Maria, Mirabella (1981)

Froggy Quacky meets some old acquaintances—the butterfly Omide and the firefly Skiperich. Together, they watch two girls, Maria and Mirabela, playing in a clearing. Quacky remembers the adventures they once shared and begins to tell his story. One day, Quacky meets the Forest Fairy and, out of false modesty, tells her that frogs are no use for anything. As punishment for lying, the Fairy freezes the stream along with Quacky’s legs. The little frog, stuck in the ice, is accidentally discovered by two sisters playing ball—Maria and Mirabela. They want to free him and go with him to the Fairy, so she can lift her spell. Along the way, the girls meet other fairy-tale creatures in need of help and bring them along too. A firefly named Skiperich cannot glow because whenever he lights up, his shoes catch fire. The caterpillars, whom the girls advised to eat pollen instead of leaves so as not to harm the trees, have turned into butterflies. But one of them, named Omide, is afraid of heights, which keeps her from flying. The girls have to reach the Forest Fairy before midnight, and time is running out. While visiting the stern Clock King, who refuses to stop time voluntarily, Maria and Mirabela resort to a trick and sing him a lullaby to make him fall asleep. But the sleeping king traps Maria’s dress, so Mirabela hurries to the Fairy alone. When she reaches her destination, she discovers that, because time has stopped, the Forest Fairy and her retinue are fast asleep. The girls wake the king and, knowing how powerful he is, ask him to make sure she does not disappear. The Fairy, who wakes just as the sisters arrive, has no desire at all to deal with other people’s troubles, since her attendants—the little ladies-in-waiting Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn—are sick. To make medicinal tea that will cure a cold, the girls run to fetch water from two springs. Quacky helps them choose the cleanest spring. As soon as he realizes that he, too, can be useful, the ice around his legs melts without any magical intervention. Maria and Mirabela want to boil the water in a kettle, but they have no matches to light the gas stove. Skiperich lights one of his shoes, and it unexpectedly burns to ashes. Frightened for the firefly, Omide takes flight and fans him with her wings, putting out the flames on his shoe. In this way, fear for her friend helps her overcome her own fear and fly, while Mirabela gives the firefly new, toy shoes that glow just like real ones. The final song begins. During the song, it turns out that the whole adventure was only a dream the girls had: the Forest Fairy turns into their mother, and the Clock King into their father. The lovers Omide and Skiperich soar through the air together and disappear into the depths of the starry night.