The Timothy Dalton Chat Group
Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from my Childhood. Introduction While I was in Los Angeles in October 2000, I had an e-mail from Joan Borsten who along with her husband Oleg Vidov are the Executive Producers of the Stories From My Childhood serias of enchanting stories for children from Russia. In the e-mail Joan very kindly asked me if I would like to speak to her husband, Oleg, about what it was like to work with Timothy on The Prince, the Swan and the Czar Saltan and I very kindly accepted this invitation. I thought it would be nice though, for those of you that have not seen this project, to give you some background on the story that Timothy gave his voice for, and then you will find I have put Oleg's comments about working with Timothy at the conclusion of it. The Prince, the Swan, and the Czar Saltan.
The great Czar Saltan takes a bride who gives birth to a beautiful Prince. The Queen's jealous mother and sisters convince the King his son is deformed and should be killed. Set adrift on a stormy sea, the Queen and the Prince Gvidon find a new home and a magical friend - a clever enchaanted swan, who reunites the Czar and his wife and son.
The Cast
Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from my Childhood.
The PRINCE, the SWAN, and the CZAR SALTAN.
As this project begins you will notice the animation is quite exquisite.
SYNOPSIS: The Csar Saltan ends up marrying one of three sisters, because of this the other two are jealous, but are still invited to go and live in the palace with the Czar Saltan and his new Queen. Then the Czar goes off to war, leaving his beloved Queen at home, she gives birth to a son who she names Prince Gvidon. The Czar Saltan who is still away is told and he sends a message back, but the two jealous sisters get hold of this message and they change it, to read that the Queen and her new baby are to be drowned at sea. They are both put in a large beer barrel which is then tossed about on the ocean waves, they cannot get out and the Queen askes for help, overnight her son becomes a young man and they end up on a barron island that has nothing to eat or any shelter on it. Timothy now comes in and does the voice of Prince Gvidon, and he does it very well making it very young sounding, as Prince Gvidon is. The next morning the Prince goes down to the waters edge and there he meets a beautiful white Swan, whose life he saved the night before, he is sad, as they have nothing, the Swan listens to him, and the next morning when the Prince wakes up the Swan has transformed the island. There is now a magnificent castle and a church and lots of people living there too. The Prince now has somewhere he can rule over, he and his mother then move in. The next morning the Prince thanks the Swan for all her help, but there is still one thing missing in the Prince's life, his father, he cannot believe his father would have ordered that both he and his mother be killed, so the Swan turned Prince Gvidon into an insect and Prince Gvidon flew to his fathers palace. When he got there he found a man who was sad and distant, it was not what Prince Gvidon was expecting, and he really felt for him, the two jealous sisters were still there though. The Prince flew back home to the Swan, and was turned back into a Prince, he told the Swan how he had found his father to be, he so much wanted his father to visit him though, but how could this be done? He told the Swan how he felt, and the Swan listened, they talked well into the night, then the Swan turned into a beautiful Princess and Prince Gvidon married her later that day, in a lavish ceremony the reception lasted for days in celebration. Some of the Wedding guests went to visit the Czar Sultan once the festivities were over, and told the Czar about his son's marriage, the Czar thought for a moment and decided he must go and visit his son, but the two jealous sisters advised the Czar against this, but this time the Czar did not listen to them and set sail for the island where his son lived. Once there his son, who could not believe his dream had come true gave him a warm welcome, and then the Czar saw his Queen who he thought had drowned at sea, and he was thrilled, they both embraced. The truth then came out that the jealous sisters had changed his message, so the Czar forgave them but....they were sent to a barron land for their sins. That night there was the most wonderful party as the Czar was once again reunited with his Queen and everyone lived happily ever after.
Here are Oleg's comments about working with Timothy.
As I mentioned I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to talk to Oleg Vidov who is the Executive Producer along with his wife Joan Borsten of the Stories from my Childhood serias plus other projects too. Please visit their website to see what other exciting projects they are doing at Films By Jove
I found both Joan and Oleg very nice people to talk to, and I cannot thank them enough for contacting me, and Oleg was very interesting too, I could have listened to him for hours but...because I know you are most interested in what he had to say about working with Timothy I will just put that here. Oleg told me that "Timothy Dalton is such a wonderful actor, we needed a perfect gentleman and Timothy brought that to the role. What was interesting was that Timothy was enthusiastic, he enjoyed making this project. Timothy started with the child then grew into the man. Timothy enriched his character of Prince Gvidon. This film will last a lifetime with Timothy's voice and the fact that that it is a Pushkin story too. Timothy was excellent, a good, noble, wonderful person, and we are very glad that Timothy was able to work on The Prince, the Swan and the Czar Saltan for us, and we very much hope we will work with him again sometime soon."
If you would like to try to order this CD in the Stories From My Childhood collection, and to enquire if they have a video of The Prince, the Swan and the Czar Saltan then Sonic Images did have it in stock in 1998. Their contact details are:-
Sonic Images Web Orders
P.O. Box 691626
West Hollywood
California 90069
USA
Here is the Website address Sonic Images.
Stories From My Childhood.
INTRODUCTION - An enchanting collection of classic stories from authors Hans Christian Andersan, Alexei Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, and others told by Timothy Dalton, Shirley Maclaine, Bill Murrary, Jim Belushi, Sam Elliot, Hector Elizondo, Harvery Fierstein, Gregory Hines, Daphne Hines, Julio Inglesias, Amy Irving, Edward James Olmos, Alan Rich, Laura San Giacomo, Martin Sheen, Kathleen Turner, Sarah Jessica Parker, and many more.
He are the covers of the Stories From My Childhood video and CD, which are available from
Amazon
