Unknown roles of famous actors: Who gave his voice to the heroes of Soviet cartoons, while remaining unrecognized

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

The filmography of these wonderful actors is known to everyone, but viewers know much less about their participation in the creation of cartoons. Even the most venerable actors of Soviet cinema agreed to voice cartoon characters, and they took this occupation no less seriously than filming in feature films. And this despite the fact that they themselves remained behind the scenes, and their voices sometimes changed beyond recognition.

It is a well-known fact that the cat Matroskin in a series of cartoons about the adventures of Uncle Fedor and his friends in Prostokvashino speaks in the voice of Oleg Tabakov. He also sang the song "And I increasingly notice …". But few know who voiced Uncle Fyodor's mother. She spoke in the voice of Valentina Talyzina, and the song "If there was no winter" sang in the voice of Valentina Tolkunova. Sharik was voiced by Lev Durov, postman Pechkin by Boris Novikov, and Uncle Fedor by Maria Vinogradova.

Actor Oleg Anofriev was a real champion and "veteran" of cartoons scoring. Often he spoke for all the characters at once. It happened with the "Bremen Town Musicians": all the characters, except for the Princess and the Donkey, speak in his voice. Due to the heavy workload of the Melodiya studio, they were going to voice the cartoon at night. At the appointed time, of all the invited actors, one Anofriev appeared, despite the temperature of 39. Initially, he was supposed to speak only for Troubadour, but he was persuaded to try to voice all the characters, and the result exceeded expectations! The famous timbre of the Atamanshi was invented by Anofriev "on the fly" during his work. And in the second part "In the footsteps of the Bremen Town Musicians" the Troubadour, Atamansha and the Detective sang in the voice of Muslim Magomayev. Oleg Anofriev voiced all the characters in "The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda", the main characters in the cartoon "How the Lion Cub and the Turtle Sang a Song" also speak in his voice.

Although Anofriev set a record for the number of simultaneously voiced characters, it was not uncommon for one actor to speak different voices for all the characters at once. A series of cartoons about the adventures of Leopold the cat and the mice were voiced in turn by different actors: "Revenge of Leopold the Cat" was voiced entirely by Andrey Mironov. He was invited to the second episode, but he fell ill, and instead of him all three heroes were voiced by Gennady Khazanov. When, after a break, work on the cartoon resumed, in all the remaining episodes, the heroes spoke in the voice of Alexander Kalyagin. It was difficult to persuade the actor, since he had not previously taken part in the dubbing of cartoons. And immediately after that he was invited to the role of Lenin, so at the creative association "Ekran" Kalyagin earned the nickname "Leopold Ilyich".

The fact that "a man in his prime" Karlson speaks in the voice of Vasily Livanov is probably known to everyone - his unique timbre is hard not to recognize. True, viewers hardly suspect that Karlson Livanova is in fact a parody of a filmmaker. Livanov said: "". Many of Carlson's phrases, which later became winged, were the actor's creative improvisation - for example, "jam day". Livanov's trademark timbre with a hoarseness appeared after a severe cold - for two weeks he lost his voice, and then spoke in a low and hoarse voice. In addition to Carlson, the actor gave a voice to Gena Crocodile and Boa from "38 Parrots", which is also known to many.

But not all viewers know who voiced Freken Bok in this cartoon. The legendary actress Faina Ranevskaya gave this heroine not only her voice, but also her appearance. The director decided in advance that it would be she who would voice the cartoon, and the artists tried to create an image that would match the voice of this actress as much as possible. The result of Ranevskaya not only did not impress, but even offended: Freken Bok seemed so unsympathetic to her that she refused to voice the heroine until she was redrawn. But she was persuaded: the actress was influenced by the argument that her character turned out to be very funny and should please the children.

Surely everyone recognized the voice of Yevgeny Leonov in the cartoon about Winnie the Pooh, although it was not approved immediately - the director thought that his voice was too small for this character. But the sound engineer sped up the recording with well-read text by 30% and it turned out to be ideal. But in the voice of Piglet, it is almost impossible to recognize Iya Savvina - she specifically spoke in a very high voice, stretching out the words, in the style of the poetess Bella Akhmadulina. The recording was sped up a little again, and the voice came out one tone higher. Later, the actress said that once Bella Akhmadulina called her and said: "".

Actress Janina Zheimo played the young Cinderella at 38, and at 48 she voiced little Gerda in the cartoon "The Snow Queen". A year later, she emigrated with her husband to Poland and never acted in films again.

To voice the Wolf in the cartoon "Just You Wait!" Vladimir Vysotsky was supposed to be, but his candidacy was not approved at the artistic council - on the eve of the plenum of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, someone called him "an odious figure." As a result, the Wolf spoke in the voice of Anatoly Papanov, without which it is absolutely impossible to imagine this image today. However, the creative greetings to Vysotsky remained in the cartoon - in the first episode the melody of the song “If a friend turned out to be suddenly …” sounds when the Wolf climbs onto the balcony to the Hare. After Papanov's death, for new episodes, his voice was used in the recording, and then the parodist Igor Khristenko voiced the Wolf "under Papanov".

And most of the famous heroes of Soviet cartoons spoke in the voice of one actress, whose life path was very difficult: the tragic fate of Clara Rumyanova.