Description:

A crocodile swallows the sun and the forest's animals ask the bear for help. Based on the famous children's poem by Korney Chukovskiy.

Apparently finished in 1943, but first premiered on March 21, 1944. There was also a colour version of this film released in the same year, but Russia's state film archive no longer owns a copy.

An English translation of the poem can be read here. A filmstrip adaptation can be viewed here (1981).

In his 1980 book (p.127-128), Ivanov-Vano writes that for the peaceful scenes composer Yuriy Nikolskiy used themes from a Haydn symphony (apparently the "forest symphony", although it is not clear which one this is), while for the middle of the film he used several themes from Beethoven's 6th symphony.