Will Cheburashka have new adventures in Russia?
Here is an excerpt from the Moscow News regarding our favorite character:
http://themoscownews.com/arts/20120227/189491707.html
"The oldest animation studio in Russia, Soyuzmultfilm turned 75 last summer. The once-thriving studio – producer of such internationally acclaimed classics as “Hedgehog in the Fog” and the iconic Cheburashka films – has suffered hard times in the post-Soviet era and its glory days have seemed to be well and truly over. Copyright disputes, the loss of state support, and the cold hard economic reality have taken their toll, with production almost drying up completely. But finally the studio has now been tossed a lifeline, raising hopes that it can be saved.
Cheburashka is one of the studio’s most famous stars
Soyuzmultfilm’s situation started to turn around last summer, when a group of renowned Soviet era animators including Yury Norstein and Leonid Shvartsman wrote to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appealing for help. A meeting with the prime minister followed, and Putin promised to write off the studio’s debts of 12 million rubles and allocate substantial funding towards its development as well as to the cartoon industry in general.
At the end of December, Putin decided to give the studio two new buildings and return to it the rights on Soviet cartoons which since 2009 belonged to the United Federal Film Collection, or OGK. In 2010 OGK raked in 180 million rubles in royalties from Soyuzmultfilm cartoons, of which only 28 million rubles went to the studio, Vedomosti reported.
The decision to give copyrights back to Soyuzmultfilm will allow the studio to pay associated royalties to directors, composers, screenwriters, art directors and cameramen. Most of the money comes from the use of cartoon images on T-shirts, cups, books, toys and other merchandise, which the studio’s director Nikolai Makovsky said was now the industry’s main source of income.
The Culture Ministry has been in the process of approving a 60 million ruble subsidy to the studio, earmarked for buying new technology and special equipment, as well as maintaining and modernizing its property, RIA Novosti reported in mid-February, citing Makovsky. He said the subsidy had been discussed since late last year, as part of the government’s new policy concerning animation.
Makovsky became the new director of the troubled studio at the end of summer, after the group of renowned animators recommended him for this job, saying “he understands not only the studio’s problems, but those of animation as a whole.”
