Jack Frost (1964 film)

Did You Know?

• In 1966, the film won the All-Union Film Festival prize for best children's film.
• For playing Marfushka, Inna Churikova received the silver medal of Masaryk from Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Bašta.
• The soundtrack was composed by Nikolai Budashkin, inspired by the works of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Plot

A blended family lives on a farm in a mountain village. The kind man has a daughter named Nastenka, who is kind, beautiful, and hardworking. The cruel woman favors her own rude, ugly, and lazy daughter Marfushka and gives Nastenka many household chores. One spring morning before sunrise, Nastenka is knitting a sock when her stepmother orders her to finish outside before dawn; Nastenka asks the sun to hold back so she can finish. Meanwhile, a young man named Ivan leaves home to see the world. In summer, bandits accost him, but he outsmarts them by throwing their clubs away. Ivan meets Father Mushroom, who gives him a bow and arrows. When asked to bow in thanks, Ivan refuses. At a lake, Ivan meets Nastenka and her dog. Lovestruck, he proposes marriage. To prove his worth, he tries to shoot a mother bear with cubs; Nastenka stops him. Father Mushroom casts a spell turning Ivan into a bear. Nastenka faints. Seeing his reflection, Ivan accuses her of witchcraft and runs off. Father Mushroom scolds Ivan for his selfishness. Believing a good deed will reverse the spell, Ivan seeks people to help but terrifies them. He carries an old blind woman's sticks home. Father Mushroom, pleased, restores Ivan to human form.

Legacy

The original Russian film, titled Morozko, came out on DVD in 2000 from Ruscico, offering nine subtitle choices plus Russian, English, and French audio tracks and extras. Earlier, United Home Video had put it on VHS as Magical Wonderland. In 1997, the English-dubbed version called Jack Frost appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000 as episode #813, and that episode hit DVD on July 13, 2010, as part of Volume XVIII. It marked Jim Mallon’s final turn as Gypsy. The video game Fairy Tale About Father Frost, Ivan and Nastya draws heavy inspiration from the movie. Neil Cicierega made a demo titled “Ivanushka” in 2009, based on the film’s plot, which later became the Spirit Phone song “Touch-Tone Telephone”; he released the original demo to his Patreon in January 2018. At the close of 2010, Russia 1 remade the film as a musical featuring Nikolai Baskov.