section7mfu | From Russia with love, tovarisch.... (Reply)

It was a Saturday afternoon that found Napoleon and his Russian partner without any plans. They had the day off, and no where to go. Napoleon didn’t even have a date lined up.

They strolled along the avenue when the American spotted the marquee of a movie theatre.

“How about we take in a movie. Looks like one that would be right up our alley, and there’s a Disney cartoon short too.”

In truth, cartoons had become one of Illya Kuryakins secret passions, even though he didn’t own a television; if he was at his partner’s apartment, the television would invariably be turned to some Saturday morning cartoons. He couldn’t explain his affinity towards them and assumed it was their innocence that attracted him...though surprisingly some of them had a fair amount of violence and innuendo that was surely aimed at adults and not children.

It was for the cartoon alone that Illya agreed to take in the movie....he didn’t even pay attention to the title of it as they walked into the Bijou, tickets in hand. Napoleon purchased the requisite popcorn and sodas, and a Hershey bar for his partner, and they headed into the theatre, finding it unusually empty for a matinee.

To Illya’s surprise, the Disney feature was their rendition of “Peter and the Wolf.”

“I know this,” he said, whispering to the American, “It is a Russian children's story, meant to be spoken by a narrator and accompanied by an orchestra. The parts of the characters are voiced by musical instruments."

Solo watched as the film began, seeing his partner smile with delight as he read several things on the screen written in Cyrillic.

A man called Sterling Holloway had a soothing speaking voice as he narrated the story.

After watching the cartoon, the two UNCLE agents viewed the movie, and walked out into the light of day and hour and a half later.

“So what did you think partner mine, did you like it?”

“Very much so.” Illya smiled,” Did you know they had the Russian towns people and the hunters in the film modeled after Cossacks?”

“Oh you mean Peter and the Wolf?”

“Yes, I saw it once, performed with marionettes when I was very young. It was written and composed by Sergei Prokofiev back in 1936 in the U.S.S.R," he said proudly, "I was only three then..."

“I didn’t know he wrote the music as well.” Napoleon smiled. “So what did you think of the movie... I mean, “From Russia with Love?”

Illya shrugged, ”It was a little far-fetched do you not think? I mean James Bond...really."

“So you liked the cartoon better?” Solo couldn’t help but smile.

“Da.”

The original video of the cartoon was recently blocked, so I substituted this. The original was so much better and was what I remembered as a child...sigh.