History of animation in Russia

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Well, who doesn't love cartoons? Now the industry has developed to such an extent that cartoons have such special effects and graphics that it is sometimes difficult to remember the old "flat" films with poor quality drawing, without all sorts of effects, such as 3D. Modern children will never understand what a cartoon with plasticine characters about a crow with cheese means, what simple short cartoons with faded colors and slightly muffled voices of heroes mean, and there’s nothing to say about filmstrips!

The history of animation is another stage in the development of cinema, because from the very beginning, cartoons were considered a separate film genre. This happened despite the fact that cartoons have less in common with cinema than with painting.

We owe cartoons to Joseph Plateau

Like any other history, the history of animation and animation has had its ups and downs, shifts and long standstills. However, it is interesting because the production of cartoons has been developing almost constantly and continues to do so until now. The history of the emergence of animation is connected with the estate of the Belgian scientist Joseph Plateau. He is known for having created in 1832a toy called a strobe light. It is unlikely that our children would play with such a toy in the modern world, but the children of the 19th century liked such entertainment. A drawing was applied to a flat disk, for example, a running horse (as was the case with Plateau), and the next one was slightly different from the previous one, that is, the drawings depicted the sequence of actions of the animal during the jump. When the disc was spinning, it gave the impression of a moving picture.

First multiplier

But no matter how hard Joseph Plato tried to improve his installation, he failed to create a full-fledged cartoon. He gave way to the Frenchman Émile Reynaud, who created a similar device called a praxinoscope, which consisted of a cylinder with the same phased drawings applied to it as in a stroboscope.

This is how the history of animation began. Already at the end of the 17th century, the Frenchman founded a small optical theater, where he showed everyone who wanted comic performances 15 minutes long. Over time, the installation changed, a system of mirrors and lighting was added, which, of course, brought the world closer to such a magical action as a cartoon.

Animation continued to develop in France for the first decades of its life along with theater and cinema. The well-known director Emile Kohl was famous for his excellent acting performances, but still the animation hooked him more, and in 1908 he "drew" his first cartoon. To achieve realism, Kohl used photographs and copied objects from life, but still his brainchild wasmore like a comic in motion than a movie.

The ballet master of the theater - the founder of animation in Russia

As for the Russian figures in the field of animation, they took cartoons to a new level, now the characters were dolls. So in 1906 the first domestic cartoon was created, from which the history of animation in Russia began. Alexander Shiryaev, choreographer of the Mariinsky Theatre, edited a cartoon featuring 12 dancing puppets.

A short film recorded on 1.5 cm wide film turned out to be too much work. For three months, Alexander ran from the camera to the production itself so often that he even wiped a hole in the floor. Shiryaev's dolls do not just move above the surface, like ghosts, they, like living ones, jump, spin in the air and perform incredible movements. Famous historians and animators still cannot unravel the secret of such activity of the characters. Say what you like, but the history of domestic animation is a complex and serious matter, so even the most advanced specialists do not always manage to fully understand the principles of operation of a particular device.

Vladislav Starevich is a bright "character" of Russian animation

The history of the creation of animation is associated with the names of French scientists and directors. Vladislav Starevich was definitely a "white crow" among these foreigners, because in 1912 he came up with a real 3D cartoon! No, the history of Russian animation has not yet reached the moment when people thought of putting onspecial glasses, this person created a long-lasting cartoon puppet. It was black and white, strange and even scary, because it was a bit difficult to make beautiful characters with your own hands.

This cartoon was called “The Beautiful Lucanida, or the War of the Hornets and Mustaches”, the most interesting thing is that Vladislav Starevich used insects in his work, which was not accidental, because he was very fond of these creatures. It was from this person that cartoons with meaning began, because Starevich believed that the film should not only entertain, but also have some kind of subtext. And in general, his films were conceived as some teaching aids in biology about insects, the cartoonist himself did not imagine that he would create a real work of art.

Starevich didn't stop at Lukanida alone, later he created cartoons based on fables, now they began to resemble some kind of fairy tales.

Soviet graphics

The history of Soviet animation began in 1924, when a few artists produced a huge number of hand-drawn cartoons at the unpopular Kultkino studio today. Among them were "German Affairs and Deeds", "Soviet Toys", "A Case in Tokyo" and others. The speed of creating one cartoon has increased significantly, if earlier animators worked on one project for months, now the period has been reduced to 3 weeks (more in rare cases). This was done thanks to a breakthrough in the field of technology. Artists already had flat templates that saved time and made the processcreating a cartoon is less time consuming. The animation of that time gave the world a huge number of cartoons that are of great importance not only in Russia, but throughout the world.

Alexander Ptushko

This person also contributed to the development of our animation. He is an architect by training and has also worked in the field of mechanical engineering. But when he got to Mosfilm, he realized that the creation of puppet cartoons was his calling. There he was able to bring to life his architectural skills, and also helped to create a good technical base at the most famous film studio in Russia.

He became especially famous after the creation of the cartoon "New Gulliver" in 1935. No, this is not an overlay of text on the plot, this is a kind of redrawing of Gulliver's Travels in the manner of the USSR. And what is most important and new in Ptushko's work is that he was able to combine two completely different areas in the film industry: cartoon and acting. Now the emotions of dolls, mass character, activity appear in cartoons, the work done by the master becomes obvious. The history of animation for children with kind and beautiful characters begins its countdown precisely from Ptushko.

Soon he becomes the director of the new cartoon studio Soyuzdetmultfilm, but for some reason he leaves his post after a while, then only that it ended is known about his animation activity. Alexander decided to devote himself to films. But in his further film works, he used the "chips" of animation.

W alt Disney and his"donation"

It turns out that the history of animation in Russia was built and pieced together not only by Russian researchers, scientists and just cartoon lovers, W alt Disney himself presented the Moscow Film Festival with a whole reel of high-quality film with a cartoon drawn by everyone's favorite about the good old Mickey Mouse. Our domestic director Fyodor Khitruk was so impressed by the smooth and imperceptible change of frames and the quality of drawing that he realized that we wanted the same! However, in Russia so far there have been only puppet shows with, to put it mildly, unpresentable toys. In connection with the desire for improvement, a studio known to all Soviet and post-Soviet children, Soyuzmultfilm, was created.

"Soyuzmultfilm" - corporation of nostalgia

In 1935, our animators realized that it was time to change something in the life of drawn pictures, it was time to throw out these old dolls and start doing serious things. The union of several small studios scattered throughout the country began to create larger-scale works, many critics argue that the history of animation begins from this moment in our country. The first works of the studio were rather boring, as they were devoted to the development of progress in Europe, but by 1940 specialists from Leningrad had moved to the Moscow Union. However, even after that, nothing good happened, since the war began, all organizations had a clear goal - to raise the patriotic spirit of the people.

Bpost-war period there was a sharp rise in the level of production of cartoons. The viewer saw not the usual change of pictures and not the usual dolls, but realistic characters and interesting stories. All this was achieved through the use of new equipment, already tested by American comrade W alt Disney and his studio. For example, in 1952, engineers created exactly the same camera as at the Disney studio. New methods of shooting were created (the effect of image volume) and the old ones were brought to automatism. At this moment, cartoons take on their new shell, instead of meaningless children's "movies" there are educational and subtext-based works. In addition to short films, full-length cartoons are being shot, such as The Snow Queen. In general, from the moment of the creation of Soyuzmultfilm, the history of animation in Russia begins. For children in those days, even small changes were noticeable and even the shortest films were appreciated.

1980s-1990s

After experiencing a change in direction in animation, Soviet cartoons start to get better from the end of 1970. It was in that decade that such a famous cartoon as “Hedgehog in the Fog” appeared, which was watched, probably, by all children born before the 2000s. However, a special rise in the activity of multipliers was observed in the 80s of the last century. At that time, the famous cartoon film by Roman Kachanov "The Secret of the Third Planet" was released. It happened in 1981.

This picture won the hearts of many children of that time, and adults did notdisdained watching it, to be honest. In the same year, the famous "Plasticine Crow" was released, marking the arrival of a new animator, Alexander Tatarsky, at the Ekran studio. A few years later, the same specialist creates the cartoon "The Other Side of the Moon", the name of which lures you to find out what is there, on the other side of the Moon?

But plasticine is only "flowers", because in Sverdlovsk, which actively participated in the country's animation activities, cartoon films were created using glass. Then the glass artist Alexander Petrov became famous. Among such glass drawings is "The Tale of the Goat", released in 1985.

The end of the 1980s is marked by sharp and rough strokes in the drawing, poor image quality and general blurring, this is easy to see in the example of Koloboks on Investigation. This fashion was like a disease that spread throughout the world of domestic animation, only a few artists got rid of the habit of sloppy drawing, although it can be called a separate style, as in painting.

In the 90s, Russia began to cooperate with foreign studios, artists signed contracts and, together with foreign specialists, created full-length cartoons. But still, the most patriotic artists remain at home, with their help, the history of animation in our country continues.

Cartoon today

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a crisis flourished not only in the life of the country, but also in the life of animation. It seemed that the history of animation for children, as well as for adults,finished. Studios existed only due to advertising and rare orders. But still, at that time there were works that won an award (“The Old Man and the Sea” and “The Winter's Tale”). Soyuzmultfilm was also destroyed, the authorities sold all the rights to the cartoons and completely ruined the studio.

But already in 2002, Russia first used a computer to create animation, and even despite the "troubled" time in the history of animation, the work of Russian animators took pride of place in world competitions.

In 2006, the production of cartoons resumed in Russia, "Prince Vladimir", "Dwarf Nose" came out. New studios appear: Melnitsa and Solnechny Dom.

But it turned out that it's too early to rejoice, because 3 years after the release of the last famous films, a black streak of crisis began. Many studios were closed, and the state ceased to promote the development of Russian animation.

Now many domestic studios release cartoons beloved by everyone, sometimes stories do not fit into an hour-long film, so you have to draw 2-3, or even more parts. So far, there are no failures in the history of animation in Russia.

Whatever you say, even adults like to watch cartoons and sometimes do it more attentively than their young children, and all because modern cartoons are bright, interesting and funny. Now they cannot be compared with puppet ones, where cockroaches and other insects participated. Nevertheless, any step that the history of Russian animation "climbed"important, because each of them led to perfection.