History Of Ukrainian Animation

The history of Ukrainian animation, which began in the late 1920s, is part of Ukrainian cinematography and has involved a variety of techniques, including frame-by-frame filming, time lapse, and three-dimensional pictures.

Ukraine SSR

Early History (1920's-1930's)

Ukrainian animation's founder is considered to be Viacheslav Levandovsky (b. Odesa, February 24, 1897, d. Kyiv, April 18, 1962). The history of Ukrainian animation began in 1926 when the animation studio of the All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration was established. Shortly after, in 1927, Vyacheslav Lewandowski beginning his animation career in Odesa, created the silent film puppet cartoon "Chaff Goby (''Shazka o solomennon bychke'' or ''Solomennyi Biychok'')" also translated "The Tale of the Straw Bull", based on the fairy tale of the same name by Oleksandr Oles. However, the film has now been lost, and the only parts that we know about it were a few shots described by Oleksandr Shimon, a person who watched the film:

Vyacheslav Lewandowski continued his career in Kyiv, with The Tale about the Squirrel Hostess and the Mouse Villain (''Shazka o belle khoziaushke I myshke zlodeike'') in 1928. He created approximately twelve other works of animation, including the 1927 "''Ukrainization''" about the introduction of the Ukrainian language as an official language in Ukraine, and starting work in 1928 on the later-completed "''Tuk-Tuk and his friend Zhuk''" about a boy who grows vegetables with his dog named Zhuk, with a pig and fox described as lazy and aggressive, encroaching on Tuk-Tuk's work in all possible ways. (Archival copy of this latter cartoon still exists and was shown at the Dovzhenko Center in 2017).

The All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration, parent entity of Lewandowski's animation studio, was closed in the early 30's with many of its leaders imprisoned or executed to suppress a Ukrainian national revival in the 1930's. After being shuttered, the All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration was recreated into the All-Ukrainian film industry trust, "Ukrainfilm".. This move effectively ended the studio's independence, making it a branch of the Soviet Union's Soyuzkino. Levandovsky would continue work in Kyiv until 1936 and Moscow after 1933. In 1980, Ivan Ivanov-Vano claimed that Viacheslav Levandovsky could only be compared to Yuri Norstein. Levandovsky would begin working on the first sound animation film ''Tuk-Tuk i yego priyatel Zhuk'' (Knok-Knok and his friend Beatle) in 1932.

In the years following the 1932-1933 Holodomor, in 1934 in Odesa, young animators Gorbach and Guyetsky created the first Ukrainian graphic animated film, ''Murzilka in Africa'', about a fairy tale character named Murzilka who goes to Africa to save a girl named Kane from oppression and cruelty. Started in 1928 by Lewandowski and finished by Lewandowski's students in 1935, the 1936 ''Zhuk v zooparke'' (the Beatle in the Zoo) and the 1938 release of ''Tuk-Tuk and his friend Zhuk'', filmed by two of Lewandowski's students: Semyon Guetsky (1902-1974) and Eugene Gorbach (1901-?), was the first attempt to create a serial animation character. Ippolit Lazarchuk (b. August 13, 1903, d. February 23, 1979) created the 1937 ''Lesnoy dogovor'' (The Wood Deal) and the 1938 ''Zapreschenny popugay'' (the Forbidden Parrot), but the anti-fascist film the Forbidden Parrot was not released.

Suspended animation (1940's)

Events in the 1940's including World War II virtually froze animation created by Ukraine. Oppression and the ongoing war diminished the animation base in the Ukrainian SSR. Consequently, development of Ukrainian animation was paused for decades. Only educational and science films were created by Kievnauchfilm until 1959. The 1945 '' Lost Letter'' animation about travels and temptations of a Ukrainian man delivering a letter from Ukraine to Moscow, while set in "Little Russia" (a name used by Russia for Ukraine) as referred to in the animation, was actually created by Moscow's Soyuzmultfilm animation studio.

Late 1950's rebirth

Ukrainian animation was reborn in the late 1950s, when animator Ipolyt Lazarchuk (b. August 13, 1903, d. February 23, 1979) together with Irina Gurvich and Nina Vasilenko began making cartoon animations. Lazarchuk's animation workshop group was in part responsible for the renaissance of Ukrainian animation. The film ''The Adventures of Pepper'' was released in 1961, made by a team which apparently didn't have experience animating prior to the making of ''The Adventures of Pepper''. The cartoon tells the story of Pepper, a magazine employee who is approached by animals suffering from poachers who also pollute the forest and river. Although the studio that created ''Adventures of Pepper'', Kievnauchfilm, was founded in 1941 to produce popular science films, its entry into animation would become what it was best known for.

1960's-1970's

In 1967, the science film studio Kievnauchfilm, having additionally branched out into animation, received a letter from a now-unknown resident of Zaporizhzhia, pitching the studio to make a film called ''How the Cossacks Cooked Kulish.'' The success of the resulting film, now reimagined as a cartoon by Volodymyr Dakhno, kickstarted the Cossacks animation franchise for Kievnauchfilm, and for Ukraine.

Other cartoons in the series included ''How the Cossacks played football'', ''How the Cossacks liberated the brides'', ''How the Cossacks bought salt'', ''How the Cossacks became Olympians'', ''How the Cossacks helped the musketeers'', and ''How the Cossacks played hockey''. There were 9 cartoons in total.

Soviet censors banned work, withheld financing from, or punished artists who did not fit party interests. The Communist Party had wanted to portray the Cossacks cartoon characters instead as Red Army soldiers. Folktales used in cartoons during this period in the 1970's and 1980's, such as in Cossacks, were altered for Soviet ideology. Natalie Kononenko wrote:

"They not only criticized capitalism, but also depicted women as sexless and self-sacrificing, and urged cooperation, neighborliness, and non-violence. National minorities within the Soviet Union were portrayed as backward and in need of the guidance of Russia, the leading Soviet republic. Ukrainians for example, were shown as cute and quaint, living in a bucolic land. Colorful clothing and tasty foods were attributed to them, as well as the ability to sing and dance. However, they were also seen as a people who believed in spirits and did not understand modern life."

As compared to the Moscow animation studio, Soyuzmultfilm, which sought realism in the model of Disney (so much so that western animators avoided the Moscow International Film Festival for fears of copying and piracy), Ukrainian animators at Kyivnaukfilm sought a distinct style, refusing to imitate. They instead focused more on aesthetics and concept, leading to new styles and techniques that were more conceptual and experimental, emphasizing artist individuality and originality in style. Key traits of Ukrainian-style animation were "vivid language, a connection with literature, pictorial art and folklore."

In 1976, the Kievnauchfilm cartoon series ''Adventures of Captain Wrongel,'' directed by David Cherkassky, became one of the most well-known cartoons of the Soviet Union, based around a sea captain who competes in a regatta which is linked to a theft from a famed museum.

1980's

The cartoon ''Kapitoshka'' was released in 1980, and is about an unlikely friendship between a wolf and the fun-loving rain drop, Kapitoshka. A young wolf, reading a tutorial about how to become a scary wolf, chases and eventually catches Kapitoshka to cook him. Kapitoshka escapes in a variety of ways, turning the pursuit into a game leading the wolf to concede futility. The two eventually become friends before Kapitoshka retreats in a rain cloud. In the 1989 sequel to the original, "''Vozvrashaisya, Kapitoshka!''" ("Come back, Kapitoshka!"), instead of from a book, it is this time the young wolf's aunt coaching him to be scary and fierce. Meanwhile, the young wolf dreams of again playing with his friend, Kapitoshka, and awaits a message from a crow.

In 1981, based on the children's novel by Lewis Carroll, the cartoon ''Alice in Wonderland'' was released by Kyivnaukfilm in three parts on Ukrainian television.

In 1984, the Kievnauchfilm studio shot the cartoon ''How Petryk Pyatochkin Counted Little Elephants (Yak Petryk Pyatochkin slonykiv rakhuvav, Ukrainian: Як Петрик П'яточкин слоників рахував, Russian: Как Петя Пяточкин слоников считал)'', written by the character-children's writer Natalia Guzeeva. In this cartoon, a playful kindergartner named Petryk Pyatochkin counts elephants to fall asleep, then has a dream about playing with elephants.

In 1988, Volodymyr Dakhno, Anatoliy Havrylov, and Eduard Kirych were awarded the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine for their work on the Cossacks cartoon series.

Based on the 1880's Robert Louis Stevenson novel by the same name, the 107 minute animated film, Treasure Island, was released by Kievnauchfilm in the late 1980's, directed by David Cherkassy, and released in English in the United States in 1992 as a 72 minute dubbed version.

Producing between 150 to 250 minutes of animation each year, by 1991, Ukraine SSR's Kievnauchfilm was the second-largest animation studio in the Soviet Union, with only Soyuzmultfilm producing more animations.

Modern Ukraine

1990's - 2000's

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of Kyivnaukfilm's archives were lost or destroyed. Following Ukrainian Independence Day in 1991, many animators made commercials and ads as government financing ceased. Nonetheless, the descendent company of KyivNaukFilm, UkrAnimaFilm, continued to create animation. Among these films was the first Ukrainian animated film to win the Berlin Film Festival's "Silver Bear" for the cartoon 2002 " The Tram Was Going, Number Nine", and receving awards in Yalta, Stutgart, Talinn, and Kyiv as well. Creative partnerships with Western European entities resulted in the creation of new animations even during difficult times.

In addition to Kyivnaukfilm's successor, UkrAnimaFilm, other Ukrainian animation studios came into existence. The Borisfen Animation Studio was founded in 1990, and formed a partnership with France. The Odesa Animation Studio was founded September 19, 1991. (''See also'': Uk
Odesa Animation Studio

Ukrainian animators mixed old traditions with new, such as with the 2005 Russian-Ukrainian stop-motion short film "Poverty" (Zlydni).

2010 - Present

The animation studio, Animagrad, was founded in Kyiv in 2012 and creates films for international audiences. (''See also'': Uk
Animagrad

In 2014, UkrAnimaFilm released the first Ukrainian feature-length animated film called "Babay" and two years later the 3-D animated film "Nikita the Tanner or The Dragon Spell," which was shown at the Marche du Film in Cannes and won the National "Golden Top" award. In 2016, UkrAnimaFilm released a revival of the earlier Cossacks cartoon series.

In 2017, Kharkiv

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