Watch Upon the Magic Roads (2021) online

The story begins with a father calling his three sons and showing them a trampled field of wheat. The father instructs his sons to stand guard at night, so that they will find out who trampled the wheat, and the brothers, in turn, send the younger, Ivan the fool (John), there.

At night, John, sweetly chatting with the hedgehog, which he had previously saved, sees the outline of the mare and throws the rope into a misty cloud. Suddenly the rope tightens, and the mare begins to carry him across the fields and meadows. They fall into a swamp, and John pulls out the drowning mare using the windmills. Being bound, she cries, and the hero, feeling sorry for her, lets her go free, taking the word that she will no longer trample on their fields. The next morning, in the stable, he discovers two horses and meets a small Humpbacked Magic Foal. He says that he was sent by mother mare to get help and support. John, wanting to get money for the horses, leads them to the bazaar. There the king sees them and orders them to take their horses to their stables, saying that they are actually his horses. Having received no money, John asks the Foal to help him, and he calls the horses back with a whistle. The Tsar offers John the position of the most important groom, and he agrees.

Over time, the people begin to love John more and more. The king wants to execute him, but can't find a reason. The sleeping bag suggests to him the idea of sending a groom for The Firebird, and then executing him for not following the Tsar's order, as he thinks that John will not be able to find it. John and Foal go in search of the Firebird. After collecting the dream-nuts, they find the bird's shelter and pour them out to it. She, having eaten all the nuts, falls asleep. John puts the bird in chains. The next morning, the Foal tells us that the bird can only get hot when it is free. In chains, she cries, and John lets her go free. On their return, the executioners lead John to the block. He claims that he caught the Firebird, but let it go free, but no one believes him. When the axe is already raised over his head, the Firebird appears, and the execution is canceled.

The Tsar, hating John more and more, at the instigation of the Sleeping Bag sends a groom for the Tsar-maiden, thinking that he will not be able to cope with this task, since the maiden lives in an Ice country on a high rock. However, John and Foal reach their destination. The girl wakes up from a dream and tells John that she does not want to get married, because there are no heroes left, and then jumps into the abyss. John does not hesitate to rush after her, and at the bottom of them both picks up the Skate.

The king wants to get married right away, but the girl refuses to get married without her grandmother's ring, which she dropped in the ocean. John, who has already fallen in love with the Tsar-maiden, asks the Tsar for an impossible job, so as not to think about the upcoming wedding and the maiden herself. The delighted Tsar sends John to get the ring. John and the Humpbacked Foal embark on an adventure in the Magical Roads. The Foal, after talking to the Sun, Moon and Wind, finds out where the ring is, and he and John fly to the Whale Fish. As it turns out, the whale is chained up for swallowing the ships years ago, but doesn't know how to set them free. John makes him sneeze, and the ships float out to sea decades later. In gratitude, the whale sends them a crab, which brings them the ring of the King-maiden.

On his return, John comes to the girl in the tower and asks her to marry him. The Tsar's guards break into the bedchamber and place John under arrest for attempted kidnapping. The king is ready to get married, but the bride asks him to rejuvenate himself according to his grandmother's recipe by bathing in cauldrons of boiling water, ice water and boiling milk. The Sleeping Bag advises to test the cauldrons on John before the execution. At night, the girl tells the Foal that in the first cauldron it is necessary to throw her grandmother's ring, in the second — the feather of the Firebird, and in the third - the flower of life and death that grows at the end of the world, and then John will remain alive. Foal goes in search of a flower. In the morning, the Tsar hypocritically declares that he is giving John a chance at redemption, and orders him to jump into the cauldrons. In the first cauldron, the girl throws her ring, and John is carried out of there safely, in the second a feather falls, and he also remains unharmed. At this time, the Foal finds a flower and learns from it that the one who picks it is waiting for death. Despite this warning, he plucks the flower to save John and manages to deliver it when John finds himself in the third cauldron.

The renewed John appears before the maiden, and the Tsar jumps into the first cauldron. A huge bubble bursts out of the cauldron, which carries away the cursing King. The Foal patiently waits for his death, but the Tsar Maiden tells him that the words of the flower are a test, and if the Foal had not plucked it, he would actually have died, but now he will never die. The people demand a new Tsar, and John becomes one. He and the Tsar-maiden are getting married.