“Tolya and I have known each other for over 30 years. For me, he was and remains Tolya. Of course, this is a monstrous, unexpected, terrible news. I can only say that Anatoly Prokhorov made a tremendous contribution to the development of modern animation. It concerns not only the Smeshariki project, although, of course, this is perhaps the brightest, most commercially successful and most beloved project by the audience, "Gerasimov said.
He also noted that Prokhorov was "a brilliant film critic and art theorist."
“In general, he is a theoretical physicist by education. A theoretical physicist, whom fate later brought to animation. And now, having such a powerful, intellectual potential, since the end of the 80s of the last century, from the beginning of the 90s, as a young film critic, film critic, as part of the same brilliant associates as Alexei Orlov, Mikhail Gurevich, Vladimir Golovanov - these people who analyze cinema, they, in a sense, have preserved our animation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ”the interlocutor of RT explained.
He added that later Prokhorov created the Pilot studio together with Alexander Tatarsky.
“This is a brilliant undertaking, this is a breakthrough in the field of preparation for the era of commercial animation in Russia ... They were forging a forge of personnel, and now if we take a look: we will not see almost a single industrial studio, not a single commercially successful project, where those who came from the studio are not present "Pilot". This is also a great merit for Tolina. Of course, this is a huge loss for all of us. Gone is the man-era, ”concluded Gerasimov.
One of the creators of the Smeshariki animated series, the artistic director of the project, Anatoly Prokhorov, died at the age of 72.