Mother for a Little Mammoth is a 1981 Soviet animated short directed by Oleg Churkin.
Long ago, a baby mammoth got frozen in the Arctic ice. Then one day, in modern times, the ice melts, and the mammoth, thinking he has simply had a nap, starts looking for his mother, only for an old wise walrus to tell him that animals like him had, indeed, once lived in the region but disappeared ages earlier. The little mammoth is heartbroken, and the walrus recalls that he has heard of similar-looking animals living far away in the south. He offers the mammoth to go there on an ice floe and look for himself.
The mammoth follows his advice and manages to travel all the way to the African coast. A friendly hippo decides he is an elephant, only in a fur coat, and brings a she-elephant to meet him. The she-elephant is at first reluctant to accept such a hairy calf as her own, but the hippo tells her it doesn’t matter. The little mammoth sees the elephant and immediately accepts her as his mother, and they happily leave together.
Tropes featured in the movie:
- Artistic License – Physics: The ice floe brings the baby mammoth to the shore of Africa without melting or even breaking apart on the way.
- Beary Friendly: A polar bear cub is the first one to try to help the baby mammoth, and later sees him off as the mammoth begins his voyage to Africa.
- Blue Means Cold: The Arctic landscapes are in various shades of blue.
- Character Signature Song: "The Little Mammoth’s Song" of how he and his Mommy will find each other is the best-remembered part of the movie and has since become the unofficial anthem of adoption and foster care in Russia.
- Happily Adopted: The mammoth by the she-elephant in the end.
- Heartwarming Orphan: The Last of His Kind baby mammoth is an adorable little creature, melting the hearts of everyone he meets.
- Honorable Elephant: The she-elephant adopts the baby mammoth almost instantly (and the only reservation she has she discusses discreetly with the hippo rather than voicing it to him).
- Honorary Uncle: Grandpa Walrus and Aunt Hippo aren't anyone's biological relatives.
- Huggy, Huggy Hippos: Aunt Hippo brings the she-elephant to see the mammoth and reassures her when she is hesitant about adopting him.
- Human Popsicle: The little mammoth got frozen in the ice and only comes back to life many millennia later.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: The baby mammoth has huge, bright blue eyes.
- Innocent Soprano: The innocent and kind little mammoth has an appropriately high-pitched singing voice.
- Interspecies Adoption: The mammoth by the elephant, though neither of the parties seems aware of it, as the mammoth doesn’t even notice any difference between him and his mother and the elephant thinks he is just a very hairy sort of elephant.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The monkey is pretty tactless at first, gaping at the mammoth as if he's a museum exhibit and then asking him why he even needs a mother. But then she asks the hippo to help him, plucks bananas for him when he says he’s hungry, and squees when she sees him find his new mother.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Mother Elephant looks much more like an Asian elephant than an African elephant, as she has a domed back, bumpy forehead, and no tusks.
- No Antagonist: There is no conflict between any of the characters. The polar bear, walrus, monkey, hippo and she-elephant are all very kind and helpful.
- Warm-Hearted Walrus: Grandpa Walrus is a kind old guy who tells the baby mammoth where he can find animals (sort of) looking like him, and wishes him luck when seeing him off.
