A little dive into the world of Soviet “Treasure Island” Animation

Without a doubt, “Treasure Island” (1988) is one of the best late Soviet animated features. Produced by Soviet-Ukrainian studio “Kyivnauchfilm” (alias “Kyivnaukfilm”) and directed by the thriving genius of legendary David Cherkassky, it is generally considered one of the most beloved and iconic comedic cartoons from USSR up to this day for its inventive gags, caricatured, yet incredibly memorable characters (voiced by such great actors as Yuriy Yakovlev or Armen Dzhigarkhanyan) and, of course, its unique animation, that mixes cartoonish buffoonery in best traditions of “Looney Tunes” with impressive background animation and live action. 

Despite some visual inconsistencies, mistakes and characters going off-model at times , the animation still remains one of the film's best aspects, as it fully conveys Cherkassky’s innovative methods in their purest form possible.

However, have you ever wondered who was responsible for animating these scenes? If so, in my present article I am planning to partially answer this question by highlighting some of the animators’ individual styles and their respective shots. Don’t think of this text as an entirely historically accurate, as a lot of information is still uncertain and hard to explore. Consider it more as an effort to combine all of the existing material in one place. Hope you will enjoy it!

Serguei Kouchnerov (aka Sergey Kushnerov) - 

Serguei Kouchnerov (b. 1960)

Arguably the best “Treasure Island” key animator, who was in charge of some of its most memorable scenes. Kouchnerov started his career in 1983, working on films by Alexander Viken, Boris Khranevich, David Cherkassky and many others. Being trained by Kyivnauchfilm’s top animators, former "Soyuzmultfilm" employee Konstantin Chikin and his wife Alla Grachyova, Serguei quickly became one of the most proficient and distinguishable animators of the studio.

Serguei draws characters in appealing, yet somewhat three-dimensional manner with round expressive eyes and mouths.

Additionally he enjoys implementing smears and multiples to exaggerate an effect of a rapid, fast-paced motion.

His notable sequences include a fight between Jim and a big pirate in a bar, pirate shooting from a gun (in reference to popular action film “Rambo”), large part of the animation from a fort defense segment (with an exception of the reused animation from the first part of “Treasure Island”), a fight between Israel Hands and O’Bryan and many more. Even the so-called "Livesey Walk", which went viral a few years, is also the work of Kouchnerov. 

Serguei’s animation emphasizes great sense of perspective and volume. The characters’ movements and acting are incredibly expressive and stretchy, more so than the rest of Soviet animation. He willingly deforms and squashes them in many cases in order to reveal their truly cartoony nature. But it is always done very accurately without excessive grotesque or overreacting, in a more gracious and refined manner with good accent on solidity and characters’ weight.

Later in his life, Kouchnerov was promoted as a director, filming such shorts as "The Log" (1988), "The Hopeless Wombat" (1990) and "9 1/2 minutes" (1992), utilizing similar comedic finds and dynamic animation from his "Treasure Island" work. In 1992 he immigrated to USA to work at such companies as "Disney", "Dreamworks", "Illumination" and "Netflix". Serguei is still active as a storyboard artist. His recent filmography includes "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" (2023) and "Despicable Me 4" (2024). 

Alexander Lavrov - 

Alexander Lavrov (b. 1936)

Lavrov is a "Kyivanauchfilm" veteran artist and frequent Cherkassky’s collaborator. While debuting as key animator around 1969, he actually started as an art director in early 60s. It’s not clear why he decided to transition to the other occupation, as information from this era is scarce and hard to come across. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop him from becoming celebrated and respected animator on his own right.

One of Lavrov's professional quirks - eye multiples, present in other projects with his involvement. 

Lavrov’s best work includes many dialogue-based scenes with Silver or/and Smollett, particularly a large sequence in the second episode with pirates in the fort, right after Jim killed Israel Hands. He also does many interesting sequences containing background animation and different kinds of rotations and zooms.

At first glance, his cuts may seem more tone-downed than Kouchnerov's, but his sharp sense of timing and fluidity still make him stand out. Particularly, Lavrov’s unique way of lip sync. Drawing characters’ articulation on separate layers allowed him to give more attention on secondary action and gestures. Speaking of background animation, Cherkassky often trusted him with some of the most complex perspective shots, like Pew's walk with an incredibly distinct kind of rotation. The viewer can feel the volume of a character, even so seeing his feet walking on the invisible ground.

Visual parallels in "Treasure Island" (1988) and "Wings" (1983); both directed by Cherkassky and presumably animated by Lavrov

Lavrov kept animating up until early 2010s, when he finally retired from the industry. His last credited project is the animated series "The Adventures of Kotygoroshko and His Friends" (2014), based on Ukrainian folktales. 

Vladimir Omelchuk -

Vladimir started the same time as Kouchnerov and even had a brief time of working at arguably the best Soviet animation powerhouse – “Soyuzmultfilm” (despite working only on a few shorts). After 80s, his career became rather sporadic, yet he is credited for some animated productions in 2000-10s, such as German “Oh, wie schön ist Panama” (2006), Picha’s provocative “Snow White: The Sequel” (2007), as well some of the first episodes of 2018 “Prostokvashino” reboot.

Omelchuk was involved only in the production of the first part, but he likely handles a rather long sequence of Jim escaping from “Admiral Benbow” and pirates searching for a map. Additionally, some scenes after that. 

Examples of eccentric posing and speed lines seen in Omelchuk's animation. Non-"Treasure Island" shots include "Fru-89. Victim" (1989) and "Conflicts...Contacts...#4" (1987), produced by "Soyuzmultfilm" Studio in Moscow. 

Omelchuk’s animation can be described as gracefully bouncy and rubbery, often using dynamic, sort of off-beat poses. It has a slight penchant for smears and speed lines, emphasizing quick and rapid motion of characters during their antics or moments of fear and distress.

Siergiej Gizila (aka Sergey Gizila) - 

Siergiej Gizila is a yet another representative of 80's "Kyivnauchfilm". On second part of "Treasure Island" Gizila was mostly assigned to John Silver scenes during the fort defense sequence. His animation here is subtle and relaxed. It doesn't rely on exaggeration as much as Kouchnerov's or Omelchuk's work, but still has some delightful moments. I would especially highlight a certain scene of Silver's infamous line "In one hour those of you who are still alive will envy...the dead" with a big smoke skull emerging afterwards. What starts as a relatively simple scene, slowly builds off, revealing a great combination of visual storytelling and beautiful, almost organic effects animation, accompanied by Armen Dzhigarkhanyan's great voice acting.

In early 1990, during Kyivnauchfilm's reformation into Ukranimafilm, Gizila finally received an opportunity to debut as a director. His shorts of that period include "The Hare Among People" (1991) and "The Love Story" (1992) (co-directed and co-written with Sergey Mindlin). In these films, he would often experiment with background animation and unexpected camera angles, making them probably some of the most memorable 90's "Ukranimafilm" entries animation-wise.

As many of his peers, Gizila would find animation work abroad - first in Poland, and afterwards - in France, where stayed for the rest of his career. He animated on many notable projects, including critically acclaimed "The Red Turtle" (2016) and "Breadwinner" (2017). 

Andrey Karbovnichiy -

Pretty forgotten animator, but he still needs an honorable mention. Unlike many other key animators on “Treasure Island”, Karbovnichiy was only occupied with effects animation of water and sea.

Despite such limited scenes’ credit, Karbovnichiy showed himself as a responsible and persistent animator, able to express all greatness and power of the scenery. His extremely fluid and delicate animation brings vividness and somewhat realism to the generally cartoony, slapstick driven world of Cherkassky. This is the main reason why Karbovnichiy’s animation stands out so much in comparison to character animators.

Unfortunately, Karbovnichiy and probably some other animators had seemingly left the industry in early 90s, likely due to Soviet Union collapse and later economical crisis. 

Alexander Bubnov  -

Alexander Bubnov (b. 1959)

Another animator from younger generation, usually renowned for his directorial career. After successfully graduating from 1986-1988 "Kyivnauchfilm" courses, he was recruited as a key animator for "Treasure Island" and "Eneida" (1991), the first Ukrainian feature-length animated film. Unfortunately, due to unknown reasons, he was uncredited on both of these. 

On "Treasure Island" he animated scenes of Jim sneaking into the captain's cabin (with a later turn to a spying pirate), Silver giving instructions to his acolytes and some others. 

Although Bubnov had not contributed much to the final product, his scenes are done really well for a relative beginner, particularly the scene with Jim. Despite somewhat wonky perspective, the animation is fluid and timing of characters' actions is executed nicely. Certainly a strong debut for a young animator. 

However, shortly after that, he would become full-fledged director, making his directorial debut with "Clinic" in 1993, surprisingly, featuring a therapist scene mainly animated by Alexander Lavrov, of all people. After doing some outsourcing work for the French studio "Milimages", Bubnov continued directing short films, the most famous being his Sherlock Holmes parodies: "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Murder of Lord Waterbrook" (2005) and "Sherlock Holmes and the Little Black Men" (2012), all available on his YouTube channel. 

Currently Alexander is probably one of the most talented and unique Ukrainian animation directors, who is still active. I sincerely believe it deserves respect and recognition. 

Conclusion?...

That's all information I was able to gather. I sincerely hope more data and IDs will appear in near future, as many key animators still lack any proper scenes' credit (like Ilya Skorupsky, Mikhail Titov or Vladimir Vrublevsky).

At last, I would like to thank Serguei Kouchnerov and Alexander Bubnov for confirming all of their scenes. Massive respect to Stan Leschenko (one of Cherkassky's assistants) for confirming some of Alexander Lavrov and Andrey Karbovnichiy's scenes. Special thanks goes to my dearest friend skaci, who assisted and supported me a lot while making this article!