Ugly Duckling, The (ATOM Study Guide)

The Ugly Duckling (2010) is a Russian animated feature film directed by Garri Bardin.

The Ugly Duckling is suitable for middle and upper primary students. Teachers will find the film relevant to units of work in the strand of Physical. Personal and Social Learning and the domains of English, The Humanities and The Arts.

The Ugly Duckling is suitable for junior and middle secondary students. Teachers will find the film relevant to units of work in English, Literature, Media, Music, Visual Arts and Politics.

Senior secondary students undertaking VCE Russian may benefit from viewing the film.

Language: Russian with English subtitles

Length: 75 minutes

Synopsis

When a rooster spies a strange egg just beyond the boundary of the coop, he claims it as his own. Convinced that the size of the egg indicates that the chick inside will boost the ageing rooster's clout around the coop, he discreetly slips it into the clutch laid by his partner.

Time passes, newborn chicks, ducklings and goslings roam the coop and finally the strange egg hatches. When the bird that emerges looks nothing like the rooster had expected, he and his partner deny that they are the parents. After all, the bird can swim, he must be a duckling and an ugly one at that.

No matter how hard he tries to fit in, the ugly duckling is scorned and ridiculed by the others because he is different. The rooster desperate to be rid of him, even though he owes the ugly duckling his life, tosses him over the fence at any given opportunity.

Finally accepting of the harsh truth that he is not wanted and well aware that he is different from the others, the ugly duckling chooses to face life alone. The ugly duckling falls asleep, snow falls and when he awakes he has become a magnificent white swan.

Based on the tale by Hans Christian Andersen, Garri Bardin's The Ugly Duckling is a story about overcoming adversity and finding your own way in the world.

Like many of Bardin's other animations, The Ugly Duckling is also a political satire. Bardin depicts the coop as a military barrack modelled along Communist lines. The chickens, ducks and geese sing rousing anthems in unison about how their coop is greater than any other. The chicks, ducklings and goslings are taught how to march, choreographed dances showcase the coop's glorious achievements and the hens proudly push full egg cartoons across the coop for all to see. The downtrodden ugly duckling becomes the figure of non-conformity.