Soyuzmulfilm are a very successful animation studio based in Moscow. Founded in June 1936, they've created over 1530 films over the years. They're noted for their great style and produced some of the most influential animation artists from the Soviet Union.
The studio's main project at the moment is the upcoming film 'Gofmaniada'. It is based on the E.T,A Hoffman tales. It's being created using stop motion animation and it will avoid using computer animation for special effects. They're expecting it to be completed by 2014. It's interesting how they've decided to not use computer animation as much as possible, trying to keep it traditional as possible. However, because they're keeping it so traditional with stop motion, it's taking a long time to produce, and the ran out of funds to complete it at one point. They showed the first 20 minutes of the film in St Petersburg back in 2006 and it received good feedback., but couldn't fund the rest of the project and looked to western investors. However, the government ended up funded them in 2008 and they've been working on it ever since, apparently.
A screenshot from the film
Here is a short trailer showing some clips from the animation produced so far
Melnitsa Animation Studio
Formed in 1999, they're an animation studio based in St. Petersburg. Before Melnista came about, in 1992 a studio called Midi-Cinema worked on projects such as dubbing foreign television programmes into Russian and commercials. Then, in 1999, Midi-Cinema and The CTB Film Company formed Melnista Animation Studio's for the production of four episodes of the animated series 'Adventures in the Emerald City'.
In 2000, they began the production of their first full-length animated feature film 'Little Longnose'. It premiered in March 2003 and was apparently the first theatrically released animation produced in Russia in nearly 40 years.
Promotional Poster
It's based on the classic fairytales of Wilhem Hauff. The kings daughter gets kidnapped, and Jacob gets targeted by the wicked witch who wants him as he is the final ingredient in her sinister scheme to destroy the Kingdom. Jacob refuses to cooperate, and she curses him and made him a hunchback with a long nose. It's now up to Jacob to thwart the plans of the evil witch, save the princess, the kingdom and himself. Here is a trailer for the movie, dubbed in English. I however, could not find any record of it being officially dubbed and released. I know it has been dubbed in German and released in Germany, but I haven't seen anything about it being released in American and Britain.
To me it looks like the animators have been inspired by Disney a bit with this animation. It seems similar to the old style that Disney animations had. It reminded me a bit of The Sword in the Stone when I first saw the trailer. It looks like it could be an interesting film. If I could actually find it in English, I would give it a shot. I know you can download it from Melnitsa's website, but I'm a little rusty with my Russian so I wont be able to understand what they're saying. Looks like a decently made animation though.
Plasticine Studio Max Sviridov
This animation studio was founded in 1995. It doesn't state where exactly their studios are based in Russia on their website, but they specialise in plasticine animation (i.e Stop Motion) for television and cinema. They've made a couple of music videos in the 90s and they claim they're involved in many international animation festivals and have won 8 top awards. Their website is very crudely done, and it makes you wonder whether they're actually very professional or not. It looks like a 13 year old has made it with Geosites. However, they have a couple of examples of their works on youtube, and they're animations aren't that bad. I can only guess what the characters are saying within them, but I assume that there are some commercials and some are snippets from the TV series they make.
This little animation above is for an insurance commercial. It's pretty crude as it contains a rude gesture within it. I'm wondering whether it even made it to the TV. Nice idea behind it though I suppose. The lizard is nicely made.
This seems to be their most recent work, and yet again, it's so crude it's a wonder whether it's actually gotten on TV or not. This one is a excerpts from the program "planned" from the internet portal 'Onmusicstage' apparently. They've done something very strange with this however. They've mixed live action and claymation, but in a very different way. It seems like they've cut out the facial features of a real person and stuck it on a body made of plasticine. It looks very weird, and I think it's pretty unnecessary to do something like that. It was probably done to save time not having to lip sync, but it just looks weird and freaky, not to mention that the animation seems a bit sexual too with their unnecessarily oversized breasts.