NU, POGODI! Part 4

These drawings are from last episode of original NU,POGODI! series. In that 16th episode the Wolf and the Hare found itself in the world of folk tales.





The art material was presented to Russian Insider by Vladimir Nikitin.

Boris Dezhkin. Part 2

Here you can see the animation drawings by Boris Dezhkin and theirs clean-up versions. We thought that clean-up was done by Sergey Marakasov but Sasha Dorogov corrected us. This is work by Erick Treskin! Anyway this is a pretty good assistant job, isn't it?






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And this is the assembling of several cels. Sadly the paint had peeling off. So it was necessary to stick the fragments together by adhesive tape.

Boris Dezhkin. Part 1

Again more historical than creative post. One of the most famous and great Russian animators was Boris Dezhkin. He was the true follower of Disney animation. Though many critics blame him for that loyalty to Disney he was just proud nevertheless. It must be said that Walt Disney saw works of Boris (THE UNUSUAL MATCH which recieved many international awards for example) and highly appreciated it. In fact he even invited Boris to work for the mouse house. Certainly the Soviet system could not tolerate this.

Boris lost one of his eyes during the World War II and still has remained an incredible good animator (here I can't not remember Michael Gagne who repeated this feat).

These are the Boris Dezhkin 's rough character design drawings done in latter half of 1950th.




By the way there is the character of Buratino (Soviet version of Pinocchio) on the first two drawings.
And this one is the key of animation sequence for A MIRACLE MAKER (1957). Boris has animated the weed plants.

To be continued

NU, POGODI! Part 3.

Today we put online some cels from NU, POGODI! Hope you will like them!
The first one is from first part of series. It was done in 1969. The others are from later releases.



It is very interesting to note that these two below are from scenes which was animated by Sasha Dorogov. This wonderful Russian animator later worked for Disney and did some animation in POCAHONTAS, MULAN, LILO AND STITCH and in many others Disney's animated features. Who knows? Maybe someone from guests of Russian Insider worked with him and knows him.


The art work was presented to Russian Insider by Vladimir Nikitin and Alexey Kotenochkin.

A new Russian blog is open

Please take a look at the new blog Maxim Nikonets Presents. This is the place where Russian animator Maxim Nikonets shares his comix and animation art.

NU, POGODI! Part 2

We are continue to put online art material for most known Soviet cartoons NU, POGODI! ("Ну, погоди!").
Here you can see the photo of permanent director of all original episodes of NU, POGODI! Vyacheslav Kotenochkin and his son Alexey Kotenochkin. Alexey has become the animation director also and recently he did two new episodes of NU, POGODI!


And here there are another drawings done for 8th part, which was produced in 1974. Please notice that the same artist did all clean up drawings.
Valery Ugarov (he become famous animation director later) did animation for this scene, the clean up is by Sergey Marakasov.


Animation by Oleg Komarov, clean up by Sergey Marakasov.

NU, POGODI!

Outside of any doubts the most known and loveable cartoons in Soviet Union was the NU POGODI! (Which one may translate as the WELL, BE CAUTIOUS!) series. The NU POGODI! cartoons were made every year since 1969 to 1986, one short per year on the average (there were two cartoons in 1971 and in 1973). And every new cartoon was a big holiday for all Soviet children. Obviously that the most close Western analogue to NU POGODI was a TOM AND JERRY cartoons. Many people think that NU POGODI is the imitation of TOM AND JERRY but actually even the permanent director of NU POGODI Vyacheslav Kotenochkin did not see the MGM cartoons when began work on own series.
Today we begin to put online some art material done for NU POGODI. You will see the clean up drawings, cels and photo. Hope you will like it. And for us it is a history.

These drawings were done for 8th part. Animation by Victor Arsentiev. Clean Up by Sergey Marakasov.





All art material was presented to Russian Insider by Vladimir Nikitin.

Prince Vladimir. Concept Art 11

Back to our most important recent animated feature. PRINCE VLADIMIR is in theaters for three weeks already and it grossed more than $4,7 millions in Russia. It is become clear that the final grosses will be about six millions. Ok, considering that PRINCE VLADIMIR's budget is about $5 millions, these results are not the outstanding. Still it is a success certainly. The hand drawn animation is alive in Russia! By the way a new hand drawn animated feature will be released in Russia tomorrow. This film which loosely based on Russian folklore has a very complex title DOBRYNYA NIKITICH AND ZMEY GORYNYCH. Unlike PRINCE VLADIMIR it is a comedy just like SHREK. Here you can see the poster.


And we glad to continue to put online Grigory Lozinsky's concept art for PRINCE VLADIMIR. These are last ones for a while (please do not forget that production of the second chapter of the dilogy is just started).

THE CHILDHOOD OF RATIBOR. Part 2

Many thanks to all of our guests for kind words! We glad that you liked the drawings from THE CHILDHOOD OF RATIBOR. And now the second part is coming.

THE CHILDHOOD OF RATIBOR. Part 1

As you probably already know, the new Russian animated feature PRINCE VLADIMIR (about which we told so much here) has been released. And it become the most successful hand drawn animated film in modern Russia within just a few days of distribution. It grossed more than $2 million on the first four days of release on 390 screens (you see there were about 14700 screens in Soviet Union but right now there are very few fully working theaters in Russia). Anyway it goes here on one level with the most successful computer films such as MADAGASCAR. It seems that PRINCE VLADIMIR should make at least $5 million and it is great for a non-Hollywood film. We'll see.

And today we want to recall another Russian animated film (though not full-length). Its title is THE CHILDHOOD OF RATIBOR (1973). Just like PRINCE VLADIMIR it is devoted to very drastic times in Russian history but it feature very stylish graphic approach instead of realistic look of PRINCE VLADIMIR. By the way it was directed by Roman Davydov who was a director of Soviet version of JUNGLE BOOK (please see below).
So here you can see some production drawings done for THE CHILDHOOD OF RATIBOR. Sorry for quality - time has not spared these drawings.




To be continued