Reviews

Peter the Great takes a Russian man of African heritage - Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal - under his wing as the tsar builds his grand navy. After having a disastrous affair in France, Ibrahim vows to never fall in love again, until he sees the daughter of a wealthy boyar. Peter the Great insists the two be married, but Ibrahim goes against the tsar's wishes, refusing to force her to marry him since she doesn't consent. When another man tries to marry her, however, Ibrahim's loyalties and generous nature are put to the test.

Even though I was only in elementary school, I still remember watching "Small Wonder" every day, watching each of the 96 episodes several times! The premise is so fantastic: how can a robot that's virtually identical to a 10 year old girl fit into a family and society? This show had such a wide audience in its four years of existence, ranging from young kids to grandparents - it appealed to everyone!

Getting away from it all is what many of us would like to do, and for Vadim, an artist troubled by an extremely busy-body family, it is his only hope! So, he borrows a friend's dacha outside of Odessa, and begins his work. Little could he ever expect to meet the kids of people he meets there, though, and they open up a whole new way of living for him! Russia's superstar, Alla Pugacheva, also makes some appearances, singing 3 songs.

This movie has the feel of an American after-school special. If you can stand a little insanity, it turns out in the end to be a great feel-good movie. Cinematography is also very well done in "Sezon chudyes". And, of course, Alla is wonderful, as always!

The three series of the Prostokvashino cartoon, "Troiye iz Prostokvashino" (Three from Prostokvashino), "Kanikuli v Prostokvashino" (Vacation to Prostokvashino), and "Zima v Prostokvashino" (Winter in Prostokvashino) center around the advertures a boy, Fyod'r, has after running away from his home in Moscow to this small Russian town with his new-found cat. On the way, he finds a dog who offers them a dacha he found, and postman Peshkin soon comes along to look after the trio. When Peshin tells Fyod'r's parents back in Moscow of his whereabouts, the family soon finds Prostokvashino to be a very inviting and friendly place, where there is no shortage of adverture and things to do, as well as trying to keep tensions down between everyone when they start to get bored. Filled with humor and jokes, "Prostokvashino" is one of the best television programs ever to come out of Brezhnyev's USSR, frequently appearing on the children's program "A-B-V-G-D" (the first 5 letters of the Russian alphabet). "Prostokvashino" is still popular with children today throughout the former Soviet Union.