What famous (and not so famous) personalities became the prototypes of the heroes of popular Soviet cartoons

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

To this day, Soviet cartoons are remembered with special warmth and nostalgia. More than one generation of Soviet and post-Soviet children grew up on them. But few people guess who became the prototype of this or that cartoon character. We suggest looking at the heroes again, but from a different angle.

The Bremen Town Musicians

One of the best Soviet cartoons was The Bremen Town Musicians. The lyrics from the songs of the tape scattered into quotes, and the main characters became beloved. The Bremen Town Musicians personified freedom and rebellion for both children and adults.

Initially, the heroes looked completely different: a princess in a magnificent dress, and the Troubadour in a buffoon's cap. But this view was not at all suitable for the future musical. Once the director of the cartoon Inessa Kovalevskaya saw in a foreign magazine a blonde with a Beatles haircut and flared jeans. It was he who became the prototype of the simple youth Troubadour. A real woman in a red dress, namely the wife of the songwriter Yuri Entin, was also chosen as the prototype of the Princess. The king was copied from the famous actor, who often performed royal roles - Erast Garin.

For a long time, the animators could not find worthy characters from whom they could draw the robbers. They wanted bright personalities, and everyone they painted looked dull and unsightly. Everything changed at one moment, when the editor of the studio brought a photo-calendar on which the dancing heroes of the Caucasian captive - Coward, Experienced and Goonies, flaunted. Nobody began to hide the fact of such borrowing, so the images were specially emphasized.

38 parrots

In 1976, the puppet cartoon "38 Parrots" was released, consisting of many short episodes. Its heroes are a sensible boa constrictor, a fidgety monkey, an intelligent baby elephant and an energetic parrot. The picture quickly gained popularity among viewers. But the secret of such a quick take-off is simple - the creator of the cartoon adopted the behavioral traits from his friends, thereby making the characters "alive".

At the time of the release of the cartoon, no one even noticed that the prototype of the parrot was the leader of the world proletariat, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The author copied all Lenin's manners, for example, gesticulation, manner of speech and style (the parrot now and then moved back and forth, energetically flapping its wing and telling something along the way). Of course, all accents were smoothed out as much as possible, and the hero did not burst out like Lenin, but sometimes he stuttered at the letter "R". The director-animator Leonid Shvartsman admitted this only in 2015. If the censorship of that time had suspected that something was wrong, or at least caught the slightest hint of a parody, it is unlikely that the cartoon "38 Parrots" ever came to light.

Winnie the Pooh

The Soviet "Winnie the Pooh" was released in 1969. To this day, many of the phrases of the teddy bear and other characters are used in life. The film was created after the release of Alan Milne's book about Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Soviet children liked the bear so much that it was decided to film it in the Soyuzmultfilm studio. Of course, no one bought the copyright for it, and the creators literally worked for the idea.

Initially, Winnie the Pooh was copied from the beloved pre-war and old bear of the artist Vladimir Zuikov. But this image was rejected by the director. The cartoonists tried many options, but none worked. But one day Evgeny Leonov came to the studio when he auditioned for dubbing. The director immediately understood that the kind and sweet actor was the perfect prototype for Winnie the Pooh.

Leonov was very worried about the new role, and all the time tried to leave, but he was stopped and convinced that everything was fine. The actor's usual voice did not quite fit the bear, so it was sped up a bit. So the famous actor became the prototype of Winnie the Pooh. After he was called "Pooh", and he himself was not averse to being called that, especially if he met with children.

Once upon a time there was a dog

In 1982, the premiere of the Soviet cartoon "Once upon a time there was a dog." Animation director Eduard Nazarov wrote the script for him for a whole year, although the film was based on a Ukrainian folk tale that he read as a child. The ten-minute cartoon contained several Ukrainian songs and no more than a dozen phrases. Nevertheless, it was they who became key and quickly scattered into quotes.

The folk motives in the cartoon are taken from a real Ukrainian city, where the director often visited his friends. Sketches made in the ethnographic museum of Kiev and Lvov helped to recreate the atmosphere of the village.

Initially, Mikhail Ulyanov was invited to the voice acting of the wolf, he also became his first prototype. The director did not see anyone else in this role. However, he could not get into the studio for scoring due to lack of time. It soon became clear that it was no longer possible to wait and an urgent need to look for a replacement. Then Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was invited to the studio. The first image of a wolf, copied from Ulyanov, did not fit well with the actor's voice, so he had to be redrawn again. Dzhigarkhanyan liked the wolf. It was his debut in animation.

Wait for it

Multi-part cartoon "Well, wait!" first released on screens in 1969. The inseparable couple of an intelligent hare and a hooligan wolf immediately won the hearts of the Soviet people. All the events of the film develop against the backdrop of Soviet life (circus, museum, amusement park, concerts, sports), and the heroes themselves live an ordinary life.

Many believe that the main bully was copied from the actor Anatoly Papanov, but in reality it was not like that. Director Vyacheslav Kotenochkin worked for a very long time on the characters. Moreover, the hare turned out easily and exactly the way he imagined it. But it took a long time to tinker with the appearance of a wolf, until one day he saw one guy who was leaning against the wall of a house. Long black hair, a slightly tumbled belly, a cigarette - here he is, the ideal prototype of a drawn bully. No sooner said than done! After the first screening, the cartoon was able to cause a standing ovation.

The wolf was always voiced by Anatoly Papanov, but when he died, the question of closing the project became very acute, since no one wanted to replace his voice with another. And then it turned out that the sound engineer had kept all the records of the actor. It was they who began to be used in the new series of the cartoon.