LOVE IS STRONGER THAN MAGIC

Premier in Ukraine: March, 7^th, 2018

Production: Animagrad (FILM.UA Group)

Duration: 87 minutes

Genre: comedy, adventure, love story

Audience: family, 3+

Style: 3D animation

Sound: Dolby Digital

Language: Ukrainian, English

Director: Oleg Malamuzh

Script: Yaroslav Voitseshek

Script Consultant: Andrew Hilton (The Screenplay Mechanic)

Producer: Egor Olesov

Cast: locally the movie was dubbed by Ukrainian A-stars, the most popular singers and actors

Release in Ukraine: Ukrainian Film Distribution

Release in Israel: Nice Guys
Release in Bulgaria: ProFilms
Release in France: KLB
Release in Poland: Monolith Films
Release in Latin America: Leda Films (Videx International Media Limited)
Release in Vietnam: Lightning McQueen Company ltd
Releases in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of (FYROM), Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Blitz Group
Release in South Korea: Cracker Pictures (Must see movie releasing company Co.,Ltd.)
Release in Romania: Fast Production Film (Idea Film Distribution SRL)
Release in Turkey: Yeni Bir Film
Releases in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia: Garsu Pasaulio Iratai
Release in Germany: Telepool
Releases in Czech Republic and Slovakia: Bohemian Motion Pictures
Release in Portugal: Cinemundo

SYNOPSIS

This wonderful story happened in the age of valiant knights, beautiful princesses, and battling sorcerers. Ruslan, a wandering artist dreaming to become a knight, met beautiful Mila and fell in love with her; he didn’t even suspect that she is the King’s daughter. However, the lovers’ happiness wasn’t meant to last too long. Chоrnomor, the evil sorcerer, appeared in a magic vortex and stole Mila right before Ruslan’s eyes to transform her power of love into his own magic power. Without further ado, Ruslan sets out on a chase after the stolen princess to overcome all obstacles and to prove that real love is stronger than magic.

 MAIN CHARACTERS

 Mila

As the King’s daughter, Mila has spent all her life experiencing the world only through her vast collection of books. Filled with self-esteem and intelligence, this princess can’t envision a life through an arranged marriage, so naturally she rebels toward her unruly and unrelenting father. It isn’t until the time when true love comes calling that she dreams of living her life as she’s meant to live it – and on her terms

 Ruslan

A travelling bard of minimal class distinction, all his worldly possessions can fit in a cart while performing from town to town. He often plays valiant characters and brings their traits into his personality while entertaining for the people. Ruslan has a moral compass that is second to none and often finds himself rescuing his travelling show of actors from extinction.

 Chоrnomor

Chоrnomor is a wicked sorcerer and evil magician. He hides in a huge castle hidden in the depths of Wonderland, and one can only get there via a secret portal guarded by a wizened, double-dealing cat. One of his weaknesses is that he needs to replenish his magical power in ways that aren’t always easy to obtain; to do this, he kidnaps fair maidens and takes their vital energy through a dramatic ritual that turns them into stone.

 Hamster

Plump and simple-minded, he has the appearance of a total wimp but when the reward is food related, we see he is full of ingenuity and determination. Once his appetite is satiated, Hamster is kind and loving – albeit a little unrelenting according to his playful nemesis Titmouse Una.

 Titmouse Una

Titmouse Una is a coy female with a quick-to-fire temper. As a friend and teammate of Ruslan, she can be equal parts rational and irrational all at once, often playing bigger than what is safe (or wise) for her own good.

 LINKS AND MEDIA

Teaser: https://youtu.be/JbBUlxkwMjU

Trailer #1: https://youtu.be/RDOPiR5IAaI

Trailer #2: https://youtu.be/Xqfgl6939tU

Web: https://stolenprincess.com/en/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/StolenPrincess

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thestolenprincessfilm

Twitter: twitter.com/StolenPrincess

 The Stolen Princess is acclaimed by Ukraine Film State Agency and Ukrainian press as the most anticipated Ukrainian movie of the year:

https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-culture/2392246-ukrainski-kinopremeri2018-kruti-vijna-na-donbasi-ta-transformeri.html

https://www.segodnya.ua/lifestyle/afisha/samye-ozhidaemye-multfilmy-2018-goda-1103441.html

https://tvi.ua/life/top-10-ukrainskih-kinopremer-2018-roku.html

http://www.theinsider.ua/art/5a5e4affd344e/

https://nv.ua/ukr/style/blogs/sim-najbilsh-ochikuvanikh-ukrajinskikh-filmiv-2018-hoda-2447894.html

https://focus.ua/culture/389611/

https://novy.tv/ua/news/2018/01/02/spilberga-viklikali-abo-shho-divitisya-u-2018-rotsi/

http://biz.liga.net/all/reklama-marketing/stati/3724762-kino-po-ukrainski-top-10-kinopremer-2018-goda.htm

https://1plus1.ua/newyear/novyny/5-novih-multfilmiv-na-yaki-chekayut-navit-dorosli

Partnership with Ukraine State Film Agency

A contract of government financing for the featured movie The Stolen Princess was signed between the Ukrainian State Film Agency and Animagrad Studio on the 6th of December. Egor Olesov (producers), Oleg Malamuzh (film director), Oleksii Tolubko (The Head of The Animagrad Studio) met Philip Illienko, The Head of The Ukrainian Film State Agency,  to sign the official contract of partnership in financing The Stolen Princess.

Animated 3D feature The Stolen Princess won the 9th Film projects selection of The Ukrainian State Film Agency. Project scored one of the highest result (40,83) among 88 shortlisted projects and 172 received applications. The project will receive financial support covering 20% of necessary. Mavka. The Forest Song, another project of Animagrad Studio, will also receive financial support; its delivery date is set at the end of 2018.

Philip Illienko, the head of The Ukrainian State Film Agency, noticed, ‘Animated 3D feature films are in demand not only in Ukraine, but all over the world as well. I am sure that Mavka. The Forest Song and The Stolen Princess will have a great audience support; and will successfully represent the Ukrainian film industry on the foreign markets, primarily in Europe, North America and Asia.’

 INTERNATIONAL PRESS ABOUT THE STOLEN PRINCESS

 Worldscreen

Presales for The Stolen Princess Animated Family Movie

FILM.UA Group has presold the animated family movie The Stolen Princess, produced by Animagrad, to a number of new companies in territories around the globe.

The content you are trying to access is only available to members.

Source: http://worldscreen.com/tvkids/film-ua-secures-new-presales-for-the-stolen-princess/

 Animation Magazine

AFM: FILM.UA Inks More ‘Stolen Princess’ Pre-Sales

Ukrainian animated feature The Stolen Princess from FILM.UA Group’s Animagrad studio continues to work its regal charms on international buyers. The film has been picked up by new partners Yeni Bir Film (Turkey), Ideal Film (Iran), Lightning McQueen Company (Vietnam & Cambodia), Monolith Films (Poland) and Idea Film Distribution (Romania).

Currently in production, The Stolen Princess (85 min.) is set for release on March 7, 2018. The film has previously pre-sold to Golden-Spread Entertainments (China), Italia Film International Sal Beirut (MENA), Digital Content (Mongolia), Must See Movie (South Korea), Pro Films (Bulgaria), Garsu Pasaulio Irasai (Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia) and KLM (France, French-speaking Africa, French-speaking Europe). Its Ukraine release will be handled by Ukrainian Film Distribution; TV rights were acquired by Novy TV Channel.

FILM.UA Group can be found at AFM suite #650 at Loews Hotel. A second work-in-progress screening is scheduled for Nov. 5 at 3:30 p.m. at ArcLight 6.

Synopsis: This wonderful story happened in the age of valiant knights, beautiful princesses, and battling sorcerers. Ruslan, a wandering artist dreaming of knighthood, met beautiful Mila and fell in love with her; he didn’t even suspect that she is the King’s daughter. However, the lovers’ happiness wasn’t meant to last too long. Chernomor, the evil sorcerer, appeared in a magic vortex and stole Mila right before Ruslan’s eyes to capture the power of her love for his own magic. Without further ado, Ruslan chases after the stolen princess, determined to overcome all obstacles and to prove that real love is stronger than magic.

Source: http://www.animationmagazine.net/events/afm-film-ua-inks-more-stolen-princess-pre-sales/

Animation Magazine

Animagrad Unleashes New Trailer for ‘Stolen Princess’

Ukrainian animation studio Animagrad has unveiled the new international trailer for its upcoming feature The Stolen Princess. Set to premiere in the Ukraine on March 7, 2018, the film will also be released theatrically in more than 30 territories, including China, South Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, Northern Africa, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Balkan region, Israel, and others. The work-in-progress scenes will also be screened at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin.

Directed by Oleg Malamuzh with a script by Yaroslav Voyteshek, Stolen Princess centers on a wandering actor named Ruslan, who falls in love with Princess Mila of Kyiv and hopes to become a celebrated knight. Mila is not your typical damsel in distress, and she bravely faces all the challenges that fate throws their way after the evil sorcerer Chernomor pulls her through a magical vortex.

In 2016, the CG-animated project won the pitch contest for Ukrainian State Film Agency and is partially financed by the state (20% of the overall production budget of $ 5 million). The Ukrainian trailer for the film was released in December and has since garnered over 2 million views, including 1.1 million views from the official site.

Stolen Princess is distributed by the FILM.UA Group (Ukraine), one of the largest Eastern European media groups, operating in global markets and covering the full production cycle: development, production, adaptation and distribution of audiovisual content through the vertical business structure.

Here is the new trailer.

For more information, visit the official website: https://stolenprincess.com/

Source: http://www.animationmagazine.net/features/animagrad-unleashes-new-trailer-for-stolen-princess/?doing_wp_cron=1515228875.3057849407196044921875

Animation Italy

Una Principessa Rapita dall'Ucraina

Dallo stesso studio che sta realizzando Mavka, vi presentiamo il lungometraggio The Stolen Princess, nuova opera tutta Europea nelle fasi finali di produzione di cui vediamo un primo e lungo trailer.

Realizzato a Kyiv da Animagrad Animation Studios, di proprietà della società ucraina FILM.UA Group, è un lungometraggio d'animazione realizzato completamente in computer grafica e diretto da Oleg Malamuzh.

La storia è ambientata nell'età in cui i volti più noti erano quelli di prodi cavalieri, strabilianti maghi e bellissime principesse. Ruslan è un artista che sogna di diventare un cavaliere, il cui fato lo fa scontrare con la bella Mila, ragazza di cui si innamora al primo sguardo ma di cui non conosce la sua verità, ovvero che è la figlia del Re. Ma la loro bella storia non dura a lungo. Chornomor, un mago cattivo, appare dal nulla e rapisce Mila. Il Re allora raduna gli uomini più valorosi e promette in sposa la ragazza a chiunque la riporterà salva. Il ragazzo, anche se non all'altezza decide di imbarcarsi in quest'avventura, affrontando al meglio tutti gli ostacoli e le sfide che troverà sul suo cammino.

Una commedia dalle tinte fantasy tanto cara alle storie dei Fratelli Grimm, con un target molto ampio che arriverà nelle sale di casa il prossimo Marzo, mentre non sono ancora state annunciate date internazionali.

Source: https://www.animeita.net/notizia/4361

 3DVF

The Stolen Princess : première bande-annonce pour le film ukrainien

Le studio ukrainien Animagrad avait dévoilé l'an passé un premier teaser pour son film d'animation The Stolen Princess : voici désormais la bande-annonce.

Prévu pour le courant de l'année, ce film réalisé par Oleg Malamuzh et scénarisé par Yaroslav Voytseshek.

Côté scénario, The Stolen Princess met en scène Ruslan, un jeune barde voyageur qui tombe amoureux de Mila, la fille du roi. Cette dernière est kidnappée par Chernomor, un sorcier maléfique : Ruslan devra donc aller la sauver, relever des défis et croisera en chemin divers personnages.

Sorce: http://www.3dvf.com/actualite-22286-the-stolen-princess-premiere-bande-annonce-film-ukrainien.html

 Foundry.com

Why switching tools mid-project was well worth the risk for Animagrad

How Animagrad saved their project and opened the door to limitless creative freedom

We recently wrote about how studios in Eastern Europe are taking bold and creative decisions to create stunning work - often of a quality to rival the big, Hollywood VFX houses.

One such outfit is the Ukraine-based Animagrad. Formed in 2012, this innovative studio has grown from a team of around 10 generalists to 100 specialists, focusing on high-quality animation.

With the team swelling size, they’ve been able to take on bigger projects, moving from TV episodics to their first full-blown feature animation film, The Stolen Princess.

The Stolen Princess features a classic fairytale plot (a beautiful princess, abducted by an evil wizard, saved by a dashing hero), coupled with animation so good it could have come straight out of Hollywood. It’s a tour de force in terms of both creative vision and execution.

Perhaps even more remarkable, however, is how this stunning body of work came to fruition.

A rocky start

It didn’t always look like The Stolen Princess production was going to be problem free. In fact, at one point it didn’t even look like it was going to be finished on time at all.

As Andrew Militskiy, CTO at Animagrad explains: “Originally we built our pipeline for the lighting and look dev around a prominent 3D animation tool, and we faced several issues with that.”

“In our pipeline, the program couldn’t handle the complexity of the jobs we wanted it to do, and would constantly crash. Loading big scenes… maybe 50-70% would crash, and if they didn’t crash, they would take 60 mins just to load up. It was incredibly cumbersome (and frustrating) to work with.”

It became such a problem that the team were forced to consider an extraordinary step - swapping out their look dev and lighting toolset mid-way through the project.

A highly unusual move, the cost and time implications of this would normally rule out such a risky course of action.

As it turned out, however, the team did not take much convincing. It was a no-brainer, as Andrew explains: “The way we were working before, we began to realize we would never hit the deadline - it was impossible. We felt we’d need at least another year extension, because of how complex the sets were and how much our other tool was crashing.”

It turned out that in the end, Animagrad couldn’t afford not to change.

Getting on the right track

When the team set about researching new look dev and lighting solutions, Andrew had heard about Katana and suggested they look into it: “So they were like, ‘OK, we’ll test it...’”, he says.

“And when we did, we realised that it was actually going to be a Godsend. Once we started using it, we couldn’t believe it…  ‘wow, it renders a sphere!’, ‘wow, it renders volumetrics!’... OK,  we can actually do everything that we’ve been trying to do using this!” 

Initially, the team had been a little sceptical when Andrew suggested Katana. Wasn’t Katana just something that big studios use? Unbeknownst to them, the things they had been trying to do unsuccessfully in the first place with their previous pipeline configuration - setting up their shots in different types of lighting, grouping them together and rendering it all out - is what Katana was designed to do from the start.

“The team knew it would take some programming to get Katana into our pipeline, but they didn’t know that it would be rendering things for us. They didn’t know the full capabilities until we got it into our hands, started playing it, started writing things for it, started to ingrain it into our pipeline.”

“Once we finally got the trial version, and everyone was sitting in front of it thinking,’ this is a really unknown beast’, no one was really sure they’d be able to learn it. The UI is different, the way of working is different - so everyone was still kind of apprehensive - until they started playing with it.”

“And then, as I said, someone rendered out a little sphere, and everyone was like ‘oh my God, how did you do that?’, and he’s taught everyone else how to render a sphere.”

“Then someone rendered something else - a pony I think, and she’s taught everybody how to do that… and so it created a real buzz across the team, where everyone was teaching each other new tricks.”

“Then within a month, we knew that this was going to save our asses. Because now, everything is working, it’s stable, it’s fast.”

A future unshackled from technical limitations

Bringing Katana into their pipeline has opened up a whole new world for Animagrad.

It’s not just the improved performance that’s made the difference - although speed and stability certainly help (as Andrew freely admits: “comparing our previous approach to our current, Katana reduces our man hours by up to 80%!”)

More than that, it’s the infinite creative possibilities and freedoms Katana gives them. For the new project the team are working on - an animated film called Mavka - Katana has been embedded in the pipeline from the beginning.

This has unshackled them from the technical limitations they had previously experienced - now, nothing is off the table: “Before we would have to reject certain scenes or certain things from the movie - for example, a forest with X amount of trees. Our previous tool could just about handle it, but add a couple of hundred more trees, and it would crash”.

“Now with Mavka, Katana puts us on the next level in terms of the size of the sets, the complexity of the sets, how beautiful the lighting can be. We’re also starting to shade and texture through Katana straight away, so we get the look dev earlier in the process.”

“So it’s not even just that we can do things better, it’s that we can do a lot more as well - there are more creative options. It’s like a chain breaker of our creative limitations.”

“We no longer reject things because we’re technically incapable of doing them - we only reject things if we don’t like the idea.”

Source: https://www.foundry.com/industries/film-television/look-dev-tools-upgrade-animagrad

Focus on Animation

he Stolen Princess, premier long-métrage d’animation du studio ukrainien Animagrad, a droit a sa première bande-annonce internationale. Un trailer très classique qui introduit une ribambelle de personnages et de lieux, sans montrer autant d’humour que le teaser décalé qui m’avait séduite il y a quelques mois. Le film devrait sortir en France puisque KLB company en a acheté les droits d’exploitations cinéma de The Stolen Princess pour l’Hexagone et les territoires européens francophones.

Aux temps des valeureux chevaliers, des belles princesses et des sorciers combattants, nous découvrons l’histoire d’un jeune artiste déterminé nommé Ruslan, qui voyage pour rencontrer la fille du roi, Mila.

En dépit de leurs rangs opposés dans la société, Mila et Ruslan se réalisent qu’ils sont des âmes sœurs et tombent rapidement amoureux. Mais Mila est enlevée par Chernomor, un sorcier maléfique avec de nombreux tours impitoyables dans son sac. Dans sa quête pour obtenir le pouvoir éternel à tout prix, Chernomor prévoie de sacrifier Mila afin de prolonger son immortalité. Ruslan part à la recherche de sa princesse volée et rencontre en chemin les meilleurs et les pires exemples de l’humanité et du règne animal, dont le plus important est un chat grognon mais sage, un lâche sorcier, un monstre de pierre et une tête parlante protégée par une bande de squelettes chatoyants. Pour sauver Mila, notre héros va surmonter tous les obstacles et prouver une fois de plus que l’amour est plus fort que la magie.

Affiche du film The Stolen Princess

Sans le teaser diffusé l’an dernier, qui montrait une princesse sans peur aux prises avec des pâtisseries vivantes et diaboliques, je ne me serai sans doute pas retournée sur The Stolen Princess. La bande-annonce met totalement de côté la princesse et ses adversaires caloriques pour se concentrer sur le personnage de Ruslan, héros du récit. Si l’on se fie à ces nouvelles images, où la voix of de Ruslan raconte le début de sa propre aventure, on risque de ne pas voir grand chose de la fameuse princesse badass. Dommage.

On s’oriente finalement vers une quête comme des centaines d’autres, où un pauvre garçon sans statut part sauver la princesse en détresse et happy ending mariage, bébé, maison blanche, jardin vert et potager. Je note la trace d’indices de mauvaise augure, comme un grand nombre de personnages secondaires et de sidekick animaliers, dont une espèce de grenouille mutante aux lèvres de Lippoutou. Hum. Il ne manquait que la blague de pet…

Je préfère rester positive et espérer que le film saura réunir le meilleur des deux mondes. Je serai vraiment déçue s’il se révèle être un film de seconde zone sachant qu’ils avaient les billes pour faire un long vraiment sympa. Suspense !

Source: https://www.focusonanimation.com/the-stolen-princess-premiere-bande-annonce-internationale-38633/#undefined.gbpl

Animation Magazine

EFM: FILM.UA Adds to ‘Stolen Princess’ Sales Tally

FILM.UA Group announced from the European Film Market that it has closed a new deal for Ukrainian animated feature The Stolen Princess to Bohemia Motion Pictures for theatrical distribution in Czech Republic and Slovakia. The distributor also picked up rights to the time-travel fantasy-adventure The Stronghold, from Kinorob.

The Stolen Princess — the first feature for international markets from Animagrad — has previously pre-sold to over 30 territories, including China, Latin America, South Korea, Turkey, France, Poland, France and French-speaking territories, Bulgaria, Romania, Israel, Middle East, and North Africa. The domestic premiere is set for March 7 in Ukraine, with dates also set for Israel (March 15), Bulgaria and Romania (March 16), Turkey (March 23) and Poland (June 22).

The completed film will screen for the first time at EFM on Feb. 17 at 17:35 in CineStar 2, and Feb. 19 at 18:05 in CineStar 6.

The Stolen Princess is set in the age of valiant knights, beautiful princesses and battling sorcerers. When Ruslan, a wandering artist dreaming to become a knight, met beautiful Mila and fell in love with her; he didn’t even suspect that she is the King’s daughter. However, the lovers’ happiness wasn’t meant to last very long. Chоrnomor, the evil sorcerer, appeared in a magic vortex and stole Mila right before Ruslan’s eyes to transform her power of love into his own magic power. Without further ado, Ruslan sets out on a chase after the stolen princess to overcome all obstacles and to prove that real love is stronger than magic.

More information available at https://film.ua/en.

Source: http://www.animationmagazine.net/features/efm-film-ua-adds-to-stolen-princess-sales-tally/?doing_wp_cron=1518734829.6975140571594238281250

 Movieforkids.it

THE STOLEN PRINCESS, IL TRAILER DELL’AVVENTUROSO FILM ANIMATO

Rilasciato il trailer del primo flm d'animazione di Animagrad, in uscita nel 2018. The Stolen Princess sarà un'avventura tra magia, azione e amore

di Redazione 31/01/2018http://www.movieforkids.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/The-Stolen-princess-HP2-wpcf_400x225.jpg

La casa d’animazione Ucraina Animagrad è in fervente attività. Oltre ad essere al lavoro su Mavka – The Forest Song, di cui vi abbiamo mostrato un primo trailer, ha in preparazione anche un altro film, questa volta di genere avventuroso. Si tratta di The Stolen Princess, film che segue le avventure di un artista di strada di nome Ruslan che si innamora di Mila, la figlia del Re. Quando la ragazza viene rapita dal malvagio mago Chornomor, Ruslan si mette in viaggio per salvarla e per dimostrare che l’amore è più forte della magia.

Il film, in uscita in patria nel 2018, sarà un fantasy animato adatto anche ai più piccoli diretto da Oleg Malamuzh e sceneggiato da Yaroslav Voytseshek.

Source: http://www.movieforkids.it/news/the-stolen-princess-il-trailer-dellavventuroso-film-animato/56156/

 ABOUT ANIMAGRAD

Animagrad studio was founded in 2012 as a part of FILM.UA Group and has become one of the leading animation studios in Eastern Europe. Our portfolio lists a number of successful products in 2D and 3D.

Animagrad’s mission is about bringing Ukrainian animation into a new age of excellence. Our professional team of highly trained experts in 2D and 3D animation, creative department and skilled managers successfully implements original projects and supplies highly qualified services for accomplishing various tasks in animation production. We aspire towards the highest international standards of both creative and technical work.

Currently Animagrad produces and develops several animated features and series intended for the international market.

https://animagrad.com/

 ABOUT FILM.UA Group

FILM.UA GROUP is a creative powerhouse and one of the largest Eastern European media groups, operating in global markets and covering the full production cycle: development, production, adaptation and distribution of audiovisual content through the vertical business structure.
https://film.ua/