Adventures of Captain Vrungel

Infobox Film
name = Adventures of Captain Vrungel


image_size =
caption = From left to right: Captain Vrungel, Fux, Lom onboard (Po)beda
director = David Cherkassky
producer =
writer = Andrey Nekrasov (original novel), Efim Chepovetski and I. Vorobyov (screenplay)
narrator =
starring =
music = State Symphony Orchestra uf UkSSR conducted by N. Basov
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Kievnauchfilm
released = 1981
runtime = 10 min (1-3), 28 min (4-6), 10 min (7-9), 10 min (10-13); 58 min total
country = flagicon|USSR Soviet Union
language = Russian
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0219263

Adventures of Captain Vrungel ( _ru. Приключения капитана Врунгеля, translit. "Priklyucheniya kapitana Vrungelya") is a 1981 Soviet musical adventure animation film by David Cherkassky, Kievnauchfilm, loosely based on the novel with the same name by Andrey Nekrasov. Cartoon production was divided into 13 series - 1-3 filmed in 1976, 4-6 in 1977, 7-9 in 1978, 10-13 in 1979.

The book by Nekrasov was first published in the "Pioneer" magazine in 1937 (shortened, in a form of a comics). A full text publication was issued in 1939. The novel is a parody on the popular sailor tales of the 1930s and on stereotypes of foreigners and foreign countries, then prevalent in the Soviet Union.

Awards: Yerevan all-union film festival, Czechoslovakia international TV film festival

Songs and music were by the soloists' ensemble of the State Symphony Orchestra of the UkSSR, conducted by N. Basov

Plot summary

An important exhibit is stolen from the Royal Museum of Arts. Fux, its watchman and a gambler, was seduced by a mafia boss, also Chief of the Yacht Club, to steal the statue of Venus. The time of the theft was linked to an international regatta so that Fux could remove the stolen goods" out of the country.

The Soviet naval school teacher and former sea captain Vrungel, receives a telegram asking him to participate in the regatta. He and his pupil Lom decide to set sail for the starting port, although by one of the many freak accidents that occur during the adventure, their ship's name is changed from "Pobeda" to "beda," (which, when translated, is a change from "Victory" to "Tragedy"). Throughout almost the entire journey, Vrungel and Lom have no idea about the hidden purpose of the regatta.

At that point in time for Fux everything is going smoothly and according to plan. All newspapers have written extensively about the "crime of the century". The Regatta is in danger of cancellation.

When Vrungel's "Beda" arrives, they find out that they need three crew members to participate in the regatta. Lom quickly finds Fux, who is desperate in his attempts to get o, to the "Black Cuttlefish" yacht as arranged with mafia.

Agent 00X is chasing the Venus, just like the mafiosi Bandito and Gangsterito, who are looking for Fux to take the Venus away from him.

Voice cast

* Zinovi Gerdt as "Captain Christopher Bonifatievich Vrungel"
* Yevgeni Paperny as "Yacht club chairman" / "Mate Lom" / "Chief"
* Georgi Kishko as "Sailor Fux"
* Eduard Nazarov as "Captain of "Black Cuttlefish"
* Grigori Shpigel as "Agent 00X"
* Semyon Farada as "Juliko Bandito"
* A. Burmistrov as "De La Voro Gangsterito"

Trivia

* Vrungel is parody of a Wrangel surname, where the first part made from a word "vrun", Russian for liar. Following the release of this film, Vrungel became a colloquial name in Russia, a kind of Baron Münchhausen. But as Nekrasov himself explained Vrungel's prototype was his mate Vronsky, who loved to tell tall stories from his life. His surname was suited for the protagonist so well that initially the book was named Adventures of Captain Vronsky, but Nekrasov later reconsidered the name because of his desire not to hurt his friend's feelings.
* Agent 00X and his storyline is a pun over the western Agent 007.
* "Pobeda" (stress on the second syllable) is Russian for "Victory", "Beda"(stress on second syllable) is Russian for "Trouble".
* As Nekrasov explained, Lom's prototype was a naval school cadet Ivan Mann. In Deutsch his surname means "man"(Mann), and in French - «L'Homme» (reads as Lom) [http://chgk.zaba.ru/questions/antib03_4_6.html]
* Fux was hiding Venus sculpture inside a double bass case

External links

* [http://animator.ru/db/?p=show_film&fid=6762 Adventures of Captain Vrungel] at Animator.ru
* [http://www.bibliogid.ru/authors/pisateli/nekrasovas A.S.Nekrasov and about the book] at Russian State Children Library, Alexey Kopeykin, April 13, 2007
* [http://www.lib.ru/NEKRASOW_A/vrungel.txt Adventures of Captain Vrungel] at Maksim Moshkow's Library

See also

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167313/ New Adventures of Captain Vrungel / Novye priklyucheniya kapitana Vrungelya (1978)] at IMDB