On board the spaceship Pegasus, Professor Seleznyov (Boris Shcherbakov), his young daughter, Alisa ‘Alice’ Seleznyova (Natalya Guseva), and Captain Zeleniy ‘Green’ (Vyacheslav Baranov) are travelling through space. Alisa has with her a frog that she says is actually a princess that is under the spell of a curse. They come upon a spaceship called the Black Wanderer. The ship is empty except for an old friend of Alisa and the Professor’s called Gromozeka (Vyacheslav Nevinny).
Gromozeka is an archeologist and an alien from another planet. Gromozeka is a large, burly humanoid with red hair on his head, red whiskers on his face and red fur on his body. He has four arms and hands that all work quite well together. Gromozeka has been studying the empty ship and has figured out that the race that owned it were alien pirates.
The pirates would find a planet and take it over by poisoning the planet. The poison was contained in a lilac ball that would explode and release a gaseous virus. The gas that was released would cause the people on the planet to fight and kill each other. Once everyone on the planet was dead, they would then be free to plunder the planet’s resources.
The pirate ship once contained slaves that would plant the balls on the targeted planets. Gromozeka found a ship’s recording that showed that one brave slave purposely broke a ball, allowing the virus to escape. This resulted in the slaves and pirates killing each other until none were left. Now the pirate ship wanders the universe empty.
Gromozeka also finds out that a lilac ball had been planted on Earth 26,000 years ago when the Earth was populated by wizards, dragons and witches. He also determines that the alien ship is headed for Earth and when the ship reaches the planet, it will cause the casing of the ball that had been left there millennia ago to disintegrate and release the virus. The Earth will be doomed. They try to warn Earth, but their message is misinterpreted. Earth will not allow the Pegasus to land and puts the ship in quarantine. The only thing left for the tiny crew of the Pegasus to do is to go back 26,000 years using a time machine, to when the pirates were there and find the lilac ball.
“The Lilac Ball” AKA “Lilovyy shar” was released in 1988 and was directed by Pavel Arsenov. It is a Soviet children’s science fiction fantasy film. It was based on the book “Lilac Ball” by Kir Bulychev. There were a series of Russian books based on the character of Alisa or Alice. Some fans have labeled the character as the Harry Potter of Russian children’s stories.
Although the special effects are mostly marginal, they fit with the tone of the movie. Many of the creatures are Jim Henson type marionettes or people with various prosthetics and elaborate make-up. The one amazing special effect was Gromozeka and his four arms and hands. I’m not sure how it was done but all four of them looked extremely real.
Even though it was geared for children it was pretty interesting, especially the beginning of the film. Once Alisa went back in time it changed to a more standard children’s story. It is an unusual film. Part low budget Star Wars and part H.R. Pufnstuf.