Genre - Animated cartoon
Written by - Aleksander Pushkin.
Directed by - Mikhail Tsekhanovskiy
Conductor - A. Hauk
Composer -Yuriy Levitin
Produced by - Soyuzmultfilm
Country of origin - Soviet Union
Original language(s) - Russian
Running time - 30 min 11 sec
Original release - 1950
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (Russian: Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке, Skazka o rybake i rybke) is a fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin wrote the tale in autumn 1833 and it was first published in the literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in May 1835. The tale is about a fisherman who manages to catch a "Golden Fish" which promises to fulfill any wish of his in exchange for its freedom. The storyline is similar to the Russian fairy tale The Greedy Old Wife (according to Vladimir Propp) and the Brothers Grimm's tale The Fisherman and His Wife.
Plot summary
An old man and woman have been living poorly for many years. They have a small hut, and every day the man goes out to fish. One day, he throws in his net and pulls out seaweed two times in succession, but on the third time he pulls out a golden fish. The fish pleads for its life, promising any wish in return. However, the old man does not want anything, and lets the fish go. When he returns and tells his wife about the golden fish, she gets angry and tells her husband to go ask the fish for a new washboard, as theirs is broken, and the fish happily grants this small request. The next day, the wife asks for a new house, and the fish grants this also. Then, in succession, the wife asks for a palace, to become the ruler of her province, to become the tsarina, and finally to become the Ruler of the Sea and to subjugate the golden fish completely to her boundless will. As the man goes to ask for each item, the sea becomes more and more stormy, until the last request, where the man can hardly hear himself think. When he asks that his wife be made the Ruler of the Sea, the fish cures her greed by putting her back in the old cottage and giving back the broken washboard.
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (Сказка о рыбаке и золотой рыбке) In Russian With English subtitles
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The moral of the story is: do not get too greedy, or you will end up with nothing.
To Russian culture came saying, "to stay with a broken washboard " that means to stay with nothing.
