Wizart Animation

The studio was founded in 2007 in Voronezh, Russia by a group of artists from the computer game and information technology industry. Their experience allowed them to launch a new type of computer animation studio that involve animators from different cities of Russia.[6] In 2011, Wizart Animation created new business department to promote and sell animation content in Russian and international markets. Their vision was a production facility to produce world-class family animated feature films and animated series, as well as international sales and a marketing department. Until 2012, the studio operated under the name Inlay Studio with the main production site of the studio located in Voronezh, and some divisions located in Moscow.[7]

The newly independent Wizart animation studio was headed by Vladimir Nikolaev(ru) as general producer and Yuri Moskvin as CEO. Vladimir Nikolaev introduced the company's franchises through many film festivals like the 17th Open Russian Comedy Movie Festival held in Tula Oblast.[8] Yuri Moskvin's role as a spokesperson for the organization as well as a leading producer for the studio's first franchise The Snow Queen paved the way for the studio's rise to publicity. Yuri Moskvin took part in signing a media alliance for Wizart at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.[9] Other key people include Diana Yurinova, head of international distribution at Wizart Animation. Yurinova was instrumental in selling the movie to international high competition markets such as China.[10] Olga Sinelshchikova, Business Development Director significantly helped Wizart at the 2011 AFM for The Snow Queen.[11] Anna Pokorskaya, as the international distribution manager played a key role in negotiating deals for the sequels to The Snow Queen series. Together, under their oversight, Wizart has managed to emerge as a global brand in animation. The animation director, animation team, and faculty were also vital in the undertaking. They presented the films in international sale markets such as the film festivals of Cannes.and Toronto International Film Festival.[12][13]

At the Animation Summit, Wizart revealed animation in Russia is developing in the right direction. A few highlights of Wizart's accomplishments were presented such as Wizart's own film was the first Russian animated feature film with a wide theatrical release in mainland China. Distribution-wise, movies like The Snow Queen was appraised by different global distributors from South Korea, Brazil, Turkey, Middle East, and Czech Republic for a total of 140 different countries round the world. Its films are selected in more than 40 internationally acclaimed festivals (Annecy, Catalina, Varna, GUKIFF, The Golden Elephant, Ojo De Pescado, AFM, Marché du Film, Suzdalfest).[4]

Wizart's first project The Snow Queen a 3D computer-animated fantasy comedy family film (co-produced with Bazelevs and Inlay Film) was ready for release in 2012 ever since the idea was sprouted since the company's founding in 2007. The film had a relatively easy domestic release. However international release was complicated due to the Russian animation industry just bouncing back from the 1990s.[14] As Wizart was preparing the film for release in Russia, they explored the concept of presenting The Snow Queen for the upcoming AFM (American Film Market). They believed the film has all the right materials for an international release. However, Russian animation media during the time period were just on the cusp of development, and international sales for Russian films was a relatively new concept in the Russian film industry.[14] However, there has been many Russian films known internationally even before Wizart's films such as the Night Watch series by Timur Bekmambetov. The studio's initial ideas of a domestic and international package came to fruition when the film received positive feedback from buyers from over 20 territories, including USA, Canada, Germany, Italy, South Korea and China, among others at the AFM. The movie also found appeal from distributors at the 67th Cannes International Film Festival in France.[15][16] Key people who made the realization of the project possible was the Business Development Director as well as Timur Bekmambetov himself. They were helpful in developing the animation company based on a new novel concept during that time period that is based on international avenue of development.[17]

On January 29, 2013, a few weeks after the release, Voronezh State University partnered with Wizart to open an animation department at the university. The partnership was intended to be a training base for future employees to the animation studio as renewed interest for animation picked after the studio's debut movie.[18] Sergey Selyanov(ru), film producer and winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, visited Voronezh during 2013 and met with Governor Alexey Gordeev. Selyanov remarked within a very short time Wizart Animation was able to become the leader of the domestic as well as world high-tech film industry. It is now comparable to its peers in St.Petersburg.[19] At the top 10 highest-grossing production centers and film companies in Russia, in the first half of 2013, Wizart came in 10th place.[20]

In 2014, the original movie was followed by the sequel, titled The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King. The Bazelevs Company produced both films, and its success was apparent after the film was well received both domestically and internationally.[21] The studio's first original film, titled Sheep and Wolves, was released in Russian theaters on April 28, 2016.[1] In 2016, Wizart revamped its marketing team with addition of new members. The move coincided with it main goals of promoting its brand through advertising within international and domestic markets.[22]

Wizart Animation continued on its record to produce sequels to the franchise The Snow Queen. In 2016, The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice was released.[23] Even before its trailer announcement, foreign distributors already bought rights to the sequel confirming Wizart managed to create a secondary niche among animation movie studios.[14] The trequel became a breakthrough event as it went on to become the highest-grossing Russian film in foreign box office.[24] The fourth accompaniment to the franchise The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands was released on January 1, 2019. For the first time in Russian animation history, a film was co-directed by a Hollywood animator, Robert Lence, who worked previously for the script in the prequel.[25] Few days later on January 24, 2019 the sequel to Sheep and Wolves released titled Sheep and Wolves: Pig Deal.[26] Both 2019 films have been nominated or awarded in film festivals and have been warmly received by the audience with releases still awaiting new territories in 2020.[27][28][29][30] Financial analysis has approximated an overall $100 million worldwide gross including the generation of secondary revenues from the two franchises The Snow Queen and Sheep and Wolves before the budget.[31][32]

The brands The Snow Queen and Sheep and Wolves have set new records for the animation studio. Areas once inaccessible to Russian movie industry are now opening such as the French territories.[33] Wizart has been placed in the TOP 25 Animation Companies to Watch catalog, a list of animation companies with most international potential, compiled by the highly regarded Animation Magazine.[34] Wizart's ability to gain new screens has been a record for any independently produced European/American animated feature films released globally without any support from a major multinational corporation. The movies are noted for its long stay at the theaters after its debut.[35]

Currently in production are movies to their beloved franchises as well as the preschool animated TV series: Yoko and Snow Queen: Gerda and the Keepers of Wonders.[36][37] Vertical Entertainment, one of the leading global film distributors who has previously worked for Wizart's previous ventures agreed to release their latest films to North America in 2020.[38]

Wizart is currently working on a repertoire of animation films in the 2020s that include an animated rendition of Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Ludmila.[39][40] The animation studio has decided to adapt the eponymous gingerbread house fairy tale Hansel and Gretel to the theater screens. Brothers Grimm, who penned the fairy tale in Germany has had an unprecedented influence on Russia's folklorists that spans over 200 years.[41] Denoted as a family film that will turn the archetypal horror, grim fairy tale into a comedy entertainer, the production for the film has already been presented in international film markets.[42]

Wizart studio revived a Soviet classic, Kitten from Lizyukov Street produced by Soyuzmultfilm in 1988 by presenting Kitten from Lizyukov Street 2 in 2018. The animated feature is a tribute to the original film and has been recognized with international awards.[43]

In February 2019, Wizart decided to decorate Voronezh the city where the studio is located with the keynote art objects originating from their selection of animated films.[44]

• Wizart
  • Wizart animation
  • Wizart series
  • Wizart distribution
  • Wizart animation school

Wizart’s main objective is to develop, produce, and distribute high-quality adventure fantasy comedy family film animated media that combine innovative technologies such as stereoscopy and CGI animation with traditional animation. Their stories' main audience is the children and even adults with a family-friendly content.[7] The stories narrate positive themes like believing in miracles and family importance. The company's portfolio contains animation projects at various stages of production.

Wizart offered insight into the concept of a relatively new trend in the Russian film industry in the early 2010s, where Wizart and other studios' Russian films are being sought out by international distributors. The company explained accurate documentation, packaging, presentations all play a crucial role in international film festivals. Prior experience is always helpful as the company agents themselves from their startup days went abroad marketing their game merchandise.[48]

During animation development of The Snow Queen as well as Sheep and Wolves, it is noted the studio has over 14-17 departments from areas such as artists, 2D and 3D animators, lighting engineers, cameramen, sound engineers, but the standard classic use of boards, paper, pencils, still form the basis for much of their work.[49][50][51]

Animation starts once the storyboard is written. Each episode is shot many times simultaneously in real-time multiple cameras. Then the characters are modeled. Virtual scenery, characters, and storyboard animatics meld to create a sequence of images and then a collection of layers. Each scene can contain about 50 layers depending on their complexity that varies from background, light on background, light contour, masks, and special effects.[50]

In terms of character design, the stars of the cast ensemble give life to the characters not only by their voices but also their facial expressions. An original voice-over records the sound, while multiple shots thereafter contribute to the overall facial characteristics of the characters unique to that voice star and character.[52] Artists supplement their visual scenery drafts by drawing inspiration from geographic locales that has included various places such as Spain and the Scandinavian geographic gem Trolltunga.[53] Wizart innovated their software by creating a cloud system for fourth part of The Snow Queen movie.[54]

General producer, Vladimir Nikolaev explains the animation studio's main goal is to find features that can be accepted into global animation community, “From the very beginning, our goal has been to create commercial animation features that a viewer of any country will find interesting.”[5]

The new Wizart company started working on their debut movie as early as 2007. The animators started working with fairy tales because animation as a medium is well suited to describe the magical world and the adventures that are found within the genre. Of all the fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen was an instant favorite. Lev Atamanov of Soyuzmultfilm already presented an adaptation of the fairy tale to the Soviet Union audience in 1957. Due to the fact that the fairy tale already had a worldwide audience as the fairy tale is well known to young viewers and their parents in many countries as well as being a classic in Russia, Wizart used a combination of the traditions of classical animation and 3D stereoscopy to bring to life The Snow Queen movie.[4][7]

Animation of the iconic polar settings were inspired by Denmark, Laplands, and Russia as Gerda the main character and heroine was bought to animated life. The new adaptation used inspiration from its source material but is decidedly more comical. Despite the shift from traditional animation to 3D, the director and the writers kept the spirit of the original story intact.[55] The Snow Queen completed production on 22 October 2012. Acclaimed producer Timur Bekmambetov of the Bazelevs Company along with InlayFilm agreed to produce the movie. Timur Bekmambetov is one of the first Russian directors to revolutionize the Russian cinema industry with the Night Watch series. The director's films along with other critically acclaimed films from Russia stood out as the international Russian films to watch during the 2000s. Bekmambetov was ready to prepare Wizart for production of its films that eventually helped them in acquiring distribution contracts. The director was also in pursuit in developing the animation team of Russia, whom he believes has very high potential.[17]

A noteworthy Russian cast was announced as the cartoon headed to theaters. The iconic polar winter background animation and the theme of a family animation movie was the key ingredients that made it well received in Russia as well as all around the world.[56][57] The favorable outcomes were noteworthy despite a high learning curve and recruitment of personnel within a region that never had an animation school.[55] Critics such as Annecy review noted the movie not only excelled commercially as a successful venture despite its budget being 5% of a Disney budget, but also it was a more faithful adaptation to Andersen's fairy tale than the other modern-day adaptations of the Danish fairy tale.[58][59][60][61]

With each new project, there is a new level of storytelling and 3D computer graphics quality.[54] The development of the story as well as the quality of animation about Gerda, Kai and their friends is evident in each new installment.[62] Wizart confirmed to produce a theatrical sequel titled The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King. The original film had already released in more than 35 countries.[63] The team continued the tale of Gerda as they used new innovations in animation to bring new dynamic movements to the screen that was lacking previously.[64] Wizart continued to improve the international appeal of the brand as they targeted releases of international movies with the countries in mind. An international cast was announced to helm the sound department.[65]

Critically acclaimed singers from Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and UK collaborated with Wizart to localize its soundtrack and main theme songs.[66] Working with such international stars for The Snow Queen 2 strengthened the international potential of the franchise. It was released by the Bazelevs Company as a theatrical release in Russia and CIS on January 1, 2015.[67] The 3D film was a commercial success as it became the 7th highest grossing Russian film in 2015.[68] The movie was also critically acclaimed, as the animation studio bought in awards or were nominated for one such as the Golden Globes Award and the Van Gogh Award.[69][70] The sequel officially made Wizart's first animated series be seen in over 130 countries, with a total international box office of $30 million.[14]

The trequel The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice was the next chapter in Gerda's journey that had the crucial plot elements of reuniting a family as well as meeting new friends that contrasted well with the snowy themes of the prequels. The sequel was noted for its stellar international localization in dubbing, but this time, Wizart increased its international collaboration by bringing Hollywood animator and scriptwriter Robert Lence as a co-scriptwriter.[71] With Lence's consultation as well as screenplay from Aleksey Tsitsilin, Vladimir Nikolaev, Aleksey Zamyslov, and Andrey Korenkov they wrote a potential blockbuster. The Voronezh animators then developed the script into groundbreaking animation with plenty of situational comedy. The film was Russia's highest budgeted animation film from any of the previous years.[72]

The movie set records in Russia(CIS). In total in Russia the film took in $5.14 million from 1,170 cinema screens.[24] The animated movie set records in places like Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Slovakia.[73][74] The franchise's main foreign collection came from China. The third film was released on the spring of 2018 coinciding with the Qingming festival with the support of a major marketing partner Beijing Turbo Film Corporation Ltd.[75] The third film's theme of reuniting Gerda's lost parents and importance to family was primarily one of the reasons why it was up in screens for record-breaking months.[35] The plot reflects one of the basic values of Chinese culture: fundamental value of the family.[76]

Wizart’s animated movies had a great success in Korea also. The trilogy continued the tradition of employing Starship Entertainment record label artists to give voice to its theme songs.[77][78] South Korea became one of the ‘best-going’ territories in the geographic range of Wizart Animation’s international sales.[79] The studio like its prequels came back with accolades such as the GUKIFF(Guro Kids International Film Festival) award and has continued to win at the Suzdalfest.[80][81] With the success of the film The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice, the trilogy The Snow Queen cemented itself as a popular animation franchise. A fourth installment, The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands, was released on December 21, 2018 in Poland and on January 1, 2019 in Russia.[82] The film awaits the movie theaters in North America in December of 2020.[38]

Today Wizart has renewed a 19th-century fairy tale with contemporary style while being authentic to its source material. Critics at Impacting Culture see the studio as one of Europe's best in business at animation with potential to compete against Disney-Pixar.[59] The theatrical box office of the popular franchise The Snow Queen has already gained more than $60 million worldwide.[83] Today The Snow Queen animated tetralogy series has managed to be released to over 150 countries. The audience is familiar with the adventures of Gerda, Kai, and the troll Orm whose films have been translated into 30 languages.[84][5]

The idea for Sheep and Wolves movie occurred during 2012, alongside the parallel project of The Snow Queen. The movie was Wizart's first original story although the writers adapted well known fairy tale concepts like The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids and a wolf in sheep's clothing.[85] They imposed the setting on an animal kingdom of anthropomorphic sheeps and wolves. However, the originality of the script occurs when the wolf in sheep clothing(Grey) does not become a "big bad wolf", but as a protagonist who must reconcile his unprecedented situation and see situations from the eyes of the sheep.

The script creation took more than two years with production taking over five years.[86] Directed by Andrey Galat and Maxim Volkov, the movie Sheep and Wolves, was noted for its international collaboration that bought together over 200 people from places like New Zealand, India, and United States.[87] An acclaimed cast for the Russian and international release was hired to helm the sound department.[88][89] Described as one of the most anticipated movies in many newspapers, the movie launched on April 28, 2016.[87][90] The movie then was released to the international market where critics have noted its comedic references to other movies.[91]

The news for a sequel was reported ever since 2016. On January 19, 2019, the sequel to the Crystal Trophy and GUKIFF prize-winning movie, Sheep and Wolves: Pig Deal was released to theaters.[92][93][94] The film revolves around a peaceful society that must defend against carnivorous wolves. After a theater run in UK and Ireland, the film will be distributed to North America in January 2021.[38] A review from Germany noted the film is an Asterix of the animal kingdom.[95] Both movies have commercial records in Bulgaria.[96][97] Both movies are joint production projects by Wizart and CTB Film Company.[98][99]

Around July 2015, Wizart revealed Wizart TV Series division will produce a 52 x 12 minute, 3D multilingual animated television series Yoko targeted for children aged 4–7 years that follows the adventures of children Mai, Oto, and Vik as their playtime in the park turn into magical adventures when they meet Yoko, a yellow giant and ancient inhabitant of the park.[100][101] The studio collaborated with Spanish animation companies Somuga based in Andoain and Dibulitoon Studio based in Irún. Yoko became the first Russian-Spanish animated co-production in the history of animation.[102] Jetpack Distributions have appraised the series to an international audience with each episode highlighting educational themes for preschool children.[103] The characters themselves are animated with a unique pattern that features square geometrical framework.[104] In April 2020, Wizart presented Майя знает! (Maya Knows), an educational TV series spin-off of the project Yoko. In each episode, the heroine Maya, along with her magical friend Yoko, will explain to children an interesting fact about the world around them.[105]

Wizart TV Series presented a television version of The Snow Queen franchise ever since the cartoon was so much loved by 17 million Russian and foreign viewers. Co-produced by Soyuzmultfilm, the first footage was shown in the 2017 AFM.[106] Later at Cartoon Forum 2018 in Toulouse, the series was presented featuring an innovative take on The Snow Queen franchise. Directed by Aleksey Zamyslov, the familiar cast of Gerda, Kai, Alfida, Luta are presented with a new character Icy.[107]

In 2019 fall, in a new television format Snow Queen: Gerda and the Keepers of Wonders (Cнежная Королева: Хранители чудес) was released. Airing in the channels of STS Kids, as well as on the TV channels Carousel and O!, the series has managed to participate in several significant international festivals such as the Japanese International Animation Film Festival HIROSHIMA, the Serbian International Festival of Animated Film, and Chicago International Children's Film Festival.[108]