Animatsiya in English

What does traditional Japanese poetry have in common with animation? Quite a lot, it turns out! Please read this, it's a fascinating thing...

Two years ago, I posted a translation of the first part of a wonderful interview that Yuriy Norshteyn gave to Tatyana Iensen for the sophisticated Kino-Art magazine in 2004. Now, I finally finished translating the second part (originally published in Russian, Kino-Art 2004, 4th issue).

Note: translation of verses are taken from various places; some from the internet, some my own translation of the Russian translations.

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What can you say about the condition in which your characters find themselves, in relation to life philosophy?

Both Basho and Chikusai are in that condition of having no fear of anything. One may say that they are in a state of total harmony. And so in the second half of this small film, there has to be an intersection of the beginning of terror and the humorous start. Not by accident does the wind rise and rip the kimono, and the hat fly above the trees with the leaves, in the finale of the film.

Sketch of Basho going against the wind

I was filming this little scene (Basho going against the wind) and thinking of King Lear. Why not film Lear in animation? The construction, clearness and fantastical conception of this story make it very suitable for animation. The construction is almost ballet-like; it is very natural for animation. Basically, the phenomenon of animation is based on how well you can find in a simple composition - not so much details and embellishments, but complex relationships which you will see as both the question and the answer to life, and maybe even as inculcation into as yet unknown territory. It seems to me, that in this sense "The Overcoat" is also very much a story-focused thing; clear and precise, like folklore that is molded into a parable-shaped state. The story of "King Lear" is parable-shaped, so you are freed of unneeded dramaturgical confusion (by the way, the Fool in this sense adds a lot to the composition). As soon as you begin to inquire into the details in Shakespeare, it all vanishes. I think that this is the precise reason for why when you are dealing with Japanese poetry, in which the action is clearly and unambiguously written in three lines, you are free; you do not need to rediscover the already disclosed action, but to find in it that which is hidden between the lines.
( Read more... )
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For myself, I find that Norshteyn's words help me understand not specifically animation, but the essence of art itself.

Also, I may get quite a verbal bruising for saying this, but does anyone else see the similarities between traditional Japanese poetry and LOLcats? I'm seeing a connection between the old and the new; people, after all, don't really change much. Both forms strive for economy of expression, both are extremely simple on the surface, both can be humorous, both are or were very popular with the general public, and both are similarly light-footed and rely heavily on the listener/viewer making connections that are not self-evident if one looks at merely the obvious.

This was done in a rush, so you'll have to excuse me if there are some awkward spots in the translation (note: "film fund" means something like "film archive" - I forgot the usual English term). Please ask me if anything here's unclear or if you're having trouble finding more information about something that is mentioned here.

Original interview in Russian.

My comments at the bottom.

The 73rd anniversary of Soyuzmultfilm's founding was 5 days ago.

If you're curious about Akop Kirakosyan's animation credentials, I recommend watching this film that he directed in 1992. There are some others that he made, but they're not so good.

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Press Conference: Akop Korakosyan, Director of "Soyuzmultfilm" (June 2, 2009)

What will happen to Soyuzmultfilm and its film funds?

The government of Russia has decided to privatize Soyuzmultfilm studio in the year 2009. Throughout the 70-year existence of this studio, many masterpieces of national animation were created, including "You just Wait!", "Winnie-the-Pooh", "Boy and Karlson", "Cheburashka and Gena the Crocodile" and "Hedgehog in the Fog". Many scandals have flamed up around the film funds of Soyuzmultfilm. What is the current situation regarding the defence of the studio's copyrights to its works? What will happen to the film funds after privatization? What does the future hold for Russian animation? The questions of the readers of Lenta.ru were answered by the director of Soyuzmultfilm, Akop Gurgenovuch Kirakosyan.


Akop Kirakosyan, image from radiorus.ru

( LONG INTERVIEW )

The most quotable thing in the interview is probably Kirakosyan's opinion about anime. The most noteworthy is probably the talk about creating an animation union.

Also, I must say that for all the complaining about the copyright deal made in the early 1990s, it has to be said that Oleg Vidov and his wife and their American company Films by Jove, despite their occasional mistakes (the English voice-overs and redone music were usually horrible) did a far better job of promoting Russian animation abroad than Soyuzmultfilm did since they got the rights back two years ago. In short, they actually did something and worked at promoting them, whereas the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund seems to be doing absolutely nothing at all, other than authorizing horrible new Russian re-dubbings of the classic soundtracks to their best films (instead of restoring the originals). Films by Jove only owned the international copyrights, and a great deal of original film negatives. Copyrights within Russia for the films never belonged to them, and the market within Russia for them is far greater.

In an earlier entry, I mentioned the Russian sci-fi animated feature "Alice's Birthday" (Wikipedia article is here). Here is a scene from the film:

День рождения Алисы, отрывок

"Professor, where is your star?"
"Over there. Malakashta."
"And our sun?"
"You can't see it from here. It is too far."

Work on this film began in 2004. After premiering on February 12 in Star City in Russia, "Alice's Birthday" went into "wide" release on February 19 ("wide" because 200 theatres is very little, even in Russia). So how did it do? Mixed. The box-office results were very poor. The small number of theatres, lack of almost any afternoon screenings, ineffective advertising and perhaps the unusual graphical style (which is deliberately neither Disney nor anime) contributed to a terrible debut in 9th place with $130,000, $650/theatre and 66,700 viewers (source). This is not nearly enough to cover the film's 60 million-ruble budget ($1.5 million US by current exchange rates, $2.5 million by the average exchange rates from the past two years). It probably didn't help that the buzz leading up to its release was very negative because people were outraged that the classic characters from The Mystery of the Third Planet were being given a makeover (never mind that the film was never meant to be a direct sequel). Russian journalists wrote things such as "look at this clip, and see for yourself - never has any Russian children's cartoon been drawn so poorly."

(screenshots can be found here, here and here)

Upon the release of the film, the consensus of professional Russian reviewers hasn't changed; they don't like the film and critique just about everything about it (though most admit that the voice-acting is great). But a funny thing - on animation forums such as prodisney.ru and Russian IMDB-like sites such as Afisha, KinoAfisha and KinoPoisk, most reviews are positive and the average ratings go from 6.3-7.7/10. I've read comments from some very skeptical people who expected little and ended up being pleasantly surprised. pilot-pirks' review sums it up nicely. Also, journalists who describe the reactions of children say that they loved the film.

The reaction from Western journalists has been much more positive. Also, the film has been selected to be screened at the 35th Seattle International Film Festival.

So I don't know what to think right now. I must say that personally, I've mostly liked what I've seen since I first heard of the project. But I'll give my thoughts once I've seen the film. Until then, here's an interesting Feb. 18 interview with the creators of the film from Proficinima.ru, translated by myself. Subjects covered include artistic challenges and the commercial situation in Russia.

( Read the interview )

Direct Link to Video. (the original video without subtitles is uploaded on the ATV website over here)

A 25-minute interview in which a variety of subjects are talked about, and Norshteyn breaks the news that he is finally going to finish and release 30 minutes of his work-in-progress feature film, "The Overcoat" (in production since 1981).

There's a nice article about the history of "The Overcoat" on wikipedia over here (actually written almost entirely by myself). There are two small, soundless clips here and here.
There are also some short clips from someone's cell phone camera, taken in last year's museum exhibition of Norshteyn's body of work (20 minutes of The Overcoat, without sound, could be viewed by the public).

The English translation and subtitles are my work. I've also transcribed the interview, so you can read it in Russian and in English (it was impossible to fit both versions into this entry, but you can read the Russian transcription over here). My own notes are [written in square brackets].

( Read English translation )

In 2004, the Russian journal Kino Art published a lengthy interview with director Yuriy Norshteyn about his segment for the 2003 Japanese film "Winter Days" (the interviewer was Tatyana Iensen). Here's some more info about the film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Days

You can see his segment on Youtube over here.

Yuriy Norshteyn is perhaps the most revered animation director in Russia. He may be considered the conscience of the artform. He's been working intermittently on a feature film adaptation of Gogol's classic story "The Overcoat" since 1981 (half an hour of which, by the way, will be released by the end of this year). He works with his wife, Francesca Yarbusova, who does all of the final designs and art for his films (he directs, animates, and writes the scenario). For more information, here are two wikipedia articles about them (though they are a little misleading and not quite up to date):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriy_Norshteyn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francheska_Yarbusova

Last month, Anipages Daily (an excellent animation blog which focuses mostly on Japanese animation, but also on obscure gems from other places) published a translation of the interview. Most of the translation work was done by member Mihai Luchian, and it was touched up by Benjamin Ettinger (the webmaster). I've also gone over it (making a few changes to be more faithful to the original words), and translated the last question which was omitted from the version on Anipages. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I found the right words for the last question, so feel free to correct me.

This is a very long interview, so you should probably have an hour or so of free time. But I think it's worth it.

I'm also working on translating another interview with Norshteyn - hopefully it'll be finished within a week or two.
( Read more... )

(here's part two of the interview, which is translated as of June 18, 2009)