50 years ago, the cartoon “In the footsteps of the Bremen Town Musicians” was released.
Photo: frame of the film.
The idea of shooting a sequel to The Bremen Town Musicians, as they say, was in the air. The success of the animated musical cartoon, which was released in 1969, was tremendous. But the director Inessa Kovalevskaya categorically refused to make a sequel. In her opinion, The Bremen Town Musicians had a complete plot, and making a sequel is like continuing a fairy tale about Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood.
However, Yuri Entin and Vasily Livanov (they were the authors of the script for the first part) wrote a new libretto, which Kovalevskaya asked to finalize also because she was busy shooting another cartoon according to her own script – “The Story of the Priest.” and its Worker Balda”. She asked Livanov and Entin to wait. By the way, the audience noted the external similarity between Balda and Troubadour – they were drawn by the same animators.
At this time, a categorical telegram arrived at the Soyuzmultfilm studio from the director of the Moscow children’s cinema Barrikady. He informed that the small viewers are not only waiting, but also demanding the continuation of “Bremenskie…” on a daily basis. And the studio made Vasily Livanov an offer that he could not refuse – to take the director’s chair himself.
Yuri Entin claims that the new character, the Detective, appeared in “In the Footsteps of the Bremen Town Musicians” with his light hand. He came up with the idea that someone would go after the Princess who had escaped with the Troubadour. Vasily Livanov and the composer Gennady Gladkov did not appreciate the idea with the Detective. So Entin wrote the lyrics for the future hero’s song:
I am a genius detective
I do not need help
until I find a grain
Well… on the elephant.
These words from all the participants in the creative process were very funny. “We laughed, we joked, completely delighted with what happened. It was something like our sketch for ourselves, in which there was lightness, openness, good-naturedness,” Gennady Gladkov later recalled. After that, all together came up with a continuation of the cartoon.
But there were problems with the search for performers of vocal parts. Entin and Livanov did not want a single person to sing for almost all the heroes, like, for example, Oleg Anofriev in the first part. He voiced and sang for everyone except the princess and the donkey. Anofriev at that time was in great demand and, according to Gladkov, “became a star”: he began to be capricious, reject, find reasons … Like, he was “rejected” by the ruthless exploitation of the Bremen Town Musicians . in various theaters.
It was necessary to urgently look for a replacement for the main party – Troubadour. As 4 years had passed between the first series and the second, they decided that Troubadour’s voice might as well have changed, from tenor to a more mature, “baritone”. Muslim Magomayev, who had the talent to change the timbre of his voice, was invited to the Troubadour. In addition, he really liked the cartoon.
True, as in the case of Oleg Anofriev, Magomayev had to sing several parts instead of one.
In addition to the Minstrel, the Detective and the Atamansha sing in his voice. Magomayev was supposed to sing to the King. But at that time he flew to perform in Cuba. And in order not to stop the work process, they made a test recording with Gennady Gladkov. She entered the cartoon. By the way, when Muslim Magomayev listened, he liked Gladkov’s performance, he said that he would not have sung with such a high voice.
The role of the princess, as in the first film, was played by Elmira Zherzdeva, who worked in the variety department of the Mosconcert.
In the cartoon “In the footsteps of the Bremen Town Musicians”, as in the first part, which lay on the shelf for 9 months, adult viewers saw tracks and parodies of the musicians that were popular at that time. For example, Elvis Presley was seen in the troubadour, the Beatles and, in general, western hippie culture in the animalist quartet of him. In the capricious princess, who escaped from the palace, for some reason they saw a hint of Leonid Brezhnev’s daughter Galina, who was already famous for her novels and impulsive marriages. However, according to Gennady Gladkov, the creators of the cartoon did not keep “figs in their pockets.”
