A Major Disappointment

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

A cult soviet classic that is cherished by lots of people, especially those who grew up with it. Although made in 1981 it still looks excellent. It's by far the best sci-fi cartoon out of the Soviet Union that has everything in it: exciting adventures, space travel, strange creatures, space pirates, suspense, excellent animation, great music and a brilliant story.The story is based on one of the books by Kir Bulychev, a sci-fi writer, who wrote a whole series about Alice's adventures. Some of them were translated into English. And because it's based on book and a script that is written by the same writer the story is solid, so that even adults find it interesting. There are common characters in all of these stories and the central one is Alice, a little girl whose father, professor Seleznev, is a biologist working for a zoo. And since it's 22-d century and many distant star systems have been explored and space travel became very common, the zoo is filled with space animals from other planets and so Alice gets to fly with her father once in a while to explore unknown worlds - this time in search for rare animals. Another common characters across the books are space pirates that are always up to something bad and Alice, being a curious girl, always getting into some sort of dangerous adventure. Kids of the future are very advanced intellectually and physically, and so Alice is already doing some scientific research in some of the stories. I guess that's one of the things that draw kids to these stories.A few words about the English versions of the film and where to find them. Original Russian version with English subtitles that are not particularly well translated and of poor video quality is available on YouTube http://youtu.be/cTxIp_pMOk4. There is also a dubbed English bootleg US version called Mystery of the third planet (dollar store version) 1987, which retained the full video and music but with some significantly altered dialogues and added narrative which are not original - it is still watchable. http://youtu.be/NWTPMCD3SeQ. I have a review of that. There is also a third version of the cartoon called Alice and the Mystery of The Third Planet (1995), another US bootleg dubbed version. This one had the original music and sound all removed, 8 minutes cut out from the beginning of the film and a new narrative added. The dialogues, however, are nearly identical to the original, which is the only good thing about this version. It's also available on YouTube http://youtu.be/3lEoewc7Yns. This is also watchable but I wouldn't recommend any of the two bootleg versions. I'm hoping to get a new subtitled English translation on YouTube soon in HD quality so check back soon.

"Tayna Tretey Planety", also called "The Mystery of the Third Planet", is a Sci-Fi/Cartoon movie directed by Roman Kachanov in 1981. It is produced by an animation studio called Soyuzmultfilm.Basic plot: In the late 22nd century, a little girl named Alisa, her father professor and a pilot are on a space mission to find some rare animals for their Moscow Zoo. Instead for what they are supposed to do, they stumble on a case which involves Doctor Verhovtsev, who holds a conspiracy against two legendary captains. And so they are given a chatter-bird, which is the only clue for this mystery...I recently finished watching this film in Russian, before writing this review. As I have already watched multiple animated films from Soyuzmultfilm, I have to confirm this as one of the best animated movies which were made in the Soviet Union. For something made in 1981, the traditional animation is very typical for something made in the same country, and the setting is pretty similar to various Science Fiction/B-grade movies which were made during the 60s to late 70s. You may even be hooked both by the animation and how the plot unfolds itself, like I was. The background music is pretty great as well. This 48-minute long film is a great movie to be watched by whole families.Are you into Russian animation, as well as anything set in future and space, then this animated movie is really worth to find and watch. In my opinion, I think this film deserves an overall rating 9/10.Some other animated films from Suyuzmultfilm I'd like to recommend, include: "Maria, Mirabella" (1981), the "Maugli" film-series (1967-1971 and the 1973-movie), and "The Humpbacked Horse" (both the 1947- and 1975-version).

What I can see is an unimpressive cartoon with very limited imaginative material. A flying cow - that's brilliant! A superhuman intergalactic villain that walks about in an ugly coat with a turned-up collar and resembles a poor pensioner - that's fantastic! A rectangular parallelepiped that jumps and changes colour - that's groovy! A fictitious bird that looks like a slightly tuned-up parrot - wow! A couple of evil robots (blocky and with an AI of a child) that can be easily defeated with the help of good old judo - that's outstanding! You can continue this list yourself. Get over it, this cartoon was good for its time (and for its place - the whole idea was the winner in those grey USSR days) but now it is almost unwatchable to me.Not everything is junk of course. I like the idea of mirror-flowers that have memory of their own. One of the landscapes presented is quite picturesque. And the space suits of the main three characters are very believable and have a nice colour scheme. Apart from these features there is nothing else to admire.There was a proper sci-fi animation film from those days but unfortunately I do not remember the title and the country that made it (it started with some swift vehicle running through the landscape somewhere on a distant planet and continued delivering mind-blowing landscapes and creatures). One day I hope to find out what it was.If I want a sci-fi animation film, I go for a Japanese flick ("Last Exile" IS great, "GITS: Stand Alone Complex" IS impressive). Usually Japan does not disappoint: tons of fresh ideas are wrapped up in an eye-candy jacket of lines and colours.As to this very cartoon... It's passable at best. I can only agree with the opinion that it really shows potential. And I can only wish it had been made in a different way (more imaginative characters and creatures, better dialogues, detailed robots, menacing villains, etc.).It is a drag (I would recommend this one only to those who have fits of nostalgia) - 4 out of 10 from my side is an objective mark, I think. Thanks for attention.

This is the most brilliant cartoon i've ever seen. Striking imagery,great imagination, and brilliant music. Actually it's worth watching for the music alone. It's about a young girl(Alice)and her dads' travels in space where they meet a lot of weird characters and creatures. It's very dreamy and psychedelic like a weird 70's sci-fi movie. The version i've got is in Russian,so i didn't know what the hell was going on, but that makes it even more dreamy and mysterious. You can tell it's Russian by the distinctive animation. I know that it's been remastered and released in the USA with famous Hollywood actors doing all the voices with the music changed. The American version is part of the Stories From My Childhood series(which should be avoided by all costs, because they're all been "disneyfied"). I bought my copy from ebay and i think there is another copy( "RUSSIAN DVD","MULTFEIERVERK" N4, "CARTOONS" ). This DVD also has other brilliant Russian cartoons which are a million times more worth the money.Highly recommended. 10/10