Vladimir Popov

Vladimir Ivanovich Popov (; 5 June 1930 – 1 April 1987) was a Soviet and Russian animator and art director. A member of ASIFA, he was named Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR in 1986.

Biography Vladimir Popov grew up in a communal apartment near Soyuzmultfilm. He was fond of painting since childhood and visited an art school. He also produced hand-made cartoons by drawing humorous scenes from the life of his neighbours on a transparent filmstrip and demonstrating them to a great success.

In 1951, Popov was employed by Soyuzmultfilm; for the next ten years he had been working as an animator with Ivan Ivanov-Vano, Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya, Leonid Amalrik and other leading directors. Since 1960, he had been directing films together with Vladimir Pekar, also acting as an art director.

Since 1975, Popov had been working alone. Among his popular films were adaptations of Nikolay Nosov's Bobik Visiting Barbos (1977) and Yuri Koval's The Adventures of Vasya Kurolesov (1981). Yet his biggest success was the Three from Prostokvashino trilogy produced in 1978–1984 and based on the comedy fairy tales by Eduard Uspensky. Despite the cold reception from the officials, the mini-series became incredibly popular and turned into the source of many catchphrases. It was named the third best animated film/series of all time in the all-Russian poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation in February 2014.

Vladimir Popov died on 1 April 1987 aged 56. His death was sudden and unexpected. In 1989, he was posthumously awarded the Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR.

Filmography Director

1960: Animated Crocodile No. 1 1961: The First Time on the Arena 1961: Animated Crocodile No. 5 1962—1986: Fitil 1966: Letters from the Radio Operator's Box 1968: It Happened in Winter 1969: Umka 1970: Umka is Looking for a Friend 1971: The Adventures of the Red Ties 1972: Are You My Enemy or My Friend? 1972: Robbery in Broad Daylight 1973: The Treasures of Sunken Ships 1973: What is Scarier? 1974: One Fairy Tale After Another 1974: Stories about Shevchenko 1975: Return Rex 1975: The Rainbow 1976: How the Dwarf Left the House 1977: Bobik Visits Barbos 1978: Three from Prostokvashino 1980: School Holidays in Prostokvashino 1981: The Adventures of Vasya Kurolesov 1983: From Two to Five 1984: The Winter in Prostokvashino 1985: Sherlock Holmes and I 1986: Academician Ivanov