Soyuzmultfilm

Infobox_Company
company_name = Soyuzmultfilm
company_
company_type = Corporation
company_slogan = "Советское Значит Отличное" (Soviet Means the Best)
foundation = 10 June 1936
location = Dolgorukovskaya St. 23a, Moscow, Russia 103006 (film fund: same address, postal code: 127006)
key_people = Akop Kirakosyan (creative director) [http://www.radiorus.ru/issue.html?iid=100275&rid=346]
Ernest Rakhimov (film fund director) [http://animator.ru/index.phtml?p=show_news&nid=729] | num_employees = Of creative studio: 123 as of April 14, 2007 (it is unclear whether this number includes contractors)
contractors
industry = Animated motion pictures
products = Animated motion pictures
Television programs
revenue =

Soyuzmultfilm ( _ru. 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 1529 films during its existence [http://animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_studia&sid=16&sp=2] .

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»).

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 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 ( _ru. "Винни-Пух"), Crocodile Gena ( _ru. "Крокодил Гена"), Karlsson-on-the-Roof ( _ru. "Карлсон, который живёт на крыше"), The Musicians of Bremen ( _ru. "Бременские музыканты"), Three from Buttermilk Village ( _ru. "Трое из Простоквашино"), Nu, pogodi! ( _ru. "Ну, погоди!"), Hedgehog in the Fog ( _ru. "Ёжик в тумане"), The Mystery of the Third Planet ( _ru. "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.

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. [http://www.utro.ru/articles/2005/06/29/453479.shtml]

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: [http://animator.ru/articles/article.phtml?id=28] - 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." ( [http://animator.ru/articles/article.phtml?id=28] )

Sergei Skulyabin was eventually ousted and fled to America, and the studio began a slow recovery. [http://www.newizv.ru/news/2006-01-20/38731/]

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. 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. [http://www.cultradio.ru/doc.html?id=115044&cid=46 Radio interview with Akop Kirakosyan] (partially transcribed), 13-04-2007. ru icon]

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. [http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article.shtml?2007/04/11/123914]

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. [http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article.shtml?2007/04/11/123914]

oyuzmultfilm today

In 1999, Soyuzmultfilm came back under the control of the government. A government edict on 10 January 2003 ( [http://pravo.roskultura.ru/law/order/08/12/2003/1/image/598.html] ) 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. [http://news.ntv.ru/98119]

Notable artists

Animators & directors

*Garry Bardin
*Ivan Ivanov-Vano
*Fyodor Khitruk
*Vyatcheslav Kotyonochkin
*Vadim Kurchevskiy
*Yuriy Norshteyn
*Aleksandr Ptushko
*Leonid Shvartsman
*Rasa Strautmane
*Stanislav Sokolov

Actors

*Anatoli Papanov
*Klara Rumyanova
*Vasilii Livanov

elected films

*1947 "The Humpbacked Horse" ( _ru. Конёк-Горбуно́к)
*1952 "The Scarlet Flower" ( _ru. А́ленький цвето́чек)
*1952 "The Snow Maiden" ( _ru. Снегу́рочка)
*1954 "The Golden Antelope" ( _ru. Золота́я антило́па)
*1957 "The Snow Queen" ( _ru. Сне́жная короле́ва)
*1958 "Beloved Beauty" ( _ru. Краса́ ненагля́дная)
*1962 "The Wild Swans" ( _ru. Ди́кие ле́беди)
*1964 "Lefty" ( _ru. Левша́)
*1967 "Adventures of Mowgli" ( _ru. Ма́угли)
*1968 "Little Boy and Karlsson" ( _ru. Малы́ш и Ка́рлсон)
*1969–2006 "Nu, pogodi!" ( _ru. Ну, погоди́!)
*1969 "Crocodile Gena" ( _ru. Крокоди́л Ге́на)
*1969 "The Bremen Musicians" ( _ru. Бре́менские музыка́нты)
*1969 "Winnie-the-Pooh" ( _ru. Ви́нни-Пу́х)
*1970 "Karlsson Returns" ( _ru. Ка́рлсон верну́лся)
*1971 "Cheburashka" ( _ru. Чебура́шка)
*1971 "Winnie-the-Pooh Goes on a Visit" ( _ru. Ви́нни-Пух идёт в го́сти)
*1972 "Winnie-the-Pooh and the Day of Concern" ( _ru. Ви́нни-Пу́х и день забо́т)
*1973 "On the Trail of Town Musicians of Bremen" ( _ru. По следа́м бре́менских музыка́нтов)
*1973 "The Heron and the Crane" ( _ru. Ца́пля и жура́вль)
*1973 "The Island" ( _ru. О́стров)
*1974 "Shapoklyak" ( _ru. Шапокля́к)
*1975 "Hedgehog in the Fog" ( _ru. Ёжик в тума́не)
*1976–1991 "38 Parrots" ( _ru. 38 попуга́ев)
*1978 "Three from Buttermilk Village" ( _ru. Тро́е из Простоква́шино)
*1979 "Tale of Tales" ( _ru. Ска́зка ска́зок)
*1980 "Vacation in Buttermilk Village" ( _ru. Кани́кулы в Простоква́шино)
*1981 "The Mystery of the Third Planet" ( _ru. Та́йна тре́тьей плане́ты)
*1982 "There Once Was a Dog" ( _ru. Жил-был пёс)
*1983 "The Travels of an Ant" ( _ru. Путеше́ствие муравья́)
*1983 "Cheburashka Goes to School" ( _ru. Чебура́шка идёт в шко́лу)
*1984 "Winter in Buttermilk Village" ( _ru. Зима́ в Простоква́шино)
*1984 "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" ( _ru. Ска́зка о царе́ Салта́не)
*1987 "Laughter and Grief by the White Sea" ( _ru. Смех и го́ре у Бе́ла мо́ря)

References

ee 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

External links

* [http://www.smfanima.ru/ Official website] ru icon
* [http://souzmult.ru/ Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund]
* [http://www.animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_studia&sid=16 Soyuzmultfilm] on Animator.ru
* [http://www.imdb.com/company/co0114162/ Soyuzmultfilm on the Internet Movie Database]
* [http://kinejo.blogsome.com/category/animaciaj/ Soyuzmultfilm cartoons of the 1940s and the 1950s with Esperanto subtitles]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=moscow,+russia&t=k&hl=en/&om=1&ll=55.775948,37.602307&spn=0.00191,0.006684 Satellite picture by Google Maps]
* [http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Other_Studios/S/Soyuzmultfilm/index.html The Cartoon Database's entry on Soyuzmultfilm]
* [http://store.russiananimation.com/ International distributor of Soyuzmultfilm's titles]
* [http://animator.ru/articles/article.phtml?id=28 In-depth history of the appalling and criminal happenings at Soyuzmultfilm during the 1990s] ru icon
* [http://www.zarplata.ru/a-id-10664.html May, 2006 Interview with Soyuzmultfilm director] ru icon
* [http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/25n/n25n-s28.shtml condensed history of Soyuzmultfilm in the 1990s] ru icon