A teaser for the family film “Kuzya the Little Brownie,” produced by the Andreasyan brothers, has been released online. Along with the published video, Sarik Andreasyan announced the release date of the film on Russian screens.
“And this, friends, is an incredible surprise and joy for our children! “Kuzya the Little Brownie” is returning to us. See you on December 19th in all cinemas. We are reviving the legacy and raising our children with our heroes,” the producer captioned the video on Instagram*.
The teaser shows how a blue-eyed brownie with shaggy blond hair falls out of a toy box and, upon seeing the girl Natasha in the room, pretends to be a doll. However, the heroine of Sofia Petrova managed to notice Kuzya running.
“Don’t pretend, I saw that you were alive,” says the girl, turning to the brownie.
Many social network users received the video favorably. In the comments, they expressed their joy at what they saw and their readiness to come to the cinemas with the whole family: “What a delight,” “Beauty,” “What a miracle,” “Glorious little brownie,” they wrote.
“What a great fellow you are for reviving the classics, you make very good films,” noted one of the commenters.
“I really want to watch this film, I can’t wait! Inspiration to you and the entire team who are working on its creation,” another subscriber wrote.
Some fans of the Soviet animated film were upset that the premiere of the full-length film would not take place soon. In the comments, Andreasyan explained that the date was chosen based on the timing of work on the film. According to him, the film is at the stage of editing and drawing graphics.
Some potential viewers were not delighted with the image of the brownie. They noted that his eyes were too large and his body proportions were different from the hero of the original animation project.
“It doesn’t look like it, it’s a pity. Apparently, the goal was not to make him look like Kuzya from the cartoon. Modern children won’t understand, they should like it,” one of the users expressed confidence. “Older generations will notice significant differences in both appearance and voice compared to the cartoon character.”
According to the plot of the comedy film, having escaped the captivity of Baba Yaga in a fairy-tale world, Kuzya ends up in an apartment where the girl Natasha and her parents live. The hero has to find a magic chest. But along with the brownie, Yaga also penetrates into the real world.
The director of the project was Viktor Lakisov. The central roles were also played by Mark Bogatyrev, Alika Smekhova, Oleg Komarov and Zhenya Malakhova.
The fact that Sarik Andreasyan will produce a new film about the brownie Kuzya became known back in April 2023. The filmmaker announced this on social networks, noting that as a child he really loved stories about Kuz.
“Now that I’ve grown up, I have the opportunity to make millions of children happy and show them Kuzya again,” Andreasyan wrote then.
This is not the only time when a story beloved by many Russians comes to life again on the big screens. In 2022 and 2023, there was a lot of news about the filming and release of film adaptations and remakes. Experts, in a conversation with RT, explained the increased interest of filmmakers in fairy tales and children's books for many reasons, in particular the difficult political situation in the world, the desire to highlight “eternal values” and bring something good and familiar to the masses.
“We lived for a long time in difficult, darkened Western times, and now we have begun to look at each other more. And artists want to talk about love. And where have we always had a lot of warmth, love, heart? In fairy tales,” explained director Alexey Nuzhny.
By the way, at the beginning of 2024, Nazhnogo’s film “The Town Musicians of Bremen” about the Troubadour and his friends was released in Russia. The public warmly appreciated the film, although the trailer initially caused a lot of dissatisfied reviews from netizens.
Also among the major fairy-tale adaptations that were released on screens was the film “At the Pike’s Command,” directed by Alexander Voitinsky based on the folk tale about the fool Emelya. The film opened in theaters in October 2023, and in November it became known that it entered the top 10 highest-grossing Russian films.
In the future, viewers can expect new films based on famous stories for children. For example, Sarik Andreasyan is planning the production of a project based on the story “Uncle Fyodor, the Dog and the Cat” by Eduard Uspensky. Filming will begin in 2024. The director and producer promised fans of the writer’s work that he would try his best to meet their expectations.
In addition, Andreasyan has three projects in development based on the collection “Deniska’s Stories” by Viktor Dragunsky. In December 2022, it became known that the filmmaker had acquired the rights to the literary source and plans to create an entire universe based on it: make a full-length film, an animated series and a multi-part film. According to the director, implementation of the plans will take about seven years.
* Meta product, activity recognized as extremist, prohibited in Russia by decision of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow dated March 21, 2022.