Babay () is a Ukrainian animation fantasy film shot by Maryna Medvyd at the Ukranimafilm studio. The film tells the story of a beautiful girl who was searching for her parents, who were kidnapped by the Babay. The film premiered in Ukraine on December 18, 2014. It was considered to be the first Ukrainian full-length animated film that was widely released in Ukraine. The film received generally negative reviews from critics.
Plot The old storyteller tells the children a story about the Alkonost bird, which once every hundred years lays an egg that fulfills any wish of its owner. The egg goes to whoever wins the race, in which they participate: the Witch, who wants a daughter, the Serpent Horynich, who wants a body for each of his heads, and Vii, who wants a pile of diamonds. But suddenly the egg is stolen by Babai.
The enraged Witch sends her chort fiancée, who is in love with her, to take away the egg, but he is caught by the Babai. A fight ensues between them, during which the egg falls into the well. Babai orders the chort to find him.
Meanwhile, the egg ends up in the grandparents' house and after some time a baby hatches from it, which grows to a teenage girl in a week. She is called Svetlanka-Zoryanka. Babay takes them with him to his hiding place. After learning what happened, Svitlanka-Zoryanka sets out to find her parents. Desperate Cat decides to go on a journey with Svetlanka-Zoryanka, during which they meet Snake Horynich, who obstructs their way until they solve his riddles.
The chort follows her throughout her adventures and she reaches Babay's residence where she considers the slavic creatures family.
The old storyteller, having finished his story, transforms into Babai and scares all the children.
Cast Rada Belova — Svitlanka-Zoryanka Irma Vitovska - Vedmak Ostap Stupka - Chort Olesya Chichelnytska - Alkonost, twin girls, horrors Kateryna Butska - Big boy Andriy Fedinchyk - Misha Evgeny Pashin - Grandfather Olga Radchuk - Grandma, Goat Olena Blinnikova - Kura Myroslav Kuvaldin - Cat Borys Georgievsky — Kazkar, Babai Volodymyr Moiseyenko — Zmiy Horynich (1st and 2nd heads) Volodymyr Danilets — Zmiy Horynich (3rd head) Andriy Sereda - Viy, the carrier
Production Towards the development of a project under the working title "Who’s Afraid of Uncle Babai?" The team of 80 people started in 2007, although plans to shoot a full-length film at Ukranimafilm appeared as early as 2005. According to film critic "Ukrainian Truth" Alexander Gusev, the film was developed during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, but was put on hold because Kuchma had a nickname "Babay" in government structures. The screenwriter was chosen by Vadim Shinkaryov, director - Natalya Marchenkova, composer - Alexander Sparinsky, artists-directors - Eduard Kiric and Irina Smirnova. The voice of the main characters was entrusted to Anatoly Barchuk, Viktor Andrienko, Valery Chiglyaev, Viktor Semiruzmenko, Alexander Bondarenko and others. The film was financed by Goskino at 100% (about 8 million hryvnias), but was later put on hold due to lack of financing for a long time.
In 2011, Goskino and Ukranimafilm signed an additional agreement, and the project was restarted with a new director (Marina Medvid) and a completely new team. According to the director himself, the project was restarted because the previous group did not please Goskino, even though they worked enough time and made a lot of material. The work on the film lasted 2 years. According to producer Eduard Ahmadowich, the film was completed "with pure enthusiasm of the team". The film was performed in a classic cartoon drawing at the studio "Ukranimafilm. The animators drew about 100 thousand drawings. The writer Sofia Andrukhovich worked on the dialogues, giving them a special authenticity. At the time of independence of Ukraine, Babay became the first Ukrainian animated feature project to be released on wide screens.
One of the reasons in creating Babay was to encourage Ukrainian animators to create their own full-length projects.
Critical reception Babay received mostly negative reviews from critics. Alexander Gusev from "Ukrainian Truth" rated the film 0.5 out of 5, writing that it is bad in everything: characters, animation, and script, and others. Boris Ivanov from Film.ru gave the film 3 out of 10, drawing attention to "an old-fashioned two-dimensional animation and an Alaskan color in the spirit of an explosion at a psychedelic factory". Ukrainian film journalists, according to a survey by the Bureau of Ukrainian Film Journalism, called Babay one of the worst films of 2014.
External links
babay at Popkult