There will probably be few people 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 children's imagination, as they did many decades ago when they were written.
"The Tale of the Stupid Mouse": the story of creation
Peru Marshak owns many magnificent poetic children's works, analogues of which were not in the world at the time of their creation. Among them are “Twelve Months,” “Teremok,” “Cat's House,” and, of course, “The Tale of the Silly Mouse” (in another version, “The Tale of the Silly Mouse”).
It was written back in 1923. Before her, the author already had experience writing her own original fairy tales, but this one has a special story 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 Yevpatoriya, but the trip needed a substantial amount of money, which 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. Thus was born "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse." Marshak thanks to her actually saved the life of his son, who, when he grew up, achieved significant success in physics and not only.
Plot
Late at night, the mouse-mom in her cozy mink tried to put her naughty child to sleep.
However, the stupid little mouse all the time was capricious and asked him to sing a lullaby. Mom sang, but the baby was unsatisfied, then she began to take turns calling him a variety of animals, birds and even fish, so that they would try to sing her lullaby. Unfortunately, no one sang the taste of the demanding and restless mouse. In the end, the exhausted mother asked to sing a lullaby for a cat, and she purred so tenderly that her singing liked the fidget. But only when the mouse-mouse returned home, she could not find her child.
"The Tale of the Clever Mouse" - continued adventure
Marshak left his work (“The Tale of the Stupid Mouse”) with an open ending, although for most it was obvious, since it is logical to assume that the cat swallowed the sleeping stupid mouse.
However, after some time, the author wrote another tale that shed light on the fate of the naughty mouse. This is the Tale of the Clever Mouse. It turned out that the sly cat did not eat the baby, but took it with her, wanting to play cat and mouse with him first. But the fidget was far from stupid and was able to escape from her. That's just on the way to his native mink, where his alarmed mother was waiting for him, he had to become a member of many more dangerous adventures.
"The Tale of the Stupid Mouse": a play based on its motives and film adaptation
Both tales about the adventures of the restless little mouse very quickly became popular not only among children, but also among adults. Light, well-remembered rhymes were requested on the screen. At first, this 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 the Stupid Mouse"). The text has undergone changes and was supplemented by songs to the music of Dmitry Shostakovich. In addition, the ending of the story has become more definite, it turned out to be a classic happy end.
The next attempt to film this tale was made after forty-one years I. Sobinova-Kassil. This time it was a puppet cartoon. The ending of the tale was also changed to happy, but the original text itself remained almost unchanged.
Nowadays, this fairy tale is often put on stage as a performance. Most often this is done either in kindergartens, or in amateur or professional children's theaters.
In 2012, the Baby Art puppet theater staged its own puppet show based on this tale, The Story of a Stupid Mouse. Marshak’s original text was replaced, but the plot was more or less canonical. Spectators warmly accepted this interpretation, although some were unhappy with the lack of the original text.
Among the huge creative heritage of Samuel Marshak, "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse" plays a rather important role. It is not only an example of the incredible melody of the Russian language, but also teaches children the basics of behavior with parents and other people. It is nice that after many years from the moment of writing this tale has not lost its appeal and relevance and is still loved by readers.