Soyuzmultfilm presents
BONIFACE'S VACATION Based on the story by Miloš Macourek
Screenwriter & director: Fyodor Hitruk
Art director: Sergey Alimov
Music: Moisey Vaynberg
Camera: Boris Kotov Sound: Georgiy Martynyuk
Assistant directors: N. Mayorova, H. Sumarokova
Animators: Galina Barinova, Yana Volskaya, Mariya Motruk,
D. Anpilov, Yuriy Kuzyurin, Vladimir Morozov, Eduard Nazarov,
Yuriy Norshteyn, Leonid Nosyrev, Anatoliy Petrov, Igor Podgorskiy
Script editor: Raisa Frichinskaya
Narrator: Aleksey Polevoy
In one circus there lived a lion
whose name was Boniface.
He was a very obedient lion - no-one ever had to ask him something twice.
Everyone liked Boniface a lot.
And the director himself often said
"Boniface is a true talent."
The circus director often went on walks with Boniface
and bought him bananas, Boniface's favorites.
One day, Boniface asked: "Why are there so many children out on the street?"
"Shouldn't they be in school?"
"Why should they be in school?" replied the director,
"It's summer now, and they're on vacation."
"Vacation?" said Boniface.
"But I've never had a vacation... not even once!"
"But where, pray tell, would you go?" asked the director.
"To visit my grandmother, of course!" replied Boniface,
"Isn't that obvious?"
"Hmm," thought the director to himself,
"I had forgotten that lions also have grandmothers."
"All right", said the director,
"You are an exemplary lion, and I will grant you a vacation."
Boniface was beside himself with joy.
He had not expected this at all.
"What could be better than a vacation?"
And he immediately ran off to buy a ticket to Africa, and a present for his grandmother.
(on train:) "Prague-Villeneuve"
Throughout the long journey Boniface tried to always keep his eyes open.
He was very afraid of missing his stop.
During the journey he spotted many weird and wonderful fish.
He had never seen their like before.
And Boniface daydreamed about his vacation-days to come.
He dreamed of how he would tan himself on the sand in the sun,
eat bananas every day and bathe in the lake.
Then the boat suddenly stopped...
and Boniface had come home.
Everything still looked the same.
The little house and garden,
And the grandmother, as always, sitting in her rocking chair.
And, as he often did in the old days,
Boniface crept up behind her and...
And his grandmother, as usual, couldn't guess who it was.
The next morning, Boniface came out wearing his new swimsuit.
"Ah!", Grandma said, "That costume matches your eyes."
And the happy lion set off for the lake.
Suddenly he came upon a girl.
When she saw a lion she had never seen before, she got awfully scared.
"What a strange girl," thought Boniface,
"I suppose she's never seen a circus."
That day Boniface never did catch that fish.
The next day he again set off for the lake,
Boniface showed the children various tricks.
No other lion could've done what he did.
The children had not seen anything like it in their lives.
The day went by fast.
And so another day passed.
And then a third...
From dawn to dusk Boniface performed for the children...
completely forgetting about bananas, swimming, and even fishing.
And the children kept clapping their hands and shouting: "More, more!"
And suddenly...
His vacation was over.
The ship sailed further and further away,
Grandma was getting smaller and smaller,
and Boniface thought: "What a wonderful thing it is,"
"...vacation!"
The End Subs by Eus (2011) & Niffiwan (2022)