Studio ANIMOS presents
Yellowbeak Based on a story by Aleksey Tolstoy
When Nikita was very little
he once found a baby starling fallen out of the nest in the garden.
It was very small, smaller than Nikita himself.
"Oh," the birdy thought,
"I won't even have time to sigh before getting gobbled up."
Who are you?
Look, Sashenka, Nikita's running in.
It's still very little, poor dear.
Its beak is so yellow...
Yellowbeak!
They put the starling on the sill of a window
which was half-veiled with cheesecloth on the inner side.
Yellowbeak immediately hid in a corner,
trying to show them that he was determined to fight for his life.
"I'm done for! I'm done for!" Yellowbeak thought.
"The one who called me 'Yellowbeak' may perhaps have pity on me, but this one...
...will eat me for sure."
"They're fattening me," Yellowbeak thought,
"A trick, it's all a trick!"
"And this worm is not real."
Nikita knew that it could be scary at night.
And he thought:
If I try, I could be unafraid of the dark,
but Yellowbeak probably won't be able to do the same.
When Nikita had gone, Yellowbeak started thinking:
"So he didn't eat me, but he could have.
So he doesn't eat birds.
Then I've got a future after all!"
"Wow, there is no beast stronger than Nikita!"
Yellowbeak thought after that,
and when Nikita came by once more,
he allowed him to stroke his head,
although he sat back on his tail from fear all the same.
Yellowbeak!
Listen, so starlings can talk!
No, they cannot. But they can imitate.
I think that our Yellowbeak really can talk.
What are you saying, Sasha? Nikita will believe it.
I will believe it, I will.
Well....
You just watch yourself! You can't eat visitors.
And if someone eats a talking bird, do you know what will happen to them?
Sasha!
Oh, Yellowbeak, you took a good shot...
...but, just look, Nikita is waiting for you.
Now, when the grownups went to the theater or to a concert,
Nikita wasn't lonely at all.
He sat beside the little house
and talked with Yellowbeak.
He lived thus till autumn came.
He grew up, and learned to speak Russian quite well.
He spent nearly all day in the garden,
but when dusk fell, he always returned to his little house.
In August wild starlings invited him to join their flock,
and when the leaves in the garden began falling,
Yellowbeak flew away together with the migrating birds
across the sea, to Africa.
But they return in the spring.
I know. I read all about it.
screenwriter Vladimir Golovanov
director Mariya Muat
art director Marina Kurchevskaya
composer Igor Nazaruk
camera Aleksandr Betev, Andrey Puchnin
animators Milana Fedoseyeva, Tatyana Molodova, Alla Solovyova
sound Vladimir Oryol
voices Oleg Tabakov, Nikita Tabakov, Yekaterina Semyonova, Anton Tabakov
assistant art director Olga Usacheva assistant camera Aleksandr Chehovskiy
puppets & decor Gennadiy Bogachyov, Yelena Pokrovskaya,
Vladimir Shafranyuk, Nina Vinogradova, Viktor Piunov, Mihail Koltunov,
Nikolay Zaklyakov, Galina Kruglova
montage Anton Malvinov, Lyudmila Kopteva, Sergey Krotenko
production director Vladimir Gassiyev script editor Mariya Ryabova executive producer Anna Dzhioyeva
artistic supervisor of studio Natalya Orlova
producer Tengiz Semyonov
Filmed with financial support from the Cinematography Division of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The End (c) Animos, Moscow 2002
subs by Eus, revised by Niffiwan (partly using translation of Vladimir Korotky) Dec 2023 @ animatsiya.net