This fairy tale is fun, but it wasn’t until the 4th or 5th watching that I understood this part. Now I recognize it. It’s a custom I’ve seen in many other Russian movies where those leaving as well as those seeing the travelers off sit down quietly for luck before the parting.

This wikipedia article lists a bunch of things like that, but except perhaps for some of the drinking customs, I don’t think I’ve seen any of the them in movies. Now I know some to watch for, though.

A little poke at what Blanch DeBois said in “A Streetcar Named Desire”? It works that way in English, anyway.

It’s nice to see Cheburashka again.

This site will be useful: List of Russian animation subtitled in English.

I learned about it from Alexander Sedov’s LiveJournal blog, where he explains why it was Shakespeare’s King Richard who knocked on the door of Savushkin, who didn’t believe in miracles, and then took off on Savushkin’s motorcycle.