Soyuzmultfilm 1984
Neither Bird Nor Beast (based on a Mongolian tale)
director Vladimir Pekar screenwriter Vladimir Valutskiy
art director Tatyana Kolyusheva composer Eduard Artemyev
camera Kabul Rasulov sound Boris Filchikov
script editor Pyotr Frolov narrator Natalya Gundareva
animators Tonno Sooster, Dmitriy Kulikov,
Marina Voskanyants, Antonina Alyoshina, Yuriy Batanin
background artists Anna Chistova, Nikolay Mitrohin
assistant director O. Apanasova montage Yelena Belyavskaya
production director Liliana Monahova
Do you want to know why a bat
only flies at night?
I'll tell you.
Once, a long time ago,
the golden eagle - the king of birds - gathered his subjects and said:
Snowfalls have bleached the sky.
We need to give back the sky its blueness.
And the eagle commanded every bird to find a blue flower
and with those blue flowers to cover the bleached winter sky.
Oh! Why aren't you hurrying? -
The swallow asked the bat.
Hurrying where?
Haven't you heard?
The great king ordered every bird to get a blue flower
so that spring would come unto the sky.
Well, that's for birds!
But am I a bird? I'm a beast.
I am still a beast!
Hello, king of all beasts! - called the golden eagle,
It's time for you too to welcome spring.
And so the bear - the king of beasts -
gathered his subjects and said:
The ground has deadened from the cold!
We must return life to the soil.
And the bear commanded each animal to get a spark of fire
and melt the ice on the mountain
so that water would revive the deadened winter land.
What's everyone getting worked up about? -
said the bat to the jerboa -
Some are flying somewhere, others are jumping about, like you.
Don't you know that the great king
has ordered every beast to get a spark of fire
and melt the ice on the mountain so that spring would sooner beset the earth?
Well, that's for beasts!
But am I a beast?
I'm a bird.
I'm a bird!
What's going on? Why is everyone having fun, and I can't?
We're having a birds' feast, but you're a beast!
So go to the beasts.
Well, fine and dandy! - said the bat, offended.
They'll be having even more fun.
Well! Are you really a beast?
Who else would I be?!
But every beast brought a spark
to melt the icy mountain.
Go! Go to the birds' feast!
Well, fine and dandy!
I'll have even more fun by myself.
Don't need anyone else.
Big deal!
Well, so be it - thought the bat, resentfully.
Fly up there in your blue sky!
Jump around in your spring flowers!
There are many like you,
but I'm unique,
and not like anyone else.
Since then the bat has lived on its own,
renouncing all animals,
while not belonging to the birds.
It has flown in the twilight for a thousand,
or maybe for a thousand thousand years.
The End Soyuzmultfilm 1984
Subs by Lemicnor & Eus (Aug 2015) revised by Niffiwan (Dec 2024)