Buratino

Plot

Three cockroaches steal a golden key from the wise old woman Tortilla the Turtle and plant it in the closet of the carpenter Carlo.

Along with the key, they leave a note telling him to use it to open the metal door behind the old fireplace and make any wish.

Carlo wants only one thing – a son. His wish almost comes true, but at the last moment, Tortilla the Turtle interrupts them and takes the key.

However, Carlo suddenly notices a log in his closet starting to move and decides to make a puppet out of it.

The resulting wooden boy immediately comes to life and begins to talk.

Papa Carlo happily accepts his son and names him Buratino.

Papa Carlo tries to enroll his son in school, giving up his jacket to buy an alphabet book.

But at school, neither the principal nor the students accept Buratino.

Realizing he's different, Buratino runs away in tears and runs to the theater.

Having given the alphabet instead of a ticket, Buratino watches a performance performed by the theater actors – Malvina, Artemon the Poodle, Pierrot and Harlequin.

When the actors begin to pretend to attack Pierrot, Buratino, unaware that everything in the theater is fake, comes on stage and defends the poor fellow.

The theater's director, Karabas Barabas, notices this and decides to take Buratino as his star.

Cast

Vitaliya Korniyenko as Buratino, a puppet

Aleksandr Yatsenko as Papa Carlo, an organ grinder, and Buratino's adoptive father

Anastasiya Talyzina as Malvina, a blue-haired girl, and an artist at the Karabas Theater

Mark Eydelshteyn as Artemon the Poodle, Malvina's devoted servant, and an artist at the Karabas Theater

Stepan Belozyorov as Pierrot, a poet in love with Malvina, and an artist at the Karabas Theater

Ruzil Minekaev as Harlequin, Pierrot's stage partner, and an artist at the Karabasa Theater

Fyodor Bondarchuk as Karabas Barabas, a wealthy doctor of puppet sciences and director of a puppet theater

Lev Zulkarnaev as Duremar, a seller of medicinal leeches

Viktoriya Isakova as Alice the Fox, a street swindler who pretends to be lame

Alexander Petrov as Basilio the Cat, a street swindler who pretends to be blind

Svetlana Nemolyaeva as Tortilla the Turtle, a wise old turtle from the pond

Konstantin Khabensky as Professor Owl, a doctor

Daniil Vorobyov as Feldsher Toad, a paramedic

Sergey Burunov as Healer Mantis, a herbalist

Voice cast

Nikolay Drozdov as Alessandro the Cockroach

Anton Shastun as Anton the Cockroach

Vanya Dmitrienko as Giovanni the Cockroach

Production

Development

The start of production on the film was announced in May 2023. In the summer of 2023, the project was successfully presented at a pitching event for major studios, organized by the Russian Cinema Fund.

Igor Voloshin is directing the project, and the original plot featuring characters beloved by several generations of viewers is being developed by screenwriters Aksinya Borisova and Andrey Zolotarev.

The production is handled by the Vodorod Film Company, led by Mikhail Vrubel and Aleksandr Andryushchenko, with the participation of Art Pictures Studio, producers Fyodor Bondarchuk and partners (supported by the Cinema Fund).

According to the film crew, in addition to Alexei Tolstoy's book The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Buratino, is based on the story of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio.

Casting

By April 2024, the acting team had been formed.

The role of Buratino will be played by 14-year-old Vitaliya Korniyenko, a child actress who plays a wooden boy in a mocap suit that uses sensors to track and record movements.

The roles of the living puppet's friends were played not by children, but by adult actors. Thus, Anastasiya Talyzina will play Malvina, a girl with blue hair, and her faithful dog, Artemon the Poodle, will be played by Mark Eydelshteyn. Stepan Belozyorov will play the sad, poetic Pierrot, while his opposite, the bright, playful Harlequin, will be played by Ruzil Minekaev. And the young actor Lev Zulkarnaev will play Duremar, Karabas Barabas's assistant.

In the cast, Aleksandr Yatsenko will play a loving father, Papa Carlo, and producer Fyodor Bondarchuk has been entrusted with the role of the cruel Karabas Barabas. As for the cunning couple, Basilio the Cat and Alice the Fox, they were assigned to Alexander Petrov and Viktoriya Isakova. And People's Artist of the RSFSR Svetlana Nemolyaeva was entrusted with the role of the wise Tortilla. Interesting details can be seen on the characters' clothes. For example, Alice has a braid attached to the back of her skirt, which resembles a tail, and a canvas with a turtle shell print was used in Tortilla's clothes.

Filming

Principal photography for the film Buratino began in October 2024 in Moscow and the region of Moscow Oblast, specifically at the MosKino Cinema Park, where a large-scale Italian town from the late 19th and early 20th centuries was specially constructed. The 7,000-square-meter set included squares, streets, and architecture reminiscent of old Europe, creating a fairytale atmosphere. This is one of the first large-scale projects of the new film cluster. Filming was completed by December 2024.

Visual effects

Vitaliya Korniyenko will transform into the real-life wooden boy Buratino on the big screen using motion capture technology.

Motion capture technology was used in the filming. Special makeup was applied to Vitaliya Korniyenko's body for 30 minutes, and putting on the costume took another half hour. Her movements and facial expressions were then digitized and used to animate Buratino's figure.

Music

The film's soundtrack was created by Alexey Rybnikov and his son, Dmitry Rybnikov. The composer wrote the music for the 1975 Soviet film The Adventures of Buratino – its main song, Bu-ra-ti-no!, was co-written with poet Yuri Entin. It became one of the key musical themes, now firmly associated with the film and its protagonist. Alexey Rybnikov also wrote the music for one of the most famous Russian rock operas, Juno and Avos.

When writing the film's soundtrack, Alexey and Dmitry Rybnikov used artificial intelligence: it helped create the perfect Italian pronunciation for one of the songs.

Release

Marketing

The first teaser trailer of Buratino was released on December 19, 2024.

The second trailer was released on September 12, 2025. On the same day, Russian cinemas presented two more family premieres: Cheburashka 2 and Prostokvashino (film).

Theatrical

Buratino had its premiere at their “KARO 11 October” cinema center on New Arbat Avenue in Moscow on December 23, 2025, and was theatrically released by National Media Group Film Distribution in the Russian Federation on January 1, 2026, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the classic Soviet film adaptation of 1975.

Reception

Box office

In its first two days of release, the film grossed 524.5 million rubles, with pre-sales totaling approximately 184 million rubles, and over 226 million rubles on its first day.

By the end of its four-day run, the film had grossed over 1 billion rubles.

As of January 11, 2026, the film had surpassed the 2 billion ruble mark in total box office receipts.

Sequels

In December 2024, distributor National Media Group announced two sequels. The second part will be released on January 1, 2028, and the third on January 1, 2029.