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Once Upon a Time

Original title: V nekotorom tsarstve / The Princess and the Simpleton
1957 · 30 min
Directed by Ivan Ivanov-Vano · Russia / USSR · Soviet Poetic Cinema
Short filmAnimationFantasyAdventure

Cast

Serafim Anikeyev Georgiy Vitsin Vera Orlova Lev Potyomkin Mariya Babanova Grigoriy Shpigel

Credits

Written by: Nikolay Erdman
Cinematography: Mikhail Druyan
Music: Yuriy Nikolskiy

Plot

The tale about a magic fish and resentful lover whose fiancee went to a lazy fool.

Sinekatalog’s take

A fairy-tale animation about a magic fish and a jilted lover whose fiancee chose a lazy fool. Handmade and gently comic, it is a pleasing relic of classic Soviet storybook animation.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

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Ratings

IMDb: 7.2 / 10 (195 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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