Mel'nitsa query

[Natalie Kononenko]

Dear fellow list members - or at least the cartoon enthusiasts among you,

I am writing in the hope that you can help me find sources for director's
statements about the animation films produced by Mel'nitsa.  The films I
have in mind are the Bogatyri trilogy: Alesha Popovich i Tugarin Zmei,
Dobrynia Nikitych i Zmei Gorynych, and Il'ia Muromets i Solovei Razboinik.
To that I want to add the Bogatyri follow-up Shamakhanskaia tsaritsa and
the most recent Mel'nitsa film Ivan Tsarevich i Seryi Volk.  There must be
websites where the directors talk about what they were trying to achieve
with these films.

For example, Alesha has been called the Russian answer to Shrek.  Was
creating a Russian Shrek really the director's intention?

Critics reviewing Russian animation, not just that produced by Mel'nitsa,
talk about the quality of Russian work and claim that it takes a back seat
to Pixar.  Do Russian directors, at least the ones who work for Mel'nitsa,
feel that they are in competition with the West?

In viewers reviews of the various Mel'nitsa films, such as those that
appear on Kinopoisk and Afisha, the writers often talk about the importance
of having content that is truly Russian and not some sort of take-off on
the West.  Are Mel'nitsa directors, by chosing Russian folklore as a
source, intentionally trying to make  their animated features Russian?

Thanks in advance for any help and guidance.

-- 
Natalie Kononenko
Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
University of Alberta
200 Arts Building
Edmonton AB Canada T6G 2E6
780-492-6810
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/

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