This allowed the duo to build up a reputation that allowed some extra freedom during their future work, and this credit was fully exploited during Treasure Island adaptation, which was very liberal as far as Soviet cartoons went.Ī distinctive feature of the cartoon was the inclusion of live action 'musical pauses' - songs, that were acted out by live actors, that explained, for example, why it is a bad idea to drink alcohol or smoke or why Jim Hawkins defeats all the pirates he meets (because he does exercises every mornings). Their previous collaboration yielded some very fruitful results, including the cartoons about the Adventures of Captain Wrongel (a Russian tall tales of the sea kind of book) and Doctor Aybolit (a more children-centric cartoon). Treasure Island was a product of collaboration of the two very well known people in the USSR: David Cherkassky, a director, who, at the time of inception, produced a number of very popular cartoons, and Radna Sakhaltuev, a cartooninst, who had (at that point in time) a long and fruitful history of collaboration with David Cherkassky, as well as a history of being a cartoonist for a number of satirical magazines in Kiev, where he became well known for his distinctive style.

Instrumental ensemble VIA (ВИА) and theatre company 'Grotesque':.

Vladimir Zadneprovsky as the 'cowardish pirate'.

Vladimir Bystryakov as the Blind Pew's dog.

Viktor Andriyenko as Captain Smollett and Billy Bones, one reply of John Silver.This version of the film is 34 minutes shorter (episodes with living actors were completely removed) than the Russian version. The film won the following awards: Grand Prize in Minsk, 1987 Grand Prize in Kiev, 1989 1st Prize on International Cinema Festival of Television films in Czechoslovakia.Īn American version of this film called The Return to Treasure Island was released direct-to-video in 1992. The film attained a cult classic status practically immediately after release, even though it went directly to TV and never had a theatrical release. The first part of the film was released in 1986 and the second in 1988, after which the two parts were always displayed together. While the film combines traditional animation and live action, it does it in a very different way than the American film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (which was also filmed in 1988), by predominantly incorporating live action sequences as episodes into the movie, as opposed to having a relatively seamless filmed picture with a number of hand-drawn characters added into it.

Treasure Island ( Russian: Остров сокровищ, Ostrov sokrovishch) is a 1988 Soviet animated film in two parts based on the 1883 novel with the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Treasure island characters