Just three weeks after its release in Ukraine, “The Stolen Princess: Ruslan and Ludmila,” a feature animation produced by local filmmakers Animagrad studio, has earned nearly $1.3 million. Nearly 500,000 people have seen the movie since it came out on March 7.
With such attention to the animated movie, it broke the national box office record. The previous record was set by a Ukrainian war drama “Cyborgs,” which earned approximately $876,000 over three months.
Moreover, “The Stolen Princess” has been sold to more than 50 countries and will be screened in English in Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, and Lutsk until April 4.
For the movie — only the second full-length animation film produced in the independent Ukraine — that’s a huge success.
According to Yegor Olesov, the producer of “The Stolen Princess,” Ukrainian animation is being “reborn after nearly 20 years of stagnation and lagging behind modern trends.”
Good always prevails
The animation was initially based on the plot of “Ruslan and Ludmila,” a poem by the 19th-century Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
However, not much remained of the original story after four years of work on the plot and changes made in production.
The story revolves around Ruslan, who is a traveling actor dreaming of becoming a knight, and Mila, the daughter of the widowed prince of the Kyivan Rus. The two meet and fall in love. But an evil sorcerer kidnaps Mila to steal her power of love and harness it as his own magical power. Ruslan bravely hunts down the villain and proves that the real love is stronger than magic.
Olesov said Animagrad aimed to create a universal story that would appeal to a modern audience.
“We chose this poem as it is connected to Kyivan Rus. Love stories, adventures and humor attract the audience. Attempts to speculate that there’s a pro-Russian side to the animation are a bit silly: Pushkin is a world class author, and using him for propaganda would be stupid,” the producer said.
The way to success
There are around a dozen small studios and several big companies producing animation in Ukraine, Olesov told the Kyiv Post.
But over 26 years of independence, just two full-length animated features were released. The first was “Mykyta Kozhemiaka,” produced by Panama Grand Prix Production and released in 2016. Animagrad’s “The Stolen Princess” is the second.
Animagrad plans to release another feature animation, “Mavka,” in 2020, with two more full-length animations being prepared for release in the coming years. In the future, the studio plans to produce one animation per year.
“Mavka. The Forest Song,” a fairy tale about a young female mystical forest creature from Ukrainian folklore, has already won praise from the Walt Disney Studios and other major animation companies.
Olesov said that animation is developing all over the world, and family content consumption is rising. Animation can be used as a universal language and as an opportunity to create content in Ukraine for lots of foreign markets, he said.
Production of “The Stolen Princess” cost $3.6 million, with 20 percent of the money coming from Ukraine’s state budget.
Within the first week of distribution in Romania, “The Stolen Princess” earned $165,000, which was the second biggest result that week after “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.”
For Ukrainian movies, every new country where they are distributed is an achievement, Olesov said.
“The task is to analyze global tendencies and try to read the European or Asian audience. That’s the way American companies, for instance, work: They create a product for the whole world,” Olesov said.
Watch “The Stolen Princess” in English in Kyiv:
Wizoria Cinema (Shopping Center New Way, 1 Arkhitektora Verbytskoho St., +38067 808 0700, +38063 808 0700). March 30 – April 4. 12:30 p.m. Hr 80
Zhovten Cinema (26 Kostiantynivska St.) +38044 428 5757). March 31 – April 1. 1:20 p.m. Hr 80-100
