Bremenskie Muzykanty (The Bremen Town Musicians)

The Bremen Town Musicians is a Grimm fairy tale dating back to 1812. I remember this bedtime story from back in the day! The traditional version of the story was recently performed by the UofS summer drama camp players (featuring my little buddy O.C.). But, failing a video of that, I have the always enjoyable muppets who did a relatively authentic version in 1972 as part of the "Tales from Muppetland" series. I just have part 1 here but all of the parts are up on youtube here:


This other version is a very loosely adapted animated musical made in the Soviet Union in 1969 by Vasily Livanov at the studio Soyuzmultfilm and was called Bremenskie muzykanty (Бре́менские музыка́нты). As with most cartoons that came out in the 60's, it is a bit of a trip (cough* yellow submarine*cough). I mean what kind of crazy instruments are they playing? And why does the rooster look like Elton John? I guess he was popular in the S.U. during his early career too.

Of course the original story is somewhat different. It follows the the adventure of a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster who run away from their cruel master and decide to become musicians in the forward thinking town of Bremen. On the way they come upon a cottage belonging to 4 thieves. The animals decide to perform for the thieves in hopes that they will give them food and a place to stay. Of course the terrible noise they make scares the thieves away and the animals settle in the cabin. Later, the thieves return and when one sneaks into the cabin to investigate he is scratched by the cat, bitten by the dog, kicked by the donkey, and screeched at by the rooster. He flees and tells his comrades that the cabin has been taken over by a horrible witch who scratched him, a murderer with a knife who stabbed him, an ogre who clubbed him, an a devil who screamed at him from the rooftop. Then the animals live there happily ever after. The End.