by Linda Kay

Original Title: Domovoy i khozyayka

Directed by: Mayya Buzinova, Iosif Douksha

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: This stop motion animated short from Russia tells Hans Christian Anderson’s story The Goblin and the Woman.

Cartoon Cat: As the story begins the Mistress, her husband and her nephew, a schoolteacher, are sitting around a table as strange noises come from above. In the attic the brownie (or goblin) (voiced by Evgeniy Vesnik) is making the eerie sounds as a ginger tabby cat (voiced by Yuriy Medvedev), known as a cream thief in the original story, sits and watches.

The nephew nervously enters the attic with a lantern. The cat is hiding amongst some items in the corner. When the brownie meows like the cat, it makes the nephew back nervously away. He backs right into the cat, causing the cat to screech and run. The nephew tumbles down the attic ladder.

The brownie is upset because the Mistress does not believe in him, so he decides to cause all kinds of mischief, like making the woman’s pot boil over and cutting holes in her grain sacks. The cat is licking cream from a container with the idea that if the brownie is going to steal some anyway the cat might as well enjoy it, seeing how he’ll eventually take the blame.

The cat’s head gets stuck in the jar and the brownie helps pull it off.

Sure enough the cat gets the blame for the trouble and Mistress chases him from the house with a broom.

Some time later, Brownie hears the Mistress reading some of her poetry to her nephew. He believes the lines she has written are about him and has a change of heart. The cat returns looking for more cream and Brownie chases him from the kitchen, since he is now sincerely defending the Mistress.

Final Mewsings: Cats don’t know who to trust when cohorts change their allegiance.

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