Funny holidays - Birthday of the film studio "Soyuzmultfilm"

The oldest Russian animation studio was founded in Moscow on June 10, 1936. The decision to create it was made personally by I.V. Stalin. The first hand-drawn films, where the main characters were mainly animals, were black and white. After a while, the studio began filming color films. Over the years of its existence, Soyuzmultfilm has produced about 1.5 thousand animated full-length films of various genres and stylistic directions. The creations of directors and artists have received more than 500 awards at festivals and shows. On June 10, in honor of the founding of the film studio, the birthday of Soyuzmultfilm is celebrated. The first masterpieces, “Uncle Styopa”, “Fly-Tsokotukha”, “Barmaley” and “Moidodyr”, were created in the premises of the Orthodox churches of the Transfiguration and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, provided by the state for the work of artists. During production, the method of rotoscoping (photo transfer) was used - shooting people and animals in nature with subsequent drawing of the images. Directors often used Disney style, but artistically interesting and original works appeared, for example, “Why does the rhinoceros’s skin have folds?” (1938) and “Noisy Swimming” (1937) by V. Suteev. The name “animated films” or “cartoon” was supposed to emphasize the difference between Soviet film production and Western ones. It was decided to abandon the international term “animation”. When they began to figure out what would be a better name for this phenomenon in cinema, they started with “multi” – multitude, reproduction. That is, a lot of pictures need to be drawn and framed by hand, and then animated to make a film. The state encouraged the activities of animators, creating good working conditions for them. The directors filmed actively, experimenting and achieving excellent results. To improve their level of professionalism, the first courses for cartoonists were opened in 1940. Despite the outbreak of war in 1941, the studio continued to operate. Its creative teams produced multi-caricatures and propaganda films. From 1941 to 1943 The creative association was evacuated to the Uzbek SSR. But after returning to Moscow, even taking into account the personnel shortage and other difficulties, she continued to work. The first half of the 50s to the end of the 80s are considered the golden age of Soyuzmultfilm. Within the walls of the famous “animation factory” such great directors and artists as I. Ivanov-Vano, F. Khitruk, Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg, B. Dezhkin, I. Kovalevskaya, R. Kachanov, V. Kotenochkin, L. Shmelkov, worked. G. Bardin and many others. “Hedgehog in the Fog” by Yu. Norshtein was recognized as the best cartoon of all time in 2003. He created a new genre of poetic animation, which is based on artistic culture and classical music. Other directors who worked at Soyuzmultfilm also had a unique style and original technique. The skill of artistic embodiment of a plot is not enough to create a masterpiece. Therefore, Soyuzmultfilm has attracted famous theater and film actors to cooperate for more than 85 years. The cartoon characters spoke in the voices of A. Raikin, F. Ranevskaya, L. Bronevoy, Yu. Nikulin, A. Batalov, L. Kuravlev, O. Yankovsky, V. Leonov, L. Gurchenko, G. Khazanov, E. Evstigneev, V. Etush and other artists. "Soyuzmultfilm" is a unique phenomenon of both national and world culture. More than one generation of children was raised on her legendary paintings. Today it is the only studio in the country where all animation techniques are represented: traditional hand-drawn, plasticine, puppet animation, various types of animation and high-tech 3D. Fans of Russian animation annually pay tribute to the work of the talented film studio team, celebrating the birthday of Soyuzmultfilm on June 10.