Melnitsa Animation

Background

Melnitsa Animation is a Russian animation studio based in St. Petersburg and founded in 1999.

1st Logo (2001-March 2020)

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Logo: On a black background, a windmill is being drawn with the bottom resembing "M" and the wings of the windmill made out of pencils. "МЕЛЬНИЦА" and "СТУДИЯ АНИМАЦИОННОГО КИНО" (Animated film studio) appear below.

Variants:

• On some of the shorts, the logo's text is written in English.
• On Lavatory – Lovestory, the English variant of the logo is placed on a white background.

Technique: The drawing, the words appearing. Basic 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: It was seen only on one movie: Little Longnose (2003), however, it still appeared on video games based off their movies starting with the Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin Zmey game (2005) and ending with the How Not to Rescue a Princess (Три богатыря и Шамаханская царица) game (2010). It has also appeared on some of their shorts, for example, Lavatory – Lovestory (2007) and BoksBalet (2020).

2nd Logo (December 23, 2004-)

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Logo: On a white background, we see a hand holding a yellow pencil with "MELNITSA" written on it. The hand draws the Melnitsa logo. The wings of the windmill start "spinning" in the logo. Then, the same hand writes "СТУДИЯ АНИМАЦИОННОГО КИНО "МЕЛЬНИЦА" И КИНОКОМПАНИЯ СТВ представляют" (THE "MELNITSA" FILM ANIMATION STUDIO AND THE CTB FILM COMPANY present). The hand then flips the paper, and the logo transitions to the movie.

Variant: Starting with "How Not to Rescue a Princess" (2010), the Melnitsa logo itself is written in English, with "animation" placed below "MELNITSA".

Technique: A mix of stop-motion and 2D animation done in-house.

Music/Sounds: Sounds of the pencil writing and the paper flip sound.

Availability: Common. Seen on all Three Heroes movies starting with Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin Zmey (2004). It was recently used on Three Heroes and a Horse on the Throne (2021).

3rd Logo (December 14, 2008, October 29, 2015)

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Logo: On a sunny background with hills, a windmill on two legs walks up one of the hills. Later, someone goes into the "windmill-house on the legs" and it transitions into the Melnitsa logo, but with the windmill on the left and both "МЕЛЬНИЦА" and "СТУДИЯ АНИМАЦИОННОГО КИНО" on the right.

Variant: On The Fortress: By Shield and Sword, the logo is still.

Technique: 2D animation also done in-house.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Only seen on The Tale of Soldier Fedot, The Daring Fellow (2008) and The Fortress: By Shield and Sword (2015).

4th Logo (April 20, 2017- )

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Logo: On a black background, we see the golden particles which form the windmill from the previous logos. While the windmill's wings spin, the particles also form "МЕЛЬНИЦА" and "СТУДИЯ АНИМАЦИОННОГО КИНО". The logo shines.

Technique: The particles forming the logo, the wings spinning.

Music/Sounds: A 3-note synth jingle.

Availability: Seen on the studio's output starting with Fantastic Journey to Oz (2017). The Three Heroes-related projects, however, still use the 2nd logo.