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The history of Russian animation is the visual art form produced by Russian animation makers. As most of Russia's production of animation for film, cinema and television were created during Soviet Union, Soviet times, it may also be referred to some extent as the history of Soviet animation. It remains a nearly unexplored field in film theory and history outside Russia.
The first Russian animator was Alexander Shiryaev, a principal ballet dancer and choreographer at the Mariinsky Theatre who made a number of pioneering stop motion and traditionally animated films between 1906 and 1909. He built an improvised studio at his apartment where he carefully recreated various ballets — first by making thousands of sketches and then by staging them using hand-made puppets; he shot them using the 17.5 mm film, 17.5 mm Biokam camera, frame by frame. Shiryaev didn't hold much interest in animation as an art form, but rather saw it as an instrument in studying human plastics.Peter Lord, Lord, Peter
The start of stop-frame
''The Guardian''. November 14, 2008. Accessed on: June 23, 2009.Nina Alovert.
Belated Premier. Past Pages Come to Life
' article from the Russian Bazaar magazine, January, 2005 (in Russian) They were mostly forgotten during the Soviet Union, Soviet period, mentioned only in the memoirs of his students. In 1995, they were re-discovered by a ballet historian Viktor Bocharov who got hold of Shiryayev's archives and released ''A Belated Premiere'' documentary in 2003 with fragments of various films. All of them were later restored and digitized with the help from the Pordenone Silent Film Festival and Aardman Animations. The second person to independently discover animation was Ladislas Starevich, Vladislav Starevich. Being a trained biologist, he started to make animation with embalmed insects for educational purposes, but soon realized the possibilities of this medium to become one of the undisputed masters of stop motion later in his life. His first few films, made in 1910, were black comedy, dark comedies on the family lives of cockroaches, and were so revolutionary that they earned him a decoration from Nicholas II of Russia. He produced a number of other popular animated films with insects at the Aleksandr Khanzhonkov's studio where he also worked as a cinematographer and a director of live-action films, sometimes combining live action with stop motion animation, as in ''The Night Before Christmas (1913 film), The Night Before Christmas'' and ''A Terrible Vengeance'' (both from 1913). Starevich left Russia after the October Revolution, and for many years, the animation industry was paralyzed.
Animation: A World History: Volume I: Foundations - The Golden Age
at Google Books, p. 80–81, 79, 174-177 In 1924, Mezhrabpomfilm, Mezhrabpom-Rus released the critically acclaimed ' that satirized ''Aelita''. It also utilized cutout animation along with the constructivism (art), constructivism art style and was developed independently by three artists — Nikolai Khodataev, Zenon Komissarenko and Yuri Merkulov — who headed the first Soviet animation studio at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, All-Union Technicum of Cinematography. In 1925, it was followed by a government-backed ''China in Flames'' made by the same team along with Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Vladimir Suteev and the Brumberg sisters. With 1000 reel, meters of film and 14 frames per second it ran over 50 minutes at the time, which made it the first Soviet animated feature film and one of the first in the world.''Larisa Malyukova (2013)''. OVERcinema. Modern Russian animation. — Saint Petersburg: Umnaya Masha, p. 264–265, 268 ''Sergey Kapkov (2006)''. Encyclopedia of Domestic Animation, p. 14–21 During the late 1920s, the industry started moving away from agitation. In 1927, Merkulov, Ivanov-Vano and directed the first Soviet cartoon aimed at children — ' based on the fairy tale in verse by Korney Chukovsky. Made at Mezhrabpomfilm, Mezhrabpom-Rus, it combined traditional animation and some live action scenes.''Ivan Ivanov-Vano (1980)''. Frame by Frame. — Moscow: Iskusstvo, 239 pages, p. 34, 98, 102, 112–129, 150, 12–13, 223–226 Same year Ivanov-Vano and Cherkes worked on ', another hand-drawn short that featured a distinguishable art style (white lines against black background). It was written and directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky and Nikolai Bartram, founder of the Moscow Toy Museum, who also produced ''Bolvashka's Adventures'' that combined live action and stop motion animation in a story about a Pinocchio-like wooden boy. The idea was extended in a spiritual successor — ''Bratishkin's Adventures'', the first Soviet animated series created between 1928 and 1931 by Yuri Merkulov and Aleksandr Ptushko at Mosfilm.Gulliverkino: Far Side of the Fairy Tale. Aleksandr Ptushko - Innovations
article from Iskusstvo Kino, May 5, 2015 (in Russian) In 1928, Nikolai Khodataev, his sister Olga Khodataeva and the Brumberg sisters produced a hand-drawn animated short ' stylized as traditional Nenets people, Nenets art that followed a dramatic narrative and used an innovative technique of printing on thin celluloid. A 24-minute stop motion film ''The Adventures of the Little Chinese'' was directed same year by and could be considered a return to the traditions of Ladislas Starevich. Mikhail Tsekhanovsky's ''Post (film), Post'' (1929, cutout/cel animation) was both a return to constructivism traditions and a big step forward: it was successfully exported and widely shown around the world, while in the USSR it changed the perception of animation as an art form. It also became the first film colorization, colorized Soviet animated film and one of the first to get a musical score and a voiceover by Daniil Kharms. Mikhail and his wife Vera Tsekhanovskaya led an animation studio at Lenfilm where a number of distinctive hand-drawn and stop motion films were created throughout the 1930s, including the much-praised ' (1938) by .Eleonora Guylan, Peter Bagrov.
Once upon a time... Memoirs about the Leningrad pre-war animation
' at the Naum Kleiman, Notes by Film Historian magazine, 2005 (in Russian)''Sergei Asenin (2012)''. The World of Animation // The Tropes of Soviet Animation, p. 45–46. — Moscow: Print-on-Demand, 303 pages The team actively applied color using the original dye-transfer process invented by Lenfilm specialists, similar to Technicolor. In 1933, the couple collaborated with Dmitri Shostakovich and Alexander Vvedensky (poet), Alexander Vvedensky on the first traditionally animated Soviet feature — ''The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda (film), The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda'', a satirical opera loosely based on the fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin and stylized as ROSTA posters. Despite many problems, including the infamous Muddle Instead of Music, bullying of Shostakovich in press, the film was nearly finished and had been stored at Lenfilm until 1941 when almost all of it was destroyed in fire caused by the Siege of Leningrad, bombings of Leningrad. Tsekhanovsky is also credited with invention of graphical sound along with Arseny Avraamov and . They were challenged by a group led by who made a number of animated shorts based on their own idea of "drawing paper sound". In 1935, Aleksandr Ptushko directed ''The New Gulliver'', one of the world's first full-length animated movies that combined detailed stop motion with a live actor (a 15-year-old boy). The film featured from 1,500 to 3,000 different puppets with detachable heads and various facial expressions, as well as camera and technical tricks. The international success of the movie allowed Ptushko to open his own "division of 3D animation" at Mosfilm which also worked as a school for beginning animators. In four years, they created a dozen of stop motion shorts; most of them, such as (1936), were based around Russian folklore, traditional art (with the involvement of artists from Palekh) and could be watched in full color thanks to the newly invented three-color film process by .Nikolai Mayorov
The Color of Soviet Cinema
from the Film Expert's Notes magazine № 98, 2011 (in Russian) In 1939, Ptushko directed another feature — ''The Golden Key (1939 film), The Golden Key'' based on the popular Soviet Buratino, fairy tale; it also combined stop motion with live action, but to a lesser extent. Simultaneously, Alexandre Alexeieff who fled for France during the Russian Civil War developed a pinscreen animation technology that allowed for a wide spectre of special effects achieved through the use of hundreds of thousands of pins that formed different patterns. Despite the status of white émigré in the USSR his films were well known among Russian professionals and inspired various artists, most famously Yuri Norstein. In the mid-1990s Alexeieff's daughter visited Moscow and presented her father's works to the . Today he is commemorated as a patriarch of Russian animation.''Sergei Asenin (1983)''
The Wisdom of Fiction: Masters of Animation about Themselves and Their Art
— Moscow: Iskusstvo, p. 37
How they fought cosmopolites at Soyuzmultfilm
' article from the Naum Kleiman, Notes by Film Historian magazine, 2001 (in Russian) Next year Smirnov returned to Moscow and founded an Experimental Animation Workshop under the Main Directorate of the Photo-Cinematographic Industry where he, Alexei Radakov, Vladimir Suteev and started "developing the Disney style". In 1935, Walt Disney himself sent a film reel with Three Little Pigs (film), Three Little Pigs and Mickey Mouse shorts to the Moscow International Film Festival that made a lasting impression on Soviet animators and officials. On June 10, 1936, the Soyuzdetmultfilm Studio was created in Moscow from the small and relatively independent trickfilm units of Mosfilm, Sovkino, Mezhrabpomfilm and Smirnov's studio. In a year it was renamed to Soyuzmultfilm. Three-months retraining courses were organized by the studio administration where animators studied everything, from drawing and directing movies to the basics of music and acting. For four years some of the leading animators focused on the creation of Disney-style shorts, exclusively using the cel technique. From 1937, on they also produced films in full color using the three-color film process by Pavel Mershin. In 1938, the team also mastered rotoscoping, or Eclair as it has been known in Russia since the 1920s (after the Eclair (company), Eclair video projector). Not everyone was happy with the chosen direction though, and by 1939 many developed their own styles. Ivan Ivanov-Vano directed based on the Moydodyr, fairy tale in verse which he personally praised as an important step from Disney. Suteev and Lamis Bredis presented a distinctive Uncle Styopa#A 1939 film, Uncle Styopa adaptation, while Leonid Amalrik and converted Doctor Aybolit stories into a distinctive mini-series that ran from 1939 to 1946 and defined the "Soviet style" of animation. At the same time Aleksandr Vasilievich Ivanov, Aleksandr Ivanov and made a radical shift towards agitprop and socialist realism with films such as ''Grandfather Ivan'' and ''War Chronicles''.''Irina Margolina, Natalia Lozinskaya (2006)''. Our Animation. — Moscow: Interros, p. 46–51, 58–63, 146–152, 70–75 Soon after Lev Kuleshov, then a professor at VGIK, suggested Ivanov-Vano to open and head a workshop under the Art Faculty which became the first official Russian workshop where students studied the art of animation. Among Ivanov's first students were Lev Milchin, Yevgeniy Migunov and . With the start of the Great Patriotic War the studio was evacuated to Samarkand along with some key animators who continued teaching students and producing films, including Propaganda in the Soviet Union#World War II, anti-fascist propaganda. In 1943, they returned to Moscow and released several kids movies such as ''The Tale of Tsar Saltan#Adaptations, The Tale of Tsar Saltan'' (1943) by the Brumberg sisters and (1945) by Ivanov-Vano — the last film to use the Soviet three-color filming process before the switch to Agfacolor. By that time Aleksandr Ptushko, Ptushko's studio at Mosfilm had been shut down and Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Tsekhanovsky's studio at Lenfilm — destroyed by a bomb, which basically turned Soyuzmultfilm into Russia's animation monopolist. Yet even after the war, its resources were very limited. 19 animators from the relatively small Soyuzmultfilm team were killed in action. A whole generation of Leningrad animators either disappeared at fronts or died during the Siege of Leningrad. Others returned as war-disabled, like Boris Dyozhkin and Aleksandr Vinokurov (both lost their left eyes), who got a bullet stuck in his head and who lost his right arm and learned to work as left-handed. One of the leading directors, Vladimir Suteev, left the industry on his return for personal reasons. The rest worked intensively to prepare new animators; between 1945 and 1948, four groups of students graduated from VGIK. They also continued releasing short and feature films that brought them international recognition, such as ''The Lost Letter (1945 film), The Lost Letter'' (1945) and ''The Humpbacked Horse (1947 film), The Humpbacked Horse'' (1947) that was used by Walt Disney as a teaching tool for his artists. In 1948, short comedy film was accused of "Formalism (art), formalism" and "anthropomorphism" following the Cold War anti-Disney campaign. As the art director Yevgeniy Migunov remembered, he floutingly drew backgrounds for his next movie as realistic as possible, and suddenly it became "a golden standard" for the next ten years. According to the 1951 report by Ivan Ivanov-Vano, it was a temporary measure that served as a teaching tool for beginning animators.''Giannalberto Bendazzi (2016)''
Animation: A World History: Volume II: The Birth of a Style - The Three Markets
at Google Books, p. 81, 282–297, 303–309 Many leading actors were involved, such as Mikhail Astangov who appeared as the beast in ''The Scarlet Flower (1952 film), The Scarlet Flower'' (1952).Larisa Malyukova'
interview
with Leonid Shvartsman at Animator.ru (in Russian) Some directors made extensive use of this method, while others mixed it with traditional animation as in ''The Snow Queen (1957 film), The Snow Queen'' (1957) by Lev Atamanov, arguably the most famous work of that time. Many focused on animal painter, animal art with little to no use of rotoscoping. All this allowed for a yearly release of prominent feature films with high production values such as ''The Night Before Christmas (1951 film), The Night Before Christmas'' (1951), ''The Snow Maiden (1952 film), The Snow Maiden'' (1952), ''The Enchanted Boy'' and ''The Frog Princess#Adaptations, The Frog Princess'' (1954), ''The Twelve Months (1956 film), The Twelve Months'' (1956) and ''The Adventures of Buratino (1959 film), The Adventures of Buratino'' (1959).
Director Boris Stepantsev was known for experimenting a lot. Among his films was another postmodern comedy ''Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom'' (1965), the paint-on-glass animation ''Song of a Falcon'' (1967), the highly popular ''Karlsson-on-the-Roof#Adaptations, Karlsson-on-the-Roof'' dilogy (1968–1970) that made use of xerography and ''The Nutcracker (1973 film), The Nutcracker'' adaptation (1973) that presented a The Nutcracker, familiar story without a single spoken word.
Some patriarchs also joined the new wave. Ivanov-Vano was appointed an artistic director of the puppet division where he made a number of stop motion/cutout films inspired by Russian folk art, like ''Left-Hander (1964 film), Lefty'' (1964) that addressed lubok, ''Go There, Don't Know Where'' (1966) that used elements of rayok and skomorokh theatre, ''The Seasons'' (1969) based around Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky's ''The Seasons (Tchaikovsky), two character pieces'', presented as a combination of Dymkovo toys and lace, and the award-winning ''The Battle of Kerzhenets'' (1971) where frescos and icons came to life.
Another well-respected old-timer Boris Dyozhkin launched a popular series of short comedy films about two teams that competed in various sport disciplines such as football, hockey, skiing, boxing and so on. It ran from 1963 to 1981 and was notable for fast-paced slapstick synchronized with music.
Among the most political animators were Fyodor Khitruk whose satire ''The Man in the Frame'' (1966) was cut by censors and Andrei Khrzhanovsky whose surrealism, surrealist film ' (1968) was shelved for many years. On the other hand, Khitruk's ' (1965), ''Film, Film, Film'' (1968) and the ''Winnie-the-Pooh (1969 film), Winnie-the-Pooh'' trilogy in particular became an instant success among both kids and adults.
Roman Abelevich Kachanov, Roman Kachanov made numerous films for children. He started with Stop motion, puppet animation such as ''A Little Frog Is looking for His Father'', ''The Mitten (film), The Mitten'' and, most famously, the ''Cheburashka (film), Cheburashka'' series that turned Cheburashka into one of the iconic characters of Soyuzmultfilm. In his late years he switched to traditional animation with the feature science fiction film ''The Mystery of the Third Planet'' (1981).
''Adventures of Mowgli'' mini-series by Roman Davydov was released from 1967 to 1971. Just like ''Winnie-the-Pooh'', it was not conceived as a reaction to the Disney's ''The Jungle Book (1967 film), The Jungle Book'' (even the first episode was developed simultaneously) and followed the original plot closely, appearing more adult and spiritually closer to the book. In 1973, the shorts were combined into a 96-minute feature.
The rising popularity of the industry started drawing people from other areas. Vasily Livanov, originally an actor, finished animation courses and directed several experimental pictures. Yet his biggest success was ''The Bremen Town Musicians (film), The Bremen Town Musicians'' (1969), an animated musical film heavily influenced by rock and roll and hippie cultures. The first part was directed by Inessa Kovalevskaya who also abandoned her position at State Committee for Cinematography, Goskino to work on animated musicals. After she left the project, Livanov directed the On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians, sequel by himself. The three main characters were voiced by the leading Soviet pop singer Muslim Magomayev (musician), Muslim Magomayev.
1969 saw the birth of Russia's most popular animation series ''Well, Just You Wait!'' directed by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin.
The Nu, Pogodi! Series Turned to Be the Most Beloved Animation in Russia
' by RIA Novosti, February 26, 2014 (in Russian) These seemingly simple miniatures about a wolf chasing a hare through Soviet-style cartoon worlds owe a great deal of their popularity to the quality animation, varied soundtrack and cunning subtexts built into their parts. The original series ran from 1969 to 1993. During the mid-2000s, an unsuccessful attempt to reboot the series was made. Also, in 1969, a long-running animated anthology series ''Happy Merry-Go-Round'' was founded by Anatoly Petrov (animator), Anatoly Petrov and Galina Barinova (animator), Galina Barinova. Each episode combined several short experimental films by the beginning directors like Leonid Nosyrev, , Eduard Nazarov, Gennady Sokolsky, Garri Bardin and . Most of them gained acclaim later on, working in their own unique niches. Anatoly Petrov showed extreme realism (close to photorealism) without rotoscopy, photography or any "cheating". His style was known as "photographics", or "graphical painting"; for many years he developed the so-called effect of moving glaze (painting technique), glaze in a 3D environment using traditional animation materials. The final result was close to advanced Computer-generated imagery, CGI long before it was invented. Among his best works was ''Polygon (film), Polygon'' (1977) and several films based on Greek mythology. Gennady Sokolsky focused on environmental films with attractive characters and ambient soundtracks: ' (1977), ' (1978) and ''The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin'' (1986), a joined List of joint Japanese–Soviet films, Soviet-Japanese feature co-directed with Kenji Yoshida. Leonid Nosyrev explored the Russian North folklore with a number of ethnographical films based on the stories by Boris Shergin, Stepan Pisakhov and Yury Iosifovich Koval, Yuri Koval. In 1987, seven of them were combined into a ''Laughter and Grief by the White Sea'' feature film. One of the most famous Russian animators is Yuri Norstein. His films ''Hedgehog in the Fog'' (1975) and ''Tale of Tales (1979 film), Tale of Tales'' (1979) won numerous awards at international festivals. ''Tale of Tales'' was named the best animation film of all time at the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles and at the 2002 Animafest Zagreb. Since the beginning of perestroika Norstein has been working on ''The Overcoat (animated film), The Overcoat''. Vladimir Popov (animator), Vladimir Popov had been known since the 1960s for his shorts such as ''Umka (1969 film), Umka'', but it was the ''Three from Prostokvashino'' trilogy (1978–1984) that brought him fame. The characters and their catchphrases entered Russian folklore, and it was chosen the third best animation of all time in the 2014 poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation. In 2018 the series was rebooted. Vladimir Tarasov was a rare Soviet director who dedicated himself to the science fiction genre. Among his prominent works were ''Contact (1978 film), Contact'' (1978) influenced by ''Yellow Submarine (film), Yellow Submarine'', ''Shooting Range (film), Shooting Range'' (1979), ''Contract (1985 film), Contract'' (1985) and ''The Pass (1988 film), The Pass'' (1988). Stanislav Sokolov brought stop motion to a new height. His approach characterized by complex animation structures and multiple special effects could be observed in the award-winning ''Black and White Film'' (1984) or ''The Big Underground Ball'' (1987). During late years, few animated films were produced due to the lack of financing from government. Garri Bardin who also specialized on stop motion films made of matches, ropes and wire, was one of those few directors who managed to cope with the political changes. His ''Seryi Volk & Krasnaya Shapochka, Grey Wolf & Little Red Riding Hood'' (1991) was full of allusions to the upcoming end of the USSR.
The Arrival of a Kitty
' article from Computerra № 7, 21 February 2006 (in Russian) It was also one of the first attempts to render realistic animal motion digitally. Programmed at the Moscow State Pedagogical University, ''Kitty'' was made into a movie and screened at the Moscow State University. It was later shown to students at mathematics competitions and used for educational purposes at schools. From 1970 on, new studios appeared across the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, RSFSR, most famously Multtelefilm division of Studio Ekran (Moscow) that focused on lower-budget television animation. It was known for several popular TV series such as ''Leopold the Cat'' (1975–1987), ' (1984–1987), ''Investigation Held by Kolobki'' (1986–1987) and ' (1986–1988), as well as various experiments. re-discovered paint-on-glass animation with films like ''Wonders'' (1980), ' (1982) and (1984), while Alexander Tatarsky pioneered clay animation with ''Plasticine Crow'' (1981), ''Last Year's Snow Was Falling'' (1983) and the ''Good Night, Little Ones!'' opening. He and his students also practiced total animation (flying camera with characters and backgrounds moving simultaneously). Multtelefilm served as a base for Pilot (studio), Pilot, the first private Soviet animation studio founded by Alexander Tatarsky and Igor Kovalyov in 1988. They aimed at both auteur and commercial animation, producing absurd adult-themed films. In several years half of the team left Russia to work for Klasky Csupo where they created popular animated series such as ''Rugrats'' and ''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters''. The Sverdlovsk Film Studio also gained fame for its paint-on-glass animation with complete new level of quality by and Aleksandr Petrov (animator), Aleksandr Petrov (''Welcome (1986 film), Welcome!'', ''The Cow (1989 film), The Cow''), as well as sand animation by Vladimir and Elena Petkevich (''A Small Tale of a Small Bug''). The rest included the animation department at Lennauchfilm that produced educational and popular science films, the Permtelefilm studio (Perm, Russia, Perm) responsible for TV animation mostly based on the Ural (region), Ural folklore, Kuybyshevtelefilm (Samara, Kuybyshev) known for its stop motion ''Forest Tales'' series, Saratovtelefilm (Saratov) and some others. In 1989, another independent studios Christmas Films was founded by Soyuzmultfilm veterans that focused on international coproduction. It became famous during later years with the Russian-British ''Shakespeare: The Animated Tales'' series (1992–1994) that earned several Primetime Emmy Awards.
Studio Renews Fight For Soviet Cartoons
' article at The Moscow Times, 18 August 2010Georgy Borodin.
Goodbye, Souyzmultfilm!
' article at Animator.ru, August–October 2003 (in Russian) When animators realized it, they managed to overthrow him with the help from the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, Union of Cinematographers and Goskino, although the Ministry of State Property still refused to step in and return the studio the state status. Skulyabin also refused to leave the director's chair up until 30 June 1999 when Sergei Stepashin finally signed a long-awaited order that turned Soyuzmultfilm into a unitary enterprise. By that time the production completely stopped. In 2001 the Supreme Court of Arbitration of Russia returned the rights to the whole collection back to Soyuzmultfilm which led to a legal battle with Films by Jove. Only in 2007 Vidov and Borsten agreed to sell the collection to the Russian business magnate Alisher Usmanov who donated it to the state-run children's channel Bibigon. Around the same time the studio came back to life. Nevertheless, there were a few very successful international co-productions, e.g. the aforementioned ''Shakespeare: The Animated Tales'' and Aleksandr Petrov (animator), Aleksandr Petrov's Academy Awards, Oscar-winning ''The Old Man and the Sea (1999 film), The Old Man and the Sea'' (1999). An ambitious project in 12 series ''Dunno#Adaptations, Dunno on the Moon'' was released between 1997 and 1999. Based on the Soviet sci-fi Dunno on the Moon, novel of the same name, it was produced at Aleksei Guskov's F.A.F. Entertainment in the best traditions of Soviet hand-made animation. Despite the hardships, Natalya Lukinykh has estimated that Russian animated films won about twice as many prestigious international awards in the 1990s as Russian live-action films. As Russia's economic situation became increasingly stable, so did the market for animation, and during the last three years, a number of feature-length animation films from Russian studios have emerged (e.g. Melnitsa Animation Studio's ''Little Longnose'', 2003, from Wilhelm Hauff's fairy tale, and Solnechny Dom, Solnechny Dom Studio's 2006 ''Prince Vladimir (film), Prince Vladimir'', based on early history of Kievan Rus', Rus' – the highest-grossing Russian animated film to date). While the Russian animation community is yet far from reaching the splendor it possessed before the end of the Soviet Union, a significant recovery is being made and it is becoming more and more clear that the revived Russian animation industry will be very different from what it was in the late 1980s. According to Andrei Dobrunov, head of Solnechny Dom, several Russian studios are currently working on some ten animated feature films. ''Especial (2006), Especial'' released on July 31, 2006 was Russia's first 3D computer graphics, CG-animated feature film. At the same time, Soyuzmultfilm has partnered up with Mihail Chemiakin and is working on ''Hoffmaniada'', a puppet-animated feature film which is deliberately being made entirely without computers. In 2007, the Synfig#Usage, Morevna Project was launched, aiming at creating a science fiction re-telling the folk-tale of The Death of Koschei the Deathless, Marya Morevna as an anime primarily by using the free software Synfig tool and releasing it under a Creative Commons license. Other popular Russian Internet cartoons include ''Masyanya'' and ''Mr. Freeman''. A corporate collaboration between the Japanese Studio 4°C and Russia's Molot Entertainment did also produce the anime film ''First Squad'' (2009), which won the ''Kommersant'' newspaper's prize. Beginning in 2009, animation entered a new crisis as Goskino indefinitely postponed funding for all projects, and for the 2010 budget the state cut animation funding by half. The animation community reacted by appealing to the President and the public
In 2010, many of the major studios, including Pilot (studio), Pilot, were either closed or on the verge of shutting down. The vast majority of studios had relied on state support to some extent, and Goskino did not fulfill any of their contractual obligations to pay for the films that they had ordered and which the studios had already produce
In addition, Disney has been accused of using anti-competitive practices to sideline domestic Russian competition on TV channel
The Centre of National Film, Center of National Film CG animated film ''Space Dogs'', released on March 18, 2010 and about the Soviet space dogs Soviet space dogs#Belka and Strelka, Strelka and Belka, received an English release on June 8, 2012 and spawned a broader franchise. Wizart Animation, alongside InlayFilm, also produced a new CG film version of ''The Snow Queen (2012 film), The Snow Queen'' (2012), spawning a new franchise with sequels ''The Snow Queen 2'' (2014) and ''The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice'' (2016), alongside their first fully original concept ''Sheep and Wolves'' (2016). Animaccord Animation Studio has had success in CG television animation with its children's series ''Masha and the Bear'' (2009–present), whose emphasis on pantomime has helped it export outside of the country, premièring on the US version of Netflix in August 2015. Another long running, educational, children's series by Melnitsa Animation Studio called ''Luntik'' has aired since September 1, 2006. An earlier success in this market was ''Kikoriki'' which aired from May 7, 2004 until 2012, produced by Petersburg Animation Studio with assistance from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. English-language distribution rights to the series were acquired by 4Kids Entertainment from worldwide distributor Fun Game Media, Munich and began airing as part of The CW4Kids block on The CW Television Network, The CW on September 13, 2008, under the name ''GoGoRiki''. In 2011 a prequel feature film was released entitled ''Kikoriki. Team Invincible'' and further films are planned. A connecting factor in many recent Russian animated efforts is Timur Bekmambetov, whose Bazelevs Company has helped produce, finance and promote ''Kikoriki'' and ''The Snow Queen''. In 2010, the animated series The Fixies premiered on Carousel (TV channel), Karusel and Russia 1. In 2018, Soyuzmultfilm, announced plans to restore films from its Golden Collection. On 5 December 2020, the second part of the Golden Collection was restored and released theatrically by United Network "Cinema Park" in Russia. The release was followed up online premiere service viewing options.
Russian and Soviet animations
a
Russian Film Hub
Animator.ru
– the homepage of the Russian animation community. Includes a
English-language database
Soyuzmultfilm homepage
The most famous Russian animation studio's home page
Officially licensed YouTube channel for Soyuzmultfilm animation
in Russian (English subtitles promised)
www.pilot-film.com
Another famous studio's homepage (in Russian and English)
Animated Century. The Stars of Russian Animation
documentary series (in Russian, English website)
Russian Insider
– a blog focusing on current and past Russian/Soviet animation
Mountain of Gems series
at the official YouTube channel (in Russian, English, Spanish and Chinese)
Blog about Russian Animation Influence in Cuban Culture
Soviet Cartoons Online
- in English and Russian, with Russian and English subtitles
''The St. Petersburg Times'' (Russia)
– a May 2006 article about the film ''Prince Vladimir (film), Prince Vladimir'' and the future of the animation industry in Russia
Redrawing Russian History
(May 18, 2006)
In-depth history of the appalling and criminal happenings at Soyuzmultfilm during the 1990s
An overview of Russian animated feature films in the 1990s and early 2000s
Maria Tereschenko, Russia Beyond the Headlines, December 17, 2009 (English) {{Animation History of animation by country, Russia Russian animation, Soviet animation,
Beginnings
The first Russian animator was Alexander Shiryaev, a principal ballet dancer and choreographer at the Mariinsky Theatre who made a number of pioneering stop motion and traditionally animated films between 1906 and 1909. He built an improvised studio at his apartment where he carefully recreated various ballets — first by making thousands of sketches and then by staging them using hand-made puppets; he shot them using the 17.5 mm film, 17.5 mm Biokam camera, frame by frame. Shiryaev didn't hold much interest in animation as an art form, but rather saw it as an instrument in studying human plastics.Peter Lord, Lord, PeterThe start of stop-frame
''The Guardian''. November 14, 2008. Accessed on: June 23, 2009.Nina Alovert.
Belated Premier. Past Pages Come to Life
' article from the Russian Bazaar magazine, January, 2005 (in Russian) They were mostly forgotten during the Soviet Union, Soviet period, mentioned only in the memoirs of his students. In 1995, they were re-discovered by a ballet historian Viktor Bocharov who got hold of Shiryayev's archives and released ''A Belated Premiere'' documentary in 2003 with fragments of various films. All of them were later restored and digitized with the help from the Pordenone Silent Film Festival and Aardman Animations. The second person to independently discover animation was Ladislas Starevich, Vladislav Starevich. Being a trained biologist, he started to make animation with embalmed insects for educational purposes, but soon realized the possibilities of this medium to become one of the undisputed masters of stop motion later in his life. His first few films, made in 1910, were black comedy, dark comedies on the family lives of cockroaches, and were so revolutionary that they earned him a decoration from Nicholas II of Russia. He produced a number of other popular animated films with insects at the Aleksandr Khanzhonkov's studio where he also worked as a cinematographer and a director of live-action films, sometimes combining live action with stop motion animation, as in ''The Night Before Christmas (1913 film), The Night Before Christmas'' and ''A Terrible Vengeance'' (both from 1913). Starevich left Russia after the October Revolution, and for many years, the animation industry was paralyzed.
After the revolution
In the early years after the October Revolution, Russian animation remained undeveloped compared to Cinema of the Soviet Union, cinema or Soviet dramatists, theatre. The 1923 agitprop animated short ''Today'' directed by Dziga Vertov and animated by Ivan Belyaev became a pioneering work and was followed by other cutout animation, cutout films (called flat marionettes at the time) in style of Political cartoon, editorial cartoons that satirized bourgeoisie, Church and Western countries, drawn and animated in a sketchy manner; those included films and sketches by Vetrov and Aleksandr Bushkin for State Committee for Cinematography, Sovkino such as ', ''Humoresques'' and episodes of ''Kino-Pravda''.''Giannalberto Bendazzi (2016)''Animation: A World History: Volume I: Foundations - The Golden Age
at Google Books, p. 80–81, 79, 174-177 In 1924, Mezhrabpomfilm, Mezhrabpom-Rus released the critically acclaimed ' that satirized ''Aelita''. It also utilized cutout animation along with the constructivism (art), constructivism art style and was developed independently by three artists — Nikolai Khodataev, Zenon Komissarenko and Yuri Merkulov — who headed the first Soviet animation studio at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, All-Union Technicum of Cinematography. In 1925, it was followed by a government-backed ''China in Flames'' made by the same team along with Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Vladimir Suteev and the Brumberg sisters. With 1000 reel, meters of film and 14 frames per second it ran over 50 minutes at the time, which made it the first Soviet animated feature film and one of the first in the world.''Larisa Malyukova (2013)''. OVERcinema. Modern Russian animation. — Saint Petersburg: Umnaya Masha, p. 264–265, 268 ''Sergey Kapkov (2006)''. Encyclopedia of Domestic Animation, p. 14–21 During the late 1920s, the industry started moving away from agitation. In 1927, Merkulov, Ivanov-Vano and directed the first Soviet cartoon aimed at children — ' based on the fairy tale in verse by Korney Chukovsky. Made at Mezhrabpomfilm, Mezhrabpom-Rus, it combined traditional animation and some live action scenes.''Ivan Ivanov-Vano (1980)''. Frame by Frame. — Moscow: Iskusstvo, 239 pages, p. 34, 98, 102, 112–129, 150, 12–13, 223–226 Same year Ivanov-Vano and Cherkes worked on ', another hand-drawn short that featured a distinguishable art style (white lines against black background). It was written and directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky and Nikolai Bartram, founder of the Moscow Toy Museum, who also produced ''Bolvashka's Adventures'' that combined live action and stop motion animation in a story about a Pinocchio-like wooden boy. The idea was extended in a spiritual successor — ''Bratishkin's Adventures'', the first Soviet animated series created between 1928 and 1931 by Yuri Merkulov and Aleksandr Ptushko at Mosfilm.Gulliverkino: Far Side of the Fairy Tale. Aleksandr Ptushko - Innovations
article from Iskusstvo Kino, May 5, 2015 (in Russian) In 1928, Nikolai Khodataev, his sister Olga Khodataeva and the Brumberg sisters produced a hand-drawn animated short ' stylized as traditional Nenets people, Nenets art that followed a dramatic narrative and used an innovative technique of printing on thin celluloid. A 24-minute stop motion film ''The Adventures of the Little Chinese'' was directed same year by and could be considered a return to the traditions of Ladislas Starevich. Mikhail Tsekhanovsky's ''Post (film), Post'' (1929, cutout/cel animation) was both a return to constructivism traditions and a big step forward: it was successfully exported and widely shown around the world, while in the USSR it changed the perception of animation as an art form. It also became the first film colorization, colorized Soviet animated film and one of the first to get a musical score and a voiceover by Daniil Kharms. Mikhail and his wife Vera Tsekhanovskaya led an animation studio at Lenfilm where a number of distinctive hand-drawn and stop motion films were created throughout the 1930s, including the much-praised ' (1938) by .Eleonora Guylan, Peter Bagrov.
Once upon a time... Memoirs about the Leningrad pre-war animation
' at the Naum Kleiman, Notes by Film Historian magazine, 2005 (in Russian)''Sergei Asenin (2012)''. The World of Animation // The Tropes of Soviet Animation, p. 45–46. — Moscow: Print-on-Demand, 303 pages The team actively applied color using the original dye-transfer process invented by Lenfilm specialists, similar to Technicolor. In 1933, the couple collaborated with Dmitri Shostakovich and Alexander Vvedensky (poet), Alexander Vvedensky on the first traditionally animated Soviet feature — ''The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda (film), The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda'', a satirical opera loosely based on the fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin and stylized as ROSTA posters. Despite many problems, including the infamous Muddle Instead of Music, bullying of Shostakovich in press, the film was nearly finished and had been stored at Lenfilm until 1941 when almost all of it was destroyed in fire caused by the Siege of Leningrad, bombings of Leningrad. Tsekhanovsky is also credited with invention of graphical sound along with Arseny Avraamov and . They were challenged by a group led by who made a number of animated shorts based on their own idea of "drawing paper sound". In 1935, Aleksandr Ptushko directed ''The New Gulliver'', one of the world's first full-length animated movies that combined detailed stop motion with a live actor (a 15-year-old boy). The film featured from 1,500 to 3,000 different puppets with detachable heads and various facial expressions, as well as camera and technical tricks. The international success of the movie allowed Ptushko to open his own "division of 3D animation" at Mosfilm which also worked as a school for beginning animators. In four years, they created a dozen of stop motion shorts; most of them, such as (1936), were based around Russian folklore, traditional art (with the involvement of artists from Palekh) and could be watched in full color thanks to the newly invented three-color film process by .Nikolai Mayorov
The Color of Soviet Cinema
from the Film Expert's Notes magazine № 98, 2011 (in Russian) In 1939, Ptushko directed another feature — ''The Golden Key (1939 film), The Golden Key'' based on the popular Soviet Buratino, fairy tale; it also combined stop motion with live action, but to a lesser extent. Simultaneously, Alexandre Alexeieff who fled for France during the Russian Civil War developed a pinscreen animation technology that allowed for a wide spectre of special effects achieved through the use of hundreds of thousands of pins that formed different patterns. Despite the status of white émigré in the USSR his films were well known among Russian professionals and inspired various artists, most famously Yuri Norstein. In the mid-1990s Alexeieff's daughter visited Moscow and presented her father's works to the . Today he is commemorated as a patriarch of Russian animation.''Sergei Asenin (1983)''
The Wisdom of Fiction: Masters of Animation about Themselves and Their Art
— Moscow: Iskusstvo, p. 37
Soyuzmultfilm, 1936–1960
In September 1933, the Principal Management of the Photo-Cinematographic Industry (GUKF) ordered to provide animators with facilities and equipment; meanwhile, specialized script-writers were hired for Animated feature films. who headed the Amkino Corporation, a New York City, New York-based company responsible for distribution of Soviet movies in North America, was given the task to study the animation processes at Disney and Fleischer Studios.Kirill Malyantovich.How they fought cosmopolites at Soyuzmultfilm
' article from the Naum Kleiman, Notes by Film Historian magazine, 2001 (in Russian) Next year Smirnov returned to Moscow and founded an Experimental Animation Workshop under the Main Directorate of the Photo-Cinematographic Industry where he, Alexei Radakov, Vladimir Suteev and started "developing the Disney style". In 1935, Walt Disney himself sent a film reel with Three Little Pigs (film), Three Little Pigs and Mickey Mouse shorts to the Moscow International Film Festival that made a lasting impression on Soviet animators and officials. On June 10, 1936, the Soyuzdetmultfilm Studio was created in Moscow from the small and relatively independent trickfilm units of Mosfilm, Sovkino, Mezhrabpomfilm and Smirnov's studio. In a year it was renamed to Soyuzmultfilm. Three-months retraining courses were organized by the studio administration where animators studied everything, from drawing and directing movies to the basics of music and acting. For four years some of the leading animators focused on the creation of Disney-style shorts, exclusively using the cel technique. From 1937, on they also produced films in full color using the three-color film process by Pavel Mershin. In 1938, the team also mastered rotoscoping, or Eclair as it has been known in Russia since the 1920s (after the Eclair (company), Eclair video projector). Not everyone was happy with the chosen direction though, and by 1939 many developed their own styles. Ivan Ivanov-Vano directed based on the Moydodyr, fairy tale in verse which he personally praised as an important step from Disney. Suteev and Lamis Bredis presented a distinctive Uncle Styopa#A 1939 film, Uncle Styopa adaptation, while Leonid Amalrik and converted Doctor Aybolit stories into a distinctive mini-series that ran from 1939 to 1946 and defined the "Soviet style" of animation. At the same time Aleksandr Vasilievich Ivanov, Aleksandr Ivanov and made a radical shift towards agitprop and socialist realism with films such as ''Grandfather Ivan'' and ''War Chronicles''.''Irina Margolina, Natalia Lozinskaya (2006)''. Our Animation. — Moscow: Interros, p. 46–51, 58–63, 146–152, 70–75 Soon after Lev Kuleshov, then a professor at VGIK, suggested Ivanov-Vano to open and head a workshop under the Art Faculty which became the first official Russian workshop where students studied the art of animation. Among Ivanov's first students were Lev Milchin, Yevgeniy Migunov and . With the start of the Great Patriotic War the studio was evacuated to Samarkand along with some key animators who continued teaching students and producing films, including Propaganda in the Soviet Union#World War II, anti-fascist propaganda. In 1943, they returned to Moscow and released several kids movies such as ''The Tale of Tsar Saltan#Adaptations, The Tale of Tsar Saltan'' (1943) by the Brumberg sisters and (1945) by Ivanov-Vano — the last film to use the Soviet three-color filming process before the switch to Agfacolor. By that time Aleksandr Ptushko, Ptushko's studio at Mosfilm had been shut down and Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Tsekhanovsky's studio at Lenfilm — destroyed by a bomb, which basically turned Soyuzmultfilm into Russia's animation monopolist. Yet even after the war, its resources were very limited. 19 animators from the relatively small Soyuzmultfilm team were killed in action. A whole generation of Leningrad animators either disappeared at fronts or died during the Siege of Leningrad. Others returned as war-disabled, like Boris Dyozhkin and Aleksandr Vinokurov (both lost their left eyes), who got a bullet stuck in his head and who lost his right arm and learned to work as left-handed. One of the leading directors, Vladimir Suteev, left the industry on his return for personal reasons. The rest worked intensively to prepare new animators; between 1945 and 1948, four groups of students graduated from VGIK. They also continued releasing short and feature films that brought them international recognition, such as ''The Lost Letter (1945 film), The Lost Letter'' (1945) and ''The Humpbacked Horse (1947 film), The Humpbacked Horse'' (1947) that was used by Walt Disney as a teaching tool for his artists. In 1948, short comedy film was accused of "Formalism (art), formalism" and "anthropomorphism" following the Cold War anti-Disney campaign. As the art director Yevgeniy Migunov remembered, he floutingly drew backgrounds for his next movie as realistic as possible, and suddenly it became "a golden standard" for the next ten years. According to the 1951 report by Ivan Ivanov-Vano, it was a temporary measure that served as a teaching tool for beginning animators.''Giannalberto Bendazzi (2016)''
Animation: A World History: Volume II: The Birth of a Style - The Three Markets
at Google Books, p. 81, 282–297, 303–309 Many leading actors were involved, such as Mikhail Astangov who appeared as the beast in ''The Scarlet Flower (1952 film), The Scarlet Flower'' (1952).Larisa Malyukova'
interview
with Leonid Shvartsman at Animator.ru (in Russian) Some directors made extensive use of this method, while others mixed it with traditional animation as in ''The Snow Queen (1957 film), The Snow Queen'' (1957) by Lev Atamanov, arguably the most famous work of that time. Many focused on animal painter, animal art with little to no use of rotoscoping. All this allowed for a yearly release of prominent feature films with high production values such as ''The Night Before Christmas (1951 film), The Night Before Christmas'' (1951), ''The Snow Maiden (1952 film), The Snow Maiden'' (1952), ''The Enchanted Boy'' and ''The Frog Princess#Adaptations, The Frog Princess'' (1954), ''The Twelve Months (1956 film), The Twelve Months'' (1956) and ''The Adventures of Buratino (1959 film), The Adventures of Buratino'' (1959).
The Khrushchev Thaw
First changes happened in 1953 when a puppet division was reopened at Soyuzmultfilm. In 1954, Yevgeniy Migunov along with an engineer Semyon Etlis produced the first Soviet stop motion film since Aleksandr Ptushko: ' about the adventures of the Russian clown Karandash and his dog. According to Migunov, they had to reinvent the whole production process. They organized a technical base, constructed and patented a device for shooting in statics, with a horizontally moving camera and attachable dolls. Also for the first time they used ball-jointed dolls and latex to make puppet faces. They were followed by Vladimir Degtyaryov who produced many films such as ''Beloved Beauty'' (1958) and ' (1962), Roman Abelevich Kachanov, Roman Kachanov and who directed the award-winning ' (1959) that combined stop motion, traditional and cutout animation, and Nikolay Serebryakov whose style was marked by extensive aesthetic search for "combination of realism and the baroque". Sergey Obraztsov and his team also produced a number of movies using hand puppets. It was not long until other animators started abandoning it. In 1958, Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya released an adaptation of Arkady Gaidar's ''A Tale of Malchish-Kibalchish'' inspired by ROSTA posters, while Boris Stepantsev and Evgeny Raykovsky directed a postmodernism, postmodern ' that leant towards Tex Avery. Same year Fyodor Khitruk made a directoral debut with a primitivistic cutout short ''The Story of a Crime'' that told a contemporary story and gained international praise.Soyuzmultfilm, 1964–1991
In the following years, many animators turned away from the conveyor method of production and developed their own distinctive styles and approaches. The number of titles rose through the mid-1960 into the 1970s and 1980s, up to fifty per year. Mini-series and anthologies became common, while the amount of feature films decreased dramatically.
Director Boris Stepantsev was known for experimenting a lot. Among his films was another postmodern comedy ''Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom'' (1965), the paint-on-glass animation ''Song of a Falcon'' (1967), the highly popular ''Karlsson-on-the-Roof#Adaptations, Karlsson-on-the-Roof'' dilogy (1968–1970) that made use of xerography and ''The Nutcracker (1973 film), The Nutcracker'' adaptation (1973) that presented a The Nutcracker, familiar story without a single spoken word.
Some patriarchs also joined the new wave. Ivanov-Vano was appointed an artistic director of the puppet division where he made a number of stop motion/cutout films inspired by Russian folk art, like ''Left-Hander (1964 film), Lefty'' (1964) that addressed lubok, ''Go There, Don't Know Where'' (1966) that used elements of rayok and skomorokh theatre, ''The Seasons'' (1969) based around Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky's ''The Seasons (Tchaikovsky), two character pieces'', presented as a combination of Dymkovo toys and lace, and the award-winning ''The Battle of Kerzhenets'' (1971) where frescos and icons came to life.
Another well-respected old-timer Boris Dyozhkin launched a popular series of short comedy films about two teams that competed in various sport disciplines such as football, hockey, skiing, boxing and so on. It ran from 1963 to 1981 and was notable for fast-paced slapstick synchronized with music.
Among the most political animators were Fyodor Khitruk whose satire ''The Man in the Frame'' (1966) was cut by censors and Andrei Khrzhanovsky whose surrealism, surrealist film ' (1968) was shelved for many years. On the other hand, Khitruk's ' (1965), ''Film, Film, Film'' (1968) and the ''Winnie-the-Pooh (1969 film), Winnie-the-Pooh'' trilogy in particular became an instant success among both kids and adults.
Roman Abelevich Kachanov, Roman Kachanov made numerous films for children. He started with Stop motion, puppet animation such as ''A Little Frog Is looking for His Father'', ''The Mitten (film), The Mitten'' and, most famously, the ''Cheburashka (film), Cheburashka'' series that turned Cheburashka into one of the iconic characters of Soyuzmultfilm. In his late years he switched to traditional animation with the feature science fiction film ''The Mystery of the Third Planet'' (1981).
''Adventures of Mowgli'' mini-series by Roman Davydov was released from 1967 to 1971. Just like ''Winnie-the-Pooh'', it was not conceived as a reaction to the Disney's ''The Jungle Book (1967 film), The Jungle Book'' (even the first episode was developed simultaneously) and followed the original plot closely, appearing more adult and spiritually closer to the book. In 1973, the shorts were combined into a 96-minute feature.
The rising popularity of the industry started drawing people from other areas. Vasily Livanov, originally an actor, finished animation courses and directed several experimental pictures. Yet his biggest success was ''The Bremen Town Musicians (film), The Bremen Town Musicians'' (1969), an animated musical film heavily influenced by rock and roll and hippie cultures. The first part was directed by Inessa Kovalevskaya who also abandoned her position at State Committee for Cinematography, Goskino to work on animated musicals. After she left the project, Livanov directed the On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians, sequel by himself. The three main characters were voiced by the leading Soviet pop singer Muslim Magomayev (musician), Muslim Magomayev.
1969 saw the birth of Russia's most popular animation series ''Well, Just You Wait!'' directed by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin.The Nu, Pogodi! Series Turned to Be the Most Beloved Animation in Russia
' by RIA Novosti, February 26, 2014 (in Russian) These seemingly simple miniatures about a wolf chasing a hare through Soviet-style cartoon worlds owe a great deal of their popularity to the quality animation, varied soundtrack and cunning subtexts built into their parts. The original series ran from 1969 to 1993. During the mid-2000s, an unsuccessful attempt to reboot the series was made. Also, in 1969, a long-running animated anthology series ''Happy Merry-Go-Round'' was founded by Anatoly Petrov (animator), Anatoly Petrov and Galina Barinova (animator), Galina Barinova. Each episode combined several short experimental films by the beginning directors like Leonid Nosyrev, , Eduard Nazarov, Gennady Sokolsky, Garri Bardin and . Most of them gained acclaim later on, working in their own unique niches. Anatoly Petrov showed extreme realism (close to photorealism) without rotoscopy, photography or any "cheating". His style was known as "photographics", or "graphical painting"; for many years he developed the so-called effect of moving glaze (painting technique), glaze in a 3D environment using traditional animation materials. The final result was close to advanced Computer-generated imagery, CGI long before it was invented. Among his best works was ''Polygon (film), Polygon'' (1977) and several films based on Greek mythology. Gennady Sokolsky focused on environmental films with attractive characters and ambient soundtracks: ' (1977), ' (1978) and ''The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin'' (1986), a joined List of joint Japanese–Soviet films, Soviet-Japanese feature co-directed with Kenji Yoshida. Leonid Nosyrev explored the Russian North folklore with a number of ethnographical films based on the stories by Boris Shergin, Stepan Pisakhov and Yury Iosifovich Koval, Yuri Koval. In 1987, seven of them were combined into a ''Laughter and Grief by the White Sea'' feature film. One of the most famous Russian animators is Yuri Norstein. His films ''Hedgehog in the Fog'' (1975) and ''Tale of Tales (1979 film), Tale of Tales'' (1979) won numerous awards at international festivals. ''Tale of Tales'' was named the best animation film of all time at the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles and at the 2002 Animafest Zagreb. Since the beginning of perestroika Norstein has been working on ''The Overcoat (animated film), The Overcoat''. Vladimir Popov (animator), Vladimir Popov had been known since the 1960s for his shorts such as ''Umka (1969 film), Umka'', but it was the ''Three from Prostokvashino'' trilogy (1978–1984) that brought him fame. The characters and their catchphrases entered Russian folklore, and it was chosen the third best animation of all time in the 2014 poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation. In 2018 the series was rebooted. Vladimir Tarasov was a rare Soviet director who dedicated himself to the science fiction genre. Among his prominent works were ''Contact (1978 film), Contact'' (1978) influenced by ''Yellow Submarine (film), Yellow Submarine'', ''Shooting Range (film), Shooting Range'' (1979), ''Contract (1985 film), Contract'' (1985) and ''The Pass (1988 film), The Pass'' (1988). Stanislav Sokolov brought stop motion to a new height. His approach characterized by complex animation structures and multiple special effects could be observed in the award-winning ''Black and White Film'' (1984) or ''The Big Underground Ball'' (1987). During late years, few animated films were produced due to the lack of financing from government. Garri Bardin who also specialized on stop motion films made of matches, ropes and wire, was one of those few directors who managed to cope with the political changes. His ''Seryi Volk & Krasnaya Shapochka, Grey Wolf & Little Red Riding Hood'' (1991) was full of allusions to the upcoming end of the USSR.
Other Soviet studios
Kievnauchfilm was founded in 1941. Although it was created to produce popular science films, it eventually became best known for its animated films, and remained active in History of Ukrainian animation, Ukrainian animation for decades. In 1968, a group of mathematicians led by Nikolay Konstantinov released a 1.5-minute non-narrative animation ', one of the earliest examples of computer animation, computer and procedural animation in history programmed on BESM-4.Leonid Levkovich-Maslyuk.The Arrival of a Kitty
' article from Computerra № 7, 21 February 2006 (in Russian) It was also one of the first attempts to render realistic animal motion digitally. Programmed at the Moscow State Pedagogical University, ''Kitty'' was made into a movie and screened at the Moscow State University. It was later shown to students at mathematics competitions and used for educational purposes at schools. From 1970 on, new studios appeared across the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, RSFSR, most famously Multtelefilm division of Studio Ekran (Moscow) that focused on lower-budget television animation. It was known for several popular TV series such as ''Leopold the Cat'' (1975–1987), ' (1984–1987), ''Investigation Held by Kolobki'' (1986–1987) and ' (1986–1988), as well as various experiments. re-discovered paint-on-glass animation with films like ''Wonders'' (1980), ' (1982) and (1984), while Alexander Tatarsky pioneered clay animation with ''Plasticine Crow'' (1981), ''Last Year's Snow Was Falling'' (1983) and the ''Good Night, Little Ones!'' opening. He and his students also practiced total animation (flying camera with characters and backgrounds moving simultaneously). Multtelefilm served as a base for Pilot (studio), Pilot, the first private Soviet animation studio founded by Alexander Tatarsky and Igor Kovalyov in 1988. They aimed at both auteur and commercial animation, producing absurd adult-themed films. In several years half of the team left Russia to work for Klasky Csupo where they created popular animated series such as ''Rugrats'' and ''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters''. The Sverdlovsk Film Studio also gained fame for its paint-on-glass animation with complete new level of quality by and Aleksandr Petrov (animator), Aleksandr Petrov (''Welcome (1986 film), Welcome!'', ''The Cow (1989 film), The Cow''), as well as sand animation by Vladimir and Elena Petkevich (''A Small Tale of a Small Bug''). The rest included the animation department at Lennauchfilm that produced educational and popular science films, the Permtelefilm studio (Perm, Russia, Perm) responsible for TV animation mostly based on the Ural (region), Ural folklore, Kuybyshevtelefilm (Samara, Kuybyshev) known for its stop motion ''Forest Tales'' series, Saratovtelefilm (Saratov) and some others. In 1989, another independent studios Christmas Films was founded by Soyuzmultfilm veterans that focused on international coproduction. It became famous during later years with the Russian-British ''Shakespeare: The Animated Tales'' series (1992–1994) that earned several Primetime Emmy Awards.
Russian animation today
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the situation for Russian animators changed dramatically. Due to the new management and the lack of state funding, many of them left Soyuzmultfilm, which was turned into a leased enterprise. In 1993, Yuri Norstein, Fyodor Khitruk, Andrei Khrzhanovsky and Eduard Nazarov founded the SHAR Studio meant for training animators and producing films. Garri Bardin also founded the Stayer animation studio where he continued directing claymation and stop motion films. Others joined Pilot (studio), Pilot, Christmas Films, Animation Magic and similar companies that lived on advertisement and commissioned works for big studios from Western countries. In 1992, Films by Jove, an American company ran by Oleg Vidov and his wife Joan Borsten, signed a nine-year contract with the new Soyuzmultfilm director Stanislav Rozhkov that gave them exclusive distribution and editing rights for the major part of the studio's collection. They were supposed to share incomes, but only after their expenses would've been paid off. As a result, animators received nothing for their past works. In 1993, they elected a new director, a shady businessman Sergei Skulyabin who promised to turn the studio into a joint-stock company. Instead he signed a new contract with Vidov, extending it from nine to twenty years and returning a number of non-profitable films. His plan was to sell exclusive rights for all past and future films to his dummy corporation and bankrupt the studio.Olga Razumovskaya.Studio Renews Fight For Soviet Cartoons
' article at The Moscow Times, 18 August 2010Georgy Borodin.
Goodbye, Souyzmultfilm!
' article at Animator.ru, August–October 2003 (in Russian) When animators realized it, they managed to overthrow him with the help from the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation, Union of Cinematographers and Goskino, although the Ministry of State Property still refused to step in and return the studio the state status. Skulyabin also refused to leave the director's chair up until 30 June 1999 when Sergei Stepashin finally signed a long-awaited order that turned Soyuzmultfilm into a unitary enterprise. By that time the production completely stopped. In 2001 the Supreme Court of Arbitration of Russia returned the rights to the whole collection back to Soyuzmultfilm which led to a legal battle with Films by Jove. Only in 2007 Vidov and Borsten agreed to sell the collection to the Russian business magnate Alisher Usmanov who donated it to the state-run children's channel Bibigon. Around the same time the studio came back to life. Nevertheless, there were a few very successful international co-productions, e.g. the aforementioned ''Shakespeare: The Animated Tales'' and Aleksandr Petrov (animator), Aleksandr Petrov's Academy Awards, Oscar-winning ''The Old Man and the Sea (1999 film), The Old Man and the Sea'' (1999). An ambitious project in 12 series ''Dunno#Adaptations, Dunno on the Moon'' was released between 1997 and 1999. Based on the Soviet sci-fi Dunno on the Moon, novel of the same name, it was produced at Aleksei Guskov's F.A.F. Entertainment in the best traditions of Soviet hand-made animation. Despite the hardships, Natalya Lukinykh has estimated that Russian animated films won about twice as many prestigious international awards in the 1990s as Russian live-action films. As Russia's economic situation became increasingly stable, so did the market for animation, and during the last three years, a number of feature-length animation films from Russian studios have emerged (e.g. Melnitsa Animation Studio's ''Little Longnose'', 2003, from Wilhelm Hauff's fairy tale, and Solnechny Dom, Solnechny Dom Studio's 2006 ''Prince Vladimir (film), Prince Vladimir'', based on early history of Kievan Rus', Rus' – the highest-grossing Russian animated film to date). While the Russian animation community is yet far from reaching the splendor it possessed before the end of the Soviet Union, a significant recovery is being made and it is becoming more and more clear that the revived Russian animation industry will be very different from what it was in the late 1980s. According to Andrei Dobrunov, head of Solnechny Dom, several Russian studios are currently working on some ten animated feature films. ''Especial (2006), Especial'' released on July 31, 2006 was Russia's first 3D computer graphics, CG-animated feature film. At the same time, Soyuzmultfilm has partnered up with Mihail Chemiakin and is working on ''Hoffmaniada'', a puppet-animated feature film which is deliberately being made entirely without computers. In 2007, the Synfig#Usage, Morevna Project was launched, aiming at creating a science fiction re-telling the folk-tale of The Death of Koschei the Deathless, Marya Morevna as an anime primarily by using the free software Synfig tool and releasing it under a Creative Commons license. Other popular Russian Internet cartoons include ''Masyanya'' and ''Mr. Freeman''. A corporate collaboration between the Japanese Studio 4°C and Russia's Molot Entertainment did also produce the anime film ''First Squad'' (2009), which won the ''Kommersant'' newspaper's prize. Beginning in 2009, animation entered a new crisis as Goskino indefinitely postponed funding for all projects, and for the 2010 budget the state cut animation funding by half. The animation community reacted by appealing to the President and the public
In 2010, many of the major studios, including Pilot (studio), Pilot, were either closed or on the verge of shutting down. The vast majority of studios had relied on state support to some extent, and Goskino did not fulfill any of their contractual obligations to pay for the films that they had ordered and which the studios had already produce
In addition, Disney has been accused of using anti-competitive practices to sideline domestic Russian competition on TV channel
The Centre of National Film, Center of National Film CG animated film ''Space Dogs'', released on March 18, 2010 and about the Soviet space dogs Soviet space dogs#Belka and Strelka, Strelka and Belka, received an English release on June 8, 2012 and spawned a broader franchise. Wizart Animation, alongside InlayFilm, also produced a new CG film version of ''The Snow Queen (2012 film), The Snow Queen'' (2012), spawning a new franchise with sequels ''The Snow Queen 2'' (2014) and ''The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice'' (2016), alongside their first fully original concept ''Sheep and Wolves'' (2016). Animaccord Animation Studio has had success in CG television animation with its children's series ''Masha and the Bear'' (2009–present), whose emphasis on pantomime has helped it export outside of the country, premièring on the US version of Netflix in August 2015. Another long running, educational, children's series by Melnitsa Animation Studio called ''Luntik'' has aired since September 1, 2006. An earlier success in this market was ''Kikoriki'' which aired from May 7, 2004 until 2012, produced by Petersburg Animation Studio with assistance from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. English-language distribution rights to the series were acquired by 4Kids Entertainment from worldwide distributor Fun Game Media, Munich and began airing as part of The CW4Kids block on The CW Television Network, The CW on September 13, 2008, under the name ''GoGoRiki''. In 2011 a prequel feature film was released entitled ''Kikoriki. Team Invincible'' and further films are planned. A connecting factor in many recent Russian animated efforts is Timur Bekmambetov, whose Bazelevs Company has helped produce, finance and promote ''Kikoriki'' and ''The Snow Queen''. In 2010, the animated series The Fixies premiered on Carousel (TV channel), Karusel and Russia 1. In 2018, Soyuzmultfilm, announced plans to restore films from its Golden Collection. On 5 December 2020, the second part of the Golden Collection was restored and released theatrically by United Network "Cinema Park" in Russia. The release was followed up online premiere service viewing options.
Popular animation studios
*Soyuzmultfilm *Melnitsa Animation Studio *Petersburg Animation Studio *Animaccord Animation Studio *Wizart Animation *InlayFilmSee also
* History of animation * Animator.ru * Masters of Russian Animation * Encyclopedia of Domestic Animation * KROK International Animated Films Festival * Open Russian Festival of Animated Film * Magia RussicaReferences
Bibliography
* Bendazzi, Giannalberto. 1994. ''Cartoons. One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation.'' London/Bloomington: John Libbey/Indiana University Press. * Giesen, Rolf. 2003. ''Lexikon des Trick- und Animationsfilms.'' Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. * Leslie, Ester. 2002. ''Hollywood Flatlands. Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-Garde.'' London, New York: Verso. * Pilling, Jayne (Ed.). 1997. ''A Reader in Animation Studies.'' London et al.: John Libbey. * Асенин, Сергей Владимирович. 1986. ''Мир мультфильма.'' Москва: Искусство. * Венжер, Наталья Яковлевна (Ed.). 1990. ''Сотворение фильма. Несколько интервью по служебным вопросам.'' Москва: Союз Кинематографистов СССР. * Иванов-Вано, Иван Петрович. 1978. ''Кадр за кадром'', Москва: Искусство. *Орлов, Алексей Михайлович. 1995. ''Аниматограф и его анима: психогенные аспекты экранных технологий.'' Москва: Импето.External links
Russian and Soviet animations
a
Russian Film Hub
Animator.ru
– the homepage of the Russian animation community. Includes a
English-language database
Soyuzmultfilm homepage
The most famous Russian animation studio's home page
Officially licensed YouTube channel for Soyuzmultfilm animation
in Russian (English subtitles promised)
www.pilot-film.com
Another famous studio's homepage (in Russian and English)
Animated Century. The Stars of Russian Animation
documentary series (in Russian, English website)
Russian Insider
– a blog focusing on current and past Russian/Soviet animation
Mountain of Gems series
at the official YouTube channel (in Russian, English, Spanish and Chinese)
Blog about Russian Animation Influence in Cuban Culture
Soviet Cartoons Online
- in English and Russian, with Russian and English subtitles
News articles
''The St. Petersburg Times'' (Russia)
– a May 2006 article about the film ''Prince Vladimir (film), Prince Vladimir'' and the future of the animation industry in Russia
Redrawing Russian History
(May 18, 2006)
In-depth history of the appalling and criminal happenings at Soyuzmultfilm during the 1990s
An overview of Russian animated feature films in the 1990s and early 2000s
Maria Tereschenko, Russia Beyond the Headlines, December 17, 2009 (English) {{Animation History of animation by country, Russia Russian animation, Soviet animation,