In Soviet times, the film Studio “Soyuzmultfilm” was the leading Studio that made animated films, and many paintings of the time included in the Golden Fund of Russian cinema. Now “Soyuzmultfilm” returns to the screens of the legendary heroes — came out dozens of episodes of the new “Buttermilk” uncle Fedor, Ball and cat Matroskin, Studio shot, the final story of the bear Umki, and in turn she has a lot of new works — both the original and with the participation of heroes of Soviet films. Aephi talk to the General producer of “Soyuzmultfilm” Julia Osetinskaya about what children are watching, why they like short stories and cartoon characters, about the reaction of parents to “Buttermilk” and “Umka”, and also about new projects and the return of “Nu, pogodi!”. Igor Karev, Aiphe: Why do children prefer cartoons gaming movies? Why prefer this format with the drawn characters?Julia Osetinskaya: the children are the great inventors in the world, they are able to do like no other, and the animation just has a wonderful ability to create any of the most magical and fantastic worlds. Therefore, cartoon characters often become a child’s first authority: they are more familiar and comprehensible than live actors whom they know little.While playing the role of the duration of the cartoon — it is almost always less than that of the film. Children, especially young, difficult to keep attention on a long history, so they love small size movies, where it’s easy to isolate one story and understand it. Plus the kids are now better perceive the dynamic action on screen and so the timing, depending on age, can be reduced to two and a half minutes. As they grow older the ability to concentrate develops, and there is interest in longer story lines.
Is there really a village Buttermilk?
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— A few years ago “Soyuzmultfilm” began to make the continuation of the cult Soviet cartoon “Buttermilk”, “Well, wait a minute”, “Umka”. How they met the expectations of the Studio?— We set a goal to make films for a modern audience, but with recognizable characters. Of course, the authors were inspired by masterpieces of Soviet animation. We tried very carefully to move the vivid images of the characters from the trilogy about the residents of the village of Buttermilk or touching the world bear Umki these days. The characters, their relationship, however, further development of the story we had to add new characters, think of them a place in the story.Reaction to the first series of “Buttermilk” was understandable and to be expected: parents who grew up on Soviet cartoons, refused when��andmother innovations. But the cartoon was directed primarily to children, and they love it! Based on the results of 2019 “Buttermilk” entered the top 5 leaders watching children’s television, and the Internet all series now have a total of more than 160 million views. That is, your audience cartoon found: children don’t distinguish between new and old “Buttermilk”, they are just looking for stories about favorite characters. Now, by the way, we noticed that a new version of adopted adults: we began to receive more positive reviews. — What are difficulties when working with such proceedings? And conversely, that given easier? How much harder (or easier) to work in the already established series compared to the original cartoons?— I use the already popular series has its pros and cons. Among the advantages of the characters already know, they trust, they are expected. But to see the heroes very carefully, I would say jewelry. At the same time, modernity dictates new requirements to the speed of storytelling, story dynamics, the number of events. With this approach, it is not easy to keep the spirit of classic cartoons, but to do “a tracing paper” not — modern audience would not accept. You have to look for the essential proportions. For example, in a new series about a bear Umku, “Umka on the tree”, we tried to preserve the style and pace of the first two episodes while increasing the speed of the narrative and number of locations. And children liked it: in the third series of Umka and the helicopter flew, and the ship swam, and the tree had a lot of fun.— And in the new projects?— With new projects its difficulties. You need to be able to rebuild from what has already been created, find its uniqueness and originality, to gain the attention and love of the audience, to stand out.
“Where he’s been?” 50 years later, Umka bear cub back to his mother
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— Is there any new series with new characters? When they are supposed to release in theaters?— “Buttermilk” and “Umka”, of course, is the most well-known new projects “Soyuzmultfilm”. But in addition, on the channel “Carousel” is actively gaining popularity of the “Orange cow” and educational project “Pestilence” for the little ones. On the Internet you can evaluate our animated series for an older, teenage audience — “the adventures of Peter and the Wolf”. This ironic story is about an ordinary boy Pete, who became friends with an unusual Wolf who knows how to get into fantastic worlds through the wardrobe. It is noteworthy that the Director of this project was Alexei Lebedev that a wide audience is known as one of the creators of “Smeshariki”. Soon on TV appeared another of our unusual project — a musical cartoon for children 3-5 years, “the Zebra in the cells DNA.CCU”. All the characters are special here, starting with the main character — a Zebra, which is somehow in the box, and not striped. The viewer will also learn about the kind crocodile, a shy elephant, a clockwork monkey and other characters. In fact, this cartoon — about the importance of taking individual characteristics of self and others, overcoming stereotypes. Thanks to the friendship and creativity are not similar to each other, the heroes resolve any problems that arise in the course of the story.In addition, this year our viewers are in for another surprise — we are preparing a real animated detective, and this helps us the writer Darya Dontsova, who acted as co-screenwriter for the new project.— All these projects are assumed to be in the form of cartoons?— Yes, all these home projects — the animated series. In parallel, we have at the Studio is developing and the direction of the author’s animation is a kind of creative laboratory, an experiment area where Directors and artists create original films which are very often awarded prizes at international festivals. Sometimes some of these pictures eventually be implemented in serial format, or, on the contrary, our artists in the process of working on episodes of popular designs inspired auteur films. It is a kind of lively interchange between the two directions of animation.In addition, we have in the Studio, the process of creation of feature films. One such project is an action — adventure film “Suvorov”, based on historical material. Here we were faced with a trivial task — not just to create a biopic about the great commander and to tell an entertaining story that will be interesting to see in the cinema with the whole family. In the end, the story filed by the boy’s eyes, which will of fate turns out to be in the service of Alexander Suvorov. On the background of known historical events will unfold adventure story, which will be a place and romantic lines, and humor.
Sundance, Butch And Sundance, The Mole. Test popular in the USSR foreign cartoons
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— You have to compete with Western manufacturers, with other Russian studios where already have the franchise and are ready and recognizable characters. Is internationally known for “Masha and the Bear”, “Smeshariki”. In your opinion, a lot of competition in the animated field.— Of course, the competition is huge, and in our country and in the world. I’m happy for colleagues, for their successful projects, because, first of all it is our, Russian films. However, I believe that a good and interesting cartoon will always find its audience. The child himself will choose their favorite characters, those whom he would like to watch. The main thing — interesting stories and well made Animation. And to compete you need to be prepared always — a number of animation projects in the world will only increase every year.— At the end of last year, you announced the restart of “Nu, pogodi”. What is happening to this show?— We have developed the concept and scripts of series and are ready to start immediate establishment of the cartoon. For the Studio it’s a challenge more serious than in the case of “Buttermilk”. First of all, because of genre identity. “Well, wait!” the so — called “gagawa Comedy” — a series of action, without dialogue. This genre is loved all over the world, but it is one of the most difficult in execution. This is a little delayed training: we are looking for the right balance and I want to make a cartoon that will appeal to modern audiences. As for the voice, then we already have several candidates for the role of the Wolf and the Hare, but no final agreement yet. But its promise we will try to fulfill — so a new series “Nu, pogodi” will be released in 2020.
