The story
Early years
The film studio was founded on 10 June 1936, by order of the Chief Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry (GUKF) of the State Committee on the Arts under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Two of the animated groups that existed in Moscow at that time were merged into a single film studio under the name Soyuzdetmultfilm, which was changed to Soyuzmultfilm in 1937. The studio was located at Novinsky Boulevard, 22.
The creative staff included already well-known masters of hand-drawn animation – Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Olga Khodataeva, Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg, Vladimir Suteev, Dmitry Babichenko, Alexander Ivanov and others.
Three-months retraining courses were organized by the studio for all creative artists. The masters taught young animators the basics of professional skills. The studio turned into the main production base of Soviet animation and became a creative centre for animation of the USSR. In the early years, Soyuzmultfilm embraced the cel technique – the so-called Disney's conveyor method, which was convenient for mass production of hand-drawn animation. Contour with a drawing pen and an exposure sheet borrowed from the Disney became essential elements of production. In the late 1930s, the studio began actively using the Eclair method (or rotoscoping), developed by the American animators Fleisher Brothers. The reason was the reorientation of the studio to current topics and the need to create not only grotesque, but also heroic characters. From the very beginning, the studio took as a basis for production the principle of division of work into separate specialties (in-betweeners, ink artists, paint artists), which accelerated the process of production and made it cheaper.
For several years Soyuzmultfilm focused mainly on the creation of entertaining shorts for children with animal characters depicted in a Disney manner. One of the first cartoons created at the studio was the black-and-white It's Hot in Africa (1936) by Dmitry Babichenko. That was the first experience of the famous children's poet Sergei Mikhalkov in animation as a screenwriter.
Despite the chosen direction, many animators developed their own styles – in particular, Vladimir Suteev (Noisy Swimming (1937) and Why does Rhinoceros' Skin have Folds (1938).
Since 1937, the studio started to produce color films. The first experience was Sweet Pie by Dmitry Babichenko. Many cartoons of 1938–1945 were made both in color and black-and-white.
If in 1936–1937 the animation was limited to the children's themes within the genres of fables and fairy tales, then in 1938 it was ordered to direct Soviet cinema to contemporary issues. The studio's repertoire policy was changed, it again began to produce political films in the genres of the Soviet "political fairy tale", political cartoons and agitprop posters. The possibility of portraying a person as a positive Soviet hero in animation was discussed. At that time, the films (Fedor the Hunter (1938) by Alexander Ivanov, War Chronicles (1939) by Dmitry Babichenko were produced.
In the late 1930s – early 1940s, was a shift in priorities from quantity to quality indicators. Animator courses were resumed. Films created between 1939 and 1941 were subsequently included in the "gold fund" of world cinema: Limpopo (1939) and Barmaley (1941) by Leonid Amalrik and Vladimir Polkovnikov, Moydodyr (1939) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Uncle Styopa (1939) and Fly-Tsokotuha (1941) by Vladimir Suteev. These cartoons defined the original "Soviet style" of animation.
Read the full text
War period
In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, all creative groups switched to producing anti-fascist propaganda posters. Many employees went to the front. In October, the part of the studio was evacuated to Samarkand, where the directors Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and Mstislav Pashchenko joined the team evacuated from the besieged Leningrad. They formed part of the Central United Film Studios team as a specialised division, independent from its leadership and keeping the brand. In Samarkand the studio worked in the strictest economy of materials and electricity. Scenarios were revised in order to simplify the production, which was extremely slow because of lack of materials and staff.
In 1943, Soyuzmultfilm returned to Moscow. In early 1944, the studio organized the first Arts Council. By the end of the 1940s, Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak, Evgeny Schwartz, Sergey Bolotin, Oleg Erberg, Mikhail Volpin, Nikolai Erdman, Valentin Kataev, Yury Olesha, Boris Laskin, Lev Kassil, Vladimir Suteev, Georgy Grebner, Nikolai Klado, Georgy Berezko, Nikolai Abramov were invited to cooperate with the studio.
Under difficult working conditions, several outstanding films were created:
The Fox, the Rabbit and the Rooster (1942) by Olga Khodataeva,
Cinema-Circus (1942) by Leonid Amalrik and Olga Khodataeva,
A New Year Tree (1942) by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky,
The Telephone (1944) by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky,
The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1942–1943)
Sinbad the Sailor (1944) by the Brumberg sisters
The Stolen Sun (1944) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano.
In 1945, the studio produced its first feature film A Disappeared Diploma by Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg, based on the story with the same name by Nikolai Gogol.
The golden age
Soon after the end of the war, in 1946, Soyuzmultfilm moved its offices to the building at Kalyaevskaya street (now Dolgorukovskaya Street), 23A (the former church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in New Sloboda, previously occupied by the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism).
In the post-war years, the studio stopped the direct lifts of American animation techniques, and the original aesthetic "canon" of the children's Soviet cartoon was determined.
The best Soviet cartoons of the second half of the 1940s were distinguished by impressive plasticity and facial expressions, harmony of word and movement. A lot of new names appeared among the directors and artists of the studio: Lev Atamanov, Yevgeny Migunov, Leonid Shvartsman, Alexander Vinokurov and others. One of the main fundamental components of the Soviet cartoon school was continuity, when beginning animators gained professional experience from prominent artists and directors.
The most striking works of Soyuzmultfilm in the late 1940s were the animated films The Flower with Seven Colors (1948) by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, Fedya Zaitsev (1948) by the Brumberg sisters, and Little Gray Neck (1948) by Leonid Amalrik and Vladimir Polkovnikov.
In 1947, Soyuzmultfilm received the first international award – The Song of Joy (1946) by Mstislav Pashchenko was awarded the bronze medal at the Venice Film Festival for the Best Animated Film.
In 1951, the film The Humpbacked Horse (1947) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano received the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
In the first half of the 1950s, the studio released popular films, many of which were based on the use of the Eclair method:
by Lev Atamanov
The Yellow Stork (1950)
The Scarlet Flower (1952)
The Golden Antelope (1954)
by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky
When the Christmas Trees is Lit (1950)
Forest Adventurers (1951)
The Naughty Kitten (1953) by Mstislav Pashchenko
by Ivan Ivanov-Vano
Kashtanka (1952)
The Snow Maiden (1952)
Magic Shop (1953) by Leonid Amalrik and Vladimir Polkovnikov.
In 1953, the studio began the production of puppet films. Two of the first stop motion animated films were At the Dacha (1954) by Grigory Lomidze and Two Greedy Bear Cubs (1954) by Vladimir Degtyarev. The first major success of the puppet production was the directorial debut of Yevgeny Migunov The Pencil and Blot –The Cheerful Hunters (1954), in which several technological innovations of making and shooting puppets were applied. Many employees of the State Central Puppet Theater under the direction of Sergey Obraztsov joined the staff of the studio's puppet association.
In 1956, having changed several addresses, the three-dimensional puppet film workshop received a permanent area in Spasopeskovsky Lane (the building of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on the Sands).
In 1959, the well-known motion picture The Cloud in Love by Roman Kachanov and Anatoly Karanovich was released, combining stop motion, traditional and cutout animation, and won a number of prestigious awards at international festivals, including the prize of the International Film Press Federation (FIPRESCI).
In the middle 1950s, the studio began to abandon the naturalistic representation of hand-drawn films, prioritizing more conventional forms. The volume of filmmaking increased (at the peak of production by the beginning of the 1970s, the studio released more than 30 films a year), including annual production of feature films.
In 1957, Lev Atamanov put into practice the technique of assigning individual animators to specific characters (e.g. the role of Ole Lukøje was completely "played" by Fyodor Khitruk in the film The Snow Queen).
Among the most famous feature films of the studio of the second half of the 1950s:
The Enchanted Boy (1955) by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya and Vladimir Polkovnikov, which became the laureate of many prestigious film screenings,
The Island of Mistakes (1955) by the Brumberg sisters,
The Walnut Twig (1955) by Ivan Aksenchuk,
The Fire Burns in the Yaranga (1956) by Olga Khodataeva,
The Twelve Months (1956) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano,
Once Upon a Time (1957 film) (1957) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano,
The Brave Little Deer (1957) by Olga Khodataeva and Leonid Aristov,
Little Ship (1956), by Leonid Amalrik
The Cat’s House (1958) by Leonid Amalrik,
The Adventures of Murzilka (1956) by Boris Stepantsev and Evgeny Raykovsky,
Petya and Little Red Riding Hood (1958) by Boris Stepantsev and Evgeny Raykovsky,
The Adventures of Buratino (1959) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Dmitry Babichenko
The studio also created cartoons for an adult audience:
The Illegible Signature (1954) by Alexander Ivanov,
The Villain's Sticker (1954) by Vsevolod Shcherbakov and Boris Stepantsev,
Ballad of a Table (1955) by Mikhail Kalinin and Roman Davydov,
The Wonder Girl (1957) by Alexander Ivanov,
Familiar Pictures (1957) by Yevgeny Migunov
Familiar Pictures was shot entirely in an innovative for that time conventional manner.
Aesthetic switch
On the cusp of the 1960s, a crucial moment in the history of Russian animation occurred. The so-called "aesthetic switch" began with a whole galaxy of films:
The Key (1961) by Lev Atamanov,
The Little Goat (1961) by Roman Davydov,
The Wild Swans (1962) by Mikhail and Vera Tsekhanovsky,
The Bath House (1962) by Anatoly Karanovich and Sergey Yutkevich,
The Flying Proletariat (1962) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Iosif Boyarsky
The Story of a Crime, Fyodor Khitruk’s directorial debut (1962).
Since the 1960s, the range of stylistic, genre and technological searches and solutions had been continuously expanded and developed. The old production system prevented art from moving forward, and Fyodor Khitruk introduced a "team method" of working, in which animators were involved in film production from the very beginning.
In the 1960s, Soyuzmultfilm was also actively developing puppet animation. Colour, decoration, texture of the material were applied in a new way. Semi-dimensional, bas-relief, including paper dolls began to be used. A new breakthrough in children's puppet animation began with the famous films A Little Frog Is looking for His Father (1964) and The Mitten (1967) by Roman Kachanov, Who Said Meow? (1962) and The Little Goat Who Counted to Ten (1968) by Vladimir Degtyaryov.
During these years, many new animators joined the studio's puppet division: Mikhail Kamenetsky and Ivan Ufimtsev (Whose pine cones are in the forest? (1965)), Vadim Kurchevsky (My Green Crocodile (1966), The Legend of Grig (1967), Frantishek (1967)), Nikolay Serebryakov (I'm expecting a baby bird (1966), Happiness Is Not in the Hat (1968), Ball of Wool (1968)).
In the 1960s, the production of satirical cartoons increased. Animation began to raise acute social and philosophical topics. Especially famous were
Big Troubles (1961) by the Brumberg sisters,
The Man in the Frame (1966) by Fyodor Khitruk, Passion of Spies (1967) by Yefim Gamburg,
There Lived Kozyavin (1966), and, banned by Soviet censorship,
The Glass Harmonica (1968) by Andrei Khrzhanovsky.
The most famous works of the Soyuzmultfilm of the 1960s:
Cipollino (1961) by Boris Dyozhkin,
Shareholders (1963) by Roman Davydov,
by Vladimir Polkovnikov
The Cockroach (1963),
The Fisherman Cat (1964),
by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya
Barankin, Be a Human! (1963),
The Daughter of the Sun (1963) and
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1965),
Hail the Mail (1964) by Mikhail and Vera Tsekhanovsky,
Lefty (1964) by Ivan Ivanov-Vano,
Thumbelina (1964) by Leonid Amalrik
About a Hippo Who Was Afraid of Vaccinations (1966) by Leonid Amalrik,
Toptyzhka (1964),
Boniface's Vacation (1965),
Film, Film, Film (1968) by Fyodor Khitruk,
by Boris Stepantsev
Vovka in the Faraway Kingdom (1965)
Window (1966),
Mezha (1967) by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin,
The Train from Romashkovo (1967) by Vladimir Degtyarev,
The Mouse's Song (1967) by Yuri Prytkov,
by Lev Atamanov
The Bench (1967),
The Ballerina on the Ship (1969),
An Alarm Clock (1967) by Lev Milchin
Grandmother's Umbrella (1969) by Lev Milchin,
Puss in Boots (1968) by the Brumberg sisters,
The Little Mermaid (1968) by Ivan Aksenchuk,
and cartoons about sports Snowy Roads (1963), Puck! Puck! (1964), A Rematch (1968) and Meteor in the Ring (1970) by Boris Dyozhkin.
In 1968, Yuri Norstein and Arkady Tyurin made a directorial debut with an unscheduled film The 25th, the First Day.
In 1969, the animated anthology series Happy Merry-Go-Round was founded. The first release was produced under the direction of Roman Kachanov by the beginning directors Anatoly Petrov, Gennady Sokolsky, Leonid Nosyrev, Valery Ugarov and Galina Barinova, the world-recognised masters of animation today. The famous to this day Antoshka and the first artistic presentation of Well, Just You Wait!, which was soon turned into a popular series of its own, were released exactly in the first run of Happy Merry-Go-Round. Experimental technologies, audacious concepts and innovation solutions were often used in the production of the shorts.
The period from the beginning of the 1970s to the middle 1980s is called the halcyon days of Soyuzmultfilm. At that time, it became the largest animation studio in Europe, that employed more than 500 people and released more than 1000 films.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the most popular cartoons appeared:
The Bremen Town Musicians (1969) by Inessa Kovalevskaya
On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians (1973) by Vasily Livanov,
Crocodile Gena and His Friends the series based on the fairy tale novel by Eduard Uspensky
Gena the Crocodile (1969),
Cheburashka (1971), Shapoklyak (1974), Cheburashka Goes to School (1983) by Roman Kachanov,
the series Well, Just You Wait! by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin (first released in 1969),
a dilogy about Karlsson-on-the-Roof based on the famous book by the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren
Junior and Karlson (1968) and
Karlson Returns (1970) by Boris Stepantsev,
the series of films Umka (1969) and Umka is Looking for a Friend (1970) by Vladimir Pekar and Vladimir Popov,
the films based on A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories in Boris Zakhoder’s retelling
Winnie-the-Pooh (1969),
Winnie-the-Pooh Pays a Visit (1971),
Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day (1972) by Fyodor Khitruk (the last one produced together with Gennady Sokolsky),
adaptation of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, Adventures of Mowgli (1967–1971) by Roman Davydov.
Recognized masters of hand-drawn animation continued to work at the studio: Boris Stepantsev (The Nutcracker (1973)), Ivan Ivanov-Vano (The Humpbacked Horse (1975)), Lev Atamanov (The Pony Runs Around (1974)), a series of cartoons The Kitten Named Woof (1976–1982)), Lev Milchin (The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1976)), Fyodor Khitruk (Icarus and the Wise Men (1976)), Andrei Khrzhanovsky (The House That Jack Built (1976), I Fly to You Like a Memory (1977), And I Am with You Again (1980), Autumn (1982)), Vladimir Popov (Bobik Visits Barbos (1977), the trilogy – Three from Prostokvashino (1978)), Holidays in Prostokvashino (1980), Winter in Prostokvashino (1984)), Yefim Gamburg (Robbery,... Style (1978)).
At that period were released:
musical films
How the Lion and the Turtle Sang a Song (1974) by Inessa Kovalevskaya
In the Port (1975) by Inessa Kovalevskaya,
Blue Puppy (1976) by Yefim Gamburg,
A Flying Ship (1979) by Garri Bardin,
Before We Were Birds (1982) by Garri Bardin,
science-fiction films
Phaeton −The Son of the Sun (1972) by Vasily Livanov,
Mirror of Time (1976) by Vladimir Tarasov,
fantasy adventure films
Contact (1978) by Vladimir Tarasov,
The Mystery of the Third Planet (1981) by Roman Kachanov,
epic films
Ilya Muromets (1975) by Ivan Aksenchuk,
Vasilisa Mikulishna (1975) by Roman Davydov, films based on Greek mythology
The Labyrinth (1971),
Argonauts (1971),
Perseus (1973),
Prometheus (1974) by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya.
The cartoons Island (1973) and I Grant You A Star (1974) by Fyodor Khitruk were awarded at the Cannes Film Festival short films competition.
The new generation of directors actively produced films, among them:
Valentin Karavaev (Ded Moroz and Summer (1969),
The Wise Gudgeon (1979)), Gennady Sokolsky (The Little Tari Bird (1976),
The Castle of Liars (1983)),
Valery Ugarov (The Secret Box (1976),
mini-series
On the Back Desk (1978–1985),
Caliph Stork (1981)),
Galina Barinova (A Terrible Story (1979)).
Anatoly Petrov, using traditional animation materials, invented the technique of photographics and created films in hyperrealism aesthetics (And Mother Will Forgive Me (1975), Polygon (1977).
Over the years many talented Soviet composers performed in the animation: Isaak Dunayevsky, Nikita Bogoslovsky, Alexander Varlamov, Karen Khachaturyan, Alfred Schnittke, Gennady Gladkov, Alexander Zatsepin, Yevgeny Krylatov, Vladimir Shainsky, Alexey Rybnikov, Maksim Dunayevsky, Mikhail Meerovich, Sofia Gubaidulina and others.
Alongside famous composers, musicians and sound engineers, prominent theatre and cinema actors worked at the studio, voicing popular characters: Yevgeny Leonov (Winnie-the-Pooh), Anatoli Papanov (Wolf in the series Well, Just You Wait!), Vasily Livanov (Karlsson-on-the-Roof and Gena the Crocodile), Klara Rumyanova (Lillebror from Karlsson-on-the-Roof, Cheburashka, Hare from Well, Just You Wait!), Maria Vinogradova (Hedgehog from Hedgehog in the Fog, Uncle Fyodor from Three from Prostokvashino). The Bremen Town Musicians are singing with the voices of Oleg Anofriyev and Muslim Magomayev, Faina Ranevskaya even finished the dialogue of the housekeeper Fröken Bock.
Many series characters became cult figures for several generations of viewers (the main heroes from Winnie-the-Pooh, Cheburashka, Karlsson-on-the-Roof, Well, Just You Wait!, Three from Prostokvashino).
Masters of the puppet association created popular films:
Vladimir Degtyaryov
How the Little Donkey Looked for the Happiness (1971), (which was seen in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episode 1582)
The New Year Tale (1972),
Ivan Ufimtsev
10-episode cartoon 38 Parrots (first episode was released in 1976),
Mikhail Kamenetsky
4-episode cartoon The Little Dwarf (1977–1983)
5-episode cartoon The Boatswain and the Parrot (1982–1986)
The Wolf and the Calf (1984).
During that period the films The Master of Clamecy (1972) and Sadko the Rich (1975) by Vadim Kurchevsky, Crane’s Feathers (1977) and Balagan (1981) by Ideya Garanina, The Guess (1977) and Black and White Cinema (1984) by Stanislav Sokolov, The Memories (1986) by Vladimir Arbekov were released.
From Wikipedia’s article on Soyuzmultfilm, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4