Pilot is a Russian

animation studio An animation studio is a company producing animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales or rentals ...

based in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. It was founded in 1988 by

Alexander Tatarsky Alexander Mikhailovich Tatarsky (russian: Александр Михайлович Татарский; December 11, 1950 – July 22, 2007) was a Soviet and Russian animation director, screenwriter, animator, producer, artist, co-founder and a ...

Igor Kovalyov Igor Adolfovich Kovalyov (russian: Игорь Адольфович Ковалёв; born 17 January 1954) is a Ukrainian-born Russian animator, director and educator, co-founder of Pilot — the first private animation studio in the Soviet Union. Fr ...

, Anatoly Prokhorov, and Igor Gelashvili, becoming the first private animation studio in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. They aimed at both auteur and commercial animation.''

Giannalberto Bendazzi Giannalberto Bendazzi (17 July 1946 – 13 December 2021) was an Italian animation historian, author, and professor. Life and career Born in Ravenna, Italy, and raised in Milan, Bendazzi started his career as a journalist and at the same time a ...

(2016)''
Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times
— Boca Raton: CRC Press, pp. 195-196 ''Larisa Malyukova (2013)''. Pilot / OVERcinema. Modern Russian animation. — Saint Petersburg: Umnaya Masha, p. 18-43

History

Aleksandr Tatarsky served as the Pilot's artistic director up until his death in 2007. He was replaced by

Eduard Nazarov Eduard Vasilievich Nazarov (russian: link=no, Эдуард Васильевич Назаров; 23 November 1941 – 11 September 2016) was a Soviet and Russian animator, screenwriter, voice actor, book illustrator and educator, artistic director ...

who held the position until 2013. Currently Igor Gelashvili serves as the studio's director. Pilot produced over 130 animated films. A subdivision called "Pilot-TV", founded in 1997, produced satirical animated series using 3D

motion-capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robot ...

d characters, most famous of them being the studio's key mascots: the Pilot Brothers based on Chief and Colleague from the popular Soviet mini-series '' Investigation Held by Kolobki''. The studio has received over 50 awards at international film festivals. It is best known for animating the popular

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

series ''

Mike, Lu & Og ''Mike, Lu & Og'' is an American-Russian animated television series created by Mikhail Shindel, Mikhail Aldashin, and Charles Swenson for Cartoon Network, and the 7th of the network's Cartoon Cartoons. The series follows a foreign exchange st ...

'' outside of Russia. Many directors have worked in the studio, including Aleksandr Petrov,

Konstantin Bronzit Konstantin Eduardovich Bronzit (russian: Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Бронзи́т; born 12 April 1965) is a Russian animator and animation film director and nominated twice for Academy Awards, Oscars. He currently works at one ...

Ivan Maximov ; , image = Иван Максимов на кинофестивале во Владивостоке.jpg , caption = , birth_name = Ivan Leonidovich Maksimov , birth_date = , birth_ ...

Andrey Sokolov Andrey Alekseevich Sokolov (russian: link=no, Андре́й Алексе́евич Соколо́в; born August 13, 1962, Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian actor, film and theater director, TV presenter, producer, public figure. People's Artist of ...

. From 2004 on the studio has been working on '' Mountain of Gems'', its biggest project to date. By this day over seventy 13-minute cartoons were produced with the support of the

State Committee for Cinematography Goskino USSR (russian: link=Yes, Госкино СССР) is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It w ...

. They are based on fairy tales of Russian people and other ethnic groups that populate the Russian Federation and former Soviet states. Each short features distinctive art direction and animation technique, including

claymation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...

, stop motion, traditional and computer animation. The project won a number of awards. During the financial crisis of 2008—2010 the studio was close to shutting down due to the lack of money. The four final films of the ''Mountain of Gems'' series were supposed to be finished in July 2010, with

Goskino Goskino USSR (russian: link=Yes, Госкино СССР) is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It w ...

paying for them in February or April; however, the money was never received. Studio producer Lev Bubnikov has said that suing Goskino to make them uphold the contract would have been "pointless". Yet in 2012 the studio received further financing and the project was revived. In 2014 an official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel for ''Mountain of Gems'' and its spin-off project ''Animated Russia'' was launched where the episodes are uploaded in Russian, English, Spanish and Chinese languages.Mountain of Gems series
at the official

channel

References

External links

Official website

"Mountain of Gems" project page

"Animated Russia" project page

Database of films by Pilot studio
on

animator.ru Animator.ru is a Russian website chronicling the films, people and studios of the animation industry in Russia, the former Soviet Union and (to a lesser extent) the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It also includes a forum, a news block, ...

Video-montage made by Vitaly Shafirov shortly after the death of Aleksandr Tatarskiy, covering the early days of Pilot Studio
{{Authority control Russian animation studios Film production companies of the Soviet Union Film production companies of Russia Companies based in Moscow Mass media companies established in 1988 1988 establishments in Russia

History

See also

References

External links