"A Tale of a Stupid Mouse": story of creation, plot and film adaptation

Probably, there are few people who are unfamiliar with the work of the wonderful children's poet and translator Samuel Marshak. And although today there is a huge selection of children's literature, the tales of this writer continue to capture the child's imagination, as many decades ago, when they were written.

"The Tale of a Stupid Mouse": the history of creation

Peru Marshak owns a lot of great poetic children's works, analogues that were not in the world at the time of their creation. Among them are "Twelve Months", "Teremok", "Koshkin Dom" and, of course, "The Tale of a Stupid Mouse" (in another version, "The Tale of a Stupid Mouse"). It was written in the distant 1923. Prior to it, the author already had experience of writing his own original tales, but this one has a special history of creation. In the summer of that year, the eldest son of the writer Immanuel suffered from uremia and urgently needed sanatorium treatment. The writer and his family managed to agree on treatment for a six-year-old boy in Evpatoria, but for the trip he needed a solid amount of money that the Marshak family did not have. To get money, the author undertook to write a children's fairy tale in verse and managed to do it in just one night. This is how the "Tale of a Stupid Mouse" was born. Marshak thanks to her in fact saved the life of her son, who, when grown up, achieved significant success in physics and not only.

Plot

Later in the night, the mouse-mom in her cozy mink tried to put her disobedient child to bed. However, the stupid mouse was always capricious and asked to sing a lullaby for him. Mom sang, but the kid was not pleased, then she began to call in turn to him to visit a variety of animals, birds and even fish, so they tried to sing her lullaby with a lullaby. Unfortunately, nobody was singing to the taste of a demanding and restless mouse. In the end, the exhausted mother asked to sing a lullaby cat, and she so gently purred that her singing was not liked. It was only when the mother-mouse returned home that she could not find her child.

"The Tale of the Smart Mouse" - the continuation of the adventure

His work ("The Tale of a Stupid Mouse"), Marshak left with an open ending, although for the most part he was obvious, since it is quite logical to assume that the cat swallowed the asleep stupid mouse. However, after some time, the author wrote another tale that shed light on the fate of the disobedient mouse. This is "The Tale of an Intelligent Mouse". It turned out that the cunning cat did not eat the baby, and took it with her, wishing first to play with him in cat and mouse. But the fidget was far from stupid and was able to escape from it. But only on the way to his native mink, where his troubled mother was expecting him, he had to become a participant in many more dangerous adventures.

"A Tale of a Stupid Mouse": a performance based on its motives and screen versions

Both tales of the adventures of the restless little mouse quickly became popular not only among children, but also among adults. Easy, memorable rhymes and asked for the screen. At first this fairy tale was staged as a performance in professional and amateur theaters. And in 1940 M. Tsekhanovsky created a cartoon based on the first work ("The Tale of a Stupid Mouse"). The text underwent changes and was supplemented with songs for Dmitry Shostakovich's music. In addition, the final of the story became more specific, it turned out to be a classic happy end.
The next attempt to film this tale was taken in forty-one years by I. Sobinovoi-Kassil. This time it was a puppet cartoon. End of the fairy tale was also modified to a happy one, however, the original text itself remained virtually unchanged.

Today, this fairy tale is often put on stage as a performance. Most often it is done either in kindergartens, or in amateur or professional children's theaters.

In 2012 the puppet theater "Tiny Art" staged its own puppet show based on this tale "The Story of a Stupid Mouse". The original text of Marshak was replaced, but the plot was more or less canonical. The audience warmly accepted this interpretation, although some were dissatisfied with the absence of the original text.

Among the great creative heritage of Samuil Marshak "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse" plays a rather important role. It not only exemplifies the incredible melodiousness of the Russian language, but also teaches children the basics of behavior with parents and other people. It's nice that after many years since writing this fairy tale has not lost its appeal and relevance and is still loved by readers.