In The Fairy Kingdom there are i.a. a sweet but quirky King (Erast Garin), a Prince (Aleksei Konsovsky), a Forester, his evil wife
the Stepmother (Faina Ranevskaya), her nasty daughters (E. Junger and T. Sezenevskaya), a kind Fairy Goodmother and the
lovable daughter of the forester - Zolushka (Cinderella, Yanina Boleslavovna Zhejmo).

In this spectacular in color Fairy Tale Musical made in the Soviet Union in 1947 there are both fine song and dance numbers and
satirical comedy. In the main role Yanina B. Zheimo shines as Cinderella, as the "young" Zolushka. She was 38 years old when
playing the role but it works, she's very good and she's naive enough for the role, she can sing and dance and she's very likeable.
The Prince (Aleksei Anatoleyevich Konsovsky) was 35 years old but looks like he was 16.

There's trick footage using matte paintings, miniature models and sceneries and Zolushka looks great in color.

Faina Ranevskaya as the nasty Stepmother is very charismatic and when she's threatening Zolushka with
hurting her father - "You know about my connections; he'll lose his head, he'll die in prison or in a dungeon"
that must've been daring in Soviet Union in 1947 with Stalin still alive and after all of his purges, or ?

The story is to known to be repeated, a ball at the royal castle, the fairy Godmother makes Zolushka go, the
Prince falls in love with Zolushka, glass shoe etc.
Zolushka is treated as a slave by her evil Stepmother and by her nasty stepsisters Mariana and Anna, and
she dreams of more happiness in her life, and about going to the Ball.
When at the court Zolushka and the enamoured Prince are suddenly transported into another wonderland
reality (and all of the guests too) i.e. a fairy tale world within the fairy tale film, and the King is the comic
relief with his quirky antics.

All in all a great colorful fairy tale film with song, dance and some satirical humour, and a likeable Zolushka

The DVD with the film in original 4:3 fullscreen format and russian audio with english subtitles, region all