What's this cartoon with a boy trapped under ice and a deer melts the ice?
March 30, 2011 8:06 AM Subscribe
I remember an animated movie that showed on TV at least a couple times during the 70s. The only thing I remember is at the end, this blond boy has to pass some sort of test where he has to move between some small above ground pools/big cauldrons of water. At one point one of the vats freezes, and he becomes trapped underneath the ice. A deer like creature (of mystical significance who is somehow favoring him) breathes on and/or paws at the ice. It melts and he's freed and transformed into a bigger/older/princelier(?) boy.
What the did I see and is it based on some fable/myth/story?
Best answer: Ah.
That's the last part of the 1947 Soviet animated Конёк-горбунок (click through to YT for the exact scene). The original text is a long narrative verse by one of Pushkin's contemporaries, a folk tale pastiche about a boy who has a magical animal companion and serves a king who gives him several impossible tasks. The last task is to retrieve a magical princess. But the princess will only marry the old king if he first takes a (youth-conferring) dip in three cauldrons: one filled with ice water, a second one filled with hot water, and a third filled with milk brought "to a rolling boil." The boy's companion works its magic and saves him from certain death, while the overzealous king perishes.
The animated film was brought to American audiences as part of "Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from My Childhood" video series, retitled Ivan and His Magic Pony.
posted by Nomyte at 9:00 AM on March 30, 2011 [4 favorites]
That's the last part of the 1947 Soviet animated Конёк-горбунок (click through to YT for the exact scene). The original text is a long narrative verse by one of Pushkin's contemporaries, a folk tale pastiche about a boy who has a magical animal companion and serves a king who gives him several impossible tasks. The last task is to retrieve a magical princess. But the princess will only marry the old king if he first takes a (youth-conferring) dip in three cauldrons: one filled with ice water, a second one filled with hot water, and a third filled with milk brought "to a rolling boil." The boy's companion works its magic and saves him from certain death, while the overzealous king perishes.
The animated film was brought to American audiences as part of "Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from My Childhood" video series, retitled Ivan and His Magic Pony.
posted by Nomyte at 9:00 AM on March 30, 2011 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks Nomyte, that's it. This has been gnawing at the back of my mind for decades.
posted by jefftang at 9:24 AM on March 30, 2011
posted by jefftang at 9:24 AM on March 30, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:56 AM on March 30, 2011