What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

As nearly everyone from Czech republic could tell you, this movie is classics (of course, I know some people who never watched this movie - not because they don't like fairy tales, but because it's a nice pose to not like anything Russian), so it's no wonder they show it so often in the TV - and people still watch it, and can quote whole passages from the movie by heart.I can't speak for English dubbing, as I've never heard it, but the Czech one is absolutely excellent - a true masterpiece as far as dubbing is concerned. And the story! There is humour, there is healthy dose of mysticism and magic, and good winning over the evil, just like it should be. Of course, if you are not at least minimally aware of Slavic folklore, half of the movie will not make much sense to you - but if Steven Spielberg could find this movie breathtaking, obviously its creators did something right.

I like this movie and I'm American! There are no two ways about it. It's a well done children's movie. The characters are colorful, the sets magical, and the stories are timeless.Even for being made in 1964 USSR, a place not exactly well known for its film industry, this film stands out as one of the great ones. Star Trek could have learned a thing or two about set design and creature effects from the makers of this film. It was clearly a labor of love.For those of you mentioning the MST3K version, keep in mind that the English dub has some of the worst ADR acting I've ever heard. Give yourself a treat and re-watch this in the original Russian with the original actors and get English subtitles.This film is easily as good as anything Disney was putting out at the time. Don't sell it short just because some TV robots told you to.

Well, the only thing that can be said is, those bad reviews of the film can only be caused by the lack of knowledge of anything but for everyday routine and also by a lack of culture and education, or self-education. Perhaps, the interpretation into English is far from ideal (though I haven't watched it translated). I can say that there's a certain thing common to all those 'scornful' reviews: no desire on the part of their authors to find out more information and a certain bias to see something morbid or strange even in the purest and most innocent things. And a very poor knowledge of anything but English culture. No objective knowledge of Russian culture or history, no wish to compare. It should also be remembered that it's a children's film, so if the reviewers have forgotten how they used to feel as children, perhaps too early in their lives, they can only be pitied.

It's so much fun to read the comments of those who are not from Russia, 'cause they all go like: "it's bad because i didn't understand it". Of course you didn't, if you were raised on Spider-Man comics and Star Wars and believe that a great movie is where the good guy beats the bad one, there are no surprises here... It has nothing to do with either USSR or communists, it's just a fairy tale, folks, sorry to disappoint you. If you know such words from your history class it doesn't mean that you can put them whenever you think it's appropriate. I wonder if Americans know who's the author of "the Mermaid" and what the original book is about. If you read it, you'll be completely at a loss, people. And the reason that it is hard to rate it is that it's for kids, and they don't usually rate special effects or cinematography...If they simply believe the main characters and sympathize with them, if they cry and laugh with them - that's a 10.