Roman Davydov

[3] He worked in traditional animation up until 1955 when he joined the recently opened puppet division of Soyuzmultfilm and produced several stop motion films.

[2][5] In 1961 Davydov produced A Goatling, one of the first traditionally animated experiments of the Khrushchev Thaw that introduced a "formalistic", caricature art style in contrast with the realistic approach usual for that era.

He continued developing it in his next projects, most notably the political satire Shareholders & Co (1963) and The Main Stellar (1966), a rare example of Soviet science fiction.

[5] Davydov experimented a lot with schematic, "angular", yet stylized characters, total animation, combinations of static composition and various details in motion, several panoramas moving at different speed in one shot and so on.

Made as a close adaptation of Kipling's writings, it allowed Davydov for a detailed study of the Indian wildlife and a mature storyline that featured a number of violent scenes, including the epic battle with red dogs from The Second Jungle Book (some critics linked it to the history of the Soviet Union[6]).

Among them were Ratibor's Childhood (1973) based on the historical novel Primordial Rus' by Valentin Ivanov about the life of the East Slavs during the 6th century; Vasilisa Mikulishna (1975) that featured two bylina heroes: Stavr Godinovich and his wife Vasilisa Mikulishna, daughter of Mikula Selyaninovich; The Swans of Nepryadva (1980) dedicated to 600 years since the Battle of Kulikovo and A Tale of Evpaty Kolovrat (1985) about another medieval bogatyr, Evpaty Kolovrat.