Breaking News: The Cheburashka is Back !
Breaking News: The Cheburashka is Back !
Tonight will be screened the premiere of new film on Cheburashka – Чебурашка. The film will be released in the open air cinema “Пионер” inside the park Gorky (at 10 pm), which will show films throughout the summer season.
So what is this strange little animal, with big fluffy round ears?
Cheburashka (Чебурашка) is an iconic Russian classic cartoon character. According to the creator of the character, Eduard Uspensky (1965), Cheburashka is a funny little creature, unknown to science, who lives in a tropical forest. Cheburashka accidentally gets into a crate of oranges, eats his fill, and falls asleep.
Cheburashka has no name itself; the orange seller who found it first and was baptized. When he took the box and sat on the table, the legs of the cub were still numb after his long stay in the body, and he fell of the table onto the chair, where he could not sit for the same reason, before finally dropping to the ground.
Cheburashka is the hero of a series of animation in the late 1960s films in the early 1980s, produced by Soyuzmultfilm Studio. These films were created by Soviet leader Roman Katchanov.
This series consists of four episodes:
Guena the crocodile(Крокодил Гена и его друзья) 1969
Cheburashka (Чебурашка) 1971
Shapoklyak (Шапокляк) 1974
Cheburashka Goes to School (Чебурашка идёт в школу) 1984
Cheburashka has few friends, most notably is Guena the crocodile, wearing a coat and hat, smoking a pipe, walking on his hind legs and worked at the zoo. He plays the accordion, and his favorite songs Birthdays only happen once a year and Blue Wagon. These two songs are now part of the Russian popular culture, and the first one is often played during birthdays.
Cheburashka and Guena sometimes have to deal with an old lady named Shapoklyak (Шапокляк in Russian). She looks like a charming old lady apparently wearing a hat and a dark dress. Assuming that “Nobody becomes famous with good deeds,” which also is the subject of her song, she spends her time playing tricks on people, helped by his pet rat Lariska.
The character is still very popular today. It has also been the official mascot of the Russian Olympic team during 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece, 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver ! Awareness of small animal beyond Russia’s borders, since it is found in Sweden, but also in Japan.
In 2003, the Japanese firm Tokyo International Animation SP International has acquired the distribution rights to “Soyuzmultfilm” and cartoon Cheburashka until 2023. This is why the new movie is not made by a Russian director but a japanese one Makoto Nakamura.
This post was brought to you by Anne Sophie, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz
