Soyuzmultfilm
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| Soyuzmultfilm | |
|---|---|
| Type | Corporation |
| Founded | 10 June 1936 |
| Headquarters | Dolgorukovskaya St. 23a, Moscow, Russia 103006 (film fund: same address, postal code: 127006) |
| Key people | Akop Kirakosyan (creative director)[1] Ernest Rakhimov (film fund director)[2] |
| Industry | Animated motion pictures |
| Products | Animated motion pictures Television programs |
| Employees | Of creative studio: 123 as of April 14, 2007[1] (it is unclear whether this number includes contractors) |
Soyuzmultfilm (Russian: Coюзмультфильм, translated as Union Animation) is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union. The studio has produced 1527 films during its existence[3].
It is currently divided into two studios: "Creative union of the "Film studio "Soyuzmultfilm" («Творческо-производственное объединение «Киностудия «Союзмультфильм») and the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund («Фильмофонд Киностудии «Союзмультфильм»).
Contents |
[edit] History during the Soviet era
The Studio was founded in 10 June 1936 under the name Soyuzdetmultfilm. The name was changed to Soyuzmultfilm on 20 August 1937. Initially comprising only a few scattered workshops, Soyuzmultfilm grew quickly, soon becoming the Soviet Union's premier animation studio. The studio produced exclusively traditional animation until 1954, when a "puppet division" was founded and the first stop motion-animated film released. The puppet division would later also make cutout-animated films.
During the Soviet era, the studio employed a maximum of over 700[1] skilled labourers and released an average of 20 films each year (the highest number was 47, in 1973).
The 60s, 70s and 80s saw the release of many films whose characters became an integral part of Soviet culture: Winnie-the-Pooh (Винни-Пух), Crocodile Gena (Крокодил Гена), Karlsson-on-the-Roof (Карлсон, который живёт на крыше), The Musicians of Bremen (Бременские музыканты), Three from Buttermilk Village (Трое из Простоквашино), Nu, pogodi! (Ну, погоди!), Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане), The Mystery of the Third Planet (Тайна третьей планеты) etc.
The variety of animation styles and the unprecedented degree of artistic freedom given to its many animators made Soyuzmultfilm perhaps the most diverse of the world's major animation studios.
Soyuzmultfilm's creativity was fueled in part by the unique conditions of the Soviet Union which made it possible for the studio to disregard the commercial appeal of its films. Because animators were paid by the Academy of Film regardless of how well or how poorly their products sold (though they were not, in fact, "sold"), they were free to pursue their artistic vision without giving a thought to finances.
[edit] Soyuzmultfilm's decline
The collapse of the Soviet Union brought to a close the golden era of Soyuzmultfilm. New economic realities made it impossible for the government to support the studio any longer. In 1989, Soyuzmultfilm was made into a leased enterprise (expiring after 10 years) and forced into the capitalist marketplace.
Although the studio survived, it shrank dramatically, losing nearly 90% of its staff and releasing only a few films. One early misfortune happened when the Russian courts transferred the studio's puppet division building (in a legal decision involving many other buildings) to the Russian Orthodox Church. Before the animators could react to this turn of events, a Cossack squadron broke into the building and began throwing out the "devilish puppets". No studio employees were allowed to come in and salvage any item, despite the presence of much expensive equipment and a whole library of puppets. [4]
The main reason for the collapse, however, was the studio's deliberate dismantling by the new top management and the illegal selling off of its assets for personal gain (see: [5] - in Russian). In 1992-1993, Sergei Skulyabin was elected president.
In the mid-1990s, Sergei Skulyabin illegally took over the company and used hired thugs to keep the animators in line and the government officials from asserting legal authority. The legal director of Soyuzmultfilm kept a very low profile after having been beat up in an alley and forced to go to the hospital with injuries to the head, and during this period many documents were signed by Skulyabin illegally on behalf of Soyuzmultfilm.
Georgiy Borodin writes of this time, "artistic work at the studio became psychologically unbearable and impossible. No one had the guarantee that come morning, he would not find his cabinet broken open, and his working table - cleared. Similar cases became almost a regular occurrence during the years of occupation. Animators who worked in other studios refused to believe the tales about the working conditions at the stolen "Soyuzmultfilm". Imagine, for example: you - the manager of one of the sections of the studio - come to your work cabinet and see in there several unidentified youths, engaged in packing away several large boxes with studio puppets to send them to an undisclosed location "at the command of Skulyabin". And when you, along with the director of the Puppet Dpt. (who is, by the way, responsible for the keeping of these puppets) keep them from being stolen by hiding them in a studio room which is inaccessible to these men, you are officially charged with attempted robbery." ([6])
Sergei Skulyabin was eventually ousted and fled to America, and the studio began a slow recovery.[7]
[edit] Films by Jove controversy
In 1992, the studio signed a deal with the American company Films by Jove, owned by Russian emigrants Oleg Vidov and Joan Borsten. It was the first international offer that the studio had received. The deal stipulated that Films by Jove would be granted the rights to 547 of the most popular classic studio films for a period of 10 years in all territories except the CIS; as part of the return, Soyuzmultfilm would receive 37% of the net profits. In 1993, newly-elected director Skulyabin extended the agreement by a further 35 years. Films by Jove restored many of the films and released many of them on television, video and DVD in the United States and Europe, albeit usually with dubbed voices and changed music.
According to current director Akop Kirakosyan, the original deal seemed promising at the time but turned out to be "deadly" for the studio. The expected payouts never materialized because Films by Jove never posted any net profits; all of the money officially went to things like new soundtracks, lawsuits and anti-pirating measures.[1]
Whether either deal was legal is currently being debated in court, with the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund (see section below) claiming that because the company's lease on its possessions would have expired in 1999 (at which time ownership would have automatically reverted back to the government if no new lease were signed), Soyuzmultfilm had no authority to issue rights that lasted beyond that timeframe. [8]
On 11 April 2007, Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov announced that he is in the final stages of negotiating a price with Films by Jove to buy back the collection. A source close to Usmanov said that Films by Jove's initial price was $10 million, while Usmanov is willing to pay "several times less", as he considers that the rights already belong to Soyuzmultfilm and that he himself is only buying the physical film prints. [9]
[edit] Soyuzmultfilm today
In 1999, Soyuzmultfilm came back under the control of the government. A government edict on 10 January 2003 ([10]) divided the company into two separate companies. The separation was finalised on March 1, 2004.
The rights of all Soyuzmultfilm films before March 1, 2004 belong to the "Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund", headed by Ernest Rakhimov, and its official mission is restoring and marketing them. The mission of the "Creative union of the "Film studio "Soyuzmultfilm", headed by Akop Kirakosyan, is to create new films (anywhere from 3-7 short films a year) and to eventually privatize itself (currently, 100% of its stock is owned by the Russian Ministry of Culture).
Today the studio's major project is the upcoming feature film Gofmaniada, backed by Mikhail Shemyakin and directed by Stanislav Sokolov. It will be based on the tales of E.T.A. Hoffman. The film will use stop motion animation exclusively and will avoid using computer animation for special effects. The first 20 minutes of the film were screened on November 20, 2006, in St. Petersburg, and the full film is expected to be completed in 2008.[11]
[edit] Notable artists
[edit] Animators & directors
- Garry Bardin
- Ivan Ivanov-Vano
- Fyodor Khitruk
- Vyatcheslav Kotyonochkin
- Vadim Kurchevskiy
- Yuriy Norshteyn
- Aleksandr Ptushko
- Leonid Shvartsman
- Rasa Strautmane
- Stanislav Sokolov
[edit] Actors
[edit] Selected films
- 1947 The Humpbacked Horse (Конёк-Горбуно́к)
- 1952 The Scarlet Flower (А́ленький цвето́чек)
- 1952 The Snow Maiden (Снегу́рочка)
- 1954 The Golden Antelope (Золота́я антило́па)
- 1957 The Snow Queen (Сне́жная короле́ва)
- 1958 Beloved Beauty (Краса́ ненагля́дная)
- 1962 The Wild Swans (Ди́кие ле́беди)
- 1964 Lefty (Ле́вша)
- 1967 Maugli (Ма́угли)
- 1968 Little Boy and Karlsson (Малы́ш и Карлсо́н)
- 1969–1993 Nu, pogodi! (Ну, погоди́!)
- 1969 Crocodile Gena (Крокоди́л Ге́на)
- 1969 The Bremen Musicians (Бре́менские музыка́нты)
- 1969 Winnie-the-Pooh (Ви́нни-Пу́х)
- 1970 Karlsson Returns (Ка́рлсон верну́лся)
- 1971 Cheburashka (Чебура́шка)
- 1971 Winnie-the-Pooh Goes on a Visit (Ви́нни-Пух идёт в го́сти)
- 1972 Winnie-the-Pooh and the Day of Concern (Ви́нни-Пу́х и день забо́т)
- 1973 On the Trail of Town Musicians of Bremen (По следа́м бре́менских музыка́нтов)
- 1973 The Heron and the Crane (Ца́пля и жура́вль)
- 1973 The Island (О́стров)
- 1974 Shapoklyak (Шапокля́к)
- 1975 Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тума́не)
- 1976–1991 38 Parrots (38 попуга́ев)
- 1978 Three from Buttermilk Village (Тро́е из Простоква́шино)
- 1979 Tale of Tales (Ска́зка ска́зок)
- 1980 Vacation in Buttermilk Village (Кани́кулы в Простоква́шино)
- 1981 The Mystery of the Third Planet (Та́йна тре́тьей плане́ты)
- 1982 There Once Was a Dog (Жил-был пёс)
- 1983 The Travels of an Ant (Путеше́ствие муравья́)
- 1983 Cheburashka Goes to School (Чебура́шка идёт в шко́лу)
- 1984 Winter in Buttermilk Village (Зима́ в Простоква́шино)
- 1984 The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Ска́зка о царе́ Салта́не)
- 1987 Laughter and Grief by the White Sea (Смех и го́ре у Бе́ла мо́ря)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Radio interview with Akop Kirakosyan (partially transcribed), 13-04-2007. (Russian)
[edit] See also
- History of Russian animation
- Mosfilm
- Gorky Film Studio
- Lenfilm
- Belarusfilm
- Dovzhenko Film Studios
- Melnitsa Animation Studio
- Encyclopedia of Domestic Animation - covering all Soviet and Russian animation
[edit] External links
- Official website (Russian)
- Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund
- Soyuzmultfilm on Animator.ru
- Soyuzmultfilm on the Internet Movie Database
- Soyuzmultfilm cartoons of the 1940s and the 1950s with Esperanto subtitles
- Satellite picture by Google Maps
- The Cartoon Database's entry on Soyuzmultfilm
- International distributor of Soyuzmultfilm's titles
- In-depth history of the appalling and criminal happenings at Soyuzmultfilm during the 1990s (Russian)
- May, 2006 Interview with Soyuzmultfilm director (Russian)
- condensed history of Soyuzmultfilm in the 1990s (Russian)
