The cat prince

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The cat prince
Country of production GDR
ČSSR
original language German
Publishing year 1979
length 82 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Ota Koval
script Ota Hofman
Ota Koval
production DEFA , KAG “Red Circle”
Film Studio Barrandov , Prague
music Luboš Sluka
camera Andrej Barla
Pavel Dosoudil
cut Zdenek Stehlík
occupation

The Cat Prince is a DEFA fairy tale film by Ota Koval from 1979. The co-production by GDR and ČSSR was released in Czechoslovakia under the title Kočičí princ .

action

Radek and his little sister Terezka move with their parents and the cat Liesel from a villa to a remote castle in the deep snow. It is being restored by the grumpy Albert, always dressed in black, who owns a big black dog and hates cats. Liesel is expecting a boy and Radek promises one of the children to various people: a school friend whose cat was killed and who gave him a ring, the friendly coachman and also the castle's cleaner. However, when the young are born, Albert uses an unobserved moment to drown Liesel and the young in a box in the nearby river. The children can recover the box, but the young animals have already died and Liesel is struggling with death. Terezka fantasizes in her sleep that she would have to fetch some water of life in order to save Liesel.

In fact, Terezka discovered a painting in the castle that shows a prince who resembles Radek. Radek succeeds in opening the picture using a mechanism. He gets into a stable where he can choose a saddle and a horse. The horse turns into a fairytale white horse and Radek's clothes suddenly change and he becomes a cat prince. At her insistent request, he takes Terezka on his horse. They recognize that they are in a fairy tale and the fairy tale experienced Terezka explains to her brother that they now have to look for the water of life. According to the fairy tale rules, Radek has to defeat three monsters - one in the air, one on the ground and one on the water. With Terezka's help, Radek can avoid numerous fairy tale traps. They meet Little Red Riding Hood , who does not want to reveal the contents of her basket, give a fairy an orange and receive a magic herb in return and ride past the Crispy Witch's house because Terezka wants to annoy the witch. The children also see Snow White and Terezka is satisfied that all seven dwarfs are following her.

First Radek has to defeat the evil eagle, which he manages with difficulty. He collects the blood in a bottle. As the eagle's conqueror, Radek is received in the castle of the princess, who gives him a ball in his honor. Terezka suspects that all food and drink will lead to being forgotten, as in fairy tales, but Radek has already fallen for the princess. He gives her his ring and the princess throws it away. Terezka can repeat the ring and she succeeds in releasing Radek from the spell. The princess and her court turn into mice and the siblings ride on. A short time later, her horse collapses and threatens to die. Terezka is desperate, but Radek knows that they can save the horse. He first defeats a pack of werewolves , the second monsters. Then both children continue on foot, see the little prince talking to the fox and finally collapse exhausted in a desert where they are found by a fisherman. He takes them to the sea and tells them about a big octopus that won't let him catch any more fish. Radek receives a scale from the fisherman, which Terezka takes as a precaution. The octopus appears and Radek fights him, but is killed by him. The angry Terezka throws the scale into the sea and the octopus dies. It also catches his blood and invigorates Radek with the now effective water of life. They move on, bring the little prince, who has been bitten by the snake, back to life and also save their horse. That can fly at once and brings the two children back to the castle. Terezka accidentally drops the bottle over the castle. The grim Albert suddenly comes to them on a white horse, dressed in white and ridden towards them in a good mood and Liesel and her cubs are now alive again. The dilapidated castle looks friendlier and the fountain in the courtyard is working again. The snow has cleared and it's getting warm.

production

The little pheasant castle, in the film the villa from which the family moves at the beginning

The shooting for The Cat Prince lasted 51 days. External shoots took place in 1978 in Göhren , in the Tierpark Berlin , in Schlabendorf am See near Luckau , at the Fasanenschlösschen in Moritzburg and in the vicinity of Dresden and Prague . Studio recordings were made in the Barrandov studios in Prague.

The film premiered on October 14, 1979 in the Berlin Colosseum and in the Pionierpalast "Ernst Thälmann" in Berlin. On October 19, 1979 it was shown in GDR cinemas.

The film music was recorded by the Prague Symphonic Film Orchestra under the direction of Frantíšek Belfin . Almost all of the actors in the film were from Czechoslovakia. DEFA actor Winfried Glatzeder also spoke his role in Czech and dubbed himself.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Radek Pavel Hachle Maik Saewert
Terezka Žaneta Fuchsová Birgit Hassenstein
mother Jana Andrsová-Večtomová Sonja Stokowy
father Vlastimil Hašek Karl Heinz Oppel

criticism

The GDR's contemporary criticism praised the cat prince as “a very poetic children's film with a lot of imagination. [...] The film is a mixture of dream and reality, a fairy tale, in which the claim is made transparent our lives, hope as well as their fulfillment. "For the Saxon newspaper was The Cat Prince , a very beautiful and psychologically wise made film" to whom we can happily entrust our children [...] for an hour and a half. ”If the SZ assumed that“ the emotional world of the little ones ”was addressed in the film, other reviewers saw“ a special, additional attraction in the details of the film will especially open up to older children and adults "

For the film-dienst , Der Katzenprinz was a “children's film with high creative standards and a sure feeling for the meaning of the fairy tale; an imaginative adventure story between reality and dream. ”“ Imaginative children's film, ”said Cinema . Other critics wrote that "although the film [...] sometimes skirts the kitsch by a hair, [it] [is] without a doubt one of the most beautiful modern fairy tales []".

literature

  • Der Katzenprinz In: DEFA-Stiftung (Hrsg.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-032589-2 , pp. 188–193.
  • F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 314-315 .
  • The cat prince . In: Ingelore König, Dieter Wiedemann, Lothar Wolf (eds.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children . Henschel, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-89487-234-9 , pp. 268-270.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Katzenprinz In: DEFA-Stiftung (Ed.): The DEFA fairy tale films . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 2010, p. 191.
  2. ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 315 .
  3. ↑ eo: Inspired by longing . In: Neue Zeit , November 8, 1979.
  4. ^ Roland Burkhardt: [untitled]. In: Sächsische Zeitung , October 25, 1979.
  5. ↑ Ilse Jung: Of Fantasy and Reality . In: Kino DDR , No. 10, 1979.
  6. ↑ The Cat Prince. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 2, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ The Cat Prince. In: Cinema , Hubert Burda Media , accessed on August 2, 2018.
  8. ↑ The Cat Prince . In: Ingelore König, Dieter Wiedemann, Lothar Wolf (eds.): Between Marx and Muck. DEFA films for children . Henschel, Berlin 1996, p. 270.