuries ago due to an unknown plague. Using a time-travelling device, Alisa and an alien scientist, Rrrr, who greatly resembles a cat, travel to the planet's past, to the day the plague began. They find themselves in a world that resembles 20th century Earth, the Soviet Union in particular. Coleidians are expecting the return of their cosmonauts from their first trip to another planet. Alisa realizes that the cosmonauts were the cause of the plague, and decides to prevent it. Through numerous obstacles, she comes close to the returned spaceship and uses a disinfection spray to prevent plague from spreading. To Coleidian police, it looks like an assault, so they catch Alisa and imprison her. With Rrrr's help, she's able to escape and return to the future. Upon arrival, they find that the future changed and Coleida is no more a dead planet, but a flourishing civilisation.

Cast

*Yasya Nikolaeva as

*Alexey Kolgan as Gromozeka / magician *

Yevgeny Stychkin Yevgeny Alekseevich Stychkin (; born 10 June 1974) is a Russian actor and director known for his roles in ''God Loves Caviar'' and ''Trotsky (TV series), Trotsky''. Biography Yevgeny Stychkin was born in Moscow. He graduated from the English spec ...

as Rrrr, Professor * Natalya Murashkevich as captain of the spaceship *Roman Staburov as Stepan / Doctor Tuk *Mark Cernavin as Bolo *Nikolay Lazarev as Seleznev, professor, father of Alisa *Alexey Kuznetsov as Shepherd / Speaker *Elena Gabets as Grandma Tolo *Anatoly Vologdin as speaking diary / railwaymen / policemen *Anna Glazkova as teacher / mom Bolo *George Muradyan as twins *Sergey Gabrielyan is a kiosk *Victoria Radunskaya as the old lady in the window *Dmitry Kurt as cat catchers / railwaymen / policemen *Anatoly Vologdin, Mikhail Lebedev as railroad / police officers

Production

Roughly one third of the film's 60 million

ruble The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are s ...

budgetВ Звездном городке представили премьеру мультфильма «День рождения Алисы»
. ''Mir TV''. February 12, 2009. Accessed on February 20, 2009. was provided by the Russian government. The film premiered in

Star City, Russia Star City () is an area in Zvyozdny gorodok (urban-type settlement), Zvyozdny gorodok, Moscow Oblast, Russia, which has since the 1960s been home to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC). Officially, the area was known as "closed ...

on February 12, 2009. It was widely released in Russia on February 19 with 250 film prints. Some of the scenes were done using

Flash animation Adobe Flash animation (formerly Macromedia Flash animation and FutureSplash animation) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) platform or similar animation software and often distributed in the SW ...

.Рукотворные истории
. ''Vedomosti''. July 3, 2007. Accessed on: October 24, 2008. The part of Gromozeka was played by Aleksey Kolgan, who is also the Russian voice of

Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, and written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the 1990 children's picture boo ...

.Info about the preliminary May 2008 screening at outzone.ru
. Retrieved on: October 24, 2008. Natalya Guseva, who played Alisa in the 1985 live-action TV series ''

Guest from the Future ''Guest from the Future'' (, ''Gostya iz budushchego'') is a five-part Soviet children's science fiction television miniseries, made at Gorky Film Studio, first aired in 1985. It is based on the 1978 novel ''One Hundred Years Ahead'' (, ''Sto l ...

'', has a minor role as the spaceship captain. Script Editor - Natalya Abramova. Art Director — Sergey Gavrilov.

Reception

''Alisa's Birthday'' was met with mixed reviews. It was praised as a faithful adaptation and for following the traditions of ''

'', as ''Alisa's Birthday'' characters' design was largely based on that film. Yet many critics were disappointed with the film's visual style and soundtrack.

Mir Fantastiki ''Mir Fantastiki'' (), officially abbreviated as ''MirF'', is a Russian monthly science fiction and fantasy magazine. The name also refers to the website run by the magazine, Mirf.ru. ''Mir Fantastiki'' literally translates from Russian as ''Wor ...

called the film a nostalgic reprise of Soviet science fiction that tries to catch up to modern children.

References

External links