Today we’ll watch a very beautiful Russian cartoon “The Treasure Under the Mountain” with English subtitles:

I know that now all we have a question: “Can we see continue of this story?”
And a sad answer is “No”.

The author of subtitles and writer a very interesting blog “Animatsiya in English” Niffiwan tells us why:

This is the prologue to a feature film that was never finished or released, based on Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. This video dates from about 1994, and was made by Argus International. Some have speculated that maybe work was stopped because artists in Russia were just finding out about how copyright laws limited what they could make. In the USSR, artists could adapt anything they chose with no regard for copyright, especially in the 1980s when ideological restrictions were relaxed. Then suddenly the 1990s come around, and you’re finding that the older ideological artistic restrictions are replaced by newer ones, except that this time you’re not allowed to adapt any popular artistic creation within the last 100 years or so (because if it’s popular, the upfront fees will be astronomical).

For me that is a very sad story… Maybe my mind is too socialistic but I truly believe that an Artist if he is an Artist with capital “A” creates his masterpieces not for money but because it’s impossible for him not to create them. And his real goal is to let the world have his masterpieces freely!

I personally never could comprehend any copyright issues!

But we have what we have…. Thank you Tolkien for “The Hobbit”, thank you Roman Mitrofanov and your team for the attempt to make a really good animation movie and thank you Niffiwan for your subtitles!

For our readers who like the song in the cartoon. Here is the words:

Goodness and laughter, laughter and joy
Smiles light up the faces of all
and souls, like windows, are thrown wide open.
The sky up above shines clear and blue.
No-one wants to believe that bad dreams may come true,
nor know that some day
that some day the weather will worsen.

But the tempest arrived, as is always the case.
Disaster moves in to take merriment’s place,
With fire and armor and no shred of mercy.
The desperate bell rings too late to assist,
And how will a mere paper dragon resist
a brave paper dragon
against one that’s real?

When all is stretched thin by eternity’s freeze,
When all is enveloped by blankets of time,
The Earth bit by bit becomes merged with the sky,
And night bit by bit becomes merged with the day.
But somebody here’s left a track in the snow
which leads to a faraway
which leads to a faraway hope.

Best wishes and maybe it’s a good idea to reread some good classical stories,
Svet and Kyle

comments always welcome.