Cheburashka and other Soviet cartoon favorites

The biggest Russian animated film studio, Soyuzmultfilm, was founded in 1936 and celebrates its 75th anniversary on June 10.
Photo: “Nu Pogody!” (Just You Wait!). Episode 5, 1972

The studio released its first animated film in 1936. A year later, the first colored cartoon was made. A special group producing puppet-animated films was created in the early 1960s. The group has produced many popular puppet-animated cartoon series, including “Crocodile Gena and his friends.”
Photo: Crocodile Gena and Cheburashka puppets on display at Soyuzmultfilm studio museum.

In 1955, the studio released The Enchanted Boy, a cartoon based on Selma Lagerlof’s story about Nils, a boy bewitched by a gnome.

In 1958, the studio produced a screen version of the famous Soviet novel The Boy Nipper-Pipper, by Arkady Gaidar. A boy named Nipper-Pipper was captured and tortured by did not give away military secrets.

The Soyuzmultfilm studio was especially famous for the animated cartoons based on Russian folk tales, created in keeping with the best traditions of the Russian art school.
Photo: Dobrynya Nikitich animated film, designed by the Palekh artists.

The Snow Queen, based on Hans-Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, became one of the studio’s most acclaimed films. It was named best animated film at the Venice, Cannes, Rome and London film festivals.

Soyuzmultfilm has made many screen adaptations of the tales of Hans-Christian Anderson.
Photo: The Ugly Duckling, Anderson’s fairy tale about an ugly duck turning into a gorgeous swan

The Wild Swans cartoon, based on another Hans-Christian Anderson story, was released by the studio in 1962.

In 1965, Soyuzmulfilm’s acclaimed animator Fyodor Khitruk made a screen version of a story by the Czech author Milos Macourek. It saw the creation of another popular character - Boniface, the circus lion, who traveled to Africa to visit his grandma.

In 1969, the studio produced a series of cartoons based on A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, translated into Russian by Boris Zakhoder. Cheerful honey-lover Vinni-Pukh, small and timid Piglet, melancholic Eeyore, and of course know-it-all Owl were given Soviet makeovers.

The first episode of the Mowgli cartoon, based on Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, was released in 1967. There were five episodes in all, telling the whole Mowgli story.

The first episode of the Cat Leopold series, telling the story of an intelligent inoffensive cat suffering from two mice hooligans, was released in 1975.

Wolf and Calf by Milhail Kamenetsky is a funny story about a wolf that stole a calf to eat and ended up adopting it instead.

From 1989 to 1993 Soyuzmultfilm made a series of animated films, based on Shakespeare’s tragedies.
Photo: Romeo and Juliette animated film

Hoffmaniada is one the studio’s latest projects. It took 10 years to complete the first part of the puppet-animated film, based on Theodor Hoffman’s tales. The sketches were made by the well-known artist Mikhail Shemyakin, while famous mime-artist Vyachaslav Polunin helped to write the screenplay.
Photo: Hoffmaniada by S. Sokolova