Inessa Kovalevskaya

Inessa Alekseyevna Kovalevskaya (russian: Инесса Алексеевна Ковалевская; born 1 March 1933) is a Soviet and Russian animation director at Soyuzmultfilm known for her musical animated films and ''The Bremen Town Musicians'' in particular. She is member of ASIFA.'' Giannalberto Bendazzi (2016)''
Animation: A World History: Volume II: The Birth of a Style - The Three Markets
— Boca Raton: CRC Press, p. 292 ''Sergei Kapkov (2006)''. Encyclopedia of Domestic Animation. — Moscow: Algorithm, p. 327—328 She was named the Merited Art Worker of the Russian Federation in 2002.President's decree № 116
at Kremlin.ru (in Russian)

Early life

Inessa Kovalevskaya was born in Moscow to Lyudmila Petrovna Kovalevskaya (1912—1989) and Aleksey Ivanovich Kovalevsky (1901—1950).Nina Tikhonova. ''Test for imposter'' interview at the Komsomola Life magazine № 6, March 1990, pp. 24—26 Her father was a decorated major general, historian, director of the V.I. Lenin Political-Military Academy (1943—1948) and the Academy of Social Sciences Under the CPSU Central Committee (1948—1950). According to one version, he committed suicide, according to another — fell victim of repressions.Georgy Borodin.
The Bremen Town Musicians. The first animated musical
' article from the Kinograph film historian magazine № 20, 2009 at the official LiveJournal (in Russian)

As a result, Inessa wasn't accepted to the Moscow State University despite passing entering exams. She managed to enter the Moscow Region State University with the help of her father's war friend where she studied for two years, simultaneously visiting art and drama courses. She spent another two years studying for a theatre director at the Moscow Art Theatre School to study for a theatre historian. She graduated in 1958 and joined the State Committee for Cinematography to work as an editor (a censor) of the Moldovan film and animation industry up until 1961.

Kovalevskaya was then suggested to supervise Soyuzmultfilm, but soon left her place for the High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors and in 1964 joined the studio an animation director.''Irina Margolina, Natalia Lozinskaya (2006)''
Our Animation
— Moscow: Interros, p. 146—152 She studied music since childhood and dreamed of directing musical films. Her diploma short ''Automaton'' (1965) featured stop motion animation, but she switched to traditional animation which allowed for more diversity when choosing music genres. She regularly teamed with the composer Gennady Gladkov, songwriter Yuri Entin and actor/singer Oleg Anofriyev who performed multiple roles in different voices.

''The Bremen Town Musicians''

In 1969 they produced Kovalevskaya's most famous work: ''The Bremen Town Musicians'' loosely based on the Town Musicians of Bremen by the Brothers Grimm, with elements of rock and roll and hippie culture that weren't tolerated in the USSR and led to some scandals. The film premiere was greatly postponed; it was supposed to be preceded by the phonograph record with all the songs, but the Melodiya record label put it on hold for nine months. As Yuri Entin told, he had to forge the director's signature in his absence, the record was finally released and sold 28 million copies across the country, turning into a hit.Tikhon Khrennikov