Apart from the Soviet writers' prolific input into the children literature, a great deal of stories was translated into Russian, so the kids of the USSR grew up on the stories by Hans Andersen, Charles Pierrot and the Grimm brothers as well as other world famous children's writers
As cartoon making was one of the most developed (and certainly less censored ones) graphic arts, it can be of interest to see how the Russian animators saw the traditional Western fairy tales characters.
One of the popular Soviet animated musical is "Bremenskie Muzikanty" (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten / Bremen Town Musicians) based on the fairy tale by by Jakob/Wilhelm Grimm. This tale enjoys widespread popularity in Europe, however may be little known in the United Kingdom or the US.
There isn't a spoken word in the cartoon, with everything sung to tunes that sounds like a mix of 1960s pop and traditional
East European folk music. One of the main voice actor in this animation is Oleg Anofriyev.
All that the cartoon keeps from the story is the basic set-up - a donkey, a dog, a cat and a cockerel who together
form a musical troupe - plus the idea of a bunch of dim bandits.
The animals are travelling along with their human friend, identified as the Troubadour. Although apparently set in some medieval milieu, the Troubadour wears flares, the King's daughter wears a mini-dress and the donkey wears a baseball cap! The animation is simplistic with extensive use of repeated movement but there is an undeniable charm to the production. All the music is credited to Gennadi Gladkov with lyrics by Yuri Entin. The actual credited scriptwriter is Vasili Livanov who is also an actor and starred as Sherlock Holmes in a series of Russian TV-movies in the early 1980s.
Another favourite Soviet multiplication is "Alisa v strane chudes" (1981, dir. Yefrem Pruzhansky) based on "Alice in Wonderland" written by Lewis Carroll
According to the western reviews this multiplication has lots of great ideas (like animating Alice's side-thoughts: walking on their hands "antipathies", and Alice sending a package to her feet). However minimalist backgrounds and stretching and sinking sets are referred to as unfortunate cheapness of this cartoon. Unlike most other Alices, all lovely and sugar-sweet and just a little spoiled, "the Soviet Alice is acidic, stubborn, bitchy and very welcoming to any and all hallucinations".
This fantastical and captivating animated fairy tale with its "devious, delirious animated Wonderland, Soviet style" is one of the favourite among the Russian cartoon-lovers.
Cast Spartak Mishulin, Yuri Volyntsev, Zinovy Vysokovsky, Georgy Kishko, Mikhail Svetin, Lia Ahedzhakova, Nikolai Karachentsev, Rostislav Plyatt, Vyacheslav Nevinny, Rina Green, Marina Neyolova.
A world famous Cinderella by Ch.Perro was also animated by "Soyuzmultfilm" (a Russian animation studio based in Moscow) in 1979 by director Ivan Aksenchuk. Soviet animated film preserved the classical plot: Stepmother, her two daughters, unsympathetic, weak-willed husband, the forester, the stepdaughter-maid Cinderella. Cinderella, with the help of fairy godmother comes to the royal ball, where he met with Prince. The magic disappears at midnight, Cinderella flees, losing a crystal slipper. And, as everyone knows, all ends well. Cartoon differs by magnificent poetic and musical content, representing a classic of Soviet animation.
The hit of the 70-80th frequently shown on TV was "Snezhnaya koroleva" (The Snow Queen) directed by By Lev Atamanov (1957)- animated
interpretation of Hans Andersen's world famous fairy tale.
Lev Atamanov's masterpiece remains a classic of Soviet animation and one of the most beautiful animated fairy tales of all times. Hayao Miyazaki has stated that this movie is one of his inspirations to work in animation.
This cartoon is a winner of various international prizes and awards:
1957 - The first prize of the "Golden Lion Sv.Marka" in the category of animated films, the Cannes IFF XI
1958 - The first prize in the category of animated films; ICF in Rome
1958 - First Prize; I TCF in Moscow
1958 - A special prize films, awarded prizes at various festivals; III British ICF in London
1959 - Year recognized best film
The film was re-released with English soundtracks in 1959 and 1998
The film was re-released with English soundtracks in 1959 and 1998
Other well-known S Russian cartoons based on fairy tales by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen are : "Rusalochka" (The Little Mermaid) (1968), "Gadkiy Utenok" (The Ugly Duckling ) (1956), "Stojkiy olovyannyj soldatik" (Brave Tin Soldier ) (1959), "Duimovochka "" (Thumbelina) (1964)
Sometimes Russian translators modified the plot and chnaged the heros of the porginal book. This is how the famous book by A. Milne "Winnie the Pooh" in its Russian version features no Tigger yet there are some extra characters not from the original script. The first book was released in 1960 and was titled - "Vinni Puh and all the others". Later title was changed to "Vinni Puh and all-all-all". That not all, Boris Zahoder's love for Vinni Puh continued and later he teamed up with director Fedor Khitruk and a Soviet cartoon-studio to create three beautiful Vinni Puh cartoons. They are: "Winnie the Pooh", "Winnie the Pooh Is Going On A Visit", "Winnie-the-Pooh and the Day of Care"
Quite often translator to become somewhat of an author and hence their name went onto the book cover (this is what happened to the Russian version of The Wizard of Oz). The Russian variant is "Wizard of Emerald City", (Volshebnik Izumrudnogo Goroda) by Alexander Volkov. 10 series of doll Russian cartoon film with the same named was released in 1974
Astrid Lidgren's legendary stories Karlsson-on-the-Roof " and Karlsson Flies Again insprired Soviet animators and a popular cartoon "Malysh I Karlson" (Junior and Karlson) directed by Boris Stepantsev appeared in 1968 at "Soyuzmultfilm". It is often referred to as the icon of Soviet animation. Karlson was voiced by Vasiliy Livanov, Russian actor and Malush (Junior) - by Klara Rumyanova.
Another loved multiplication, a film classic by Boris Stepantsev is "Schelkunchik" (The Nutcracker) (1973) based upon Hoffmann fairy tale ballet and Tchaikovsky. It is not that colourful as Disney cartoon, but much more humane, kinder, warmer. Stepantsev managed to create magic with help of brilliant animation and fascinating music of Tchaikovsky.
"The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" By Swedish author Selma Lagerlof made the basis of another wonderful Soviet cartoon - "Zakoldovannyj maltchik" (The Enchanted Boy) (1955) directed by Vladimir Polkovnikov and Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya.
Rudyard Kipling's classics "The Jungle Book" was presented by Russian animators by the cartoons of the same name: "Mowgli", "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The Cat Who Walked by Himself" both directed by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya (1968). Adventures of Mowgli is an animated feature-length story originally released as five animated shorts of about 20 minutes each between 1967 and 1971 in the Soviet Union. They were directed by Roman Davydov. In 1973, the five films were combined into a single 96-minute feature film. Soviet adaptation features sequences of fighting and occasionally shows blood. Except the first episode, Mowgli is portrayed as an adolescent warrior rather than a child. Bagheera is portrayed as a beautiful, strong , yet dangerous female animal in the Soviet multiplication unlike the original Kipling's male character. This can be explained by the fact that Russian word "cheetah" is of feminine gender
|
|
Not only the translators, but also cartoon directors took liberty of changing the plot of the storyline.
Animated film "Petya and Little Red Riding Hood" based on Charles Pierrot's "Little Red Riding Hood"
is ideologically modified original story.
A young pioneer Petya accidentally gets onto the fairy tale and helps Red Riding Hood and her granny avoid the evil wolf.
Another Pierrot's well-known tale "Pussy on boots" was animated at Soyuzmultfilm by sisters Brumberg.
The style and the humour of the cartoon as well as the jazz and pop music played in it makes it interesting especially for the adults.
Sources:
Russia! magazine Alice In Wonderland, Perfected in 1981 by Marina Galperina
a Soviet Take on the World-Famous Cartoon Characters.
Bremenskie Muzikanty - Cult movies and the people who make them.
Modern Russian catroons - Russian animation, films, movies with English subtitles