The Scarlet Flower (Russian: Аленький цветочек) is a 1952 animated adaptation of Sergey Aksakov's fairytale of the same name.
Tropes featured in the adaptation:
- Adaptational Explanation Extrication: In the fairytale, the enchantress cursed the prince because she had an unspecified grudge against his father. Here, her motive isn't explained.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the fairytale, the youngest daughter just asks for the most beautiful scarlet flower in the world, which sounds pretty demanding, to say the least. Here, she asks for such a flower because she saw one in a dream.
- Adapted Out: The faithful maidservant of the merchant's daughter who lives with her at the Beast's palace is nowhere to be seen.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Right at the start, we are shown that Nastenka's elder sisters are the antagonists when one of them kicks a cat and the other laughs at that.
- Bambification: When Nastenka arrives in the Beast's realm, she is greeted by a family of friendly deer.
- Beast and Beauty: It is based on the Russian Trope Codifier.
- Death by Adaptation: The enchantress's fate in the original story isn't stated. Here, the prince explicitly says she is no more. It's ambiguous whether her death was connected to the curse getting broken.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Nastenka sees the scarlet flower in a dream, hence her asking for it.
- Fade to Black: Frequently, a change of scene is preceded by the previous scene fading to black.
- Fantastic Flora: The scarlet flower, like in the original story, replants itself after Nastenka brings it back to the Beast's gardens.
- Glowing Flora: The eponymous scarlet flower shines very bright, especially before it gets plucked.
- Named by the Adaptation: The nameless heroine from the story is called Nastenka here (a pet name form of Anastasia), her sisters are called Gordeya and Lyubava, and their father Stepan.
- Proud Beauty: Gordeya and Lyubava are very pretty and very vain.
- Say My Name: After Stepan is washed overboard, his shipmate desperately yells out his name.
- Scenery Porn: The absolutely stunning backgrounds are among the best-loved details of the animation.
