How sad is this?

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Priklucheniya Kapitana Vrungelya (The adventures of Captain Vrungel) is TV minis released back in the mid 70's in the USSR based on the novel with the same title. It was a number of short parts, with the total time of a full-length play movie, so short, that they put 2 parts on the air daily for about 1-2 weeks, normally during winter or summer school vacations. The original book features an old Sea Captain who's name is Vrungel, what in Russian sounds a lot like noun "vrun" which means a liar, a boaster, a fantasy story teller, so the reader is invited to take the Captain's stories with a grain of salt, and to decide for himself what is truth and what is fantasy. Captain together with his apprentice Lom goes on global yacht race, which is a invitation to the reader to cast a look on the world, to see different countries, meet different nations, and to see how Captain Vrungel makes his way in this crazy, motley, sometimes friendly, sometime not very friendly world. All characters (Captain Vrungel, Apprentice Lom, Fux, Archibald Dendy) were taken from the original book, but the plot in TV series was somewhat modified with a criminal story where global yacht race becomes just an instrument for the international mafia to smuggle a statue from the Royal Museum. Therefore some new characters were added - a British styled super-agent 00X - a hilarious spoof of 007 and Inspector Gadget who constantly looses despite of all his crazy spy tech, and a pair of Italian style gangsters talking to each other in violent fake Italian rants and doing damage to 00X in most fantastic ways. There is lots of absurdity comedy in Gangsters VS 00X episodes, invented by the TV series creators specially to be on par with Captain Vrungel's stories absurdity. The Adventures TV minis instantly became all the rage with Soviet schoolchildren. And one of the reasons for success was ahead of time animation combining in one still: black and white and color videos, cut-out animated figures, non-painted objects like real fire, gun smoke, water, car dashboard, TV, wine bottles, cigar etc. For example a video of ocean becomes a background for cut-out animations of Captain, his yacht, Lom, Fux, etc, painted guns fire with real flame and smoke, water streaming from the painted tap is real non-painted water. Also normal animation is used in some episodes. All painted animations are extremely elaborate and detailed to stand out from the video backgrounds and settings in full realistic effect like real life grotesques. Music and songs (5 hits) are superb. The song performed by gangsters is a brilliant musical spoof of Perry Como's "It's impossible", so "Italian" cheesy, with the verse lines going in fake Italian like "we are banditto, notoriousitto, we are castetto, pistoletto, oh yes, we are shootingtto, stealingtto this or that now and then, oh yes....". Other songs performed by 00X, Fux, Vrungel, Lom are fully original compositions. Captain Vrungel and his friends have to use all their intelligence, quickwittedness, inventiveness, and all actual reserves of fantasy to get through the adventures described in the book and the new ones added by the TV series creators. The series are children friendly, contain no violence or black humour - it was very strict about video productions for children in the USSR - in case you don't mind lots of guns, plugging fingers into 220 V mains, fake Italian swearing, and a nude woman statue.

This is one of the highest quality and most original soviet animations ever. It is about a Captain, Cpn. Vrungel and his crew as they race in an international regatta while a high-profile theft of a priceless statue from a museum is investigated. The depressed card-playing transporter of the statue stumbles onto Vrungel's boat by coincidence and joins their crew, which leads them to be followed by two gangsters who have to steal the statue back for their boss, whose lips are only seen until the last episode when his identity is revealed. The statue, the gangsters are in turn followed by a British secret agent.This is a show in around a dozen episodes (as IMDb says , 88 mins. in total). The show takes the heroes on insane adventures, from rescuing squirrels from a burning forest and them trying to sell them, to washing ashore in Hawaii. They might go to the pyramids, and in the end the regatta possibly ends in Britain. The classic joke from the start of the show is that their boat is named "PABEDA", which means "victory", but the first two letters get torn off and it says "beda" which now means "misfortune".The most unique thing about this show is the animation. Imagine South Park type of cut out characters, only imagine the characters MUCH more detailed, their clothes, their faces, their hands, they are just incredibly beautifully drawn and animated! The show also combines live film footage, still photography and other unusual effects to create weird images. For instance the parts when they are sailing on the sees usually have a filmed ocean as a background. The animation alone is a complete treat. It really affords so many new effects and movements and jokes. There is also normal animation used at times. Also with the animation are incredible backgrounds which have a lot of work put into the textures and colors.The music is great, especially the main theme - what a classic soviet melody! Throughout the show, characters sing their own songs which are really entertaining to watch and they are all very good. The music really adds a lot to the show, from adding a serious tension when necessary, to having a light sunny sea-faring atmosphere when it's smooth sailing. The music of this show gets imprinted into your soul.One thing I love a lot is the use of different languages and accents and parodies of other cultures. The two gangsters go off on crazy non-sensical Italian rants, so does an American one-legged Captain of another ship who always cracks me up. Another main character is a British secret agent, I think his name is 00X, who is a suave big toothed guy.This show is absolutely kid-friendly, there's almost no scary or bloody scenes here, except for the comedic mafia chasing them, so there is guns involved. But all little kids in Russia loved this show. Anyone would fall in love with these guy's adventures. The whole show is a very happy one, and very very funny. It has awesome elements of spy, adventure, technology, geography and music, and of course friendship. 10/10, this is beyond classic, this is just a part of every little kid's life who grew up the soviet union. And also it is made with incredible care, love and talent.

A really bizarre series with animation of inconsistent quality, huge plot holes, and only a passing relationship with its source material, Kapitan Vrungel is one of the most memorable Soviet cartoons, thanks mostly to the exceptional voice work by Zinovi Gerdt, a wonderful theme song, and a non-condescending Soviet friendliness and warmth. The animation, sometimes drawn on top of actual sea footage, is in the busy, unpolished, often grotesque style of Soviet children's illustrations and its absurdity and implausibility bring to mind Monty Python animation. Most of the episodes are really sub par, and the first and last one are the best, but the cartoon is disarming and likable, and Hristofor Bonifatich is one of the great paternal characters in a late-Soviet childhood.

Easily one of the best Soviet cartoons (and that's in a country that was big on cartoons!!) A funny, exciting adventure story with quite a few jokes that are clearly directed at an older audience. Twenty years later, it's still fresh and hilarious - like any true classic. If you understand Russian, or if you happen to stumble across a translated version (I'm not sure if they exist) - definitely watch it!