The Mystery of the Third Planet (1981) User Reviews

One of the better animated movies coming from the Soviet Union.

[chribren · 7/10 · 17 October 2015]

"Tayna Tretey Planety", also called "The Mystery of the Third Planet", is a Sci-Fi/Cartoon movie directed by Roman Kachanov in 1981. It is produced by an animation studio called Soyuzmultfilm.

Basic plot: In the late 22nd century, a little girl named Alisa, her father professor and a pilot are on a space mission to find some rare animals for their Moscow Zoo. Instead for what they are supposed to do, they stumble on a case which involves Doctor Verhovtsev, who holds a conspiracy against two legendary captains. And so they are given a chatter-bird, which is the only clue for this mystery...

I recently finished watching this film in Russian, before writing this review. As I have already watched multiple animated films from Soyuzmultfilm, I have to confirm this as one of the best animated movies which were made in the Soviet Union. For something made in 1981, the traditional animation is very typical for something made in the same country, and the setting is pretty similar to various Science Fiction/B-grade movies which were made during the 60s to late 70s. You may even be hooked both by the animation and how the plot unfolds itself, like I was. The background music is pretty great as well. This 48-minute long film is a great movie to be watched by whole families.

Are you into Russian animation, as well as anything set in future and space, then this animated movie is really worth to find and watch. In my opinion, I think this film deserves an overall rating 9/10.

Some other animated films from Suyuzmultfilm I'd like to recommend, include: "Maria, Mirabella" (1981), the "Maugli" film-series (1967-1971 and the 1973-movie), and "The Humpbacked Horse" (both the 1947- and 1975-version).

Planet of wonder

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 6 January 2021]

Have said many times about being a fan of Soyuzmultfilm, and consider most of their output of what has been personally seen (which is a vast majority of it, while needing to see more of their later work) classic level. This applies to all decades and genres, am especially fond of their 1950s work and their fantasies and adaptations of classic literature. As well as their animation techniques such as rotoscoping and cut out and those that use pre-existing classical music.

'The Mystery of the Third Planet' is one of not many forays into science fiction for Soyuzmultfilm, but it is a highly intriguing, beautifully done and quite excellent film. Even if it is not quite as historically significant as their, and Soviet animation's, first science-fiction animation 1953's 'Flight to the Moon' (also great, but to me this is the better film) directed by Zinaida and Valentina Brumberg. But so what? The quality matters much more, and this delivers on that in big spades. It is one of their best (relatively) later animations, in the top half quality-wise of their output and one of the better sci-fi animated films to exist in my view.

Occasionally, the visuals are ever so slightly over-elaborate in the more action-oriented moments and the momentum is not always there.

Also wish it was longer too, under an hour is not long enough.

Conversely, the animation is great. The backgrounds are gorgeously surreal as are the alien images (sometimes in a wonderfully nightmarish way), the character designs are imaginative at their best (that for Gromozeka especially, the arms are especially cleverly done) and the colours are full of atmosphere. It is hard to forget the soundtrack too, sometimes quite funky but also beautifully orchestrated and atmosphere-enhancing. Really liked the characters, a colourful bunch, with a likeable lead in Alisa, a not too scary but menacing enough villain and a comical character in Gromozeka that didn't grate.

From start to finish, the story is always immensely engaging, full of charm and far from cold emotionally. Some nice inventive moments too, it is cohesive, it never felt predictable and as far as animated films seen recently this is up there with among the most unique narratively and there is a clever twist regarding the villain. To me, the relaxed and not hurried pace was appreciated as was the at times surprisingly optimistic tone, the mystery element is suspenseful and intriguing and while the action is not fast and furious it still excites.

In conclusion, excellent. 9/10

The best animated film of all time.

[govarian · 10/10 · 13 May 2006]

This is the most brilliant cartoon i've ever seen. Striking imagery,great imagination, and brilliant music. Actually it's worth watching for the music alone. It's about a young girl(Alice)and her dads' travels in space where they meet a lot of weird characters and creatures. It's very dreamy and psychedelic like a weird 70's sci-fi movie. The version i've got is in Russian,so i didn't know what the hell was going on, but that makes it even more dreamy and mysterious. You can tell it's Russian by the distinctive animation. I know that it's been remastered and released in the USA with famous Hollywood actors doing all the voices with the music changed. The American version is part of the Stories From My Childhood series(which should be avoided by all costs, because they're all been "disneyfied"). I bought my copy from ebay and i think there is another copy( "RUSSIAN DVD","MULTFEIERVERK" N4, "CARTOONS" ). This DVD also has other brilliant Russian cartoons which are a million times more worth the money.Highly recommended. 10/10

The Most Amazing Animation I've Ever Seen

[monstermonkeyhead · 10/10 · 21 March 2006]

I got this DVD at the dollar store and it is easily worth one hundred times that price. There is really no description I can give to do this justice. It is imaginative and extremely psychedelic. It has a warm and fuzzy early 1970's feel, like a black light poster come to life. The plot loosely has a little girl, her dad, and a bearded guy flying through space in search of animals for their zoo. They stumble into a conspiracy that has something to do with a talking bird. As generic as this may sound, it is mind blowing. I really can't believe this masterpiece never got a proper DVD release. The dollar store quality is actually not that bad, but certainly this deserves to be re-mastered, in widescreen, with lots of extras. I can't believe what little information about this exists on the web and that I am the first to comment. In any case, your life will be improved by seeing this movie. See it.

Mystery of the third planet / tayna tretey planety

[Yako74 · 10/10 · 25 March 2022]

This show is just amazing , definetely worth a watch ( recommend the original with sub titles the american dub is not good and made the characters quite blunt and removed all the original amazing soundtracks )

this show is over 40 years old yet still has the awesome nastolgia and vibe to it , a true diamond of its age , despite it not being as modern its still very good , this show deserves more credit and its sad to see people just overlook the show due to its age.

A brilliant creation and a great story

[vvp_14 · 6/10 · 15 February 2017]

A cult soviet classic that is cherished by lots of people, especially those who grew up with it. Although made in 1981 it still looks excellent. It's by far the best sci-fi cartoon out of the Soviet Union that has everything in it: exciting adventures, space travel, strange creatures, space pirates, suspense, excellent animation, great music and a brilliant story.

The story is based on one of the books by Kir Bulychev, a sci-fi writer, who wrote a whole series about Alice's adventures. Some of them were translated into English. And because it's based on book and a script that is written by the same writer the story is solid, so that even adults find it interesting. There are common characters in all of these stories and the central one is Alice, a little girl whose father, professor Seleznev, is a biologist working for a zoo. And since it's 22-d century and many distant star systems have been explored and space travel became very common, the zoo is filled with space animals from other planets and so Alice gets to fly with her father once in a while to explore unknown worlds - this time in search for rare animals. Another common characters across the books are space pirates that are always up to something bad and Alice, being a curious girl, always getting into some sort of dangerous adventure. Kids of the future are very advanced intellectually and physically, and so Alice is already doing some scientific research in some of the stories. I guess that's one of the things that draw kids to these stories.

A few words about the English versions of the film and where to find them. Original Russian version with English subtitles that are not particularly well translated and of poor video quality is available on YouTube http://youtu.be/cTxIp_pMOk4. There is also a dubbed English bootleg US version called Mystery of the third planet (dollar store version) 1987, which retained the full video and music but with some significantly altered dialogues and added narrative which are not original - it is still watchable. http://youtu.be/NWTPMCD3SeQ. I have a review of that. There is also a third version of the cartoon called Alice and the Mystery of The Third Planet (1995), another US bootleg dubbed version. This one had the original music and sound all removed, 8 minutes cut out from the beginning of the film and a new narrative added. The dialogues, however, are nearly identical to the original, which is the only good thing about this version. It's also available on YouTube http://youtu.be/3lEoewc7Yns. This is also watchable but I wouldn't recommend any of the two bootleg versions. I'm hoping to get a new subtitled English translation on YouTube soon in HD quality so check back soon.

First US bootleg release of a brilliant cartoon with a great story

[vvp_14 · 6/10 · 16 February 2017]

This was the first US bootleg video release of 1987 of the very popular and brilliant cartoon The Mystery of the Third Planet made in 1981 (see IMDb entry for it) about Alice's adventures in space based on the sci-fi series by a Russian writer Kir Bulychev. This release had the full original footage, music and sound effects but with significantly changed English dialogues, and no credits shown for the original Russian cartoon creators or script writers - just the American dubbing credits. Some of the character names were also changed: professor Seleznyov became professor Adam Steel, his daughter Alice - became Christen, although pilot Zelyony (Green in Russian) stayed as pilot Green, and so did the names of the two glorious captains Kim and Buran. A narrator's voice was added with a narrative that does not exist in the original, which is not of concern as it sticks to the story and helps to understand what's happening. In the video the title shown is actually "Stories from a Land Far, Far, Away: Mystery of the Third Planet". It is often referred to as "the dollar store version".

The main story line of the search for rare animals for the zoo involving space pirates and the two famous captains is not changed, however there are some significant changes in some of the story details. Like the whole episode with the birthday cake in the beginning, Alice wanting to go see a football match on the first planet they land on, drink of the six-armed friend of professor Steel, and so on. As the original footage was untouched they had to stick close to the original, but in some places the changed dialogues defeat the original intentions of the artists and of what's happening in the scene - a bit like in some other bootlegged Soviet sci-fi that were massacred by Amerasian bootleg movies producers, this one however not to the same extent.

Overall, the story stays fairly close to the original and is certainly very much watchable, especially if one prefers fully dubbed movies to subtitles. Is does, however, in my view, lacks many of the funny moments in dialogues, and a certain feel of romanticism of space travel that these dropped dialogues create, replaced with some more of a dry tone ones. This version is available on YouTube (http://youtu.be/NWTPMCD3SeQ). The video quality, however, is poor as it was recorded from a VHS source.

6 stars for this version and 9 for the original.

Taina tretyei planety - what's all the fuss about?

[AndreiPavlov · 4/10 · 18 April 2010]

What I can see is an unimpressive cartoon with very limited imaginative material. A flying cow - that's brilliant! A superhuman intergalactic villain that walks about in an ugly coat with a turned-up collar and resembles a poor pensioner - that's fantastic! A rectangular parallelepiped that jumps and changes colour - that's groovy! A fictitious bird that looks like a slightly tuned-up parrot - wow! A couple of evil robots (blocky and with an AI of a child) that can be easily defeated with the help of good old judo - that's outstanding! You can continue this list yourself. Get over it, this cartoon was good for its time (and for its place - the whole idea was the winner in those grey USSR days) but now it is almost unwatchable to me.

Not everything is junk of course. I like the idea of mirror-flowers that have memory of their own. One of the landscapes presented is quite picturesque. And the space suits of the main three characters are very believable and have a nice colour scheme. Apart from these features there is nothing else to admire.

There was a proper sci-fi animation film from those days but unfortunately I do not remember the title and the country that made it (it started with some swift vehicle running through the landscape somewhere on a distant planet and continued delivering mind-blowing landscapes and creatures). One day I hope to find out what it was.

If I want a sci-fi animation film, I go for a Japanese flick ("Last Exile" IS great, "GITS: Stand Alone Complex" IS impressive). Usually Japan does not disappoint: tons of fresh ideas are wrapped up in an eye-candy jacket of lines and colours.

As to this very cartoon... It's passable at best. I can only agree with the opinion that it really shows potential. And I can only wish it had been made in a different way (more imaginative characters and creatures, better dialogues, detailed robots, menacing villains, etc.).

It is a drag (I would recommend this one only to those who have fits of nostalgia) - 4 out of 10 from my side is an objective mark, I think. Thanks for attention.