The Mystery of the Third Planet

The Mystery of the Third Planet Тайна третьей планеты
DVD cover (Krupnyy Plan)
Directed by	Roman Kachanov
Written by	Kir Bulychov (story & screenplay)
Starring	Olga Gromova Yuri Andreyev Vladimir Druzhnikov Vladimir Kenigson Vasily Livanov Rina Zelyonaya
Music by	Aleksandr Zatsepin
Edited by	Nadezhda Treshcheva Olga Vasilenko
Distributed by	Soyuzmultfilm Jambre Pictures (1981-1985), Touchstone Pictures (re-release, 1985)
Release dates	1981 (USSR)
Running time	50 min 6 sec (original version)
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

The Mystery of the Third Planet (Russian: Тайна третьей планеты, Tayna tretyey planety), aka The Secret of the Third Planet is a 1981 Soviet traditionally animated feature film directed by Roman Kachanov and produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow. It is based on a children's science fiction novella "Alice's Travel" by Kir Bulychov, from Alisa (Alice) Selezneva book series.^[1]

The movie is considered a cult classic in Russia,^[2] it was included in various top list of animated films^[3][4] and science fiction films.^[5] A shortened novelisation of the film was written by Bulychov himself, a diafilm and a number of video games were based on The Mystery of the Third Planet, and spiritual successor film Alice's Birthday was released in 2009.

Plot

As part of an expedition from Earth on the ship "Pegas", Captain Zelyonyy, Professor Seleznyov and his daughter Alice Selezneva search for new animal species for Moscow Zoo. On the advice of the archeologist Gromozeka they look for with the help of doctor Verkhovtsev, the director of the museum of Two Captains, but the doctor behaves suspiciously: doesn't show them diaries of captains and starts spying on the expedition. On the planet Blukthey make some valuable purchases, among them a Chatterer — the bird belonging to the missing captain Kim. A suspicious fat man, Merry Fellow U, tries to steal a bird. Having listened to the speech of the Chatterer, the crew of "Pegas" heads for system of the Jellyfish. On the road heroes rescue robots of the planet of Shelezyak from diamond dust, admixed in greasing.

On the third planet of the Jellyfish system Alice finds "mirrors" — the flowers which are memorable and displaying everything that occurred before them. By means of mirrors heroes find out that on the planet there are Verkhovtsev and the Merry Fellow. In attempt to fly in a safe place of "Pegas" fails in a trap. Seleznyov and Green are taken prisoner by pirates, Alice manages to run away.

On the planet the captain Buran, and with him — the real Verkhovtsev lands. Alice asks them for help. Meanwhile the Merry Fellow, threatening to murder the captives, demands from captain Kim locked in the ship, a formula of absolute fuel. Buran's invasion rescues heroes. The double Verkhovtsev, Glot, is exposed. The Merry Fellow in attempt to flight falls into clutches a bird of prey Krok. Captains and researchers quietly come back on houses.

Creators

	English	Russian
Director	Roman Kachanov	Роман Качанов
Writer	Kir Bulychov (story & screenplay)	Кир Булычёв
Art Director	Natalya Orlova[Note 1]	Наталья Орлова[Note 1]
Artists	Alla Goreva Dmitriy Kulikov Igor Oleynikov I. Litovskaya Irina Svetlitsa Victor Chuguyevskiy V. Maksimovich Geliy Arkadyev Gennady Morozov	Алла Горева Дмитрий Куликов Игорь Олейников И. Литовская Ирина Светлица Виктор Чугуевский В. Максимович Гелий Аркадьев Геннадий Морозов
Animators	Marina Voskanyants Marina Rogova Vladimir Arbekov Vladimir Zarubin Aleksandr Panov Violetta Kolesnikova Renata Mirenkova Vladimir Shevchenko Antonina Alyoshina Olga Orlova Joseph Kuroyan Yuriy Batanin	Марина Восканьянц Марина Рогова Владимир Арбеков Владимир Зарубин Александр Панов Виолетта Колесникова Рената Миренкова Владимир Шевченко Антонина Алешина Ольга Орлова Иосиф Куроян Юрий Батанин
Camera	Svetlana Koshcheyeva Teodor Bunimovich	Светлана Кощеева Теодор Бунимович
Music	Aleksandr Zatsepin	Александр Зацепин
Editors	Nadezhda Treshcheva Olga Vasilenko	Надежда Трещева Ольга Василенко
Sound	Boris Filchikov	Борис Фильчиков
Script Editor	Natalya Abramova	Наталья Абрамова
Executive Producer	Ninel Lipnitskaya	Нинель Липницкая
Voice Actors	Olga Gromova (Alice) Vsevolod Larionov (Seleznyov) Vasily Livanov (Gromozeka) Grigory Shpigel (Vesselchuck Oo) Rina Zelyonaya (Old Lady with a cake) Yuriy Andreyev (Prof. Verhovtsev) Vladimir Druzhnikov (Cpt. Kim) Vladimir Kenigson (Chatterbird) Yuriy Volyntsev (Cpt. Green) Yelena Krasnobayeva Roman Kachanov, Jr (Ushan on the Street)	Ольга Громова (Алиса) Всеволод Ларионов (Селезнёв) Василий Ливанов (Громозека) Григорий Шпигель (Весельчак У) Рина Зеленая (старушка с тортиком) Юрий Андреев (профессор Верховцев) Владимир Дружников (капитан Ким) Владимир Кенигсон (Говорун) Юрий Волынцев (капитан Зелёный) Елена Краснобаева Роман Качанов-мл.(Ушан на улице)

1. The actress Yekaterina Semyonova, daughter of Orlova, has said that the design of Alice was based on her and that her father served as the prototype of Captain Green.

Other company in the world

Country	Company	Air Date in cinema	Title	Dubbing
Finland	YLE Nelonen	6 November 1982	Kolmannen planeetan arvoitus	Finnish
United States	Touchstone Pictures	23 May 1987 (first version) 4 December 1998 (second version)	Alice and the mystery of the third planet (American version)	English
Estonia	Tallinnfilm Kanal 2	3 July 1987 (cinema) 5 March 2007 (Festival)	Kolmanda planeedi saladus	Estonian
Sweden	TV3 (Sweden)	1 April 1998	Mysteriet med två kaptener	Swedish
Argentina	Empresa Hispanoamericana de Video	4 November 1997	El misterio del tercer planeta	Spanish
Spain	Telecinco Clan TVE	1998 (Films by Jove version) 2016 (dubbing version)	El misterio del tercer planeta	Spanish
Lithuania	TV3 Lithuania	14 March 2000	Trečiojo planetos paslaptis	Lithuanian (voice-over)
Italy  San Marino	Italia 1, Rai Due (Italy) SMRTV (San Marino)	2016	Alisa: Il Mistero della Terzo Pianeta	Italian
Latvia	TV3 Latvia	14 October 2000	Alice: Sāciet piedzīvojumu (voice-over)	Latvian
Bulgaria	BNT	27 April 2001 (with movie Driven)	Мистерията на третата планета	Bulgarian (dubbing version with subtitles)
Poland	Polsat	4 July 2001	Tajemnica Trzeciej Planety	Polish
China	CCTV-6, CCTV-14	12 April 2003	第三顆行星的奧秘	Chinese (Mandarin)
France	France 3, TF1	2016	Le Mystère de la Troisième Planète	French
Czech Republic  Slovakia	Barrandov (dubbing production) Markíza	2016	Tajemství třetí planety Tajomstvo tretej planéty	Czech Slovak
Australia	Nine Network	2016	Girl from Earth (Australian version)	English
Netherlands	NCRV	17 November 2004	Mysterie van de Derde Planeet	Subtitled
Belgium	RTBF	2016	Le Mystère de la Troisième Planète	French
South Korea	KBS	1 August 2005	3 번째 행성의 신비	Korean
Hungary	RTL Klub, A+	31 October 2005	Misztériumát a harmadik bolygó.	Hungarian
Romania	TVR2	1 January 2006	Misterul din a treia planetă	Romanian
Germany  Austria	RTL II (Germany) ORF (Austria)	1 March 2006 (Germany) 24 December 2006 (Austria)	Die Unterhaltung von Alice: Galaxie Medusa	German
United Kingdom	BBC One	2016	Alice's Travel (British version)	English (UK)
India	Imagine TV Kushi TV Animax (India)	Summer 2007 4 April 2015	ऐलिस यात्रा Girl from Earth	Hindi English
Indonesia	Indosiar	1 January 2008	Gadis dari Bumi	Indonesian
Israel	Arutz HaYeladim	8 July 2008	המסתורין של כוכב לכת השלישי	Hebrew Russian (only Russian-speaking Jews in Israil)
Macedonia  Croatia  Serbia  Slovenia	MKRTV HRT Happy TV POP TV	25 May 2008	Тајната на Сончевиот систем Медуза Misterija treći planeta Тајна трећег планете (Tajna trejeg planete) Skrivnost tretjega Planetu	Macedonian Croatian Serbian Slovenian
Turkey	Kanal D, Show TV	1 August 2008	Üçüncü Gezegen Gizem	Turkish
Albania	RTSH	1 August 2008	Misteri i planetit Tretë	Albanian
Portugal	RTP	2016	Mistério da Medusa galáxia	Portuguese
Norway	TV 2	24 December 2008	Alice: eventyret begynne	Norwedish
Japan	Nippon Animation Toei Animation (dubbing)	2016	第三惑星の謎	Japanese
Greece	Star Channel	25 May 2009	Το μυστήριο του τρίτου πλανήτη	Greek
Middle East	MBC 3, Spacetoon	20 May 2010 (except Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Syria)	سر الكوكب الثالث	Arabic
Brazil	SBT	2016	O Mistério do Planeta Terceiro	Portuguese (Brazilian)
Hong Kong	TVB	25 July 2010	银河公主神秘的美杜莎	Chinese (Cantonese)
Denmark	DR1	1 November 2010	Mysteriet om den tredje planet	Danish
Philippines	ABS-CBN GMA Network	8 November 2010	Ang Misteryo ng Ikatlong Planeta	Tagalog
Canada	Télétoon (French) YTV (English)	26 November 2011 (French) 13 December 2011 (English)	Le Mystère de la Deuxième Captains The Mystery of the Two Captains	French English
Latin America	Televisa (MEX) Telefe (Argentina) Canal 13 (Chile) Caracol Television (Colombia) Frecuencia Latina (Peru) Venevisión (Venesuela) TV Total (Uruguay)	2016	El misterio del tercer planeta	Spanish
Ireland	RTE	18 November 2014	Alice agus na eachtraí sa spás.	Irish

FANTEDIA;; Raidio telifis elreann 28 August 2015

Home video and English adaptations

The film was adapted twice for the US market. It was first brought over as a video release in 1987, with dubbed voices. The second time, it was released in the 1990s as part of Mikhail Baryshnikov's "Stories from My Childhood" series. This series consisted of films that were bought by California-based company Films by Jove from Soyuzmultfilm for the international market. Over $1.5 million was spent by this company restoring the prints, adding new music and redubbing the films with American actors. This version of the film was named Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet and has been released on VHS as well as on a 1999 DVD collection with several other films . The film has been released on DVD several times (the latest release, which featured rather misleading cover art, was in October 2005 ). The original Russian version with English subtitles is here:

The Films by Jove version of the film has been criticized by some of those who saw the original for adding many extra dialogue lines, shortening the film, and replacing the unique synthesizer music by Alexander Zatsepin.^[6]

The original film has been released on several DVD editions in Russia, including a newly restored one by Krupnyy Plan.

Awards

• 1982 — the State award USSR

Games

• In 2005 an arcade platform game was made by the company Akella based on the film, called "Alice's Space Adventure".
• An adventure game was released in the same year called "Alice's Journey", also produced by Akella (but developed by "Step Creative Group").

Shootings

For Roman Kachanov as for the director, "The Mystery of the third planet" became the fourth animated film executed in technology of the traditional drawn animation. As the art director and the animator he worked more than at 30 drawn movies. However the animated films shot in stop motion (volume) animation ("The Mitten", "Gena the Crocodile", "Cheburashka", "Shapoklyak" and others) were the most known director's works of Kachanov before.

The design of characters was made by Natalya Orlova. Her daughter, the actress Ekaterina Semyonova, told that Alice in the animated film was drawn by her mother from her, and as a prototype the captain Zelyonyy was served by her father, the director Tengiz Semyonov.

Music for the movie was written by Aleksandr Zatsepin. According to Zatsepin, original records of music in his record library didn't remain.

Production of a picture proceeded 4 years.

Hire abroad

The animated film was twice duplicated in the USA. The first dubbing-in ("Mystery of the Third Planet") was let out on video in 1987. Alice name was changed to Christine and the translation had a little general with the original because of what this version sometimes even mistakenly is taken for the piracy.

The second dubbing-in ("Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet") was released in the 1990th years by the Films by Jove company. In this version the translation is much closer to the original though the large number of the remarks which are absent in the original is also added. Besides, in this version the soundtrack and a video series is completely replaced underwent reductions — about 6 minutes are cut out from the animated film in total. Sounded Alice the Kirsten Dunst, and the Chatterer — James Belushi.

"Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet" was let out not only in English, but also in other languages, in particular in Spanish and French.

See also

• Guest from the Future
• History of Russian animation
• List of animated feature films
• Alice's Birthday, a 2009 spiritual successor animated film based on another one of the Alice stories

References

1. The Mystery of the Third Planet at the Animator.ru
2. Mir Fantastiki №123, November 2013
3. Названы лучшие советские и российские мультфильмы за 100 лет. СПИСОК "Золотой сотни" (The best Soviet/Russian animated films are named. The "Golden Hundred" list)
4. IMDb. Highest Rated Animation Feature Films. 1-50.
   As of 2014, Mystery of the Third Planet is #47
5. Mir Fantastiki №57, May 2008. Top 100 most important sci-fi/fantasy movies

External links

• Tayna tretey planety at the Internet Movie Database
  • Mystery of the Third Planet at the Internet Movie Database
  • Alice and the Mystery of the Third Planet at the Internet Movie Database
• VObzor review of the Krupnyy Plan DVD (with screenshots)
• The Mystery of the Third Planet at myltik.ru (Russian)

Games

• Official website of Alice's Space Adventure (platform game)
• Official website of Alice's Journey (adventure game) (click on first link for English version of official website)