The Rock'n'Roll Wolf or Mama.
The Rock'n'Roll Wolf or Mama.
Continuing the trend of odd children's television that few have heard of. Hee. This is the rock’n’roll version of an old Romanian fairytale. It is a French/Romanian/Soviet co-production from 1976, and when I was a kid they used to send this on telly all the time. You see Norwegian television didn’t have that much money and they were afraid of what they saw as American commercialism - so instead they bought and broadcasted lots of Eastern European productions. This was one of them.
The Big Bad Wolf - in leather
It tells the story of Mother Goat (here called Rada), and her kids. Naturally there is an evil wolf (Titi Suru), who in this version dresses in black, tight leather and sings rock songs. Incidentally the wolf character was recently voted "most disturbing pre-teen sexual experience" by a rather large number of Norwegians. Interpret that as you wish.
Titi Suru and Mrs Rada
What ever interpretation no one can deny there was something going on between him and Rada. He said he was trying to steal her kids, and eat them - but somehow he was always more interested in Rada than the kids. Don’t believe me? Watch this clip which is the first meeting of Suru and Rada. Oh, and it is dubbed in English.
Click to viewIn addition there are several other animals in the village, and their costumes are just amazing. I’m particularly fond of the sheep, but the squirrels are also pretty cool.
The Parrot - he sells tickets to the fair.
One of the kids
But the story was actually rather basic. Wolf tries to steal kids, wolf fails because Mother Goat kicks ass. What made this production stand out were the costumes and the fancy wigs - and the songs! Because this, good people, was a musical. A rock'n'roll musical none the less - and it was performed by the members of the Bolshoi ballet and the Moscow Ice ballet.
Rada! She really does kick ass you know. In a way she is this fairytale's version of Eowyn or Ripley. You don't mess with her. Also she is a single-mom.
The main song of this musical - called Mama - and has been covered by several Norwegian bands - though none of them did so while wearing tight, black leather and a wolf wig. Ah well...
This is a montage of the most famous songs from the musical. The quality is a bit better, and it comes with Norwegian subtitles! Which really doesn’t mean that much to most of you, but for me it is just another proof of this huge Norwegian subculture. (Forget Vikings! When Norwegian my age gather we discuss things like "what really went on between Rada and Suru, and which of the other animals was the coolest". Behold kids, the subculture you get when you live close to the Arctic Circle)
These are the opening credits. The quality isn’t all that great - but I love because it shows the actors putting on makeup and their huge wigs.
So tell me - does this look familiar to any one? alexandral, do you have any recollection of this?