Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Kotyonochkin (also known as Kotenochkin) (Russian: Вячеслав Михайлович Котёночкин) (June 20, 1927 – November 20, 2000) was a Soviet and Russian animation director, animator and artist. He was named People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1987. He is most famous for directing the popular animated series Well, Just You Wait! He was also active as a comic artist.

Early life Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin was born in Moscow into a Russian family of Mikhail Mikhailovich Kotyonochkin (1900—1941), an accountant and a native Muscovite who died from tuberculosis shortly before the Great Patriotic War, and Eugenia Andreevna Kotyonochkina (née Shirshova) (1906—1962), a housewife whose family moved to Moscow from Kimry, Tver Governorate. His maternal grandfather Andrei Ivanovich Shirshov came from peasants, while his wife Maria Vasilievna Komissarova belonged to a wealthy family with an estate in Kimry which they had to abandon after the October Revolution. His earliest known paternal ancestor lived under a Koshkin surname (from the word koshka — cat) and owned a restaurant and a confectionery store in Moscow, but his twin sons were nicknamed "kittens" which transformed into a rare Kotyonochkin surname with time (from the word kotyonok — kitten). Vyacheslav was baptized in a Moscow Orthodox church soon after birth.

In 1938 he visited a New Year celebration for children at the House of the Unions where they were shown a collection of the first Soviet color animated films. He was so impressed that he started taking drawing courses at a Pioneers Palace. In 1942 Kotyonochkin finished seven classes of the middle school and entered an artillery special school, then he was sent to the Penza anti-tank artillery school where he studied until the war's end. He also learned to play cornet in a military band.

Career Soon after the war Kotyonochkin met the acclaimed Soviet animator Boris Dyozhkin who suggested him to enter the animation courses organized by Soyuzmultfilm. Yet the award he valued the most was the Order of the Smile granted to him by Polish children in 1985.

During the late perestroika years the Soviet government cut financing and he wasn't able to make anything else up until 1993 when he co-directed two new episodes of Well, Just You Wait! along with Vladimir Tarasov. Full of product placement and modern-day references, they left the fans disappointed. In 1999 he published a book of memoirs.

Family Wife — Tamara Petrovna Vishnyova (born 6 April 1928), a ballet dancer in the Moscow Operetta Theatre Son — Aleksey Kotyonochkin (born 16 July 1958), Russian animation director, animator and art director Daughter — Natalia Kotyonochkina Granddaughter — Ekaterina Kotyonochkina, singer

Selected filmography

Director 1962-1988 — Fitil (17 episodes) 1965 — Frog the Traveler (also art director) 1967 — Mezha 1969-1986; 1993-1994 — Well, Just You Wait! 1975 — On the Forest Trail (also screenwriter) 1982 — An Old Record (also screenwriter) 1988 — The Kitten from Lizyukov Street

Animator

1949 — Polkan and Shavka 1951 — Forrest Travelers 1952 — The Scarlet Flower 1952 — Kashtanka 1952 — The Snow Maiden 1954 — The Golden Antelope 1954 — The Orange Neck 1954 — Unusual Match 1956 — Old Friends 1957 — Once Upon a Time 1957 — Familiar Pictures 1958 — The Cat's House 1958 — A Tale of Malchish-Kibalchish 1960 — It Was I Who Drew the Little Man 1962 — The Wild Swans 1968 — Adventures of Mowgli. Episode 2: The Kidnapping