Cheburashka, the animated film character
Cheburashka, the animated film character
Cheburashka (Russian: Чебурашка listen (help·info)) is a fairy tale creature from a story by the Russian writer Eduard Uspensky. He is also the hero (voiced by Klara Rumyanova) of the animated film series by Soyuzmultfilm studio.
According to the story, Cheburashka is a funny little animal, unknown to science, who lived in the tropical forest. He accidentally got into a crate of oranges, ate his fill and fell asleep. Cheburashka is not a personal name; it is a species name invented by the puzzled director of the shop, where he was found. The salesmen took the animal out and sat him on the table, but his paws were numb after the long time spent in the crate and he tumbled down ("cheburahnulsya", a Russian colloquialism, "tumbled" in English) from the table onto the chair and from the chair, where he could not sit for the same reason, onto the floor. The director of the shop, who saw it, called him Cheburashka. The words with this root were obsolete in Russian; Uspensky gave them a new life. (The classic Explanatory Dictionary of the Live Great Russian language of Vladimir Dahl gives the meaning of "cheburashka" as another name for "Vanka-Vstanka" tumbler toy.)
Cheburashka Russian animated film series
1. Gena the Crocodile and His Friends (Крокодил Гена и его друзья)
2. Birthday (День рождения)
3. Old Lady Shapoklyak (Шапокляк)
4. Cheburashka Goes to School (Чебурашка идет в школу)
Friends
Cheburashka has a bear-like body and large round ears and is about the size of a 5-year old child. The gender of the creature is most likely male. In the tale, he hangs around with a friendly crocodile Gena, who wears a hat and a coat, walks on his hind legs and plays an accordion. He works in a zoo as a Crocodile. Gena's favorite songs are "Birthdays happen only once a year" and "Blue Wagon".
Antagonist
In the cartoon, Cheburashka and Gena have their adventures made difficult by a character named Старуха Шапокляк (Old Lady Shapoklyak, or "Nasty old lady"). Shapoklyak is a mischievous but charming old lady. She is tall and thin, wears a hat and a dark-colored dress, and carries around her sidekick rat "Lariska" in her purse to help play pranks on people. The chorus of her theme song contains her motto, "One won't ever get famous for good deeds".
Cheburashka spottings
Cheburashka is known to every Russian or ex-USSR person and was chosen as an official mascot for the Russian Olympic Team for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece. Cheburashka dolls were also seen with members of the Russian team in 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. He is also one of the few Russian animation characters to be a subject of numerous Russian jokes and riddles.
The word "Cheburashka" is also used in a figurative sense to name objects that somehow resemble the creature (such as an An-72 aircraft which, when seen from the front, resembles the character's head) or are just as nice as it (e.g. it's a jargon name for a small bottle of lemonade - from brand name "Cheburashka").
Cheburashka also became known in some countries outside the former Soviet Union (and of the Soviet Bloc). He became very popular in Japan after animated film series about him were shown in 15 cinemas all over Japan and were watched by approx. 700,000 Japanese between summer 2001 and spring 2002.
In the 1970s a series of children's television shows, radio shows, records and magazines were produced in Sweden featuring the characters Drutten and crocodile Gena. These two characters were based on a couple of Cheburashka and Genady dolls purchased on a trip to the Soviet Union, so they were visually identical to Cheburashka and Genady.
But that is where the similarity ends. The two characters sang and told different stories from those in the USSR and lived on a bookshelf rather than in a city. So, while many Swedes may visually recognize Cheburashka, they will generally not associate these characters with the ones Russian children know.
The Cheburashka Song, Israel
The song is also available for young children in Israel. It is played on the (children's) Hop Channel in Hebrew.
Cheburashka movie
Cheburashka's popularity in Japan is such that on April 4, 2006, TV Tokyo broadband issued a press announcement ([1]) that it (in partnership with Frontier Works, Inc.) has acquired the rights to remake the Cheburashka shorts as a feature film. The film, like the original shorts, will be based on puppet animation (enhanced with modern stop-motion technology and computer graphics effects), and will have a Japanese producer and director. It will be shot simultaneously in two languages - English and Russian.
