In Russia, the first steps in creating animation were taken at the beginning of the 20th century, just like in the West. There was no celluloid in our country, so two methods were used: “landscape” - drawing on plain paper, and puppet animation. The process was quite labor-intensive because the scenery and characters had to be manually redrawn from one sheet of paper to another.
One of the pioneers of Russian animation was beetle lover Vladislav Starevich. He quite clearly and naturally managed to convey the details and individual features of his characters, which were insects.
The arrival of socialist ideology in Russia affected literally everything, including cinema and even animation. If in all other countries animation developed as an entertaining art, in the USSR the first cartoons immediately acquired a political connotation. V. Mayakovsky was one of the first to express ideology in animation. He tried to revive the scenes from his “Windows of GROWTH”.
The first attempts at creating cartoons did not bring much fame to their authors. The formation of this type of creativity occurred in the 30s. At the same time, in 1936, not without the participation of the Komsomol Central Committee, the first and most famous animation studio, Soyuzmultfilm, appeared in Moscow.
Animation courses were opened at the studio. Their graduates were: famous creators cartoons, such as F. Khitruk, B. Dezhkin, R. Davydov, G. Kozlov and others.
In the period from 40 to 60, many bright names appeared in the history of Soviet animation and their famous works. These are the cartoons “Puck, Puck” by B. Dezhkin, “Golden Antelope” and “ The Snow Queen"L. Atamanov, and the later appeared "Who Said "Meow" by N. Degtyarev. All these works can rightfully be called classics of Soviet animation.
Soviet cartoons, as before, could hardly be called entertaining creativity, or special art for children. All of them had a kind of satirical and philosophical overtones. Separately, we can highlight the director Yu. Norshtein, whose works “Hedgehog in the Fog” and “Tale of Tales” received worldwide recognition over time.
Yuri Norshtein
Subsequently, Russian animation acquired many original and effective techniques. Cartoons were not only drawn, but also sculpted from plasticine, bent from wire, and sprinkled with sand and coffee.
IN Soviet years The “Iron Curtain” prevented the global recognition of Russian animation, but today we can be proud of the work of our animators; their work is appreciated both in Russia and abroad.
Well, who doesn't like cartoons? Now the industry has developed to such an extent that cartoons have such special effects and graphics that it is sometimes difficult to remember old “flat” films with poor quality drawing, without all kinds of effects, such as 3D. Modern children will never understand what a cartoon with plasticine characters about a crow with cheese means, what simple short cartoons with faded colors and slightly muffled voices of the characters mean, and there’s nothing to say about filmstrips!
The history of animation is another stage in the development of cinema, because from the very beginning, cartoons were considered a separate film genre. This happened despite the fact that cartoons have less in common with cinema than with painting.
We owe our cartoons to Joseph Plato
Like any other history, the history of animation and animation has had its ups and downs, shifts and long stagnations. However, what makes it interesting is that the production of cartoons has developed almost constantly and continues to do so to this day. The history of the origin of animation is connected with the estate of the Belgian scientist Joseph Plateau. He is famous for creating a toy called the strobe light in 1832. It is unlikely that our children would play with such a toy. modern world, but the guys of the 19th century liked such entertainment. A drawing was applied to a flat disk, for example, a running horse (as was the case with Plateau), and the next one was slightly different from the previous one, that is, the drawings depicted the sequence of actions of the animal during a gallop. When the disk spun, it seemed like a moving picture.
First cartoonist
But no matter how hard Joseph Plato tried to improve his setup, he failed to create a full-fledged cartoon. He gave way to the Frenchman Emile Reynaud, who created a similar device called a praxinoscope, which consisted of a cylinder with the same step by step drawings like in a strobe light.
This is how the history of animation began. Already at the end of the 17th century, the Frenchman founded a small optical theater, where he showed comic performances 15 minutes long to everyone. Over time, the installation changed, a system of mirrors and lighting were added, which, naturally, brought the world closer to such a magical action as a cartoon.
Animation continued to develop in France for the first decades of its life, along with theater and cinema. Emil Kohl was famous for his excellent acting performances, but still animation captivated him more, and in 1908 he “drew” his first cartoon. To achieve realism, Kohl used photographs and sketched objects from life, but still his brainchild looked more like a comic book in motion than a film.
Theater choreographer - founder of animation in Russia
Concerning Russian figures in the field of animation, they took cartoons to a new level, now there were dolls in the role of heroes. Thus, in 1906, the first domestic cartoon was created, with which the history of animation in Russia began. choreographer Mariinsky Theater, edited a cartoon, actors which became 12 dancing dolls.
The short film, recorded on 1.5 cm wide film, turned out to be too labor-intensive. For three months, Alexander ran from the camera to the production itself so often that he even rubbed a hole in the floor. Shiryaev’s dolls don’t just move above the surface like ghosts, they jump, spin in the air, and perform incredible movements, as if they were alive. Famous historians and animators still cannot unravel the secret of such activity of the characters. Whatever you say, the history of Russian animation is a complex and serious matter, so even the most advanced specialists do not always manage to fully understand the principles of operation of a particular device.
Vladislav Starevich - a bright “character” of Russian animation
The history of the creation of animation is associated with the names of French scientists and directors. Vladislav Starevich was definitely " White crow"among these foreigners, because in 1912 he came up with a real 3D cartoon! No, the history of Russian animation had not yet reached the point when people thought of putting on special glasses, this man created a long-lasting puppet cartoon. It was black and white, strange and even scary, because making beautiful characters with your own hands was a little difficult.
This cartoon was called “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the War of Horns and Longhorns.” The most interesting thing is that Vladislav Starevich used insects in his work, which was not accidental, because he loved these creatures very much. It was with this person that meaningful cartoons began, because Starevich believed that a film should not only entertain, but also have some kind of subtext. And in general, his films were conceived as some kind of teaching aids on biology about insects; the animator himself did not imagine that he would create a real work of art.
Starevich did not stop at “Lyukanid” alone; later he created cartoons based on fables, now they began to resemble some kind of fairy tales.
The history of Soviet animation began in 1924, when at the currently unpopular Kultkino studio, a few artists produced a huge number of hand-drawn cartoons. Among them were “German affairs and affairs”, “ Soviet toys"," Incident in Tokyo" and others. The speed of creating one cartoon has increased significantly; if previously animators spent months working on one project, now the period has been reduced to 3 weeks (in rare cases more). This was done thanks to a breakthrough in technology. Artists already had flat templates that saved time and made the process of creating a cartoon less labor-intensive. The animation of that time gave the world a huge number of cartoons that are of great importance not only in Russia, but throughout the world.
Alexander Ptushko
This person also contributed to the development of our animation. He is an architect by training and also worked in the field of mechanical engineering. But when he got to Mosfilm, he realized that creating puppet cartoons was his calling. There he was able to bring his architectural skills to life, and also helped create a good technical base at the most famous film studio in Russia.
He became especially famous after creating the cartoon "The New Gulliver" in 1935. No, this is not a superposition of text on the plot, this is some kind of reshaping of “Gulliver’s Travels” in the style of the USSR. And what is most important and new in Ptushko’s activities is that he was able to combine two completely different directions in the film industry: cartoons and acting. Now the emotions of dolls, mass participation, activity appear in cartoons, and the work done by the master becomes obvious. The history of animation for children with kind and beautiful characters begins with Ptushko.
Soon he becomes director new studio cartoons "Soyuzdetmultfilm", but for some reason leaves his post after some time, then all that is known about his cartoon activities is that it ended. Alexander decided to devote himself to films. But in his further film works he used the “tricks” of animation.
Walt Disney and his "donation"
It turns out that the history of animation in Russia was built and pieced together not only by Russian researchers, scientists and just cartoon lovers; Walt Disney himself gave the Moscow Film Festival a whole reel of high-quality film with everyone’s favorite cartoon about good old Mickey Mouse. Our domestic director was so impressed by the smooth and imperceptible change of frames and the quality of the drawing that he realized that we wanted the same! However, in Russia so far there have only been puppet shows with, to put it mildly, unpresentable toys. In connection with the desire for improvement, a studio was created, known to all Soviet and post-Soviet children - Soyuzmultfilm.
"Soyuzmultfilm" - nostalgia corporation
In 1935, our animators realized that it was time to change something in the life of hand-drawn pictures, it was time to throw out these old dolls and start doing serious things. The unification of several small studios scattered throughout the country began to create larger-scale works; many critics argue that the history of animation begins from this moment in our country. The studio's first works were rather boring, as they were devoted to the development of progress in Europe, but by 1940 specialists from Leningrad had moved to the Moscow Union. However, even after this, nothing good happened, since the war began, all organizations had a clear goal - to raise the patriotic spirit of the people.
In the post-war period, there was a sharp rise in the level of cartoon production. The viewer saw not the usual change of pictures and not the usual dolls, but realistic characters and interesting stories. All this was achieved through the use of new equipment, already tested by American comrade Walt Disney and his studio. For example, in 1952, engineers created exactly the same camera as at the Disney studio. New methods of shooting were created (the effect of three-dimensional images) and the old ones were brought to automaticity. At this moment, cartoons take on their new shell; instead of meaningless children's “movies,” educational works with some kind of subtext appear. In addition to short films, they are filming full-length cartoons, such as "The Snow Queen". In general, the history of animation in Russia begins with the creation of Soyuzmultfilm. For children in those days, even small changes were noticeable and even the shortest films were appreciated.
1980-1990s
After experiencing a change in direction in animation, Soviet cartoons began to get better from the end of 1970. It was in that decade that such a famous cartoon as “Hedgehog in the Fog” appeared, which was probably watched by all children born before the 2000s. However, a special rise in the activity of animators was observed in the 80s of the last century. At that time, the famous hand-drawn film by Roman Kachanov “The Secret of the Third Planet” was released. This happened in 1981.
This picture won the hearts of many children of that time, and adults did not hesitate to watch it, to be honest. In the same year, the famous “Plasticine Crow” was released, marking the arrival of a new animator, Alexander Tatarsky, at the Ekran studio. A few years later, the same specialist creates a cartoon “ back side Moon,” the name of which tempts you to find out what is there on the other side of the Moon?
But plasticine is just “flowers”, since in Sverdlovsk, which actively took part in the country’s animation activities, hand-drawn films were created using glass. That’s when the glass artist became famous. Among such glass drawings is “The Tale of a Little Boat,” released in 1985.
The end of the 1980s is marked by sharp and rough strokes in drawing, poor quality images and general blurriness, this is easy to notice in the example of “Koloboks are conducting the investigation.” This fashion was like a disease that spread throughout the world of Russian animation; only a few artists got rid of the habit of sloppy drawing, although it can be called a separate style, as in painting.
In the 90s, Russia began to cooperate with foreign studios, artists signed contracts and, together with foreign specialists, created full-length cartoons. But still, the most patriotic artists remain in their homeland, and with their help the history of animation in our country continues.
Animation today
After the collapse Soviet Union Not only was a crisis blossoming in the life of the country, but also in the life of animation. It seemed that the history of animation for children, as well as for adults, was over. The studios existed only through advertising and rare orders. But still, at this time there were works that received awards (“The Old Man and the Sea” and “ Winter's Tale"). Soyuzmultfilm was also destroyed; the management sold all rights to the cartoons and completely destroyed the studio.
But already in 2002, Russia used a computer for the first time to create animation, and even despite the “troubled” time in the history of animation, the works of Russian animators took pride of place in world competitions.
In 2006, the production of cartoons resumed in Russia, “Prince Vladimir” and “Dwarf Nose” were released. New studios are appearing: “Melnitsa” and “Sunny House”.
But it turned out that it was too early to rejoice, since 3 years after the release of the last famous films the dark period of the crisis began. Many studios closed, and the state stopped promoting the development of Russian animation.
Now many domestic studios produce beloved cartoons, sometimes the stories do not fit into an hour-long film, so you have to draw 2-3 or even more parts. So far, no failures are expected in the history of animation in Russia.
Whatever you say, even adults love to watch cartoons and sometimes do it more attentively than their young children, and all because modern cartoons are bright, interesting and funny. Now they cannot be compared with puppet shows, where cockroaches and other insects participated. Nevertheless, any level to which the history of Russian animation has “climbed” is important, because each of them led to perfection.
Who in the 1910s in the film studio of A.A. Khanzhonkov developed a special artistic technique and a technique for staging and filming three-dimensional puppet animation. He created in Russia the world's first volumetric cartoons. So, in 1912, V.A. Starevich released parody animated films “Beautiful Lyukanida, or the war of stags with barbels” and another called “Aviation Week of Insects.”
Vladislav Starevich
Soviet graphic animation arose in 1924-1925. The first films were made by artist A. Bushkin, first under the guidance of the famous director and experimenter Dziga Vertov, and then independently.
The films met the current tasks of political propaganda. These were mainly film posters and satirical films.
Animators A. Bushkin and A. G. Ivanov used the very simple but expressive technique of flat puppets to create some films. This method frees artists from the labor-intensive technique of producing a huge number of phase drawings. Flat puppets were cut out of thick paper or cardboard. At joints they were fastened with hinges. The puppet was superimposed either on the glass of the filming table, behind which there was a drawn background or panorama, or directly on the drawn scenery - the scene of action for the characters in the film.
In one year, 1924, the Kultkino studio with its small team of artists produced a whole series of animated films: “German Affairs and Affairs”, “The Story of a Disappointment (Boris Savinkov)”, “Soviet Toys” (dir. D. Vertov, animation A. Bushkin and A. Ivanov), “An Incident in Tokyo”, “Humoresque” (dir. D. Vertov, animation by A. Bushkin and A. Belyakov).
The first period of development of Soviet animation was experimental in nature. The complexity of the technical execution of hand-drawn films led the artist to search for technical methods that could be accomplished by inexperienced artists. One of the methods that has been established long years In the production of cartoons, there was a so-called “landscape” method. All movements necessary for the development of action in the plot were divided into cyclical movements that could be repeated many times. For example, the gait of people or the movements of animals, the flight of birds, the passage of a train, car, etc. Each such cycle of movement was an “album”.
On further development the art of animation was greatly influenced by the creation in Moscow in 1924 of the first experimental animation workshop at the State College of Cinematography, which included young Soviet artists, graduated from VKHUTEMAS (Higher artistic and technical workshops), (N.P. Khodataev, O.P. Khodataeva, Yu.A. Merkulov, 3.P. Komissarenko, sisters V. and 3. Brumberg,
Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg
L. Blatova, V. G. Suteev, I. P. Ivanov-Vano, operators G. Kabalov and V. Shulman).
Vladimir Suteev
The experimental animation workshop produced its first hand-drawn film in 1925, the political pamphlet “China on Fire.” In this big teamwork artists acquired the first experience of animating drawings and practically developed the technology for producing hand-drawn films. The film "China on Fire" in many of its components was of low quality, visually diverse and drawn out. Rather, it was a kind of illustration of political events rather than a cinematic work. Despite these shortcomings, the film attracted public attention due to both relevant material and new interesting technique, which made the cartoon drawing come to life on the screen.
The era of the country's rapid development required widespread agitation in all sectors of production, agriculture, cooperation, the implementation of government loans, as well as in our everyday life. In this regard, Soviet animation of that time played a great effective role, especially in the field of scientific and educational films, propaganda posters, political cartoons and advertising, where many works, despite the primitiveness of the technology, achieved high artistic quality. A. Bushkin’s works “Nutrition Problems”, “Take Care of Your Eyes”, “Blood Circulation” and others were already a solid contribution to the field of scientific and educational cinematography and played the role of real models for the further development of this type of animation.
In 1926, at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film factory, a team of artists (Yu. Merkulov, D. Cherkes, I. Ivanov-Vano, cameraman L. Kosmatoe)
begins work on the first children's animated film "Senka the African", based on the fairy tales of Korney Chukovsky. The film was released at the beginning of 1927. Despite all its shortcomings, the film found a positive response in the press and was watched with great interest by children's viewers. This success encouraged artists to create other children's films. Thus, in 1927, the painting “The Cockroach” was released, made by the artist A.V. Ivanov, also based on a fairy tale by K. Chukovsky. Then comes the painting "The Rink", made in terms of a naive children's drawing(work of artists D. Cherkes and I. Ivanov-Vano). Here the artists deliberately allowed for a convention: all drawings were outlined with a white line on a black background, since such a drawing was less tiring for the child viewer when displayed.
Ivan Ivanov-Vano
In 1928-1929 new films for children are being released: "Samoyed Boy", which in a humorous manner exposes the religious remnants of northern peoples our country (the work of artists N. Khodataev, O. Khodataeva and V. and Z. Brumberg) and “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” - the work of artists D. Cherkes and I. Ivanov-Vano. This is how something new is gradually born soviet art hand-drawn film.
At this time, many theater directors began to become interested in animation. So, in 1927, a talented director and artistic director Moscow Theater for Children - Natalia Sats introduced for the first time in the play “The Little Negro and the Monkey” animation, which was made by artists N. and O. Khodataevs and V. and Z. Brumberg. For this production, a special screen was installed on the stage. The animation, projected onto him during the performance, transferred the development of the action from the stage to the screen. The play “The Little Negro and the Monkey” was a huge success and did not leave the theater stage for a long time. No less interesting is the second use of animation by Natalia Sats in the play “About Dzyuba”.
Here the animation was shown directly on the stage decorations, illustrating at the right moment the dreams and imagination of the boy Dzyuba. Thanks to this, the performance immediately created the atmosphere of a fairy tale, the charm of which was helped by the talented music of composer Leonid Polovinkin, used in sync with the animation. Thus, the rhythmic fusion of animation with music and even with the action of an actor on stage was carried out much earlier than the birth of sound cinema, where this method of clearly synchronizing the action of a drawn character with sound created a great sensation in its time.
The cadre of Soviet animation workers is gradually replenished. The artist V. Levandovsky begins to engage in animation at the Odessa film studio. In 1927, the first Ukrainian animated film “The Tale of the Straw Bull” was released, directed by V. Levandovsky based on the famous folk tale. In 1928, his second film, “The Tale of the Mistress Squirrel and the Villainous Mouse,” was released, which he made at the newly organized film studio in Kyiv. In addition to its high visual qualities, this film was particularly notable for the fluidity and expressiveness of the characters' movements.
In Leningrad, in the field of hand-drawn films, in addition to the artists A. Presnyakov and I. Sorokhtin, the artist V. Grigoriev began working at the Sovkino factory, who in 1927 released two films “Hold Chubarovets” and “Two Rickshaws” based on the script by N. Agnivtsev, text of poems by V. Volzhenin. Around the same time, the artist M. Tsekhanovsky began working in the field of animation,
Mikhail Tsekhanovsky
A little later artists M. Pashchenko, V. Syumkin and A. Sinitsyn. In Moscow - artists L. Atamanov,
Lev Atamanov
L. Amalrik, P. Mizyakin, A. Belyakov, D. Babichenko, P. Nosov, P. Sazonov, Y. Popov and others. Soviet animation is being enriched with new talented directors and artists. This period is interesting in the artists’ search for new technological techniques in the art of animation and their desire to create a permanent hero in a hand-drawn film.
Leonid Amalrik
Director A.V. Ivanov, using special method combined photography, developed by the designer N. Zhelinsky, released in 1928 several animated films featuring the drawn black character Tip-Top. This is how the permanent cartoon character Tip-Top appeared, who, acting in real-life shots, travels with the visiting foreign delegation around Moscow. In parallel with him, another cartoon character Bratishkin, created by the artist Yu. Merkulov, begins to work on the screens, who participates in various propaganda posters and instructional films: Bratishkin joins Osoaviakhim, Bratishkin brings books to the village, Bratishkin fights for cleanliness at the factory, etc.
Leningrad artists A. Presnyakov and I. Sorokhtin created the character Buzilka, who first appeared in 1928 in the film “The Whisperers”, in 1929 in the film “Buzilka Against Marriage” and then moved on to other propaganda films. The desire of our artists to create the image of a permanent cartoon character did not bring any effective results. These characters were not successful and disappeared from the screen relatively quickly. And not only because from the external, purely pictorial side, they were made in an uninteresting way. They were inexpressive mainly because, in essence, they did not represent anyone, they did not have certain characteristics of representatives of any segment of society, they were outside the environment: however, the black Tip-Top was given a pioneer tie, and Buzilka was given a large one wrench, which he constantly carried with him, but it was only external characteristic the characters in the film are a “sign”, but not their inner content.
Published in 1928 A film for children“Offended Letters” based on the script by Agnivtsev (artists A. Presnyakov, I. Sorokhtin, S. Zhukov and V. Kuklina), in which hand-drawn animation, like that of director A. V. Ivanov, is combined with location photography. In this combined film, offended letters go to complain about lazy children to the People's Commissariat for Education, walk through the streets, overcome a number of obstacles, end up in the correspondence bureau, where they create a commotion among the typists, and finally safely make their way into the People's Commissar's office, climb onto his desk and hand it to Comrade Lunacharsky your petition. The viewer in these combined animated shots was amazed by the novelty of the technique; he was unexpectedly surprised by such a technical trick, when a drawn character acted in a natural environment, next to a live actor.
Already in this early period Soviet animation showed itself in a variety of ways different genres, with the search for new visual solutions not only in cinema, but also in the theater. Widely experimenting in animation, both in the field of technology and in the field of various topics, in search of various genres, animator artists in those years mastered, acquired and accumulated production and creative experience of this new type of cinematography, which subsequently led to a significant rise in art hand-drawn film in our country.
Not only for little ones, but also for adult viewers. Drawn fairy-tale heroes come to life on the screens, luring you into a world of exciting adventures. In life, moving things do not occur. But animations allow you to turn a set of static pictures into a moving image.
The art of cartoonists gives the viewer the opportunity to temporarily forget that he is not dealing with reality, but with a fairy tale.
Since ancient times, animators have used a variety of images to obtain the desired effects, with the help of which puppet or painted images came to life. Technology is definitely important. But the artist’s intention, script and idea have much more to do with it. A character in an animated film is finally born when the animators endow it with individuality and character. These principles, which originated at the dawn of hand-drawn cinema, are also characteristic of modern animation.
Animation masters see their task as conveying to the audience eternal concepts that, unlike technology, do not change over time. Heroes whose behavior is driven by the desire for justice and goodness still look at the viewer from television screens. Evil must be defeated, and love and friendship will surely triumph.
Features of modern animation
Today, almost every creation in the world of animation is the result of the use of computer technology. Very rarely are characters now sculpted from or drawn on transparent film. The use of computer animation allows us to create characters with extremely high image clarity. Such heroes are able to move like a person. Plastic movements and special effects bring animated films closer to reality.
One of the strongest trends in animated films is the desire for extreme naturalization. But some animation masters believe that the desire to give the film the utmost verisimilitude is a dead end, because the viewer perceives not so much the realism of the details of the picture, but artistic image, created on the screen. It is the fairy-tale, unreal world that attracts the attention of young viewers.
Over the past two decades, three-dimensional animation has emerged and developed. The use of 3D technologies in the production of cartoons became possible only after computer technology reached a new level.
Images that create the illusion of a three-dimensional world allow you to create a holistic image that strives for extreme realism.
And yet, today's animation masters very often strive to deliberately stylize 3D graphics as hand-drawn. This can be explained by the confrontation of two trends, one of which represents the old school of animation, and the second expresses
People have always been imaginative. They were able to bring inanimate objects (images) to life for the first time more than a hundred years ago using special techniques.
Modern animation includes several types, styles and methods of film creation. Each country has its own cartoon characters and its own unique story development of animated films.
In 1924 the first appears soviet cartoon, filmed by documentary director David Abelevich Kaufman (Dziga Vertov). This is not a children's entertainment cartoon. Here, for 10 minutes, with the help of a drawing that seems primitive at first glance, the history of the formation of the USSR is shown. The title of the film is “Soviet Toys.” The film was shot at Goskino. What’s interesting is that at the end of the cartoon they offer to create an advertisement.
The main heroes of that time were the people, workers, peasants, Red Army soldiers, the proletariat and, of course, those with whom they had to fight. Well-fed, arrogant bourgeois, priests (church) and tavern entertainment (dancer). The musical background is constantly changing, conveying the change of events and mood in the cartoon. In the end it's all over New Year's tree and fireworks are a sign that it has begun new life. Instead of toys, the Red Army soldiers hung all their enemies on the Christmas tree.
The first Soviet cartoons had more political overtones, being a means of propaganda.
The very first cartoon in Russia for kids
The first surviving cartoon for children is "The Rink". The film was shot by the director, founder of the school of Soviet animation, Ivan Ivanov-Vano, based on Chukovsky’s fairy tale “Senka the African.”
This is also a silent, musical, hand-drawn film. Main plot- is brave a little boy in Budenovka, who defeats the fat man “bourgeois” and rushes to the aid of the figure skater.
In 1913, Vladislav Starevich filmed a black-and-white, musical with subtitles, puppet cartoon “The Dragonfly and the Ant.” His grandiose global success took place in Russian Empire. This film was intended for both young and older viewers. The plot of Krylov's fable was taken as a basis; the duration of the cartoon was 4 minutes.
In Moscow, 1936 (June 10), the largest Russian studio “Soyuzdetmultfilm” was created and began its work. Children's animated films are beginning to be created. The first film was hand-drawn, black and white, released at the studio, it was in the genre of children's comedy and was called “It's Hot in Africa.” The adventure of the animals is described here.
Also in 1936, the first Russian color cartoon was released at the Mosfilm film studio, under the direction of director Sarra Mokil. This is a three-color puppet, musical, voice-over film-fairy tale “The Fox and the Wolf”, based on a Russian fairy tale. Duration 18 minutes.
Walt Disney's very first cartoon in America
In 1924 (March 1) - Disney presented its audience with the cartoon “Alice's Day at Sea,” which subsequently opened a whole series of 56 episodes about Alice’s adventures.
But this is a slightly different story - “Alice in Animation Land”. The comedy genre was used here. Combining cinema and cartoon (Alice is a living character) - Walt places the heroine in a drawn world. The duration of the cartoon is 12 minutes. Little Alice and her dog friend decided to take a walk to the sea. There they met the captain, who told Alice about his sea adventures.
The tired girl decided to take a nap in empty boat, on the shore she dreamed that she was falling on the seabed. On her way, Alice meets many sea inhabitants who are cartoon characters. This is a light children's story in a cartoon with captions and musical accompaniment. He wasn't too popular. These were the first works of the great animator.
When did the oldest (anime) cartoon in the world come out?
Anime is a part of Japanese culture and is very popular among children, teenagers and adults in many countries around the world. Cartoons of this style are produced in different genres. Unfortunately, the author who created the oldest Japanese anime in 1907 has not been identified. It was assembled from hand-drawn pictures. The moving boy spells out the word “cinema” from hieroglyphs and takes off his hat to the audience. The duration of this anime is 3 seconds.
Manga is considered the predecessor of anime. This word appeared in 1814 thanks to the artist Katsushika Hokusai. These are black and white sketches drawn in ink. Stories in pictures, later comics. Marumaru Chimbun - the magazine first published comics in Japanese with a European accent in 1877.
Many consider the pioneer in Japanese anime to be Dekoten Shimokawa, who in 1917 made sketches on a blackboard using chalk and tried to revive them by recording them on film. His works have not survived. The first films were no more than 1-5 minutes long; they were created by (single) artists, trying to apply the existing knowledge, experience and techniques of Western animators.
Namakura Gatana (created June 30, 1917) is considered one of the first black and white anime. This small, two-minute cartoon was created at the Japanese studio Kobayashi Shokai. The name is translated as “Dull Samurai Sword.” This film is about the incompetence of a samurai who bought a dull sword. Then, to avenge his humiliation, he returned to the seller to resolve the conflict.
One of the first animes included a film - a fairy tale about a crab and a monkey, who are also fabulous samurai. The plot of the film is to take revenge on the vile monkey. The monkey betrayed the crab. The children of the killed crab take revenge and kill the monkey. This cartoon, called “How the crab took revenge on the monkey”, was staged according to the old Japanese fairy tale and has a certain meaning.
Every animator at the rise of Japanese cartoon culture contributed to the emergence of various directions and styles Japanese anime. Even big eyes Disney heroes will subsequently prevail over Japanese anime heroes. Only since 1958 has anime been officially recognized in art.
If we talk not only about Japan, then there is a controversial opinion that the very first European cartoon was created and filmed using an Edison camera by Blackton in 1906 “Comic Phases of Funny Faces”.
Drawn by French cartoonist Emile Colas. It was called "Phantasmagoria". It took 700 drawings made on a white paper background with black lines. All this was reprinted onto the negative, giving the effect of a chalk drawing.
What is the first color cartoon in history?
In 1933, the first color hand-drawn animated film from the “Merry Symphonies” series of cartoons was created; this film was called “Flowers and Trees.” This is a bright three-color, emotional children's cartoon about the inhabitants of the forest, with synchronized musical scoring. Beautiful, melodic music was used famous composer Schubert.
The duration of the film is 7.5 minutes. This short film won an Oscar as the best cartoon of that time.
Wikipedia about the first cartoons in the world
All possible surviving information in the history of the development of world animation can be traced on Wikipedia. Here you will find a statement that primitive animation techniques were discovered in the primitive era, thanks to wall images that were drawn in a certain sequence. From the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century, technology began to develop rapidly, making it possible to quickly improve the quality of cartoons.
Frenchman Emile Renault - artist and inventor, son of a watchmaker, was in constant search improvements to the apparatus (zoetrope) for viewing moving pictures. And in 1877 in Paris he creates a praxinoscope. Using permanent picture backdrops for the first time and adding synchronized music, his pictures come to life in fluid action. He patented this device and therefore August 30, 1877 is considered the birthday of the first hand-drawn animation in the world.
The first animated heroes of cinematography were not endowed special qualities. These were simply moving pictures that could attract the viewer's attention. In 1914, total animation was used for the cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur. The creator of graphic animation, cartoonist, artist - Winsor McCay, also an American citizen, was a man who created special trends and techniques that influenced the development of world animation. The dinosaur character he created using a drawing (contour) is for the first time endowed with emotions and character.
