I understand the bad reviews. I don't agree with them, but I understand. Some things just don't translate well into other cultures (and I'm not talking about linguistics). Morozko is an absolute classic in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Basically, you can't have Christmas without Morozko. I remember decorating the Christmas tree every year while watching Morozko in TV as a kid. Now I'm looking forward to decorating the Christmas tree with my kids while watching Morozko. The old Soviet-era generation, the revolutionary generation, the millennials - everyone loves this movie. However, it is a fairy tale based on Slavic history, folklore and mythology, made by Slavs for Slavs. I think that in this case, the cultural differences are simply too big for the western viewers to understand and appreciate this movie. I haven't seen the English version, but I think the translation probably doesn't help either. My advice: Try to watch it with an open mind, try to understand the culture behind it and realize that fairy tales around the world are usually different from Disney movies.

It's amazing how much emotion this movie has caused on IMDb. Reading the reviews on this one reads more like a restart of the cold war.MY FELLOW Americans, apparently our reviews of this film have stepped on the balls of a sort of Slovakian/Russian cultural icon. I don't think we'd get so rabid about it, but I guess we'd feel kinda the same way if they started bad-mouthing Dorothy and Toto in The Wizard of Oz. This movie is shown yearly on TV in some countries and I guess the fairy tales related in it go back centuries. It's fascinating too that those commenting from Slovakia/Russia/Czech Republic/etc. didn't really get on-line in significant numbers until about 2003, and even now their number of on-line users is only about 35%. Yet they've found IMDb, and particularly this movie, in vast numbers. In fact, I suspect some sort of voting/movie review campaign was involved with this. If you check the "Loved it" reviews (those reviewers that rated the movie 3.9 or above), you find they number 43 out of a total of 117 reviews (as of this writing). Of those 43 positive reviewers, 31 have reviewed only ONE movie; this one. A record, I believe. I smell a rat in that math. Frankly, they seem to view this as more of an attack on their culture and history than just some movie reviews from boneheads like me.However, they did manage to write those reviews in English (if sometimes a bit strangled). Something I could NOT do in Russian on a Cyrillic keyboard at one of their movie sites. So I give them props for that.TO OUR FOREIGN FRIENDS who love Morozko/Jack Frost, I apologize if some of the American reviews felt like we were stomping on your 'nads. I think that the translation to English probably left a lot to be desired, and I know that, in my own case anyway, Russian culture is not very familiar (I only learned a few years ago that while the entire western world was rocking out to the Beatles in the 1960's, they, and their music, were banned in the Soviet Union. We didn't even know music COULD be banned). But you need to remember, these are just movie reviews, not cultural attacks. Also, children, including teenagers, are allowed to comment on IMDb, and nobody knows what they might say, so ignore the odd review that doesn't make any sense.That being said, I just didn't like this movie very much. Besides the cultural stuff that was lost on me, and likely translation problems (learning to sit on a shovel????), I just didn't think it was very good. That's not a cultural attack, it's an opinion on this movie. Americans have lots of kids movies too, both good and bad. Two examples are The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964). Both are wild, weird, children's stories. In fact, I would venture to say that Wizard of Oz is stranger even than Morozko, with trees, scarecrows, lions and robots that all talk, as well as witches and monkeys flying around. I found both TWoO and SCCtM very entertaining when I was young, but children are easily entertained. As an adult I still like Wizard of Oz, as it was a well made and well told story. But I found out that Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a piece of crap that is ONLY enjoyable by children. Americans give SCCtM a lower rating here on IMDb (2.3) than we give Morozko (2.6). But for those of you that rated this movie a 10, I'm afraid to find out what movies get a rating of 1. So try not to take our movie reviews so personally. You seem to find them much more important than we do. They're opinions which can be easily disregarded.There. I feel better because of my attempt at détente.

It is a classic film for several generations of Russians. Legends and tales should not be transformed for modern world. You know nothing about Russian culture. So, Russian folk tales is to complicated for you. Some Americans live in trailers. It's a good idea, travel into your house. This idea is 1000-years old. Witch-cannibal lives in a house with chicken legs. Legs better then wheels, house can walk through forest. Forest wizard wear mushroom cap. Forest master in helm or crown instead is really ugly. I can explain everything, what you feel crazy.Laser swords, nuclear rifles, space corsairs - this is really madness.

I think that Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment this movie received is completely undeserved, and is explained by a mix of ignorance and condescension common among the movie watching public in the United States whose tastes have been spoiled beyond redemption by the sugary and fizzy Hollywood children movies. Sad but true.It's a whimsical retelling of a classic fairy tale instantly recognizable by anyone who has any familiarity with Eastern and Central European folklore - wicked stepmother, pretty and industrious stepdaughter, witch who lives in a house on chicken legs and who can be helpful or, if in the mood, cannibalistic, and so on. One less commonly known element is Morozko (also known as Ded Moroz, or Grandfather Frost), a spirit of the winter forest. In pre-Christian times, giving gifts around the time of the winter solstice was considered his responsibility, and modern (19th century and later) Santa Claus is a refined and commercialized version of this old Pagan demi-god of the North.Anyway, the movie was good enough for its time to receive the Lion of San Marco at the Venice film festival. People complain about special effects - well, that was the state of the art for 1960s. The cast is excellent, including an appearance by Inna Churikova, who was then a student at a theater school in Moscow, as Marfushka, the epically bratty counterpart to Natalya Sedykh's Nasten'ka. Churikova went on to stardom as a character actress. Other notable appearances include Georgi Millyar, the veteran actor of Russian cinema, whose acting career spanned more than six decades, and who in this movie plays the cannibal witch Baba Yaga.