The Ugly Duckling

This is a fair adaptation of Andersen's classic, the art and the technique are perfect, it is faithful to the original story, but it does not give way to the wit and inventiveness that pervaded such a gem as "the Gray wolf and Little Riding Hood" (aka "le Loup Gris et le Petit Chaperon Rouge"in French). Unlike "The Gray Wolf..." this is strictly for children's audiences. Their (grand)parents will see it with pleasure, animation buffs will watch it with interest, but will be slightly disappointed thinking back to what Garry Bardin was able to achieve when writing his own scripts. It seems that Bardin had to somehow make a living after the end of the Soviet Union, and that whereas censorship was supposed to suppress expressions during communism, it rather stimulated wit and half transparent criticism . The market economy seems to be far more oppressive regarding imaginative creation.