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Weekend Discussion Thread: Which Is the Best of the Russo-Finnish Quartet?Coming off this week’s episode guide entry, we’ve now done all four of the Russo-Finnish movies: “DAY THE EARTH FROZE,” “SINBAD,” “SWORD AND THE DRAGON” and “JACK FROST.” So let’s settle this once and for all: Which is the best all-around episode? Show your work! My answer may surprise you: I’m gonna go with “Sinbad.” Yes, “DTEF” has a lot going for it (including a great short), but Sinbad is just such a strong episode and that “city council” sketch is an all-time favorite of mine. What’s your pick? 96 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Which Is the Best of the Russo-Finnish Quartet?”Commenting at Satellite News
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“Jack Frost” was a fun episode, but I still regard “The Day the Earth Froze” very highly – especially when J&TB sing the “Failure Song.”
Gotta say that Sinbad beats all the other episodes in terms of entertainment. Also, the ideology isn’t so blatant as to cloud the storyline as much as in the other three.
This is like picking the ugliest kid at a Farkle Family Reunion!? I think ‘SATD’ had the best story, special effects and edited so it made more sense but the riffing was only good. ‘Sinbad’ had the worst translation, special effects, loopy story but the riffing was great. ‘DTEF’ had a good story continuity, ugliest people ever, very good riffing and a great short. ‘JF’ had great host segments and very good riffing with an odd-ball movie.
They are all so special but I have to give a slight edge to THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE.
Hoo boy, this is a toughie. Perhaps it’s because I seen it most recently, but I’d go for Jack Frost. It’s easily the most bizarre of the lot and the Baba Yaga has probably never been so goofy.
I’m going to go with Jack Frost too. The riffing is top notch and the movie is actually entertaining unlike “The Day The Earth Froze” which gets really boring in spots. I remember (insert ripple wipe here) when I first saw TDTEF I thought it was hilarious but then on repeated viewings it sort of lost its charm. Not so with Jack Frost. I can watch it over and over again. I also remember laughing watching Sinbad and SATD but not nearly as much. (Ripple wipe back to me, now an old man, lying in bed) Rosebud! (snow globe crashes to floor)
Oh, and not to beat a dead horse but all four of these episodes would make a FANTASTIC boxed set…
HINT SHOUT FACTORY! HINT HINT!
I’m going to go with The Day the Earth Froze, but it’s a tough choice. (Blind) Lemmankinan cruising on his log never fails to amuse me, and the “Failure Song” is hilarious. Really, it’s just a charming movie, and episode. And the short is very funny. (Ack! Two circus-related shorts in a row!)
Steve has it right. Yes. Yes indeed. Russo-Finnish (ish) boxed set? Oh Lordie. A little bit of heaven right there.
Sinbad is pretty much my all-time favorite episode (the goofiness of the underwater scene alone is worth the price of the ticket), but they’re all top-notch episodes.
Sword and the Dragon does it for me. The voice work in the dub is great, especially Paul Frees as Kali. And the earnest but dense Ilya Muromets with his intricate plans! The cowardly merchant’s performance is pretty funny, the wind demon and the wacky dragon to cap it off. One of my all time favorites.
Jack Frost by a mile, although possibly for sentimental reasons – it and Space Mutiny were my first exposure to MST3K. But I still watch it at least once a month, due to the strength of the material in it.
Wow, this is fun, as these are actually decently made movies with some wacky plots and characters, and the riffing in all of them is good to great! The Day the Earth Froze was the episode that got me hooked on MST3K, but I think Jack Frost is my favorite of the four. Baba Yaga, Father Mushroom, Father Frost, Malfushka – these characters are so much fun! There is not a loser among these episodes. I also support the Russo-Finnish Boxed Set movement – Shout, gimme my Sampo/Sadko/Ilya Muryamets/Ivanushko set!
A very tough decision. I will go ahead and second the Shout Factory boxed set suggestion, though, I’d be on that like ugly on an ape.
Personally, I would have to go with Sword and the Dragon. They’re all great, but this one has always slightly edged out the others for me. Reasons include:
Ilya’s “plan”
The Wind Demon
The Great Big Envoy
Mountains of men
Jestering
That goofy dragon
10,000 Maria von Trapps facing off against the Mongol hoard
The secret pants
And there’s so much more…
I’ll go with “Day the Earth Froze” by a slim margin.
And for that hoped-for boxed set, it’d be perfect if it included the eps and the unMSTed movies.
What are the odds of Shout Factory putting out ALL 4 Russo-Finnish episodes in one box set? I mean, that doesn’t sound like an idea that has alot of non-fan appeal behind it, or anything…
I agree with David N. Madson (#1) that the “Failure Song” is just irresistible. For some reason, singing about failure to heroic music hits my silly switch. I also love the bit from “Invasion of the Neptune Men” where Servo sings “Space Chief failed miserably, and tried to cover up his shame.”
Sinbad. Even if the rest of the episode weren’t ridiculously hilarious, the lovable, huggable Channel Cat makes it all WIN.
Close runner-up is TDTEF, though. “Failure Song” rocks.
“Jack Frost.”
Me and my family bond very well because of that film. Every now and then we reiterate lines like “Ivanuscha” and recite Hunchback Fairy’s “So weary” dance!”
“My achin’ bones are weary..weary…” X-3
And then of course; man-bear Ivanuscha. I remember in the Disney restauraunt we had someone in a ‘Brother Bear’ costume come up to us, and I responded by saying “I want to do a good deed for YOU!” (Just like in Jack Frost.) Me, my family and actually a few other people laughed. Looks like we had some Misties in our midst.
“Jack Frost” is the most watchable to me, but “The Day the Earth Froze” holds a much more special place in my heart.
Huh? It’s a story about a prince who tries and fails to make his people happy by distributing all the rich merchants’ money to the poor. Then after trying to find the Blue Bird of Happiness, he returns home to tell people they must find happiness within or something like that. Can it possibly get more blatant than that?
The Day the Earth Froze has too many of my favorite moments. Aside from “Failure! Failure!” there’s:
That grouchy miracle-working Ilmarinen. If you came to him telling you that the town needed a new ballpark, he’d growl, “Then I will make a ballpark!” and start hammering away. He’d probably try to make the team a new pitcher, too.
“What is a Sampo? Kids, write it on a piece of paper, then throw it away and try to forget about it.”
“Some marriages just get off to a rocky start.”
“This is the old man’s NECK! and this is his HEAD!”
The dead-on yet affectionate parody of “Prairie Home Companion” and Keillor’s soothing voice.
Also the episode features one of the better MST3K short “experiments”, Here Comes the Circus, resulting in Tom’s and Crow’s depraved ideas for circus acts. The ‘bots: “Let’s cause the audience to question their love for their spouses and convince the kids they were all adopted!” Joel: “I knew you’d turn something fun into a dark carnival of the soul.”
Finally, The Day the Earth Froze is part of one of MST3K’s patented end-of-season streaks, which gives it just a little more of a boost.
Gotta go with “Jack Frost”. The Baba Yaga and the impossibly cute heroine make this a winner.
If we’re talking about which one made for the best MST3K episode, then definitely Jack Frost for me. Its absurdity and unabashed wackiness just make it so fun!
However, if we’re talking about which of the four movies is actually the best film, I would choose “The Day the Earth Froze,” or, to use its original and more dignified title, “Sampo.” It was very well filmed and some of the odder plot points were more forgiveable since it was based on very ancient legends (ex: stealing the sun isn’t any odder than the Icarus story.)
My least favorite is “Sword and the Dragon.” Although it probably had the highest budget (for all those extras alone!), the plot was the most nonsensical. The traitorous noble is told to send the signal for the Mongols to attack in a few months, but after Ilya is thrown into the prison, they must forget about him because it is clear that 17-18 YEARS go by while his son grows up. The kingdom instantly trusts Ilya, and then just as instantly, and for no adequately explored reason, immediately blames him for the first thing that goes wrong. Ditto for Ilya’s son, whose allegience instantly changes. It’s strange that the “Sword and the Dragon” plot is the least believable, since it is also the least ancient and magical. But regardless, the poor writing and nonsensical character motivation kind of drive me nuts, and end up making the character of Ilya Muromets, a famous historical figure, just seem kind of goofy.
One last point: I think these Russian/Finnish films do a great job with the evil witches. Both Louhi and Baba Yaga are a lot of fun to watch. Kind of like Pearl I guess, they manage to be both vicious to their underlings and fun at the same time.
Jack Frost. As far as overall episodes go, I like Sinbad, that “chinderwear” sketch is hilarious. But, judging the movie on its own, I have to go with Jack Frost. It’s a smaller movie than the other, which makes it more pleasant to watch. The others might as well be directed by Michael Bay.
An addendum: I realize that Sampo specifically asked which was the best episode in total, not for the merits of the films alone, but I set my own rules for my above post because I wanted to put in a good word for the film “Sampo.” I wasn’t around on this board when that episode was originally discussed. I’m one of those folks who enjoys the host segments, but watches mostly for the movies, so the film’s features usually make or break an episode for me.
“Jack Frost” all the way- I like all of them, but “Jack Frost” is one of my most fav episodes ever.
The Sinbad is not Sinbad!The underwater kingdom;The Bluebird of Sampo!The old man of the mushroom mountain-who can remember which film is which? like a feverdream in a russo-finnish novel!
But I like that. It must have been glorious back in the day, when Russian filmmakers could get entire Red Army divisions to play extras for them.
All 4 of those movies had their moments but honestly I believe Jack Frost to be the #1. Second place I’d put The Day the Earth Froze. Sinbad coming in third and Sword and the Dragon fourth. Thats just my humble opinon. :mrgreen:
I’d say Jack Frost is definitely the most consistently funny of the set, and has the most bizarrely yet charmingly memorable characters. Sinbad comes next, especially given Crow’s epic quest thingy and the channel cat, then DTEF and finally Sword and the Dragon, which could just as well be called the Sword and the Draggin’ as it seems to take forever and never really gets anywhere comprehensible.
all of them in a box set, shout should do that, it would be chep for the movie rights, and they could include a little pig slead or mike nelsone loard of the dance figure.
“this is a test of the emergency broadcast chicken”
The first hour of the Day The Earth Froze might be my favorite hour of MST3K of all time; the end drags a little. I agree with those who have said that Jack Frost might be best objectively, but Day is too close to my heart to put second. Sinbad is definitely my least favorite, but is stil a good standard MST3K. Sword and Dragon is good, but only third in the quartet. A box set of this, obviously pure gold and any other precious commodity you can think of.
all of them in a box set, shout should do that, it would be chep for the movie rights, and they could include a little pig slead or mike nelson loard of the dance figure.
“this is a test of the emergency broadcast chicken”
Don’t understand all the votes for Jack Frost, I thought that was the weakest of the four. Mine is Day the Earth Froze, you can’t beat the Sampo and the scene with the Elf? riding on the giant “log”
“Sinbad”, and the City Council sketch does put it over the top.
Jack Frost. “Eat lead spring!”
“The Day The Earth Froze” is definitely the best, not to mention among the best episodes in the show’s history. It also has a special place in my heart as it’s the episode that made my wife fall in love with the show. I was already a die-hard fan but my wife didn’t at first understand what I saw in the show until this episode. To this day all I have to do is sing “Let’s go surfin’ now, even Sven’s learning how” and she has a giggle fit.
“Sinbad” comes in second, followed by Jack Frost and “Sword and the Dragon”. Sinbad was just such a silly film (“The Norwegian Adventures of Sinbad”),especially the scenes with the merchants, the “bird of happiness” and that bizarre undersea sequence.
Jack Frost had some really wacky moments and was quite funny but for me didn’t really measure up to the other two. Sword and the Dragon was ok but the weakest of the bunch.
Isn’t somebody going to tally these up and see who wins? I would, but uh…I got something on the uh, stove, yeah….
Jack Frost is the strangest and most entertaining overall. “TDTEF” is a close second, though boring in spots.
I gotta wonder about the generational/regional/subcultural aspects of humor that might lead to such varying opinions.
I for example find TDTEF quite boring, and one of my true-blue MSTie friends actually fell asleep during it. Jack Frost, on the other hand, is always watchable, and one of the top five episodes I recommend for others when introducing them to the show (the others are Final Sacrifice, Puma Man, Hobgoblins, and Space Mutiny).
He’s not Sinbad.
“DTEF”, but it’s VERY close. Good story, good story behind the story, GREAT riffing, plentiful riffing. You can’t get better than that.
“Sinbad” barely edges out “Jack Frost” for second since the riffing was better, but “JF” was a very welcome episode after the first half of season 8.
“Sword & Dragon” I just never got in to.
Matt #36 – Sure, I’ll do it. I’ll do it later this week (Wednesday) after everyone has had a chance to chime in. If everyone would put the movie names in bold, that’d be cool.
I like Jack Frost the best because I started watching in ’97, and the latter crew is the one I came to be most akin to.
I have nothing against Trace though, he is awesome. Joel is good in his own way too, but it’s the Murphy-Nelson-Corbett crew that seems to be the most normal for me.
Jack Frost is the funniest one of the bunch. The riffing was fast & furious all the way.
I pick Day the Earth Froze second, and Magic Voyage of Sinbad third.
Day the Earth Froze would have been the best for it’s time. It was riffed very well.
I don’t find the fourth season all that funny, with a few exceptions towards the end. But it’s in the top 5 of that season.
Even though The sixth season is perhaps my favorite season, Sword-Dragon never found a home with me. I probably should watch it a few more times, but it’s hard for me to get into. It’s a boring movie, but it’s the riffing that I watch for, and I wasn’t all that impressed with the riffs quantity & quality.
I gotta with The Day The Earth Froze. Sinbad takes a slight backseat to it just because of The Circus on Ice short. Jack Frost is third, with Sword and The Dragon bringing up the rear. Much like #41, I find it to be a rare low spot in one of their best seasons.
Smog Monster #14 – Sure, Shout puts a “nut shell” description of Mst3k on the back of their box sets, but the box sets are truly for fans only. Why else would they include Tom and Crow miniatures?
Now, give us a Russo-Finnish box set!
Like many before me, this is tough, as I like them all. But, if I had to rank them, it would be thus:
4. Jack Frost “Apparently, there’s no Finnish word for subtlety.”
3. The Magic Voyage of Sinbad “Boy, these people, any excuse to squat.”
2. The Day the Earth Froze “When log flume rides go horribly wrong!”
1. The Sword and the Dragon
So many great riffs from SATD that I can remember off the top of my head:
“How many prologues does one movie need?”
(Ilya hugs and kisses his mother) “Hey, hey, hey, you’re in the wrong myth!”
“I might not make it to Death tonight; I’ll probably stop at Serious Injury and head on to Permanent Disability in the morning.”
(Mongol rides by with bolt of cloth dragging behind) “Doctor Who!”
“And thus, ZZ Top was born.”
“These pants have stirred something deep within me.”
“I’ve never hit a damn thing; it’s astounding!”
(singing) “The hills are in flames.”
The host segments are a mixed bag, but the ones I like, I love:
Servo’s D&D game, leading to Mike announcing the Mads as “Rivendell and Mordor are calling,” and Servo’s plaintive response “Those are places!”
Gypsy re-enacting the Disney-on-acid musical number, climaxing in Mike in a bunny suit and Gypsy saying “You guys are so weird.”
But the tipping point for me was “Ingmar Bergman: A Joke”. Anyone who has ever had to take a Film Studies course should love this. I actually like Bergman films, but that sketch is such a perfect example of what they must look like to American audiences. A mock-Swedish accented line, then sloooooooowly pan acroos, another line, then slooooooowly pan across again, etc.; I was cracking up the entire time.
Well, I guess it’s not hard to see which one is coming in LAST. Everyone seems so-so on Sword and Dragon. I’ll have to agree on that. Though I haven’t seen Jack Frost in quite a while since I either taped over it or never taped it. I’m going to have to guess there was a reason for that, and it didn’t do much for me, so Sword and Dragon and Jack Frost are third and fourth, not quite sure which is which.
As for best movie, I’d say Day the Earth Froze, though I was impressed with the Bluebird of Happiness effect in Sinbad.
But my favorite EPISODE is definitely Sinbad. With that whole WTF underwater sequence, Sinbad “singing” and Crow’s lifelong quest which lasts until they go back into the theater, that’s the one that does it for me.
But, yeah, I did like the Ingmar Bergman joke in SATD.
I have to go with The Day the Earth Froze. Although Jack Frost is a very close second. TDTEF has the short, the failure song, the talking inanimate objects, and the absurdity of the “Sampo!” itself. That and it just seems so much more foreign than the rest of the films with its wacky Finnish mythology.
Jack Frost has some hilarious mythology to it, but it makes me think of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs rather than something completely unknown. The characters are a LOT more animated in Frost, and I really like that, but the oddity of TDTEF sits in my mind longer.
Sinbad comes in next. It has some hilarious scenes, especially the laughing horse, but its just a tad less funny to me.
Sword and the Dragon… Hmm. Its certainly foreign, but its just not that memorable. Really all that strikes me is the wind demon and the crappy dragon puppet.
I also thought Jack Frost was the weakest of the four, and don’t understand all the votes for it. Several posters have said they’re mainly into the Sci-Fi episodes, so maybe that explains it.
My favorite is Sinbad. The whole “He’s not Sinbad!” bit puts me on the floor every time.
Jack Frost has one redeeming feature for me: Lord of the Dance is one of the most hilarious host segments ever.
I respectfully hold my vote until I finish watching Jack Frost. However, I did look at Ward E and saw that all the films are listed as “Possible” for release. And, they do kind of follow the template of 2 Joel and 2 Mike eps. I think that would be an outstanding box set. It would be an instant fan favorite. But, I know nothing of marketing or getting rights to films. So, I’m just throwing that out there.
The winner is… MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD. That thing is drop-dead hilarious from beginning to end. Great, fun movie, some of the best jokes and host segments from MST3K EVER!