Interesting facts about the creation of cartoons. Shrek has his real prototype

by the most the best cartoons Soviet childhood one can safely call the work of the Soyuzmultfilm studio. Over the years of its existence, it has released great amount cartoons for every taste, which we show to our children and do not get tired of reviewing ourselves. In addition, most cartoons contain many secrets and details that are visible only to the most attentive.

Let's get to know them! :)

Winnie the Pooh

The first film adaptation of a book about Winnie the Pooh belongs to the Walt Disney Studios: in the early 60s, several episodes about a funny bear cub and his friends were released. Before starting work on the domestic Winnie the Pooh, Fyodor Khitruk had not seen the Disney version.

However, he wanted to move away from the images that were depicted in the book, to create his own, new and original characters. Of course, he succeeded.

It is curious that initially Winnie the Pooh was very furry, his ears looked a little “chewed”, and his eyes were different sizes. At first, Piglet turned out to be similar to a thick, appetizing sausage. A lot of different bear cubs and piglets were drawn before the characters took on the look we are used to.

By the way, in the second and third series, the drawings of the characters were simplified: the black "glasses" on the face of Winnie the Pooh acquired a clear outline, and Piglet's rosy cheeks began to be indicated by one red line. While working on the cartoon about Winnie the Pooh, Fedor Khitruk did not know about the existence of animated films about the funny bear of the Disney studio. Later, according to Khitruk, Disney director Wolfgang Reiterman liked his version. At the same time, since the Soviet cartoons were created without taking into account the exclusive rights to film adaptation owned by the Disney studio, their screening abroad was impossible.

Kid and Carlson

Soviet cartoon "The Kid and Carlson" directed by Boris Stepantsev, based on the story Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren and released on television in 1968, was enthusiastically received by both young and adult viewers.

In total, there were two series about Carlson: "Kid and Carlson" (1968) and "Carlson returned" (1970). Soyuzmultfilm was going to make a third one, but this idea was never realized. The studio's archives still hold the film, which was planned to be used for filming the cartoon based on the third part of the trilogy about Malysh and Carlson - "Carlson plays pranks again."

If you watch the cartoon about Carlson very carefully, you will notice the following detail: at the beginning of the cartoon, when the Kid crosses the road, an Air France advertisement is visible on a passing bus.

The detectives from the cartoon about the adventures of Funtik the pig are very similar to the linen thieves from the cartoon about Carlson. In addition, the Soviet parents of Uncle Fedor from Prostokvashino are very similar to Malysh's Swedish parents.

Carlson, Malysh, Freken Bock and all other characters were created by the artist Anatoly Savchenko. He also suggested calling Faina Ranevskaya to voice the “housekeeper”. Before her, a huge number of actresses auditioned for this role, and no one came up, and Ranevskaya fit perfectly. She had another "minus" - a difficult character. She called the director "baby" and categorically rejected all his remarks. And when she first saw her heroine, she was frightened, and then she was very offended by Savchenko. "Am I that scary?" - constantly asked the actress. Explanations that this is not her portrait, but just an image, Ranevskaya did not console. She remained the same.

Carlson also for a long time there was no "voice", Livanov found himself, by chance. The actor every day went to the creators of the cartoon for a game of chess, and once at the game, director Boris Stepantsev complained to him that he could not find a person for the role of Carlson. Vasily Livanov immediately went to the studio, tried, and was approved. Later, the actor admitted that, while working in the image of Carlson, he diligently parodied the famous director Grigory Roshal

Cat Leopold

The Soviet animated series about the cat Leopold and the hooligan mice harassing him was filmed at the Ekran Creative Association from 1975 to 1993. At the time of the creation of the animated series, there was not yet an art workshop. Therefore, the first two series ("Revenge of the Cat Leopold" and "Leopold and Gold fish”) were not drawn, but were made by the shifting technique.

Small parts characters and scenery were cut out of paper and placed under glass. After each frame, the details shifted by a tiny distance, which created the illusion of movement. Further cartoon series were realized using hand-drawn animation.

The creators of the cartoon puzzled over the name of the main character for a long time. The authors really did not want to call him too simply - "ordinary" Barsik or Murzik. According to their plans, the name had to sound beautiful and at the same time be easy to pronounce.

There is a version according to which the son of the author of the script Arkady Khait named the good-natured and charming cat. While working on the plot of the cartoon, the boy tried to do two things at once: follow the adults and watch on TV " elusive avengers". The name of the White Guard Colonel Leopold Kudasov, one of the heroes of The Elusive, prompted the idea to name the cat the same way.
Hooligan mice are also not nameless, as many people think. A well-fed gray rodent is called Motei, and a thin white animal is Mitya. However, in the cartoon, mice are never called by their names.

Cheburashka

The Soviet cartoon about Cheburashka was filmed by director Roman Kochanov based on the book by Eduard Uspensky, more precisely, according to their joint script. And although Uspensky wrote 8 stories about Crocodile Gena, Cheburashka and their friends, only 4 episodes were made.

The "cartoon" image of Cheburashka known today - a cute creature with huge ears, large trusting eyes and soft brown hair - was invented by the animator Leonid Shvartsman. This is how he first appeared in Roman Kachanov's cartoon "Crocodile Gena" (1969) and won the hearts of children and adults.

According to the preface to Eduard Uspensky's book "Gena the Crocodile and His Friends", Cheburashka was the name of a defective toy that the author of the book had in childhood, depicting an unprecedented animal: either a bear cub or a hare with big ears.

According to the book, the author's parents claimed that Cheburashka is an animal unknown to science that lives in the hot tropical jungle. Therefore, in the text of the book, the heroes of which, according to the writer, are the children's toys of Uspensky himself, Cheburashka really appears before the readers as an unknown tropical animal.

In an interview, Eduard Uspensky said that he once came to visit a friend who had a little daughter. At the time of the writer's visit, the girl was trying on a fur coat that dragged along the floor. “The girl was constantly falling, stumbling about her fur coat. And her father, after another fall, exclaimed: “Oh, she’s gone crazy again!”. This word stuck in my memory, I asked its meaning. It turned out that “cheburahnutsya” means “to fall”. And so the name of my hero appeared, ”the author admitted.

For a long time, the artist Leonid Shvartsman could not figure out what the old woman Shapoklyak looked like. The word "shapoklyak" is French for "folding top hat". From here everything went: the top hat is the 19th century, the old woman in the dark, mischievous, sly, which means with a long nose. Schwartzman's mother-in-law was also from the 19th century, and she had White hair tied in a bun. He painted his old woman's mother-in-law's cheeks and surprised eyes. He added a crumpled top hat, lace, jabot, cuffs ...

After the release of the cartoon on the screens, an article appeared in one of the newspapers with the heading "Who will adopt Cheburashka?" It said that Cheburashka is a homeless child who has no homeland! Yes, and the crocodile Gena is also good, he is looking for friends through ads, and they need to be looked for in the team!

Thank God, they managed to win back Cheburashka, and now he is known and loved not only here, but also in Japan. Still, because he looks like a perfect positive japanese hero: big eyes, small mouth. The Japanese call it the "Russian miracle" Chebi

Three from Prostokvashino

The animated series "Three from Prostokvashino" based on the novel by Eduard Uspensky "Uncle Fyodor, the dog and the cat" was directed by Vladimir Popov. A total of three series were released. Much of what is in literary source, was not included in the cartoon, but the popularity of the film adaptation several times exceeded the popularity of Uspensky's story.

Work on the creation of screen images of the cartoon "Three from Prostokvashino" was divided between the production designers at the request of director Vladimir Popov. The image of Galchonka did not work out for a very long time. Therefore, everyone who entered the premises of the artists at Soyuzmultfilm was asked to draw this character. Even the artist Leonid Shvartsman, who invented the “cartoon” Cheburashka, had a hand in its creation.

Uncle Fedor is the only type according to which the team that worked on the creation of the cartoon "Three from Prostokvashino" did not come to a single decision. Therefore it screen image varies greatly from series to series. So, a move that is impermissible from the point of view of Western animation was taken quite calmly in our country.

By the way, Matroskin's cat could also be called Taraskin. The fact is that when Eduard Uspensky wrote his story, he wanted to name this character by the name of Anatoly Taraskin, an employee of the Wick film magazine, but he did not allow him to use his name. True, he later regretted it and confessed to the writer: “What a fool I was! I regretted giving my last name!

In fact, the characters from Prostokvashino were created by the artist Nikolai Yerykalov, but after the first series he left the project, and Arkady Sher was invited to continue his work. The new production designer had to "think out" and finish all the characters, although he did not feel much sympathy for them. For some reason, Cher did not like Matroskin the most, and when work was underway on the third series, he took and drew him plump and even in a stupid hat with a pompom. True, then he still felt sympathy for the cat. But the artist's favorite characters were Pechkin and Uncle Fyodor's mother. The explanation for this attachment is very simple: Arkady Sher drew Pechkin from himself, and his mother from his wife

Wait for it!

"Wait for it!" It's not just a cartoon, it's true legend on which more than one generation grew up. In 1969, "Well, you wait!" was a government order. Officials decided to give our answer Disney cartoons and allocated a fairly serious budget. Customer requirements were limited to a request to do something funny.

With this request, the leadership of Soyuzmultfilm turned to the famous comedians Alexander Kurlyandsky, Arkady Khait, Felix Kamov and Eduard Uspensky.

A lot of controversy among the creators of the cartoon arose about the 12th series famous cartoon, when the Wolf is in the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Ramses. It was even conceded that the Egyptian government might protest against this. But everything worked out.

In the animated series "Well, wait a minute!" amazing music selection, which uses popular recordings of Western and Soviet stage. But they were never listed in the imprint of the cartoon. Then it was not accepted.

The music that sounds during the credits is the screensaver "Well, you wait!" - called "Vizisi" ("Water skiing") and was published on a collection of Hungarian variety music firm "Melody" in 1967. Its author is Hungarian composer named Tomas Deak.

Carrion last year's snow

As the composer Grigory Gladkov mentioned during his performance in the humorous program "Around Laughter", the cartoon "Last Year's Snow Was Falling" had an initial working title"Firs-sticks, dense forest", and the main character in it was the janitor from "Plasticine Crow". Then the visual appearance of the main character was finalized, however, as well as the title of the picture.

The role of the narrator in the cartoon "Last Year's Snow Was Falling" was originally planned to be given to Leah Akhedzhakova. She even voiced the cartoon, but director Alexander Tatarsky did not like it. As a result, both roles - both the peasant and the storyteller - were given to Stanislav Sadalsky.

Sadalsky, who voiced the roles of a man and a narrator in the cartoon "Last Year's Snow Was Falling", was not listed in the credits. Shortly before the delivery of the cartoon, the actor was detained in the restaurant of the Kosmos Hotel with a foreign citizen, after which a denunciation followed to the chairman of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company S.G. Lapin. As a punishment for communicating with foreigners, the actor's name was removed from the credits.

The cartoon "Last year's snow was falling" could not be avoided close attention censorship. “At the delivery of“ Snow ”I had a pre-infarction condition,” recalled the director of the cartoon, Alexander Tatarsky. “They told me that I was disrespectful to a Russian person: you have only one hero - a Russian peasant, and that idiot! ..”

After the demolition, "Sneg" had to be remounted and re-voiced in some places. High-browed chiefs arranged a party meeting, at which they scrolled through each frame: are there encrypted secret messages foreign intelligence agencies?

princess in Bremen town musicians» wears the dress of Yuri Entin's wife
The authors of the fairy tale Gennady Gladkov, Vasily Livanov and Yuri Entin brought the texts and notes of the songs home to the performer Oleg Anofriev. He listened to them and said that he wanted to voice all the heroes without exception. He did an excellent job in just one night. True, he was not allowed to sing for the Princess, although he was eager, but they gave her part to Elmira Zherzdeva.

The robbers in this cartoon were copied from the characters popular in the seventies - Coward, Dunce and Experienced. But the Princess - from the wife of songwriter Yuri Entin.
“The very red dress that you see in the cartoon, I bought her for forty rubles, she was wearing it at the wedding,” Yuri said. - And Gladkov and Livanov were our witnesses

SpongeBob

At first, the show was called SpongeBoy, but this name was already registered, and then the Sponge was renamed.
Spongebob has 40 holes.
SpongeBob was created and created by Stephen Hillenburg, a former marine biologist and teacher who trained in animation at art school. Like SpongeBob, he once worked as a chef in a seafood restaurant.

Winnie the Pooh

In the Soviet cartoon, Winnie the Pooh was voiced by Yevgeny Leonov. To achieve greater comedy, the artist's speech was sped up by about 30%. If you reduce the speed by this value, you can hear the usual Leonov.

Mickey Mouse

Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse, was afraid of mice.
Mickey Mouse received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Walt Disney Company is fighting to keep the copyright of Mickey Mouse, which in 2008 was valued at over $3 billion. Due to the company's activities aimed at periodically extending the terms of protection of proprietary copyrights, due to which Mickey Mouse did not enter the public domain by 2008

Scrooge McDuck

In 2007, Glasgow City Council included Scrooge McDuck in the list of prominent citizens.
Scrooge McDuck topped the 15 richest list in 2007 fictional characters according to Forbes magazine. As the compilers of the list explained, this was due to the rise in gold prices (in 2005 and 2002, Scrooge ranked sixth and fourth, respectively)

The Simpsons

Beer branded "Duff" was produced in South Australia from 1990 to 1996. When it turned out that the title was borrowed from The Simpsons without permission, the release was discontinued. The price of this beer now reaches 10 thousand dollars per box, while the manufacturer's box cost $24.
The Simpsons premiere in Angola was promoted with the image of the "African" Simpson family. Local advertising agency changed the appearance of the characters to resemble an Angolan family. On advertising posters commemorating the first broadcast of The Simpsons by an African broadcaster, all members of the family are drawn as "dark-skinned" and wearing flip-flops.
Homer hints more than once that drugs are stored in the house, usually followed by Marge's phrase "But we don't have drugs!", To which Homer, rolling his eyes, replies "Well, of course. No".

When recording the lines of the characters, the actors never met - each of them worked separately, and the assistant said the lines of their partners.
Donkey's movements in the film were modeled after the movements of a dog by the animators - with the exception of the chase scene at the beginning of the film, in which Donkey's movements were modeled after those of a rabbit.
Prior to its release, the film was shown to a panel of lawyers who had to determine whether the Walt Disney Company could sue for non-traditional use images from their cartoons.

Kung Fu Panda

The names of the main characters are chosen from real words. Chinese. "Shifu" means "teacher", "Tai Lung" - "great dragon", "Ugwei" - "turtle".
In the Chinese localization of the film, Crane Master was voiced by Jaycee Chan (Jackie Chan's son)

Madagascar

Budget - $78 million
The Russian version is voiced by Oscar Kuchera (Marty), Masha Malinovskaya (Gloria), Alexander Tsekalo (Melman) and Konstantin Khabensky (Alex).
In the original, Marty the Zebra is voiced by an African American, whose voice, according to the director's intention, was to give many of his phrases a certain "Negro" meaning and notes of American satire. In the Russian version, Marty is voiced by Oscar Kuchera, so some of the jokes at first turned out to be incomprehensible to Russian-speaking people

For creating appearance Volta used images of different breeds of dogs, but the American White Shepherd was taken as the basis for the designers.
About two or three months before the end of the cartoon, several male animators decided not to shave until everything was finished. Out of solidarity, the idea was supported by all the men who worked on the cartoon, including directors. By the end of this "action" many men acquired solid beards.
Having come up with the images of the characters, the filmmakers first found actors for dubbing, and then they created characters based on their voices.
The three-dimensional model of Reno the hamster in a plastic ball was created by the animators in the image of producer John Lasseter's pet chinchilla.
IN English version cartoon Volt is called "Bolt" (can be translated as "Lightning"). In the Russian version, "Bolt" is pronounced rather rudely, so the authors of the Russian duodnakozh had to change the name of the protagonist to "Volt". The lightning drawn on the side of the dog only confirmed the correctness of the choice.

Wait for it!

His famous hairstyle and characteristic appearance The wolf acquired only in the second issue of the cartoon. In the first issue, his hairstyle and appearance differs from the version familiar to the audience.
The wolf can play the guitar (as well as the harp, albeit in a dream) and sing hoarse voice in the manner of Vysotsky. Dancing foolishly. Competently skiing and skating. Poorly drives a car and a motorcycle. It is much better controlled with a truck crane, harvester and other similar mechanisms. Judging by the lifestyle of the Wolf (his clothes, the situation in his room, etc.), permanent job he doesn’t have, but periodically makes good money on the “shabashka”, so he can afford things that were quite expensive at that time (a beautiful new Java motorcycle), although there are also penniless periods

Zhi?harka is a cartoon created at the Pilot studio in 2006. Based on Ural fairy tales. From the series: "Mountain of Gems".
The film participated in competitive program festival "Suzdal-2007". The cartoon was created using the technique of "relays".

Return of the Prodigal Parrot

The plot of the cartoon child psychologists use to resolve conflict situations with teenagers.
Parrot Kesha has long been a commercial brand that is actively promoted by copyright holders and pirates. So, video games were created (for example, "Freedom for parrots!" and "Kesha in the world of fairy tales"), coloring books, etc.
The popularity of the cartoon prompted A. Kurlyandsky to write a book, which included the stories “Have you been to Tahiti?”, “And they feed us well here too!” and "Lovely!"

Once upon a time there was a dog

A bronze monument to the Wolf weighing about 200 kg was erected in Tomsk in 2005. The authors are foundry worker Maxim Petrov and consultant artist Leonty Usov. The wolf can pronounce eight phrases (“I’ll sing right now!”, “God help me!”, “Well, come in, if anything!”, etc.).
The creators of the film tell the features of the creation of the Wolf character. At first, in the cartoon, he was not drawn as we know him. However, when A. Dzhigarkhanyan dubbed the role of this hero, it turned out that the depicted character did not fit the voice of the actor, after which the Wolf was redrawn, and the cartoon character appeared, whom the viewer saw.

Remy has 1.15 million hairs, while Colette has 115 thousand hairs. The average person has about 110,000 hairs.
To create a realistic view of the garbage heap, the artists photographed and examined the actual products of decay. Fifteen various kinds foods such as apples, berries, bananas, mushrooms, oranges, broccoli and lettuce were left to rot and then photographed.
During the initial character design, the sculptor created nine Remy clay sculptures.
The cartoon was nominated for 5 Oscar nominations, including Best Animated Film in 2007.

The animation industry is growing by leaps and bounds, not yielding to their "cinema" counterparts. Going to see some cartoon at the cinema has become kind family tradition, but it’s not worth talking about home gatherings in front of a TV or computer - this is sacred. Do not count the sea fascinating stories associated with the creation of certain masterpieces of animation, both in our time and in the distant past.

Interesting facts about Disney cartoons

Few people know, but when Walt Disney went on stage to receive an Oscar for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he did not even suspect that instead of one statuette he would receive as many as eight: a large one and seven small ones. On the set of the famous cartoon, a lot of interesting “behind the scenes” things happened - for example, in order to inspire the animators for the most working atmosphere, an impromptu menagerie was arranged at the studio, and to give Snow White’s skin a natural whiteness, real powder was applied to the film and then painted on it.

And here are a few more amazing stories, but about other Disney masterpieces:

• The well-known Gadget from the animated saga "Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers" was called so only in Russian voice acting. In fact, her name was Gadget (Gadget) - very unusual word for the early 90s. In order not to confuse the audience, it was decided to adapt the name to post-Soviet realities. So the brave and quick-witted mouse became Gadget, quickly and skillfully "screwing" the brains of quick-tempered chipmunks.

• The end of the 80s of the last century was marked by the release of the film "Back to the Future" and the animated "Aladdin". It is not surprising that the Disney management saw the actor Michael J. Fox, who at that time was bathing in the laurels of popularity, as the prototype for the image of the mischievous oriental hooligan. But the result did not satisfy the animators, and as a result, Aladdin's face was "written off" from Tom Cruise, who also collected millions in film distribution. Well, chic bloomers were borrowed from rapper MC Hamer.
• Mickey Mouse - no doubt business card Disney studios. A funny little mouse also has its own "strangeness", because if you look closely, you can pay attention to it. unusual ears. From whatever angle you look at them, their position in the frame remains unchanged - two black circles "full face" and never "in profile". By the way, the actors who voiced Mickey Mouse and Minnie were a married couple in real life.

• All Disney princesses were teenagers by age. To confirm this fact, it is enough to conduct a small investigation. Young Aurora was only 16 years old, as the curse said that that's when she would prick her finger. The beautiful Ariel celebrates her 16th birthday at the beginning of the cartoon. Jasmine was a little older, almost an adult girl. Her father was very worried about his daughter's marriage, or rather, his absence, because it was up to the age of 18 that she had to go down the aisle with some prince.

• The flamboyant and charismatic Pumbaa of The Lion King was the first character that the animators allowed to frivolously fart on screen. Before that, not a single Disney hero had the opportunity to behave so uncivilized, and even absolutely not ashamed of his bad manners. By the way, the cartoon was dubbed into dozens of languages ​​of the world, including Zulu.

On the cartoons Winnie the Pooh”, “Well, wait a minute”, “Brownie Kuzya” and “Cheburashka” more than one generation of children has grown up. And this means that it is doubly interesting to learn new facts about their creation and behind-the-scenes life, which can make even the most inveterate skeptics and pessimists laugh.

• "Kid and Carlson" was released in Soviet cinemas in 1968 and immediately won the recognition of young viewers. All images were invented by artists Anatoly Savchenko, including the portrait of the "housekeeper" Freken Bock. Dozens of actresses auditioned for the voice acting of this heroine, and none of them satisfied the director's requests. In the end, Faina Ranevskaya was invited, who did her job perfectly, but added a lot of gray hair to the director's head. Not only did she flatly refuse to listen to all the comments, she also openly resented the appearance of her heroine. She considered her terrible and ugly, taking offense and adopting her "portrait" for herself.

• "Cat Leopold" was forged on the Soviet animated "forge" from 1975 to 1993. The name of the kind man, who called on everyone to live together, became a household name, but here's how exactly it stuck to a charming and cheerful cat - separate story. The authors did not want to call the main character some kind of Vaska or Murzik, but they did not manage to come up with a worthy name for a long time. Problem resolved with light hand the son of the screenwriter Arkady Khait - then still a little boy, who was equally inspired by the development of the plot of the cartoon by adults and the adventures of "The Elusive Avengers" on TV. It was then that he had an offer to give the cat the name of one of the heroes of the film - Colonel Leopold Kudasov.

• The old woman Shapoklyak is perhaps one of the most memorable characters from the cartoon "Cheburashka". The artist Leonid Shvartsman could not figure out how this mischievous rogue should look like, constantly doing all sorts of dirty tricks on the screen. But in the end, the image took shape, and his own mother-in-law could do it. It was from her that the portrait of the nasty old woman was drawn - a sharp nose, a hunched figure, gray hair pulled into a bun, brisk eyes. Well, the top hat, lace jabot and cuffs are already a reference to the French "roots", because in French the word "shapoklyak" means "folding cylinder".

• The Bremen Town Musicians is another masterpiece written by the talented trinity Gennady Gladkov, Yuri Entin and Vasily Livanov. Interestingly, all the characters in the cartoon were voiced by Oleg Anofriev, who could not choose just one and out of "greed" said that he wanted to become the voice of each character. He succeeded in this ambitious plan to perfection, and in just one night. The images of the robbers were written off from the famous on-screen "freeloaders" - Experienced, Coward and Dunce. The princess also had real prototype, and she became the wife of Yuri Entin. It's in the same red short dress she married her beloved songwriter.

A bit about Japanese anime

Japanese creation style animated films don't mess with anything. It has many genres, and the video stories themselves are designed not only for a children's audience, but also for adults. Even James Cameron himself admitted in an interview that he loves anime and watches them almost every day.

• The first cartoons in the style of anime appeared on movie screens in 1917, and since then they have literally enslaved the world. The name of the animation genre comes from the English "animation", and modern terminology has appeared relatively recently. In the 20th century, another expression was in use - "manga-eyga", which literally meant "movie comic".

• A distinctive feature of the appearance of the characters used in the anime is their large eyes. As conceived by the artists, it is with the help of an expressive look that one can convey the entire intensity of emotions raging in the soul of a particular hero. But oddly enough, the idea of ​​“giving” your actors big eyes was borrowed from Walt Disney, and the Japanese do not hide this at all.
• Traditionally, the more significant the role of the character, the longer the artists work on drawing his facial features, including his eyes. Moreover, the happiness of having two "bottomless oceans" can only goodies, but the notorious villains have to rely only on narrow slits like the Eskimos.
• For the right to voice roles in anime, many famous film actors and pop singers. The process itself is called "seiyu", moreover, recently it has been transformed into a full-fledged profession.

• Japanese anime can also boast of its "Santa Barbara". The Sazae-san series, for example, has been on television for almost half a century, starting its history in 1969 and continuing it to this day. Watching the ups and downs of the Sadzae family, more than one generation of Japanese has grown up and “fledged”, which they are terribly proud of and consider to be the heritage of their country.

Not only film directors and screenwriters like to leave various Easter eggs and references in their work, animation creators also "sin" with this matter. So well-known cartoons can open from a completely unexpected side.

We have found some interesting stories that will surely inspire you to watch your favorite cartoons: who knows, maybe you yourself will find secret chips from the creators?

1. What the Chicken Run chickens are hiding
In the cartoon "Escape from the Chicken Coop" each character must have some kind of accessory around his neck - beads, a scarf or a necklace. This was done for a reason: the chickens in this cartoon, or rather their models, are molded from plasticine, and besides, they had to turn their heads. To hide the resulting joint, the animators came up with a tricky trick with jewelry around the neck.

2. Why the first curly-haired princess appeared so late

Initially, the creators of the cartoon "The Little Mermaid" wanted to make Ariel beautiful curly hair but, alas, computer graphics 1989 did not allow this to be done.

Therefore, the first curly Disney princess became Merida from the cartoon "Brave" - ​​and it happened only in 2012. For 3 years, a special simulator was created that predicts the behavior of 1,500 curls. Just imagine: the scene where Merida removes the hood from her head and her curls fly apart took more than 2 months to create!

3. "The Secret of Coco", which few people guessed

In the cartoon "The Secret of Coco" there are several curious references. For example, on the main street of the Mexican town where he lives main character, you can see big dolls- This is Buzz Lightyear and cowboy Woody from the cartoon "Toy Story".

Another scene in which Miguel passes by a table with toys refers us to the heroes of the cartoon "Finding Dory": here you can see a whale shark named Destiny and Nemo and Dory fish.

4 Mufasa And Scar Were Not Brothers

It turned out that the creators of The Lion King were hiding one curious detail: according to the authors, Mufasa and Scar are not brothers, but rather two lions who live in the same pride. The organizers claim that wild nature, when the leader ages, a stronger and younger lion appears, and they wanted to use the facts from the life of animals. At that moment, they realized that Mufasa and Scar could not be brothers, but for some reason long years did not tell the audience about it.

So now that same scene in the gorge no longer seems so tragic, although it is still very painful to watch.

5. There's a Curious Reference in Inside Out

And here is another Pixar cartoon, in which an attentive viewer will find a lot of "hello" from other works of the studio. One of them appears at the beginning of the cartoon in the scene when Riley and her parents are driving across the country to new house. On the wires, you can see several round birds: they look exactly like the characters in the 2000 short film called "About the Birds."

6. What is the secret behind the success of Disney cartoons?

Literally, in every new cartoon, Disney hides either a Mickey Mouse toy or its outline. So, in Zootopia, the toy hid in a baby stroller, and in Frozen, it hid on a shelf with dishes. They say that this is the secret of popular love for the studio and the commercial success of their cartoons: who knows, what if this is true?

7. Announcements of upcoming novelties in Zootopia

In one of the scenes of Zootopia, we are shown a real collection of Disney cartoons, the names of which have been slightly changed according to the rules of the animal kingdom. Here you can see the discs of "City of Heroes", "Rapunzel", "Moana", "Ralph", as well as cartoons that have not yet appeared on the screens - this is "Cold Heart - 2" (released in 2019) and "Giants" (the premiere is expected in 2018).

8 Snow White Could Have Been Blonde

Initially, the creators planned to make Snow White blonde, but in the end they still decided to be guided by the source - the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm, according to which the girl's hair is "pitch black".

Moreover, everyone's favorite gnomes could get completely different names: they wanted to call them Shorty, Jumper, Bald, Dirty, Bad Boy, Screamer ... The creators did not have enough imagination for the seventh gnome, and they planned to call him simply Seventh.

By the way, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", contrary to popular belief, is not the first full-length animated film in history, but differs from its predecessors in that it has sound and color.

9. Where did the sculptures in Beauty and the Beast come from?

Surely everyone remembers those creepy figures of monsters that adorn the castle of the Beast. The sculptures look especially creepy and gloomy at the beginning of the cartoon, when Belle is studying the castle in fear. As it turned out, most of the sculptures are various early versions Monsters that were made by artists in the process of creating his image.

10. Shrek has a real prototype

The word "Shrek" is translated from German as "horror", but everyone knows very well that it is difficult to find a character kinder than this green ogre. It turned out that the beloved hero has a prototype - this is the French wrestler Maurice Tiye.

He had a rare disease that caused the bones to grow and thicken, especially in the front. Tiye achieved great success in sports, was fluent in 5 languages ​​and learned over the years to treat his specific appearance with humor.

Each of us encounters this kind of art in the very early childhood and, perhaps, does not part all his life. The history of the cartoon began with the invention of an apparatus that "animated" simple drawings. A similar device with an unpronounceable “praxinoscope” was first demonstrated in 1877 by a talented inventor, self-taught engineer Emil Reynaud.

VM has prepared ten interesting facts about the history of animation.

1. The world's first cartoons were hand-drawn and hand-colored pantomimes up to fifteen minutes long. Even then it could be applied sound accompaniment, synchronized with the image.

2. The first Russian animator was Alexander Shiryaev, choreographer Mariinsky Theater, who created the world's first puppet cartoon in 1906, which depicts 12 dancing figures against the backdrop of motionless scenery. The film was shot on 17.5mm film. It took three months to create it. During the creation, Shiryaev rubbed a hole in the parquet with his feet, as he constantly walked from the camera to the scenery and back. The film was found in Shiryaev's archive by film critic Viktor Bocharov already in 2009. Several more puppet cartoons were also found there: “Clowns playing ball”, “Pierrot Artists” and love drama co happy ending"Harlequin Jokes".

3. There is a version that the initiative to create an industry Soviet animation came personally from Comrade Stalin. In 1936, the Soyuzdetmultfilm studio appeared. "Det" would later disappear from the name: probably, someone from the management decided that not only children, but also adults watch cartoons. Already a year after its establishment, the studio began producing color films, which testified to good funding and increased attention from the state. The fact is that Soviet animators mastered new technologies simultaneously with Western ones and clearly set themselves the task of catching up and overtaking Disney.

4. The fifties can be safely considered the heyday of world animation. Judge for yourself: the Americans released "Cinderella", "Peter Pan", "Alice in Wonderland" and "Sleeping Beauty", and we answered them with "The Snow Queen", "Kashtanka", " scarlet flower” and “12 months”. These ribbons inspired the classic in his youth Japanese anime Hayao Miyazaki - after watching them, he decided to become an animator. By the way, our The Snow Queen”became a triumphant international film festivals - received first prizes in London, Venice, Rome and Cannes.

5. For the first time gray cat Tom ( full name- Thomas James Jasper) began chasing the mouse Jerry (full name - Gerald Mouse) in 1941 - to raise the morale of American soldiers in World War II. The plot of several hundred cartoons is simple: stupid, but active Tom does not stop trying to catch the cunning Jerry, the latter avoids capture all the time, although sometimes the heroes unite against some common enemy. And although they have been running after each other for 70 years now, there seems to be no end to this running around.

6. In the West, due to high wages, the creation of a cartoon costs 10 times more than in our country - in the USA, the cost of a minute reaches $150,000. "Rapunzel" - $260 million. For comparison - for all our animation in 2011, 260 million were initially allocated from the state budget - not only dollars, but rubles.

7. An ardent anti-communist, Pope John Paul II once recommended that his parishioners watch more Soviet cartoons. You can't argue: we were able to produce not only rockets, but also humanitarian values.

8. The saying “Like a hedgehog in a fog” has long become synonymous with uncertainty. And she was born thanks to an unforgettable cartoon filmed by Yuri Norshtein in 1975. In 2003, "Hedgehog in the Fog" was recognized best cartoon of all times and peoples according to the results of a survey of 140 critics and animators from different countries.

9. In 2007, Glasgow City Council included the famous cartoon character Scrooge McDuck in the list of prominent citizens.

10. In the 80s, Finland was banned from showing on television. soviet cartoon"Wait for it!". Because of... excessive cruelty. A certain ethical commission decided that, they say, the hare is a sadist, because the wolf constantly gets into various painful troubles because of him. What can I say - poor Finnish children ...