The well-known animated Cossacks are returning to television screens. The 1+1 channel will soon premiere new episodes of the animated project "All About Cossacks".
How did the legendary cartoon come about?
"All about the Cossacks" is a unique animated product created by Volodymyr Dakhno and Eduard Kyrych. This animated series has its fans not only in Ukraine but also abroad; not only children can't tear themselves away from the TV screens when the Cossacks are on, but adults also follow the adventures of the heroes with joy.
Even Google confirmed the popularity of the animated series and the success of its animator director by honoring Volodymyr Dakhno, the author of the legendary Ukrainian Cossacks, in its Doodle.
The first episode of the future animated series was seen by viewers in 1967, it was a cartoon called "How the Cossacks Cooked Kulish". To create this plot, they took the novel "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas as a basis, drew a brave little one, a tall cunning one and the most good-natured giant, and named them Eye, Play and Tour. Even the name of the cartoon was initially planned by analogy - "The Three Cossacks", but deciding that it was banal, they chose the final name for the first series, which we all know well.
After this series, which immediately found its audience, more were created: "How the Cossacks Played Football", "How the Cossacks Freed the Brides", "How the Cossacks Bought Salt...", "How the Cossacks Became Olympians", "How the Cossacks Helped the Musketeers", "How the Cossacks Party at a Wedding", "How the Cossacks Met Aliens". The last one that the audience saw was released in 1995 under the title "How the Cossacks Played Hockey".
The main characters are completely different both in appearance and temperament. The carefree, laughing and brave Oko, the smart, cunning and quick Gray, the big but shy and vulnerable Tour visit different places where they deal with different people from other eras, countries and nationalities, among them there are even aliens and Greek gods.
At first, the authors could not decide in which language to voice the cartoon, Ukrainian or Russian, but thinking that with the advent of fame they would have to translate the cartoon into other languages, they decided to limit themselves to just sounds, exclamations and gestures that are understandable in any country. And their foresight turned out to be not in vain, the Cossacks very quickly gained fans both in the Soviet Union and abroad. The popularity of the animated series spread to Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania and Iran. Especially in Iran, the cartoon gained tremendous success and popularity.
Cossacks have repeatedly become the heroes of advertising, prototypes of dolls, and many computer games have been developed based on cartoons.
About the director
Volodymyr Avksentiyovych Dakhno was born on March 7, 1932 in Zaporizhia. He entered medical school, but did not stay there for long and continued his studies at the Civil Engineering Institute. After his studies, he became an architect in Kyiv, creating incredible projects, thanks to which he ended up at the Kyivnaukfilm film studio, where he found himself and his calling in animation.
In 1960, he created his first debut cartoon, which was called "The Adventure of Pepper."
Since 1967, the famous series of cartoons "Like Cossacks..." began to be released. It included nine animated films about Cossacks.
In total, Volodymyr Dakhno became the author of more than 20 cartoons, the most famous of which was the animated film adaptation of Kotlyarevsky's "Aeneid".
Despite his significant contribution to animation, Volodymyr Dakhno lived out the last years of his life on a small pension, but despite all these difficulties, he continued to do what he loved, leaving behind several more scripts for future series about the Cossacks.
The life of the great animator and screenwriter ended on July 29, 2006.
New life of the Cossacks
The revival of the Cossacks in the new project is being carried out by Eduard Kyrych, the creator of the Cossacks in the form in which we are used to seeing them, and Eduard Akhramovich, who works as a producer at the Baraban animation studio, the MEGOGO video service, and the "1+1" media group.
The name of the new project about the legendary and beloved heroes is “Cossacks. Football”. Its goal is to revive in the audience those wonderful emotions and unforgettable impressions that arose while watching each new part of the cartoon “All about the Cossacks”, or more precisely, the series “How the Cossacks Played Football”, which was released in 1970.
In the new episodes of the animated series, the famous Cossacks - Oko, Gray and Tour - will go on a great exciting journey through the countries participating in Euro 2016. And in addition to your favorite Cossacks, you will also see world-famous football players Beckham, Ronaldo and Ferguson as heroes.
Each series will be dedicated to the interesting adventures of Cossacks in a certain country. The authors want to show through the eyes of residents of different countries how they relate to this sport, how they prepare, how they train. In mid-May, the first shots of the project were already presented, and the animator Eduard Kyrych talked about the creation of everyone's favorite images.
Recently, Ukrainian cinema has lacked a good children's product, which is why new series of high-quality cartoons with characters that more than one generation of Ukrainians grew up with are more timely than ever.
The first episode of the cartoon "Cossacks. Football" is scheduled to be released to viewers by the beginning of summer.
Author: Oksana Medynska.
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