Soyuzmultfilm (Russia)

Background: Soyuzmultfilm (Союзмультфильм) is the largest Soviet animation studio founded in June 1936 and gained its current name in the year after. During WWII, they were temporarily evacuated out of Moscow. Starting from the 1990's, the studio slowly went into a downfall, and the production facilities were practically destroyed, leaving only the building and the archive of more than 1500 Soviet cartoons. In late 2000's the studio began working again with minimal output. They never had a steady logo, using mainly stylized writings of the name. Several animation collectives working inside Soyuzmultfilm created their own trademarks in 1960's.


1st Logo
(1937-1939)

Nickname: "The Filmstrip-Pencil"

Logo: A pencil appears, drawing the circle, then it draws the words "СОЮЗ МУЛЬТ" (SOYUZ MUL'T)stacked on each other, and stops horizontally while the filmstrip hangs down from it. The word "ФИЛЬМ" (FILM) appears vertically on the filmstrip.

FX/SFX: Simple but good (for those years) animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare. Can be seen on a pair of oldest pre-war cartoons.

Editor's Note: None.



2nd Logo
(1940's-1950's)

Nicknames: "The Filmstrip-Pencil II", "Toho's Russian Uncle"

Logo: The enhanced previous logo zooms in, while a webbed pattern moves in background, then the name wipes itself below.

FX/SFX: The logo zooming and writing. This logo was later remade by Krupny Plan.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare.

Editor's Note: None.



3rd Logo
(1946-1964)

Logo: The standard Soviet announcer is seen, showing the name in Cyrillic (Produced by / the film studio / SOYUZMULTFILM / Moscow [year] ). Different styles and colors can be used.

FX/SFX: None.

Variants:

• There was a rare export English version used once in 1955, but the translation is not literal.
• Starting from 1960, the year of production would not appear anymore.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Was very common from late 40's to early 60's and can be found on cartoons from these years. The English variant wasused on Snegovik-pochtovik.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo
(1940's- )

Logo: Just the name in Cyrillic, written in one line.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: The most common logo during Soviet era and the early 90's.

Editor's Note: None.



5th Logo
(1950's- )

Logo: The logo has the cyrillic name in the specially designed cartoonish style and various colors letters "СОЮЗМУЛЬТФИЛЬМ". In early years, the word "ПОКАЗЫВАЕТ" ("Shows") could be seen below and the color was uniform, but currently every letter have its own color.

Variant: On the very first episode of Nu pogodi!, a pencil with filmstrip appears below, similar to these from the first logo.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme.

Availability: Uncommon, but not rare. Can be found on the well-known cartoon series Nu pogodi!.

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo
(1955-1956)

Logo: TBA.

FX/SFX: The logo writing itself.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare.

Editor's Note: None.



7th Logo
(1960-2000's)

Logo: The name, divided into three parts, appears one after one.

Like this:

СОЮЗ

МУЛЬТ

ФИЛЬМ

Variants:

• The name can be shifted to upper left corner.
• Sometimes the word "ПОКАЗЫВАЕТ" ("Shows") can be seen below. In early years, the year appeared instead.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme.

Availability: Started to appear sometime in 1960 and was common till the early 2000's.

Editor's Note: None.

8th Logo
(1967-1974)

Nickname: "Cartoon Man"

Logo: On an orange background, the white box (representing a sheet of paper) is seen with the pencil-drawn man (from Fedya Zaycev) inside. The name is written above the box, and "MOSCOW" in Cyrillic below. Also, there's an animated variant of this logo, which starts out with the pencil-drawn man drawing in, then he pulls out the company name from the top and "МОСКВА" from the bottom with a parasol as a hook and strikes a pose when it's done.

FX/SFX: Animation of the cartoon man. Still version existed.

Music/Sounds: On animated variant, when the man pulls out the words, two creaking sounds play.

Availability: This was a custom logo used by animators Z. and V. Broomberg.

Editor's Note: None.

9th Logo
(1967)

Nickname: "Frame Man"

Logo: There is a drawn man inside a stylized frame, with "SOYUZMULTFILM" and "MOSCOW" wrapping around the picture.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Used once on the cartoon called Pesenka Myshonka (Song of the Little Mouse).

Editor's Note: None.

10th Logo

(1978)

Nicknames: "Tanner of Russia", "Cheburashka hiding Tanner's mask"

Logo: We see an MGM-like logo (resembling the 6th logo, without any text, Trade, or Mark). The lion moves very similar to the aforementioned above. A few seconds later, the lion stops roaring, revealing two hands grab the lion's head (as being a mask). The hands move the mask as Cheburashka (the studio's mascot) appearing. He throws the mask and stare to the viewer.

FX/SFX: The lion moving, Cheburashka moving the mask. It's a parody of the MGM logo.

Music/Sounds: The lion roaring followed by a 6 note fanfare.

Availability: Only seen on Ograblenie Po...

Editor's Note: None.

11th Logo
(1980?-1992)

Logo: The famous cartoon character Cheburashka is wrapped by the company's name, with a star below.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Used on The Mystery of the Third Planet, among others. Currently used as a print logo.

Editor's Note: None.

12th Logo
(1980's)

TBA

13th Logo
(1992- late 1990's)

Nickname: "Tricolour"

Logo: On a deep blue background, the name is written in three lines, coloured as the Russian flag. The outline of a pencil is seen with two merged white pigeons on its top.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Very rare. Was seen on a few cartoons and quickly abandoned.

Editor's Note: None.