Well, who doesn't like cartoons? Now the industry has developed to such an extent that the cartoons have such special effects and graphics that it is sometimes difficult to recall the old "flat" films with poor-quality rendering, without all kinds of effects, such as 3D. Modern children will never understand what a cartoon with plasticine heroes means about a crow with cheese, which means simple short cartoons with faded colors and slightly muffled voices of heroes, but 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 cartoons to Joseph Plateau
Like any other story, the history of animation and animation has its ups and downs, shifts and long stagnations. However, it is of interest to her that the production of cartoons developed almost constantly and continues to do so until now. The story of the animation is associated with the estate of the Belgian scientist Joseph Plateau. He is known for creating a toy called a strobe in 1832. It is unlikely that our children would play with such a toy in the modern world, but the guys of the 19th century liked this entertainment. A drawing was applied to a flat disk, for example, a running horse (as was the case on the Plateau), and the subsequent one was slightly different from the previous one, that is, the drawings depicted the sequence of actions of the animal during the jump. When the disc was spinning, it seemed like a moving picture.
First multiplier
But no matter how hard Joseph Plateau tried to improve his installation, he failed to create a full-fledged cartoon. He gave way to the Frenchman Emil Reynaud, who created a similar apparatus called a praxinoscope, which consisted of a cylinder with the same phased drawings applied on it as in a strobe.
And so the story of animation began. Already at the end of the 17th century, the Frenchman founded a small optical theater, where he showed everyone comedic performances of 15 minutes in length. Over time, the installation changed, a system of mirrors and a backlight were added, which, of course, brought the world closer to such a magical action as a cartoon.
The animation of the first decades of his life continued to develop in France along with theater and cinema. The famous director Emil Kohl was famous for his excellent acting productions, but still the animation hooked him more, and in 1908 he "drew" his first cartoon. To achieve realism, Kohl used photographs and copied objects from nature, but still his brainchild was more like a comic book in motion than a film.
The choreographer of the theater is the founder of animation in Russia
As for Russian figures in the field of animation, they took cartoons to a new level, now dolls were the heroes. So in 1906, the first domestic cartoon was created, with which the history of animation in Russia began. Alexander Shiryaev, choreographer of the Mariinsky Theater, mounted a cartoon, the protagonists of which were 12 dancing dolls.
A short film recorded on film 1.5 cm wide turned out to be too laborious. For three months, Alexander ran from the camera to the production itself so often that he even wiped a hole in the floor. Shiryaev’s dolls do not just move above the surface, like ghosts, they, like living ones, jump, spin in the air and perform incredible movements. Famous historians and animators still can not unravel the secret of such an activity of the characters. Say what you like, but the history of domestic animation is a complex and serious matter, therefore not always even the most advanced specialists manage to fully understand the principles of operation of this or that device.
Vladislav Starevich - a bright "character" of Russian animation
The story of the animation is associated with the names of French scientists and directors. Vladislav Starevich was definitely a "white crow" among these foreigners, because in 1912 he came up with a real 3D cartoon! No, the history of Russian animation has not yet reached the point where people thought of wearing special glasses, this person created a long puppet cartoon. It was black and white, strange and even scary, because it was a little difficult to make beautiful characters with your own hands.
This cartoon was called “The Beautiful Lucanida, or the War of Stags and Barbel”, the most interesting thing is that Vladislav Starevich used insects in his work, which was no accident, because he loved these creatures very much. It was with this person that cartoons with meaning began, because Starevich believed that the film should not only entertain, but also have some kind of subtext. Anyway, his films were conceived as some kind of teaching aids on biology about insects, the animator himself did not assume that he would create a real work of art.
Starevich did not stop at “Lyukanida” alone, later he created cartoons based on fables, now they began to resemble a kind of fairy tale.
Soviet graphics
The history of Soviet animation began in 1924, when at the unpopular today studio "Kultkino" a few artists produced a huge number of drawn cartoons. Among them were “German affairs and affairs”, “Soviet toys”, “Case in Tokyo” and others. The speed of creating one cartoon has increased significantly, if before the animators sat for months on one project, now the deadline has been reduced to 3 weeks (in rare cases, more). This was done thanks to a breakthrough in the field of technology. Artists already had flat templates that saved time and made the process of creating a cartoon less time-consuming. The animation of that time gave the world a huge number of cartoons, which 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 education, and worked in the field of engineering. But when he got to Mosfilm, he realized that the creation of puppet cartoons is his vocation. There he was able to bring to life his architectural skills, and also helped create a good technical base at the most famous film studio in Russia.
He became especially famous after the creation of the cartoon "New Gulliver" in 1935. No, this is not an overlay of text on the plot, it is a kind of redrawing of Gulliver's Travels in the way of the USSR. And what is most important and new in Ptushko’s activities - he was able to combine two completely different directions in the film industry: cartoon and acting. Now in cartoons emotions of dolls, mass character, activity appear, the work of the master becomes obvious. The story of animation for children with kind and beautiful characters begins its countdown precisely from Ptushko.
Soon he becomes the director of the new cartoon studio Soyuzdetmultfilm, but for some reason he leaves his post after some time, further on his animated activity is only known that it ended. Alexander decided to devote himself to the movies. But in his subsequent film works he used animation "chips".
Walt Disney and his "donation"
It turns out that the history of animation in Russia was built and put together in pieces not only by Russian researchers, scientists and just lovers of cartoons; Walt Disney himself presented the Moscow Film Festival with a whole reel of high-quality film with an animated cartoon about the good old Mickey Mouse. Our domestic director Fedor Khitruk was so impressed by the smooth and imperceptible change of shots and the quality of drawing that he realized that we want the same! However, in Russia so far there have been only 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 union of several small studios scattered throughout the country began to create larger-scale works, many critics claim that the history of animation begins from this moment in our country. The first works of the studio were rather boring, as they were devoted to the development of progress in Europe, but by 1940, specialists from Leningrad switched to the Moscow Union. However, even after that, nothing good happened, since the war started, all organizations had a clear goal - to raise the patriotic spirit of the people.
In the postwar period, there was a sharp rise in the level of production of cartoons. The viewer saw not the usual change of pictures and not the usual dolls, but realistic characters and interesting plots. 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 Disney Studios. New shooting methods were created (the effect of three-dimensional image) and the old ones were brought to automatism. At this moment, the cartoons find their new shell, instead of meaningless children's "films" appear educational and having some kind of subtext of work. In addition to short films, full-length cartoons, such as The Snow Queen, are filmed. In general, from the moment Soyuzmultfilm was created, the story of animation in Russia begins. For children in those days, even small shifts were noticeable and even the shortest films were appreciated.
1980-1990s
After an experienced change of direction in the animation, Soviet cartoons begin 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. It happened in 1981.
This picture won the hearts of many children of that time, and adults did not disdain watching 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 the animated film "The Other Side of the Moon", whose name lures you to find out what is there, on the other side of the Moon?
But plasticine is just “flowers”, since in Sverdlovsk, which took an active part in the animation activities of the country, painted films were created using glass. Then the glass artist Alexander Petrov became famous . Among such glass drawings is The Tale of the Goat, released in 1985.
The end of the 1980s was marked by sharp and rough strokes in the drawing, poor image quality and generally blur, this is easy to see on the example of “Koloboks are investigating”. This fashion was like a disease that spread throughout the world of domestic 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 collaborate with foreign studios, artists sign contracts and, together with foreign experts, create full-length cartoons. But still, the most patriotic artists remain at home, with their help, the story of animation continues in our country.
Animation today
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, not only the crisis blossomed in the life of the country, but also in the life of animation. It seemed that the story of animation for children, as well as for adults, was over. Studios existed only through advertising and rare orders. But still at this time there were works that won the prize ("The Old Man and the Sea" and "Winter's Tale"). Soyuzmultfilm was also destroyed, the authorities sold all the rights to the cartoons and completely destroyed the studio.
But already in 2002, Russia for the first time used a computer to create animations, and even despite the “troubled” time in the history of animation, the work of Russian animators took pride of place in world competitions.
In 2006, the production of cartoons was resumed in Russia; “Prince Vladimir” and “Dwarf Nose” were released. New studios appear: Mill and Sunny House.
But it turned out that it was too early to rejoice, since 3 years after the release of the latest famous films, a black period of crisis began. Many studios were closed, and the state ceased to contribute to the development of Russian animation.
Now many domestic studios release their favorite cartoons, sometimes the stories do not fit into an hour-long movie, so you have to draw 2-3, or even more parts. While failures in the history of animation in Russia is not expected.
Whatever you say, even adults like to watch cartoons and sometimes do it more carefully than their young children, and all because modern cartoons are bright, interesting and funny. Now they can not be compared with the puppet, where cockroaches and other insects participated. Nevertheless, any step that the history of Russian animation "climbed" is important, because each of them led to perfection.