Animation needs money and diplomatic influence
Yakut 'Aytal and the Magic Power’ is being released
Representatives of Russia, South Korea, Iran and the United Arab Emirates discussed the animation industry at KazanForum. The meeting was organized by the Association of Animated Film and the Ministry of Culture of Russia. The session discussed many interesting projects, but from the outside it seemed that the organizers and speakers sometimes pursued different goals. Read more about it in the report of Realnoe Vremya.
Kazan outsourcing
Unfortunately, there were no guests from Bashkortostan at the meeting who could tell about the cartoon Northern Amurs and the series Descendants of Salavat. But, as the director of the company Tugan Batyr Radik Abdrakhmanov announced, on 5 June, eight episodes of Tugan Batyr (by the way, the main supervisor translated the title as National Hero) will be released in 250 cinemas — about a Tatar hero with a faithful Sokolyonok, who will help not only the residents of his native village, but also do good throughout the world.
In total, 52 episodes of this project are planned, already known to Tatarstan readers from the illustrated books of Zulfat Khakim. In the fall, it may appear on platforms.
“You did a great job that remained unnoticed,” said Executive Director of the Association of Animated Cinema Irina Mastusova (just not in Tatarstan, obviously!). “10-20 years ago, when our industry was just starting, we did not have any specialists at all. Our studios tried to outsource in China and India. But, as a rule, this did not make the process cheaper, sometimes it sped up, but support was always required. Historically, we gradually began to focus on cooperation with regional studios.”
An example of this is the cooperation between the Moscow factory Yarko and Kazan Propellers.pro. It is interesting that its director Artur Shamshadinov emphasized in the presentation that in addition to production, his company carefully maintains documentation and translates the entire chain of rights to customers: “that's why it is more pleasant to work with us than with freelancers.” Their projects include Tikabo and Ulyotnaya Dostavka. The studio also drew Turnip for the famous series Gora Samotsvetov. Propellers is currently preparing its Tatar series Barsiklar hәm Neko (Barsiki and Neko), starting with 12 comic book collections.
Yakutia again
“In February, a law on creative industries was passed,” Mastusova noted. “Each region determines itself, finds creative industries that it supports first and foremost. It is very important to me that animation receives more support from regional authorities.”
A striking example of this (as in the case of cinema!) is Yakutia. They have their own studio and channel — Tooku. In particular, this year the series Aital uonna Aptaakh kuus(Aital and the Magic Power) will be released in Yakutsk and in the uluses (where, just for a second, there are a hundred cinemas).
Yakutia's problem is the lack of good voices. Nevertheless, in 2024 alone, 221 cartoons were re-dubbed here (these are Turbozavry, Pororo, Barboskins). In addition, the republic works with such languages as Evenki and Yukaghir. There is its own festival TO:KU FEST, which so far works exclusively with locals:
“We want to identify authors, scriptwriters, composers, new voices, to ignite new names,” explained Anna Kirillina, executive producer of Sakha. “Our most important task is to create a language environment so that our children can speak their native language.”
Our Shayan TV has similar questions. As the first deputy executive director and editor-in-chief Roza Adiyatullina reminded, they do not have their own studio. But there are no problems with voices. By the way, it turns out that it takes two hours to localize one minute! But the problem is that content is often difficult to translate due to the difference in mentality and background. Now Shayan TV makes its own content, and is already working with AI — with its help, they created Shayan Galim and Bishek Zhyrlary(Merry Galim and Lullabies).
Ethnic regional animation programme?
“Russia and Iran have excellent animation,” noted Kim Si Woo, a representative of the Korean Agency for Creative Content. “It should be presented on a global scale. This requires money and diplomatic influence. You need the full support of the state. That is why the Korean wave is a wave of communication, it is soft power.”
After this, the proposal of Marat Ganiyev, general producer of Tatarmultfilm, seemed logical. Having explained that his company deals not only with Tatars but also but also Erzya, Moksha, Chuvash, Crimean Tatars, Nivsky and others, he proposed an ethnic regional animation programme for the regions.
“There are subsidies from the state, please participate,” Mastusova immediately fought back. “I am a member of the expert council. It seems there are no projects from Tatarstan.”
