Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm, also known in English as SMF Animation Studio and formerly known as Soyuzdetmultfilm, is a Russian animation studio, production, and distribution company based in Moscow. Launched on June 10, 1936, as the animated film production unit of the U.S.S.R.'s motion picture monopoly, GUKF, Soyuzmultfilm has produced more than 1,500 cartoons. Soyuzmultfilm specializes in the creation of animated TV series, feature films and short films. The studio has made animated films in a wide variety of genres and art techniques, including stop motion, hand-drawn, 2D and 3D techniques. It is one of the oldest and largest animation studios in Russia.
The "Golden Collection" of Soyuzmultfilm, produced from the beginning of the 1950s and to the end of the 1980s, is considered to be the classics of the animation medium and the best works of world-renowned directors, production designers and animators. Among the studio's best-known films are Hedgehog in the Fog, the Cheburashka series, the Well, Just You Wait! series, Karlsson-on-the-Roof and others. Many of the films rank among the classics of world animation, garnered a multitude of international and Russian awards and prizes, and became an integral part of Russian and global culture.
In 2018, the studio released the feature film Hoffmaniada, considered a masterpiece of stop motion puppet animation, based on the tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The 3D full-length animated historical epic Suvorov is currently in production.
The studio has released 7 series projects since 2017. One of them is a sequel of the well-known Prostokvashino trilogy based on the aesthetics of the original. Six other series, with new original scripts, are Orange Moo-cow, which is co-produced with Cyber Group Studios, Squared Zebra, Claymotions, The Adventures of Peter & Wolf, Captain Kraken and His Crew, Pirate School. The series Mr. Theo, Cat and Dog and Orange Moo-cow ranked in the top 5 among the cartoons shown on Russian television in 2019, according to Mediascope research company. Several other series are in production and expected to be released in the second half of 2020.
The shorts produced by the studio participate in prestigious festivals and receive international prizes. Among the recent award-winning shorts are: Vivat Musketeers!, Good Heart, Coco's Day, The Sled, Two Trams, Moroshka, Pik Pik Pik and others.
In addition to the production of animation, the studio launched many educational activities. Soyuzmultfilm conducts advanced training programmes for animators and script-writers. In 2018, it opened a development center for children Soyuzmultclub with animation workshops, interactive programs, regular animation courses for children, the museum. In 2020, the first indoor recreational multimedia park Soyuzmultfilm will be opened at the VDNKH exhibition center. A Technopark, which is to become the largest animation production centre in Russia, is being created on the basis of the studio.
History
Early years
The film studio was founded on 10 June 1936, by order of the Chief Directorate of the Film and Photo Industry 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,, 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, developed by the American animators Fleisher Brothers and Charles Mintz Studio. 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, 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 ' by. 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 and '.
Since 1937, the studio started to produce color films. The first experience was ' by. Many cartoons of 1938–1945 were made both in colou
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 by, ' by
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 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,, Mikhail Volpin, Nikolai Erdman, Valentin Kataev, Yury Olesha,, Lev Kassil, Vladimir Suteev,,,, were invited to cooperate with the studio.
Under difficult working conditions, several outstanding films were created:
- ' by Olga Khodataeva,
- ' by Leonid Amalrik and Olga Khodataeva,
- ' by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky,
- ' by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky,
- The Tale of Tsar Saltan
- ' by the Brumberg sisters
- ' by Ivan Ivanov-Vano.
The golden age
Soon after the end of the war, in 1946, Soyuzmultfilm moved its offices to the building at Kalyaevskaya street, 23A.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, 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 by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky, ' by the Brumberg sisters, and ' by Leonid Amalrik and.
In 1947, Soyuzmultfilm received the first international award – ' by was awarded the bronze medal at the Venice Film Festival for the Best Animated Film.
In 1951, the film The Humpbacked Horse 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
- * '
In 1956, having changed several addresses, the three-dimensional puppet film workshop received a permanent area in .
In 1959, the well-known motion picture ' by Roman Kachanov and 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.
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, including annual production of feature films.
In 1957, Lev Atamanov put into practice the technique of assigning individual animators to specific characters.
Among the most famous feature films of the studio of the second half of the 1950s:
- The Enchanted Boy by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya and, which became the laureate of many prestigious film screenings,
- The Island of Mistakes by the Brumberg sisters,
- ' by,
- ' by Olga Khodataeva,
- The Twelve months by Ivan Ivanov-Vano,
- ' by Ivan Ivanov-Vano,
- ' by Olga Khodataeva and Leonid Aristov,
- ', by Leonid Amalrik
- ' by Leonid Amalrik,
- ' by Boris Stepantsev and,
- ' by Boris Stepantsev and Evgeny Raykovsky,
- The Adventures of Buratino by Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Dmitry Babichenko
- ' by,
- ' by and Boris Stepantsev,
- ' by and Roman Davydov,
- ' by,
- by Yevgeny Migunov