How international movie stars ‘acted’ in Soviet animated films (VIDEO)

For instance, the members of  the Beatles once "starred" in 'Yellow Submarine' and the main character in Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' borrowed her appearance from the young actress Alyssa Milano ('Who's the Boss?'). Soviet animators got in on the act, too – they also frequently "invited" the stars of world cinema to appear in their animated films.

Charlie Chaplin & other legends of silent cinema ('One of Many', 1927)

In the early 1920s, Soviet audiences, like the rest of the world, adored the Hollywood stars like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who not only starred in the same movies, but were also husband and wife. "Pickford mania" reached its peak when the couple visited the Soviet Union in the Summer of 1926. Their visit was widely covered in the press and the stars were besieged by crowds of admirers.

The animated movie 'One of Many' by Nikolai Khodataev, one of the founders of Soviet animation, directly echoes these events. The live-action prologue to the movie uses newsreel footage of Pickford and Fairbanks in Moscow. According to the plot, a young female admirer, after seeing her idols in real life, falls asleep on a couch at home and in a dream finds herself in Hollywood – or rather, right in the middle of episodes from her favorite movies. Apart from Pickford and Fairbanks, she also meets Buster Keaton as a troglodyte and Harold Lloyd driving a car… And, of course, the ‘Little Tramp’, Charlie Chaplin! The animators replicated his signature gait and trademark swivel. They even took the gag to its logical conclusion, something Chaplin himself couldn't have done in real life – one leg, as if made of rubber, wrapped around the other.

Marcello Mastroianni & Jean-Paul Belmondo ('Paradise in a Tent', 1966)

Almost 40 years later, director Ivan Aksenchuk used the same plot device in his 'Paradise in a Tent' (also known as 'Love in a Cottage'). It is a caustic short tale making fun of overprotective parents and their spoilt offspring. One such girl, who has a whole wall covered with photos of foreign movie stars, dreams that she is walking around Hollywood arm in arm with celebrities, against the backdrop of American skyscrapers and the Eiffel Tower. 

True, times had changed. Hollywood movies rarely made it to Soviet screens; instead, audiences could see a great number of Italian and French films. Therefore, the cinema-crazy young girl in the film walks around with Fernandel in a bowler hat, Jean-Paul Belmondo in a sombrero, Alberto Sordi in knee-high boots and Marcello Mastroianni in an elegant suit. Each of them presents her with a rose and only Mastroianni gives her his heart – he literally cuts it out of his chest.

Charlie Chaplin again! ('Blue Puppy', 1976)

Fashion is a fleeting thing and Pickford and Fairbanks were soon forgotten, only to be replaced by new stars. But, the love for Charlie Chaplin easily stood the test of time.

Formally, Yefim Gamburg's animated film 'Blue Puppy' is a touching tale of loneliness and otherness – it is the screen adaptation of a story by the Hungarian writer Gyula Urban in the style of a musical. The Sawfish's aria performed by the "grandfather of Russian rock", Alexander Gradsky, is still a hit to this day. The Puppy was voiced by Alisa Freindlich, the star of Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' (1979) and Ryazanov's 'Office Romance' (1977). And the Cat's voice was performed by Andrei Mironov, star of the Russian comedy classic 'The Diamond Arm". 

And ‘Blue Puppy’s visual representation was directly inspired by ‘Little Tramp Charlie’. The same ill-fitting bowler hat and the same happy-go-lucky optimism! 

Jean Gabin, Paul Newman & Yul Brynner ('Polygon', 1977)

Science fiction thriller 'Polygon' ('The Proving Ground'), based on a story by Sever Gansovsky, does not go in for caricature: Instead, world-famous celebrities are recreated with a maximum degree of physical resemblance. As explained by director Anatoly Petrov – who was also screenwriter and principal animator on the movie – there were two reasons for this. The first was so that, on seeing familiar faces, the viewer would get into the story quickly. And, secondly, it was to prevent the censor from seeking allusions to real political figures.

The plot unfolds on a tropical island, where a certain capitalist country is conducting tests of a secret new weapon – a tank that detects the fear of its victims and, thus, always knows where to aim its fire. "Jean Gabin", as a general, is one of the movie's main villains. "Paul Newman" and "Yul Brynner" are his subordinates. And, the main hero – the inventor of the tank on a quest for revenge – has the physical looks of Mel Ferrer.

Marlon Brando, Alain Delon, Marcello Mastroianni & (once again) Jean Gabin and ('Robbery,… Style', 1978)

This is another animated film directed by Yefim Gamburg and one that remains a firm favorite among Russian audiences to this day. 'Robbery,… Style' is a four-part parody of the types of crime films popular in different countries. In the American segment, Marlon Brando plays a corrupt cop, while Kirk Douglas does a reverse striptease – i.e. he dresses to music. In the French episode, a seasoned criminal with the facial features of Jean Gabin plans a bank robbery along with "Alain Delon" and "Brigitte Bardot" and, naturally, each of the gang members wants to outsmart the others. In the Italian part, Marcello Mastroianni naturally plays a solo role, but no crime results as Rome is one big communal apartment, after all. The movie also includes a Russian plotline, of course – with the stars of Soviet cinema.

Bonus: A cameo of Christopher Lee as Dracula! ('The Island', 1973)

A long-fanged Christopher Lee appears on screen for a fraction of a second in one of the most highly awarded Soviet animated films – Fyodor Khitruk's 'The Island', a winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or. The castaway is reading a newspaper when the cover of the magazine ‘Fantastic Monsters of the Films' is flashed on screen.