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Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm (Union Animation Film) is a
Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has
gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous
awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style,
it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the
former Soviet Union. The studio has produced 1530 films during its
existence.
It is currently divided into two studios: "Creative union of the
"Film studio "Soyuzmultfilm" and the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund.
The Studio was founded on 10 June 1936 under the
name Soyuzdetmultfilm (Union Children's Animations). The name was
changed to Soyuzmultfilm on 20 August 1937. Initially comprising
only a few scattered workshops, Soyuzmultfilm grew quickly, soon
becoming the Soviet Union's premier animation studio. The studio
produced exclusively traditional animation until 1954, when a
"puppet division" was founded and the first stop motion-animated
film released. The puppet division would later also make
cutout-animated films.
During the Soviet era, the studio employed a
maximum of over 700 skilled labourers and released an average of 20
films each year (the highest number was 47, in 1973).
The 60s, 70s and 80s saw the release of many
films whose characters became an integral part of Soviet culture:
Winnie-the-Pooh, Crocodile Gena, Film, Film, Film,
Karlsson-on-the-Roof, The Musicians of Bremen, Three from
Buttermilk Village (Трое из
Простоквашино),
Nu, pogodi!, Hedgehog in the Fog, The Mystery of the Third Planet
etc.
The variety of animation styles and the
unprecedented degree of artistic freedom given to its many
animators made Soyuzmultfilm perhaps the most diverse of the
world's major animation studios.
Soyuzmultfilm's creativity was fueled in part by
the unique conditions of the Soviet Union which made it possible
for the studio to disregard the commercial appeal of its films.
Because animators were paid by the Academy of Film regardless of
how well or how poorly their products sold (though they were not,
in fact, "sold"), they were free to pursue their artistic vision
without giving a thought to finances.
Soyuzmultfilm's decline
The collapse of the Soviet Union brought to a
close the golden era of Soyuzmultfilm. New economic realities made
it impossible for the government to support the studio any longer.
In 1989, Soyuzmultfilm was made into a leased enterprise (expiring
after 10 years) and forced into the capitalist marketplace.
Although the studio survived, it shrank
dramatically, losing nearly 90% of its staff and releasing only a
few films. One early misfortune happened when the Russian courts
transferred the studio's puppet division building (in a legal
decision involving many other buildings) to the Russian Orthodox
Church. Before the animators could react to this turn of events, an
Orthodox Cossack squadron, accompanied by religious locals, broke
into the building with swords unsheathed for the purpose of
exorcism and began throwing out the "satanic puppets animated with
the blood of Christian babies". No studio employees were allowed to
come in and salvage any item, despite the presence of much
expensive equipment and a whole library of puppets.
The main reason for the collapse, however, was
the studio's deliberate dismantling by the new top management and
the illegal selling off of its assets for personal gain. In
1992–1993, Sergei Skulyabin was elected president.
Films by Jove controversy
In 1992, the studio signed a deal with the
American company Films by Jove, owned by Russian immigrant actor
Oleg Vidov and his American wife Joan Borsten. It was the first
international offer that the studio had received. The deal
stipulated that Films by Jove would be granted the rights to 547 of
the most popular classic studio films for a period of 10 years in
all territories except the CIS; as part of the return,
Soyuzmultfilm would receive 37% of the net profits. Films by Jove
restored many of the films and released many of them on television,
video and DVD in the United States and Europe, albeit usually with
dubbed voices and changed music.
According to current director Akop Kirakosyan,
the original deal seemed promising at the time but turned out to be
"deadly" for the studio. The expected payouts never materialized
because Films by Jove never posted any net profits; all of the
money officially went to things like new soundtracks, lawsuits and
anti-pirating measures.
Whether either deal was legal was debated in
court, with the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund (see section below)
claiming that because the company's lease on its possessions would
have expired in 1999 (at which time ownership would have
automatically reverted to the government if no new lease were
signed), Soyuzmultfilm had no authority to issue rights that lasted
beyond that timeframe. Joan Borsten presented a different story. In
the end, the Russian courts sided with Soyuzmultfilm and the
American courts sided with Films by Jove.
U.S. Federal Court found that the Russian
government has twice tried to invalidate Judge Trager's August 2001
summary judgment decision in favor of Films By Jove and transfer
the copyrights to a library of 1,500 animated films, which Films by
Jove licensed from Soyuzmultfilm Studios in 1992 to a new
state-owned company. The judge found evidence of "continued actions
being taken by the Russian government and judiciary to influence
the outcome of this United States litigation with the purpose of
depriving plaintiff Films by Jove of its right to distribute the
animated films in the United States and elsewhere outside the
former Soviet Union." The voulminous and very thorough decision
further noted that, "In the case at bar, expropriation of the
property of an American company by an act of a foreign sovereign is
unquestionably against the public policy of the United States."
On 11 April 2007, Russian businessman Alisher
Usmanov announced that he was in the final stages of negotiating a
price with Films by Jove to buy back the collection. A source close
to Usmanov said that Films by Jove's initial price was $10 million,
while Usmanov is willing to pay "several times less", as he
considers that the rights already belong to Soyuzmultfilm and that
he himself is only buying the physical film prints. In September
2007, the deal was finalized, and Usmanov handed everything over to
Russian state children's TV channel Bibigon.
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