Edit: The journey continues with my video about the Russian Hobbit, which is just as bizarre: ua-cam.com/video/ACcsqU3sjn0/v-deo.html Original comment: This one was fun. Seriously, stick around for Part 3. This movie is out of this world.
You should watch another one, which is way trippier. A group of Russian veterans of field role-playing shot their version of LOTR. Zero budget, shooting in crappy cafés and country homes, - hilarity ensues. Just like the Soviet TV version, it is close to the loose translation of Muravyov / Kistyakovsky. ua-cam.com/video/Av5U3JpQHik/v-deo.html
@ShutEyeCinema Yeah, Puchkov(Goblin) is the most famous parody voiceover actor in Russia. He was creating "abridged" movies before TeamFourstar ever got their hands on Dragon Ball Z.
It is not a film, but a "телеспектакль" or a tv-play, if you will. The thing is that 90s were an absolute hell in Russia and they could not afford a reall movie. To survive, they made a tv-play of very popular book among kids. Tv-play means: shoot everything with minimal or cheepest effects, without doubles, with natural sound (like a play in a theater) and do it as fast as you can to decrease the cost of production (and payments to actors). Actually the genre of tv-play can be really great and there are great films and tv-shows in that genre, but 90s did not left even a chance for that. You did a great research, thank you for your work!)
Watched it as a kid in Russia. And honestly thought it was an interesting movie. A bit weird by modern western standards. But 1990's Russia was another planet in comparison to 1990's US.
Nonsense. In the 70's and 80's, here in Slovakia (then in Czechoslovakia), they showed us quality Russian films on TV. Either fairy tales (Sadko, Morozok, Korolevstvo krivykh zerkal, Finist - Jasnyj sokol), or serious films (Priključenija žjoltogo čemodančika, Čelovek-amfibija).
@@dacsus That's true, but the movies you've mentioned are full-budget movies released in theaters. Of course, they have higher production value than a TV only series such as "Хранители". It would
I remember watching Soviet "multiki" (short for 'animation") in Bulgaria when I was little and it was the only thing on televsion for kids that I can remember. Soviet "Jungle book" is da sh-t. It was on another planet in the sence that back then it was meant to create superior people, to educate the children to be moral, enlightened, to read much, to care for the elderly and their friends, and yes, to salute the red star. I am from this planet... nowadays I feel like everything in mainstream hollywood is broken families and deep problems that are solved by punching Loki through a skyscraper. And below the belt nasty humour in Rick and Morty and family guy.
I'm assuming their FX budget ran out. That might also explain why Gandalf was killed before they made it to the bridge, but still appeared on the bridge. They planned to include the Barlog, but couldn't, so they added the shot of him getting over ran. (All of this is just an assumption, but it makes sense.)
I seriously don't know what to say. I feel like I just had an out of body experience or something. I have serious doubts that this movie is actually from this universe.
Never saw any soviet movie with Matt Damon. Saw a soviet movie with Christian Bale tho (I sh*t you not - just google "Mio in the Land of Faraway"!). And guess what? It's awesome!
"The yellow book" translation was not actually published in 1966, the manuscript is from 1966, but it was published in the 80-s. And it was less of a "censorship" then adaptation when the author was trying to make it more fairy-tailish like "The Hobbit", trying to make it shorter by removing long descriptions, while also adding her own story in there and wrapping it all in the story about a group of modern scientists studying the ring as some extra-terrestrial artifact and getting the story from it. It's pretty crazy. Also "furry feet" are translated to Russian as "furry legs" because of how words "feet" and "legs" used differently in Russian and English (like in Russian you don't say "footsteps", but "legtraces"). So the furry legs make sense in this context.
It is honestly shocking to realize just what kind of shit translators were able to get away with up until just a few decades ago, simply because they knew almost none of the readers would ever get their hands on the original to do a comparison (nowadays, at least when it comes to English, that's no longer an option). Whoever came up with the concept of an "abridged" version deserves to be shot-there are many people out there who think they know a book even though all they were ever exposed to was a mere 2/3 of it.
@@kanaler5924 there is. It's just not used as often as in English. It's sounds anatomical and weird in those contexts. Like if someone would use soles instead of feet in English, or palms instead of hands.
@@daniilfedotov8922 so you don't have words for soles or palms either or you just don't use them? I mean every part has a name. It sounds strange that you wouldn't speak of feet when you are talking about feet. Like if someone says can you touch your feet. Does your feet hurt. He has pretty small feet. She has cute feet etc. What do you just say legs instead? Lol
You may also try out the western equivalent, the Ralph Bakshi adaptation of LOTR from 1978. This one has even a Balrog and its arguably more terrifying than the Peter Jackson one.
Never seen this movie but I can confirm that Russian translations of Hobbit and LOTR feature carefully and faithfully matched ideological translations of names and places, as opposed to phonetic. There is an enormous Tolkien fan base in Russia.
Alternative opinion: there are no good LotR translation in Russian. All the name changes sound super silly and cringe to russian ears. Movie translations are good though.
@@JoinMeInDeathBaby it's weird how a lot of russians have this sence of despising therr own language this way. I wonder if it has something to do with soviets denigrating the language of countryside people, the ones who were more creative with the language. I mean, if you say "галоши", it's perfectly fine, but if you say "мокроступы", suddenly you sound like a village idiot
@@darkdwarf007 i don't think that there is a connection. I do not despise russian language, just point out the fact that there are no good LoTR translations into Russian.
@@darkdwarf007 про принижение русского языка я вот что думаю проблема в том, что буквальный перевод названий с английского на русский тупо не работает, английский - это уникальный язык, он вобрал в себя просто гигантские пласты иноязычной лексики, к тому же на нем говорит полмира, что послужило образованию сумасшедшего количества акцентов. Это сильно смазало ощущение идентификации английского, как языка исключительно англичан или американцев, или как языка на котором говорят только в определенном месте. Это даёт возможность писателю поместить героев почти в любой сеттинг, дать говорящее имя, понятное носителю, и не вызвать у читателя когнитивного диссонанса. С русским дело обстоит иначе, какие-то имена можно перевести, типо гаечки из мультфильма Чип и Дейл, это смотрится нормально, потому что это даже не имя, а скорее кличка. Но русскоязычный читатель не может поверить, что в Средиземье живёт герой по имени Бильбо Сумкин. Русский не обладает тем налетом мультикультурности, поэтому в нашем сознании Сумкины живут на территории СНГ, а Бэггинс нормальный обитатель, пусть и вымешленного, но, очевидно, европйского Средиземья. Да кстати, немаловажную роль сыграло то, что все новое к нам поступает из Америки, в России нихера не производистся, поэтому вместо изобретения своего слова, мы просто заимствуем название от страны производителя, просто транскрипцией, безо всякого перевода. Русский слух отвык от неологизмов, для нас новое слово часто звучит глупо, ну и пробуй после этого переводить силами исключительно русского языка без заимствований, поэтому все переводы считаются не очень хорошими
@@Catanonimus777 Не так уж английский и уникален, не стоит так преклоняться. На нем как на родном даже сейчас говорит лишь ок. 5 % населения мира. А в Средневековие на нем и вовсе говорили только в некоторой части Британских о-вов. Бэггинс - очевидно английское имя и его носитель может жить только в UK или в каком-то вымышленном его соответствии. Уже другой вопрос - это желательно в данном случае или нет. Можно начинать с русского корня, а потом добавлять английское окончание - Сумкинс. Но ожидать от читателей владеть английским и понимать "говорящие имена" и так - смешно, ведь зачем тогда вообще переводить?
The actor playing Tom Bombadil is Sergey Parshin. In those days, he was the host of "Tale after Tale", a children's nightly show before going to bed, and longer episodes on the weekends. Technically, this "Lord of the Rings" is a few episodes of this show.
It is not only about censorship. The publishers simply didn't know what to make of this book. There was the science fiction department and there was the children's fairy tails department. Lord of the Rings obviously didn't fit either of these categories. Fantasy was simply unknown and since every publisher was state-owned they couldn't break the rules. The first "translation" was actually an attempt to remake Lord of the Rings into a science fiction novel so it could be published by the relevant department. If my memory serves, it starts with scientists discovering the ring. P.S. In fact, I doubt there was any censorship involved. Hobbit was pretty well received, although it wasn't particularly well known. The government publishers simply didn't know what to do with the book.
It's amazing that they managed to net Vaush as the narrator, to think he flew all the way over to Soviet Russia just to sit in a chair for three minutes.
i'm from Russia. And I can swear I've never even heard of this version of LOTR. But maybe because i'm a little younger than the movie itself. Peter Jackson's films and their humorous translations by Dmitry Puchkov were popular in Russia when i was a child and they still are popular today.
@@Jedzelex I know, but consider the context and the perspective of everyone involved. If you were a kid in the late 80's in Soviet Union, you didn't have exposure to western bclockbuster movies (teen might have, but a VHS player was a luxury barely anyone could afford). You didn't know anything about Tolkien or his books - yes, technically there was a translation circulating, but good luck trying to get your hands on it as a kid. You would have, like, 2 channels on TV to watch. So if on Saturday morning they show you this, it's not too dissimilar from other TV plays made of shoestring budget for the purpose of entertaining kids under 12 years old or so with a sort of fairy tale told by the theatrical means. And you would find it entertaining. Yes, I know, it sucks, but it sucks for us, because we have that stellar example of Jackson's movies, with epic tone and scale and old that. To the creators of this fairy tale, it was just another book for children, literally a fairly tale, hence the amount of effort. Would you consider upon reading something like Hanzel and Gretel that only big epic action-packed movie will do it justice? Oh, wait, someone it Hollywood actually did consider that.
@@KasumiRINA Not sure what kind of Soviet movies you watched, or how broad is your definition of a TV play. If something like Soviet Sherlock Holmes series is a TV play in your perception, then yes, Soviet movies are more like TV plays. I didn't grow up in Soviet times (thank God) so I didn't experience an average Soviet TV programming, but something tells me that Hobbit would feel like a TV play even by Soviet standards.
3:07 Damn, I still got this LotR edition (along with The Hobbit from the same book series with identical cover design), bought both of them in 2002 after watching first Jackson's movie. There were so many Russian LotR translations, it became a joke: - How many hobbits does it take to change a light bulb? - One. And a whole bunch of Russian LotR translations to climb on them.
I love this review! I'd like to offer one correction: Akvarium did not compose the soundtrack, as that group had already broken up by the time this film was produced. Andrei "Dyusha" Romanov, a founding member of Akvarium, composed the soundtrack, which he produced with his group Trilistnik ("Shamrock") - he's that weird narrator mentioned in this film. Trilistnik was, essentially, Dyusha and a number of other musicians formerly in Akvarium, but minus the original group's leader, songwriter, and voice, Boris Grebenschikov. Grebenschikov had been trying to make a go as a crossover artist in the West since the late 1980's (some may remember his album "Radio Silence") but eventually returned to Russia to reform Akvarium with a new set of musicians. Dyusha and Trilistnik had a modest amount of success - I remember seeing them in concert in 1993 and really enjoying them - and released the soundtrack to this movie as an album called "Music of Middle Earth." Dyusha, a legendary and beloved figure in Soviet/post-Soviet Russia's underground music scene, died of a heart attack in 2000.
@@PentexProductions Akvarium was a big influence on Kino, arguably the most famous Soviet rock band of all time, and Grebenshchikov is still touring ex-Soviet countries with his newfound "guru" image.
You shouldn't try to look at it as 20th century western cinema. This is a television adaptation in an environment where the majority of kids programs were some combination of puppets or small stage. Plus, you had to follow strict cultural rules, that were much more lax at the time of the production of this, but still very strict with a western eye. Bonus joke from the era: Engineers develop a haircutting machine and want to present it to the Party. The leader of the committee says, "But, Tovarish! The heads! They all have different shapes and sizes!" And the engineer answers, "Da! .... Initially..."
I think it would be awesome if someone edited TFTR only with this films soundtrack, that scene with Frodo running from the Nazgûl was sheer perfection.
3 роки тому+28
Damn! I was DYING to see the russian version of the Balrog :-D
In the 90s people have begun starving in Russia, I have tremendous respect to actors and project team for making the TV play so entertaining with little to no budget. It's not your typical theater movie, it is its own genre with its own tradition.
@@КириллМороз-у8л it depends on regions. Once countries became independent from Kremlin, most of russia outside of moscow and St. Petersburg that received humanitarian aid from USA and Ukraine, WAS starving. I had a relative in Rybinsk and they had breadlines and food stamps that would give like 10 eggs a month. Not enough for a grown man.
10:54 "I'M OLD GREGGDALF!" I did not expect to laugh this hard watching this video. I fucking loved the terrified hobbits running from the ring wraiths with that happy-go-lucky shire music. Beautiful editing. I'm subbing.
Ну как мечи стаканы на стол! Ну как мечи стаканы на стол! Ну как мечи стаканы на стол! И прочую посуду! Все говорят что пить нельзя, Все говорят что пить нельзя А я говорю что буду!
This actually reminds me a lot of tv stuff I used to watch in the early 80’s. Maybe they were 10 years behind technically. Those green screens take me back!
7:30 No, that's just a Soviet thing. It's how they make things feel ethereal. Did the same thing in Mary Poppins. I love the Goblin Russian dub of the Jackson film BTW.
"it might be from another universe" bro, this is just russian movies in general. They have a very unique style to them, especially the old ones from the 80s to 90s.
This entire film was part of an entertaining television series for children, and not a movie in its classical sense. In the 80s in the USSR it was almost an enthusiastic thing. So the comparison was funny from the start. 11:47 No' it's not "winter is coming", it's just "winter will begin". And... at least THIS movie didn't forget about Tom Bombadil existence! )
During the party scenes in Shire, it wasn't vaseline or pro mist filters that made the iconic soft look. The lenses fogged up due to the vodka being breathed out in the air.
Akvarium (also know as Aquarium) is great. I just watched a documentary on the UA-cam channel Bandsplaining about Soviet rock music in the '70s and '80s and they popped up a lot. Now that I know they're part of this, I'm even more intrigued.
I like to think that half the people on set were pising themselves laughing knowing how shit it was and just pissing about getting paid and seeing what nonsense they could get away with, and the other half were balls deep into it thinking they wey doing some kind of avant garde experimental production
That's not a movie, that's a TV play. It's basically a no-budget stage performance, but filmed on camera. And it's not 'lost', it just wasn't ever intended for any wider release than your local channel's weather broadcast. The only weird thing about it is lemmings sensationlizing it. I imagine someone one day will pick up some parents filming their kids as they 'fight' on plastic lightsabers in the sand and go, in all seriousness "The long lost bootleg Revenge of the Sith remake. It's horific and weird, lets analyze it!".
I have to say, the best adaptation of the Hobbit was a theateical puppet play, done by two guys alone and a woman doing all the music. it was 2 hours of total awe without anything missing from the book. i watched it twice, some years apart and was astonished both times.
I know it's just coincidental, but I see a lot of similarities between this and Brazilian Star Wars (yes, it's weirder than Turkish Star Wars). Lots of green screen and strange things happening all the time.
And Turkish Star Wars (Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam) was made seriously according to the lead actor (a couple of years ago, he was mad that people made fun of it). It's not even a joke, they legit did it. There's Turkish Star Trek as well, I suggest checking that out.
@@MericErdemBal Yes! I have Turkish Star Trek, took me forever to find a subtitle track so I could watch it too! But yea, I know about how they believe they're making wholesome movies, even if they are ripping off famous IP's, but it's not just them, the Italians were notorious for this same thing, it just didn't get as much reputation because their movies weren't nearly as 'over the top' :D
Also, in the Soviet version Sam's last name was changed to Skromby, which was a play on the Russian word 'skromnyi / скромный' meaning "humble, modest, unassuming." Soviet translators were generally known for taking serious liberties when it came to names (and other things, too) in the hopes of "improving the original."
Let alone Soviet - modern translators of Harry Potter have absolutely butchered the names of almost every single charachter except for maybe a dozen most important ones. Some characters got off relatively easy like Nevill Longbottom who was translated as Dolgopoops ("Longbelly"). And Gilderoy Lockhart was notoriously translated as Zloteus Zley ("Evilgoldmoustache Evilflush"). Snape was translated as Snag - this doesn't really mean anything; it does resemble the word for snow but still makes little sense. Luna Lovegood was rather Polumna (think "Derangette") Lovegood. Where wordplay in the original was very subtle in the Russian translation it was as straitforward and overexaggerrated as a brick to the face.
It reminds me of a "Суета вокруг колец" (Sueta vokrug kolec - a fuss around rings), an old Russian fan film where Black Riders use bicycles to chase hobbits.
About the music, in late USSR pop and rock were considered both rebellious and popular. As for the weird noises are simply something that Soviet television did a lot for scary parts.
"Why would you put effort into making sure their feet are hairy like in the books, but have no concern for their height?" Uh, maybe because getting hairy shoes is a lot easier than making sure half of your cast are 2 feet shorter?
Can you back that claim up? I couldn't find a single source for your claim. In what language would it have that meaning? Seems to be fake news. If this was supposed to be a joke, I apologize.
Oh man you nailed it early on.. i'm pretty sure that all soviet movies are unwatchable because they are merely theatrical adaptations that just happen to have been captured on camera as opposed to actual movie productions. The insane makeup, the over enunciation, weird cutaways are all meant to give some context clues to the people in the back row of a theater.
It would have tons of poor CG, actors wouldn't be poor theatre artists like in old films but modern celebrities that can't act and don't fit any roles, and like Alexey above said, it would be filled to the brim with putinist propaganda. But that won't even be the main problem, but the overall production quality of modern russian cinema is so low, most movies turn up as fodder for mocking UA-cam reviewers like Bad Comedian. There's also the problem that russia is called Mordor by Ukrainians and russian soldiers are referred to as orcs, so it is in moscow's interest to ignore all the material that would be associated with them altogether. Like, even this video makes a visual parallel between Mordor tower with Kremlin. It just... strangely fits. I mean, have you tried to adapt LoTR without Gollum acting like the russian president, khuilo?
Soviet and post-Soviet cinematography is an entire different type, not Hollywood. Actors, plots, script, director, production - they have nothing in common with the American ones. Can't get compared. Watch the Soviet "Treasure Island" and "Three Musketeers" and then come back here. Btw. I really despise what Hollywood has done with Tolkien's heritage and I am sure Tolkien himself would agree with that.
No offense, but their pronunciation of Aragorn is more correct than yours. The vowels and consonants are just closer to Sindarin in Russian than they are in English.
The whole movie is like a feverish drug-induced nightmare. I am not judging the limitations of money, set designs or the actors or trying to talk the movie down. It just looks and feels like those ferver-induced nightmares i had when a was a kid. (minus the drugs :-)) ]
Thanks for your review of the film (or a play?), I honestly learned a lot from it. I must say most effects that were used in that film are very typical for other USSR films too, especially if we are talking about films for kids. They have great actors and perhaps no budget at all so they look very simplistic because of that, but somehow at least in my childhood they didn't feel bad by any means. The western cartoons and movies obviously have much bigger budget and the picture overall (and probably the sound quality too) is far superior, however for some reason those films, they just have a very different feeling to it and I totally agree that's it's honestly almost impossible to compare the two approaches :).
Edit: The journey continues with my video about the Russian Hobbit, which is just as bizarre: ua-cam.com/video/ACcsqU3sjn0/v-deo.html
Original comment: This one was fun. Seriously, stick around for Part 3. This movie is out of this world.
*can hardly wait* what a trip!🤩
You should watch another one, which is way trippier. A group of Russian veterans of field role-playing shot their version of LOTR. Zero budget, shooting in crappy cafés and country homes, - hilarity ensues.
Just like the Soviet TV version, it is close to the loose translation of Muravyov / Kistyakovsky.
ua-cam.com/video/Av5U3JpQHik/v-deo.html
Third weirdest, I'd say. The little-known 1966 official "animated" adaptation of the Hobbit was monumentally weird.
Thanks, Друг.
Yeah, it is a product of it's times. Trully weird and chaotic times.
@ShutEyeCinema Yeah, Puchkov(Goblin) is the most famous parody voiceover actor in Russia.
He was creating "abridged" movies before TeamFourstar ever got their hands on Dragon Ball Z.
It is not a film, but a "телеспектакль" or a tv-play, if you will. The thing is that 90s were an absolute hell in Russia and they could not afford a reall movie. To survive, they made a tv-play of very popular book among kids. Tv-play means: shoot everything with minimal or cheepest effects, without doubles, with natural sound (like a play in a theater) and do it as fast as you can to decrease the cost of production (and payments to actors). Actually the genre of tv-play can be really great and there are great films and tv-shows in that genre, but 90s did not left even a chance for that.
You did a great research, thank you for your work!)
Спасибо за комментарий! Хотел написать то же, но слишком плохо пишу на английском.
Great response. Now, everything is clear! Thank you!
He says that it is a tv-play in the video at 4:49
It would be very unfair to compare a minimal budget TV play-film like this to the modern CGI sci-fi/action films coming out of Russia today.
Only now I realized what a tv play means.
There is old Finnish Hobbit movie that was a tv play, its called Hobbitit
Its so bad its good :D
Thats not just any narrator, that's U.S.S.R. Tolkien!
I fuckking loooled at this
He looks like a fat Alan Moore.
oh, yeah, of course
You just won the internet. Because you are hilarious!
Bra-fucking-vo, mate. I bow to you.
Watched it as a kid in Russia. And honestly thought it was an interesting movie. A bit weird by modern western standards. But 1990's Russia was another planet in comparison to 1990's US.
I can see that. And it's still a good story.
Nonsense. In the 70's and 80's, here in Slovakia (then in Czechoslovakia), they showed us quality Russian films on TV. Either fairy tales (Sadko, Morozok, Korolevstvo krivykh zerkal, Finist - Jasnyj sokol), or serious films (Priključenija žjoltogo čemodančika, Čelovek-amfibija).
@@dacsus True
@@dacsus That's true, but the movies you've mentioned are full-budget movies released in theaters. Of course, they have higher production value than a TV only series such as "Хранители". It would
I remember watching Soviet "multiki" (short for 'animation") in Bulgaria when I was little and it was the only thing on televsion for kids that I can remember. Soviet "Jungle book" is da sh-t. It was on another planet in the sence that back then it was meant to create superior people, to educate the children to be moral, enlightened, to read much, to care for the elderly and their friends, and yes, to salute the red star. I am from this planet... nowadays I feel like everything in mainstream hollywood is broken families and deep problems that are solved by punching Loki through a skyscraper. And below the belt nasty humour in Rick and Morty and family guy.
So the Soviet LotR had the balls to show Tom Bombadil?
The Soviets were the only ones that could contain Tom Bombadil
@@lukasvoorhis6964 No, Soviets tried by using Chernobyl Reactor 4 but on 26 April 1986 he escaped containment
You need to be the on something string to think he would be necessary for a good movie. We know the Soviets had Vodka at least :)
@@Seb1l I would pay so much goddamn money to read, play or watch this story...xD
Yeah and that's why it sucked monkeyballs.
Are you kidding me?! They included all of the Tom Bombadil and Barrow-Wight stuff but left out the Balrog?!
I'm assuming their FX budget ran out. That might also explain why Gandalf was killed before they made it to the bridge, but still appeared on the bridge. They planned to include the Barlog, but couldn't, so they added the shot of him getting over ran. (All of this is just an assumption, but it makes sense.)
They blew all their money on eagle special effects.
Considering that the Balrog in a movie of this caliber would most likely be a sock puppet that somebody lit on fire, perhaps that was for the best. :P
@@blast_tyrantt and hiring Matt Damon
@@thegreattotemaster I'd almost pay money to see that :)
I seriously don't know what to say. I feel like I just had an out of body experience or something. I have serious doubts that this movie is actually from this universe.
@BattleAngelFan You know...yeah...you got me there. Taken in that context, I guess this movie fits right in. LOL
It's like surreal art
@@anoNEMOs Surreal, definitely. Art? Umm...maybe???
They got Rowan Atkinson to play Frodo !
Should have gone the whole hog and had Sam continually announcing 'I have a cunning plan my Lord'
The ultimate crossover. But then you'd need to have Lord Flashheart as Aragorn...
nah, thats Jimmy Fallon
YES!!!
Oh shit they got Matt Damon? That’s where the budget went.
Never saw any soviet movie with Matt Damon. Saw a soviet movie with Christian Bale tho (I sh*t you not - just google "Mio in the Land of Faraway"!). And guess what? It's awesome!
@@garorobe hahha yeah, and Christopher Lee plays the evil guy!!
in soviet russia the ring finds you!
"The yellow book" translation was not actually published in 1966, the manuscript is from 1966, but it was published in the 80-s.
And it was less of a "censorship" then adaptation when the author was trying to make it more fairy-tailish like "The Hobbit", trying to make it shorter by removing long descriptions, while also adding her own story in there and wrapping it all in the story about a group of modern scientists studying the ring as some extra-terrestrial artifact and getting the story from it. It's pretty crazy.
Also "furry feet" are translated to Russian as "furry legs" because of how words "feet" and "legs" used differently in Russian and English (like in Russian you don't say "footsteps", but "legtraces"). So the furry legs make sense in this context.
Thanks heaps for these insights, they help explain a few things I couldn't clarify in my research.
It is honestly shocking to realize just what kind of shit translators were able to get away with up until just a few decades ago, simply because they knew almost none of the readers would ever get their hands on the original to do a comparison (nowadays, at least when it comes to English, that's no longer an option). Whoever came up with the concept of an "abridged" version deserves to be shot-there are many people out there who think they know a book even though all they were ever exposed to was a mere 2/3 of it.
So in Russian the is no word for feet at all?
@@kanaler5924 there is. It's just not used as often as in English. It's sounds anatomical and weird in those contexts. Like if someone would use soles instead of feet in English, or palms instead of hands.
@@daniilfedotov8922 so you don't have words for soles or palms either or you just don't use them? I mean every part has a name. It sounds strange that you wouldn't speak of feet when you are talking about feet. Like if someone says can you touch your feet. Does your feet hurt. He has pretty small feet. She has cute feet etc. What do you just say legs instead? Lol
"We are not qualified to be your judges. We have no law to fit your crime."
Picard?
@@scottfitzpatrick1939 Yep, talking to Kevin Uxbridge after he admitted genocide.
I still love how such a version of LOTR exists, regardless of its quality.
You may also try out the western equivalent, the Ralph Bakshi adaptation of LOTR from 1978. This one has even a Balrog and its arguably more terrifying than the Peter Jackson one.
@@tomitiustritus6672 And I love the orcs on that movie, especially in the scenes where they fight the Rohans. Ring wraiths are also pretty dank.
Never seen this movie but I can confirm that Russian translations of Hobbit and LOTR feature carefully and faithfully matched ideological translations of names and places, as opposed to phonetic. There is an enormous Tolkien fan base in Russia.
Alternative opinion: there are no good LotR translation in Russian. All the name changes sound super silly and cringe to russian ears. Movie translations are good though.
@@JoinMeInDeathBaby it's weird how a lot of russians have this sence of despising therr own language this way. I wonder if it has something to do with soviets denigrating the language of countryside people, the ones who were more creative with the language. I mean, if you say "галоши", it's perfectly fine, but if you say "мокроступы", suddenly you sound like a village idiot
@@darkdwarf007 i don't think that there is a connection. I do not despise russian language, just point out the fact that there are no good LoTR translations into Russian.
@@darkdwarf007 про принижение русского языка я вот что думаю проблема в том, что буквальный перевод названий с английского на русский тупо не работает, английский - это уникальный язык, он вобрал в себя просто гигантские пласты иноязычной лексики, к тому же на нем говорит полмира, что послужило образованию сумасшедшего количества акцентов. Это сильно смазало ощущение идентификации английского, как языка исключительно англичан или американцев, или как языка на котором говорят только в определенном месте. Это даёт возможность писателю поместить героев почти в любой сеттинг, дать говорящее имя, понятное носителю, и не вызвать у читателя когнитивного диссонанса.
С русским дело обстоит иначе, какие-то имена можно перевести, типо гаечки из мультфильма Чип и Дейл, это смотрится нормально, потому что это даже не имя, а скорее кличка. Но русскоязычный читатель не может поверить, что в Средиземье живёт герой по имени Бильбо Сумкин. Русский не обладает тем налетом мультикультурности, поэтому в нашем сознании Сумкины живут на территории СНГ, а Бэггинс нормальный обитатель, пусть и вымешленного, но, очевидно, европйского Средиземья.
Да кстати, немаловажную роль сыграло то, что все новое к нам поступает из Америки, в России нихера не производистся, поэтому вместо изобретения своего слова, мы просто заимствуем название от страны производителя, просто транскрипцией, безо всякого перевода. Русский слух отвык от неологизмов, для нас новое слово часто звучит глупо, ну и пробуй после этого переводить силами исключительно русского языка без заимствований, поэтому все переводы считаются не очень хорошими
@@Catanonimus777 Не так уж английский и уникален, не стоит так преклоняться. На нем как на родном даже сейчас говорит лишь ок. 5 % населения мира. А в Средневековие на нем и вовсе говорили только в некоторой части Британских о-вов. Бэггинс - очевидно английское имя и его носитель может жить только в UK или в каком-то вымышленном его соответствии. Уже другой вопрос - это желательно в данном случае или нет. Можно начинать с русского корня, а потом добавлять английское окончание - Сумкинс. Но ожидать от читателей владеть английским и понимать "говорящие имена" и так - смешно, ведь зачем тогда вообще переводить?
The actor playing Tom Bombadil is Sergey Parshin. In those days, he was the host of "Tale after Tale", a children's nightly show before going to bed, and longer episodes on the weekends. Technically, this "Lord of the Rings" is a few episodes of this show.
Thanks for sharing that, I had no idea. I can definitely see that actor being the host of a kids TV show.
Anyone notice that the black speech on the one ring was written using our Latin alphabet instead of Russian ?
I did, & it seemed weird. Thanks for reminding me Russia has a different alphabet.
The language of evil capitalism!
:-O
@@Nico-pg7qr That makes too much sense!
It is not only about censorship. The publishers simply didn't know what to make of this book. There was the science fiction department and there was the children's fairy tails department. Lord of the Rings obviously didn't fit either of these categories. Fantasy was simply unknown and since every publisher was state-owned they couldn't break the rules. The first "translation" was actually an attempt to remake Lord of the Rings into a science fiction novel so it could be published by the relevant department. If my memory serves, it starts with scientists discovering the ring.
P.S. In fact, I doubt there was any censorship involved. Hobbit was pretty well received, although it wasn't particularly well known. The government publishers simply didn't know what to do with the book.
Alright, now we have to find the Soviet sci-fi LOTR
@@IronRAVENxvxThat is easy to find. The only catch being that it is in Russian and I doubt anyone ever bothered to translate it back.
@@iamcleaver6854
OMG that's hilarious, I can't wait for my Russian to become good enough to be able to read it. Thanks for mentioning it.
“That’s Soviet Saruman”
I’m dying 😂😂😂
It's amazing that they managed to net Vaush as the narrator, to think he flew all the way over to Soviet Russia just to sit in a chair for three minutes.
He looks so happy to be there too!
😂😂😂👍Does look alot like him
"Mom can we buy Lord of the Rings on Blu Ray?"
"No we have Lord of the Rings at home."
The Lord of the Rings at home.
AT HOMELAND! GULAG FOR YOU!
LOL, no doubt!
i'm from Russia. And I can swear I've never even heard of this version of LOTR. But maybe because i'm a little younger than the movie itself. Peter Jackson's films and their humorous translations by Dmitry Puchkov were popular in Russia when i was a child and they still are popular today.
It was released very recently and before that it was considered lost
I was about to say the same thing lol. Like wtf, a Russian LOTR movie? It's so bizzare
@@tiwilydarling not exactly the movie, more like tv-play. Its a dead genre now.
I don't think it's fair to call it a movie. It's a TV play, and it never hid the fact that it is.
It still sucks all kinds of arse no matter what you call it!
@@Jedzelex
I know, but consider the context and the perspective of everyone involved. If you were a kid in the late 80's in Soviet Union, you didn't have exposure to western bclockbuster movies (teen might have, but a VHS player was a luxury barely anyone could afford). You didn't know anything about Tolkien or his books - yes, technically there was a translation circulating, but good luck trying to get your hands on it as a kid. You would have, like, 2 channels on TV to watch. So if on Saturday morning they show you this, it's not too dissimilar from other TV plays made of shoestring budget for the purpose of entertaining kids under 12 years old or so with a sort of fairy tale told by the theatrical means. And you would find it entertaining.
Yes, I know, it sucks, but it sucks for us, because we have that stellar example of Jackson's movies, with epic tone and scale and old that. To the creators of this fairy tale, it was just another book for children, literally a fairly tale, hence the amount of effort. Would you consider upon reading something like Hanzel and Gretel that only big epic action-packed movie will do it justice? Oh, wait, someone it Hollywood actually did consider that.
Have you... seen any Soviet movies? Most are just TV plays
@@KasumiRINA Not sure what kind of Soviet movies you watched, or how broad is your definition of a TV play. If something like Soviet Sherlock Holmes series is a TV play in your perception, then yes, Soviet movies are more like TV plays. I didn't grow up in Soviet times (thank God) so I didn't experience an average Soviet TV programming, but something tells me that Hobbit would feel like a TV play even by Soviet standards.
3:07 Damn, I still got this LotR edition (along with The Hobbit from the same book series with identical cover design), bought both of them in 2002 after watching first Jackson's movie. There were so many Russian LotR translations, it became a joke:
- How many hobbits does it take to change a light bulb?
- One. And a whole bunch of Russian LotR translations to climb on them.
Was that a cabbage leaf on Gollum's head?
We may never know for sure
"I don't need sleep, I need answers."
I love this review! I'd like to offer one correction: Akvarium did not compose the soundtrack, as that group had already broken up by the time this film was produced. Andrei "Dyusha" Romanov, a founding member of Akvarium, composed the soundtrack, which he produced with his group Trilistnik ("Shamrock") - he's that weird narrator mentioned in this film. Trilistnik was, essentially, Dyusha and a number of other musicians formerly in Akvarium, but minus the original group's leader, songwriter, and voice, Boris Grebenschikov. Grebenschikov had been trying to make a go as a crossover artist in the West since the late 1980's (some may remember his album "Radio Silence") but eventually returned to Russia to reform Akvarium with a new set of musicians. Dyusha and Trilistnik had a modest amount of success - I remember seeing them in concert in 1993 and really enjoying them - and released the soundtrack to this movie as an album called "Music of Middle Earth." Dyusha, a legendary and beloved figure in Soviet/post-Soviet Russia's underground music scene, died of a heart attack in 2000.
Thanks for this detail - I knew the band were popular but had no idea they had such a rich history.
@@PentexProductions Akvarium was a big influence on Kino, arguably the most famous Soviet rock band of all time, and Grebenshchikov is still touring ex-Soviet countries with his newfound "guru" image.
You shouldn't try to look at it as 20th century western cinema. This is a television adaptation in an environment where the majority of kids programs were some combination of puppets or small stage. Plus, you had to follow strict cultural rules, that were much more lax at the time of the production of this, but still very strict with a western eye.
Bonus joke from the era: Engineers develop a haircutting machine and want to present it to the Party. The leader of the committee says, "But, Tovarish! The heads! They all have different shapes and sizes!" And the engineer answers, "Da! .... Initially..."
I'm still not 100% convinced that this is actually real.
Neither am I!
Have no doubts - it's totally documental!
Ooohhh it’s real…I watched all of it… 😵💫😵💫😵💫
@@PentexProductions What I mean is, is that if it all turned out to be an elaborate hoax, I wouldn't be surprised.
90’s russian TV was a loopyland.
I bet this is just a tip of an iceberg
GRRM being inspired by Tolkien probably saw this and was mesmerized by "Winter is Coming"
4:37 You sure that's a Russian Live Action production and not a Japanese Light Novel?
I think it would be awesome if someone edited TFTR only with this films soundtrack, that scene with Frodo running from the Nazgûl was sheer perfection.
Damn! I was DYING to see the russian version of the Balrog :-D
Little accident, you see. Balroga was used for heating between outside scenes.
But I have original horns for sale. Going quickly. Only five left!
In the 90s people have begun starving in Russia, I have tremendous respect to actors and project team for making the TV play so entertaining with little to no budget. It's not your typical theater movie, it is its own genre with its own tradition.
Starving? Are u crazy?)
Try 1930s
@@КириллМороз-у8л it depends on regions. Once countries became independent from Kremlin, most of russia outside of moscow and St. Petersburg that received humanitarian aid from USA and Ukraine, WAS starving. I had a relative in Rybinsk and they had breadlines and food stamps that would give like 10 eggs a month. Not enough for a grown man.
That was not exactly "winter is coming". Rather "let the winter begin".
Thanks, I was just going off the UA-cam subtitles but figured it was unlikely to be an exact translation.
My life is fuller and more vibrant for having heard of this.
You have done a good service to your country, sir.
Commenting because of the algorithm. You deserve more subs and views.
Always appreciate people feeding the algorithm! Thanks for watching, next video is out in a few hours so I hope you subscribed to catch it.
@@PentexProductions Take my comment and get outta here ♥️
Bombadil being a hybrid with Beorn is an interesting one.
10:54 "I'M OLD GREGGDALF!" I did not expect to laugh this hard watching this video. I fucking loved the terrified hobbits running from the ring wraiths with that happy-go-lucky shire music. Beautiful editing. I'm subbing.
Now you need to do review about Finland Lord of the Rings
Don't...tempt me, Frodo!
i cannot even express the absolute joy i, as a finn, felt discovering there's a finnish lotr after seeing this russian one
I died laughing at the eagle
Ну как мечи стаканы на стол!
Ну как мечи стаканы на стол!
Ну как мечи стаканы на стол!
И прочую посуду!
Все говорят что пить нельзя,
Все говорят что пить нельзя
А я говорю что буду!
Dude the narrator just staring into the camera kills me every time it cuts to him🤣
Winter is coming for House Baggins
This is the equivalent to Star Wars: The Holiday Special...
BUT BETTER!
hahahaha double feature time.
It remind me Turkish Star Wars more
I like it, exactly how I imagined the story. Gollum looking like a giant Brussel Sprout did it for me.
This actually reminds me a lot of tv stuff I used to watch in the early 80’s. Maybe they were 10 years behind technically. Those green screens take me back!
7:30 No, that's just a Soviet thing. It's how they make things feel ethereal. Did the same thing in Mary Poppins.
I love the Goblin Russian dub of the Jackson film BTW.
"it might be from another universe" bro, this is just russian movies in general. They have a very unique style to them, especially the old ones from the 80s to 90s.
This entire film was part of an entertaining television series for children, and not a movie in its classical sense.
In the 80s in the USSR it was almost an enthusiastic thing. So the comparison was funny from the start.
11:47 No' it's not "winter is coming", it's just "winter will begin".
And... at least THIS movie didn't forget about Tom Bombadil existence! )
I had no idea this even existed.
So glad i clicked this video XD
During the party scenes in Shire, it wasn't vaseline or pro mist filters that made the iconic soft look. The lenses fogged up due to the vodka being breathed out in the air.
Akvarium (also know as Aquarium) is great. I just watched a documentary on the UA-cam channel Bandsplaining about Soviet rock music in the '70s and '80s and they popped up a lot. Now that I know they're part of this, I'm even more intrigued.
It's not them. The ending credits cleary say it was made by "Трилистник" (Михаил Борисов, Сергей Щураков, Олег Гончаров, Пётр Трощенков)
5:36 I don't know, Classic Doctor Who usually has better special effects than the effects used in this film.
I like to think that half the people on set were pising themselves laughing knowing how shit it was and just pissing about getting paid and seeing what nonsense they could get away with, and the other half were balls deep into it thinking they wey doing some kind of avant garde experimental production
That's not a movie, that's a TV play. It's basically a no-budget stage performance, but filmed on camera. And it's not 'lost', it just wasn't ever intended for any wider release than your local channel's weather broadcast.
The only weird thing about it is lemmings sensationlizing it.
I imagine someone one day will pick up some parents filming their kids as they 'fight' on plastic lightsabers in the sand and go, in all seriousness "The long lost bootleg Revenge of the Sith remake. It's horific and weird, lets analyze it!".
Gandalf looks like Liam Neeson. Also Frodo kinda looks like Rowan Atkinson.
Holy shit I can't believe Akvarium actually made the music for this, that's both hilarious and confusing.
I have to say, the best adaptation of the Hobbit was a theateical puppet play, done by two guys alone and a woman doing all the music. it was 2 hours of total awe without anything missing from the book. i watched it twice, some years apart and was astonished both times.
Objectively the best version. Thank you for the hours and hours and hours of fun I'm going to have with my friends as I force them to watch this.
SUGGEST* I meant suggest.
Frodo going from happy go lucky to trying to intimidate Aragorn is classic teenager behaviour lol.
"Are you ready for Soviet Sauron" is a sentence I didn't expect to hear in my life.
I know it's just coincidental, but I see a lot of similarities between this and Brazilian Star Wars (yes, it's weirder than Turkish Star Wars). Lots of green screen and strange things happening all the time.
I'm now fascinated by both Brazilian and Turkish Star Wars...
@@PentexProductions The Brazilian one was meat as a comedy.
And Turkish Star Wars (Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam) was made seriously according to the lead actor (a couple of years ago, he was mad that people made fun of it). It's not even a joke, they legit did it.
There's Turkish Star Trek as well, I suggest checking that out.
@@MericErdemBal Yes! I have Turkish Star Trek, took me forever to find a subtitle track so I could watch it too!
But yea, I know about how they believe they're making wholesome movies, even if they are ripping off famous IP's, but it's not just them, the Italians were notorious for this same thing, it just didn't get as much reputation because their movies weren't nearly as 'over the top' :D
The narrator staring at the camera was for intermission. And all of the actors were drunk out of their minds throughout filming.
Also, in the Soviet version Sam's last name was changed to Skromby, which was a play on the Russian word 'skromnyi / скромный' meaning "humble, modest, unassuming." Soviet translators were generally known for taking serious liberties when it came to names (and other things, too) in the hopes of "improving the original."
Let alone Soviet - modern translators of Harry Potter have absolutely butchered the names of almost every single charachter except for maybe a dozen most important ones. Some characters got off relatively easy like Nevill Longbottom who was translated as Dolgopoops ("Longbelly"). And Gilderoy Lockhart was notoriously translated as Zloteus Zley ("Evilgoldmoustache Evilflush"). Snape was translated as Snag - this doesn't really mean anything; it does resemble the word for snow but still makes little sense. Luna Lovegood was rather Polumna (think "Derangette") Lovegood. Where wordplay in the original was very subtle in the Russian translation it was as straitforward and overexaggerrated as a brick to the face.
In Soviet Russia, the ring wears you.
15:34 That's not Sauron. That's clearly the Behelit.
This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.
It reminds me of a "Суета вокруг колец" (Sueta vokrug kolec - a fuss around rings), an old Russian fan film where Black Riders use bicycles to chase hobbits.
I love how the penguin is animated as our narrator speaks.
Not gonna lie, that Ringwraith song slaps
About the music, in late USSR pop and rock were considered both rebellious and popular. As for the weird noises are simply something that Soviet television did a lot for scary parts.
"Why would you put effort into making sure their feet are hairy like in the books, but have no concern for their height?"
Uh, maybe because getting hairy shoes is a lot easier than making sure half of your cast are 2 feet shorter?
Little known fact: the last name Bombadil means "man who carries large balls in his pants".
Can you back that claim up? I couldn't find a single source for your claim. In what language would it have that meaning? Seems to be fake news. If this was supposed to be a joke, I apologize.
Loving all the Russian peeps chiming in with little tidbits it's really wonderful to learn some context to the things in this adaption
This is the vibe they should have went with for the Hobbit Trilogy
i breathed a deep breath after you said we didn't have to watch all 2 hrs :P
This looks like thre Star Wars Holiday Special, but it is Lord of the Rings Special.
Tom Bombadil: This is the only screen time we're getting, I'm gonna grab dem Goldberries.
6:16 That's Pippin eating his second breakfast
@5:56 holy crap, he looks like Ian McKellen!
Oh man you nailed it early on.. i'm pretty sure that all soviet movies are unwatchable because they are merely theatrical adaptations that just happen to have been captured on camera as opposed to actual movie productions. The insane makeup, the over enunciation, weird cutaways are all meant to give some context clues to the people in the back row of a theater.
I would actually prefer to see a modern Russian adaptation of a Lord of the Ring series over the announced one for Amazon's streaming service
Modern Russian adaptation would be filled with propaganda even more than the possible Soviet version would afford itself to be.
It would have tons of poor CG, actors wouldn't be poor theatre artists like in old films but modern celebrities that can't act and don't fit any roles, and like Alexey above said, it would be filled to the brim with putinist propaganda. But that won't even be the main problem, but the overall production quality of modern russian cinema is so low, most movies turn up as fodder for mocking UA-cam reviewers like Bad Comedian.
There's also the problem that russia is called Mordor by Ukrainians and russian soldiers are referred to as orcs, so it is in moscow's interest to ignore all the material that would be associated with them altogether. Like, even this video makes a visual parallel between Mordor tower with Kremlin. It just... strangely fits. I mean, have you tried to adapt LoTR without Gollum acting like the russian president, khuilo?
@@KasumiRINA Слава Украине!
11:45 did Russian LoTR give us Game of Thrones? Now that's a plotwist
Thank you for saving me the task of trying to figure out what to say when my children ask why the Soviet Union collapsed.
BTW if you want to know the wraith of the ring theme is called ogan by Eduard Artemiev. Back in the day I was told that it is an electro song.
11:46 it is more like "Winter will begin". Trust me, I'm russian, да
Thanks, I was going off the UA-cam subtitles, and figured it was unlikely to be a direct translation.
hahahaha
"MATT DAMON AS ELROND" FUCKING KILLED ME!!!
When the Soviet LOTR made with hand me down costumes, props and no real budget is still MORE faithful to Tolkien than Amazon's Rings of Power!
7:47 is that a still of the actors with some voice-over? lol! What in tarnation prevented them from shooting a reaction take? haha this is gold
I'm literally here CRYING laughing.
I think the trip through the old forest could work well as a Halloween tv special.
Soviet and post-Soviet cinematography is an entire different type, not Hollywood. Actors, plots, script, director, production - they have nothing in common with the American ones. Can't get compared. Watch the Soviet "Treasure Island" and "Three Musketeers" and then come back here. Btw. I really despise what Hollywood has done with Tolkien's heritage and I am sure Tolkien himself would agree with that.
No offense, but their pronunciation of Aragorn is more correct than yours. The vowels and consonants are just closer to Sindarin in Russian than they are in English.
In spanish too,
The whole movie is like a feverish drug-induced nightmare.
I am not judging the limitations of money, set designs or the actors or trying to talk the movie down.
It just looks and feels like those ferver-induced nightmares i had when a was a kid. (minus the drugs :-)) ]
Thanks for your review of the film (or a play?), I honestly learned a lot from it.
I must say most effects that were used in that film are very typical for other USSR films too, especially if we are talking about films for kids. They have great actors and perhaps no budget at all so they look very simplistic because of that, but somehow at least in my childhood they didn't feel bad by any means. The western cartoons and movies obviously have much bigger budget and the picture overall (and probably the sound quality too) is far superior, however for some reason those films, they just have a very different feeling to it and I totally agree that's it's honestly almost impossible to compare the two approaches :).
"Matt Damon as Elrond"😂🤣😂🤣😂
I just spit💦out my☕coffee lmfao
It's ridiculous how this channel has me falling in love with a barely animated penguine. LMAO at his gestures
When Sméagol puts the Ring on for the first time it looks like her turning into Old Gregg! 😂
Wow. Someone else who still quotes Ebert's Review of THC!!! That stuck with me forever.
This is still better than Rings of power.
I think I need to watch this with friends really really high.
If you study Tolkien's drawings, then you would realize that the Russian Lotr looks more in line with his vision than the Peter Jackson's version.