Return, The
Entry updated 26 July 2021. Tagged: Film.
Russian animated film (1980; original title Vozvrashchenie). Soyuzmultfilm. Directed by Vladimir Tarasov. Written by Boris Ryakhovsky. Voice cast includes Viktor Balashov, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy and Vasiliy Livanov. 10 minutes. Colour.
Following a trip to Jupiter a cosmonaut is returning to Earth. However, his Spaceship is hit by meteorites, disabling his automatic landing equipment, meaning he will need to land manually. To keep him calm he is put into an artificial coma for the remainder of the journey. Whilst in this state he dreams of home (both Earth and his grandfather's house), of space and of his plight. However, on reaching Earth, Mission Control find they cannot bring him out of his sleep.
At the end we see him wake and return home safely. However, as he was awoken by his grandfather setting off his alarm clock as the spaceship flew over their house, there is the possibility he might still be dreaming. This is a very good short sf film, showing the influence of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): the stylistically varied animation, particularly of the spaceship and the pilot's dreams, is memorable. [SP]
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