5 Soviet cartoons on which Walt Disney himself studied: How Ivan Ivanov-Vano created masterpieces

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Usually, the creators of feature films are known not only by their names, but also by sight, but not all animators could boast of fame. Ivan Ivanov-Vano was able to become famous not only in our country, but also abroad. He is called the creator of domestic animation; more than one generation of children has grown up on his cartoons. One of his masterpieces became a textbook for the Walt Disney studio, and animators studied from his textbook in the middle of the twentieth century.

The Little Humpbacked Horse

For the first time, Ivan Ivanov-Vano shot a cartoon based on the poetic tale of Ershov in 1947. According to the animator's recollections, he saw the deepest national idea in the work. The work on the fairy tale required the creation of vivid images and colorful ideas.

The creators of the cartoon drew their inspiration from folk toys, Russian architecture and turned to ancient paintings of fabrics and spinning wheels. Much attention was paid to drawing the facial expressions of the characters, which became the highlight of the whole film as a result. The team worked for two years to present a truly masterpiece of animation at the exit.

In 1975, Ivan Ivanov-Vano re-shot the cartoon, because it was impossible to release the fairy tale on the screens again due to the poorly preserved negative. It was The Little Humpbacked Horse that became a living textbook for Walt Disney Studios.

Senka-African

This first Soviet cartoon was released in 1927 and was based on Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "The Crocodile". It was also difficult for the artists to work because they were taking the very first steps in animation, therefore, to facilitate their work, drawn scenes were combined with ordinary play scenes. For a long time, the creative group could not understand how to harmoniously shoot a drawing and a game frame at the same time, and therefore they soon came up with a special technique of stunt shooting.

The cartoon, based on the script by Yakov Urinov and Daniil Cherkes, turned out to be truly unique: the revived book, the main character who turned from an ordinary boy into a drawn cartoon character - all this was unusual and almost magical for 1927.

The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Heroes

The future animator was still quite small when his father left the family. Mom, on the other hand, worked as a seamstress and did not have the opportunity to take her son with her to work every day, so soon Ivan was taken up by relatives. Mother's elder sister Evdokia was married to the artist Konstantin Spassky, who had a huge impact on the development and formation of his nephew.

Ivan Ivanov created his own puppet theater and enthusiastically painted scenery for it. One of the tales, which he staged at the age of seven, was "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Heroes" by Pushkin.

And in 1951, Ivan Petrovich Ivanov-Vano released a cartoon fairy tale, amazing in its imagery, on the screens. This time, the animator and his creative team found inspiration for creating bright characters and characters in the works of Viktor Vasnetsov. Ivan Petrovich was proud of his creation, in a fairy tale he managed to show the magical atmosphere, the epic power of heroes and the sweet Russian beauty of the princess.

Snow Maiden

The tale, based on the play of the same name by Alexander Ostrovsky, was presented to the audience in 1952. Her appearance on the screens was preceded not only by a long and painstaking work, but also by the director's immersion in the atmosphere and environment where the author created his work. Ivan Petrovich went to the Shchelykovo estate, was able to wander through the mysterious reserved forest, see Yarilina Mountain and fabulous glades.

Even before the completion of the work on the cartoon, the director was reproached for the fact that the drawn characters would not be able to convey the deep content of the play and the meaning that Alexander Ostrovsky put into his work. But Ivan Ivanov-Vano stubbornly continued what he had begun and was able to achieve the necessary harmony between dialogues and movement, creating an integral picture, complemented by the amazing music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Lefty

It is hard to imagine, but Ivan Petrovich had been hatching his idea to create an animated film based on the story of Nikolai Leskov for almost thirty years. He was attracted by the juicy flavor of the Russian tale, the incredible purity and strength of love for the people and the author's respect for the common Russian man, his talent and cordiality, the breadth of his soul and the generosity of his heart.

Before the appearance of this masterpiece in 1964, no one had yet shown the development of the character of the hero in an animated film. The cartoonist managed to create three pictorial themes at once, which each developed its own line. The unusual flavor of the national holiday was reflected in the bright Tula scenes, the engraving illustration inspired the creative group to create the icy stiffness of the palace and to show the inner emptiness of the courtiers, while foreign and ship scenes helped to draw old English engravings.

More than 120 years ago, in 1896, an event took place in Paris that is considered the beginning of the history of animated films. In the Musée Grévin, "glowing pantomimes" were shown to the public for the first time. Over the past century, animation has become a real art. We invite our readers to see sketches and sketches of artists, telling about how everyone's favorite cartoon characters were born.