Improvements: replace the B. Pokrovsky, K. Malyshev and V. Lazursky into Knostantin Malyshev with Boris Pokrovsky and Vadim Vladimirovich Lazursky (d. July 4 1994). Replace also S. Bendersky with Semen Bendersky.

A dynamic, early film by the directing duo of Boris Dyozhkin and Gennadiy Filippov, who made films together until the latter's death in the early 1950s. The bears start off the film slow and sickly, but playing sports brings out their strength and vitality and completely changes their (ahem) bearing. At the end of the film, the ball is thrown at the viewer, as if to say "now it's your turn!"

This was the very first sports cartoon by Boris Dyozhkin, who later became rather famous for them. His genuine enthusiasm for sports always comes through in his art, and this is no exception; although other Soviet animation directors also made films about sports, it's fair to say that only Dyozhkin loved the topic above all else.

The film is notable for including a very "realistic" sports commentary over the entire match which was quite difficult to translate. :) Dyozhkin's later sports films tended to have little dialogue.

I transcribed first the Russian with Lemicnor's help, then translated it to English line-by-line with lots of Googling along the way. Unfortunately, neither I not Lemicnor are very familiar with the sporting lingo. If you think something could be done better, please let me know!

Author and director: Arkadiy Khintibidze. Artist-director: Boris Starikovsky. Composer: Meri Davitashvili. Animators: Mariam Dzagania and Avenir Khuskivadze.

The native name of Iosif Samsonadze is Ioseb

Operator: Violetta Karosanidze. Sound: Otar Gegechkori, G. Shubladze. Animators: Konstantin Matsaberidze, Avenir Khuskivadze, Kukuri Dzhebashvili. Script editor: Aleksandr Mantskava.

Again, the composer of Yudif Rozhavskaya. Ye Rabinvoich could be Evgeny as he was listed V. Rabinovich once and L. Telyatnikov could be Leonid. The assistant of director was the legendary Tsezar Abramovich Orshansky. The assistant for artist: the legendary Radna Fillipovich Sakhaltuev. The operator's assistant: the legendary Anatoli Mikhailovich Gavrilov.

Georgy Karlov was also the script author

>>1
Fixed. You're right, it can't be Galina - all the film databases have it wrong.

>>2
Fixed, thanks. "Redactor" in English is "script editor" or "content editor".

>>2
Thank you, after typing "Лапиньш site:mults.info" into Google I found this forum thread with some info about his films (also, I was right that the name is "Uldis", not "Uldins"), and later found this Latvian-language biography and this English-language academic article. I've added the info to his bio. In the future, please don't hesitate to mention your sources when adding info (especially if it is obscure). :)