Maria, Mirabela

Maria, Mirabela
Directed by	Ion Popescu-Gopo
Written by	Ion Popescu-Gopo
Starring	Gilda Manolescu Medeea Marinescu Ingrid Celia
Music by	Eugen Doga
Cinematography	Alecu Popescu
Edited by	Elena Belyavskaya S. Kusursuz
Production company	Moldova-Film, Soyuzmultfilm, Casa de Filme 5
Release date	December 21, 1981 March 3, 1982
Running time	68 min.
Country	Romania/  Soviet Union
Language	Romanian Russian

December 21, 1981

Maria, Mirabela is a live-action/animated film jointly produced by Romanian and Soviet movie studios. The Romanian premiere took place on December 21, 1981 in Bucharest, The Soviet premiere took place on March 3, 1982 in Moscow. The creator uses 4 main live action characters (we exclude the 4 girls whorepreznet the seasons) and some puppets at first in a real decor. Later the puppets were cut from the movie and in were replaced by some animated characters and also many part of dechorum about 80% became based of drawings. The beginning of the movie is entirely animated, but the ending is almost entirely live action. There were also many other minor unnamed animated characters. It was a capodopera for animations.

Oache (Romanian pronunciation: [o̯aˈkɛ]), a frog meets old acquaintances: a butterfly, Omide (Romanian pronunciation: [omidɛ']) and a fire-fly, Scaparici (Romanian pronunciation: [skəpə'ritʃ]). Together they watch two girls playing in a meadow, Maria and Mirabela. Oache remembers an adventure when they all first met each other, and Oache begins to tell the story.

The story begins with Oache meeting the Fairy of the Forest who stopped to drink fresh water at his spring. He is surprised to receive thanks from the Fairy for the good water and, being impressed by the visit, he asserts that frogs are not good for anything. In punishment for the lie, the Fairy of the Forest freezes Oache's legs in the stream.