The Pilot Brothers
Another Russian Sherlock Holmes parody? Sort-of, but by another name.
In 1986-7, Aleksandr Tatarskiy and Igor Kovalyov, working at Ecran Studio, made a 4-part 20-minute film called "The Koloboks Investigate". There are two main characters, of which Chief is a parody of Sherlock Holmes, and Colleague of Watson (there are no actual direct references to Holmes' world, however). The film has been translated to English twice, first by myself, and a bit later by houzdog03 (who was unaware of my version). Both are good translations.
The characters proved too popular to just disappear. Their first return was in a comic book in 1992. Then in the mid-1990s, as the head of Pilot Studio, Tatarskiy had the idea to resurrect them in a more substantive fashion, renaming them the "Pilot Brothers" (not because they're pilots, but because that was the studio's name). Since then, under that name, they've appeared in several TV series, adventure games, commercials, and even in an animated direct-to-video feature. The Russian Wikipedia article has more details. Unfortunately, none of the mid-1990s short films have ever been released on DVD, and many of them I could only find with poor image quality.
The first film to appear, in 1995, was "The Pilot Brothers Film a Clip for MTV" (animator.ru). I guess "The Pilot Brothers Sell Out" could be another good name. :) This was sponsored by Suprimex, and their logo is all over the film (not unusual for Russian animation of the time - in fact, even the 18th "Nu, pogodi" episode was sponsored in this way). The music you hear is the Russian imitation of Western rock music, which was quite hip at the time. I can't say that I'm a fan of the music, but there is a lot of energy in the animation.
(If subtitles appear to be missing: Click on the triangle at the bottom right of the video, and make sure that CC is turned on.)
5 further films were made in 1996, of which I've subtitled 3:
"The Pilot Brothers Suddenly Decided to Go Hunting" (d. Sergey Gordeyev, animator.ru)
"The Pilot Brothers Sometimes Go Fishing" (d. Vassili Bedoshvili, animator.ru profile)
And perhaps the craziest one of them all... "The Pilot Brothers Make Spaghetti for Breakfast" (d. Aleksandr Tatarskiy animator.ru profile)
The remaining two are "The Pilot Brothers Show Each Other Tricks" and "The Pilot Brothers Drink Tea in the Evening". I'll translate them when someone uploads versions with better video quality.
In 1986-7, Aleksandr Tatarskiy and Igor Kovalyov, working at Ecran Studio, made a 4-part 20-minute film called "The Koloboks Investigate". There are two main characters, of which Chief is a parody of Sherlock Holmes, and Colleague of Watson (there are no actual direct references to Holmes' world, however). The film has been translated to English twice, first by myself, and a bit later by houzdog03 (who was unaware of my version). Both are good translations.
The characters proved too popular to just disappear. Their first return was in a comic book in 1992. Then in the mid-1990s, as the head of Pilot Studio, Tatarskiy had the idea to resurrect them in a more substantive fashion, renaming them the "Pilot Brothers" (not because they're pilots, but because that was the studio's name). Since then, under that name, they've appeared in several TV series, adventure games, commercials, and even in an animated direct-to-video feature. The Russian Wikipedia article has more details. Unfortunately, none of the mid-1990s short films have ever been released on DVD, and many of them I could only find with poor image quality.
The first film to appear, in 1995, was "The Pilot Brothers Film a Clip for MTV" (animator.ru). I guess "The Pilot Brothers Sell Out" could be another good name. :) This was sponsored by Suprimex, and their logo is all over the film (not unusual for Russian animation of the time - in fact, even the 18th "Nu, pogodi" episode was sponsored in this way). The music you hear is the Russian imitation of Western rock music, which was quite hip at the time. I can't say that I'm a fan of the music, but there is a lot of energy in the animation.
(If subtitles appear to be missing: Click on the triangle at the bottom right of the video, and make sure that CC is turned on.)
Click to view5 further films were made in 1996, of which I've subtitled 3:
"The Pilot Brothers Suddenly Decided to Go Hunting" (d. Sergey Gordeyev, animator.ru)
"The Pilot Brothers Sometimes Go Fishing" (d. Vassili Bedoshvili, animator.ru profile)
And perhaps the craziest one of them all... "The Pilot Brothers Make Spaghetti for Breakfast" (d. Aleksandr Tatarskiy animator.ru profile)
The remaining two are "The Pilot Brothers Show Each Other Tricks" and "The Pilot Brothers Drink Tea in the Evening". I'll translate them when someone uploads versions with better video quality.