Last message Cheburashka and crocodile gene. The history of the creation of Cheburashka

The image of Cheburashka known today was created by cartoonist Leonid Shvartsman.

Origin

According to the preface to the book “Crocodile Gena and His Friends,” Cheburashka was the name given to a defective toy that the author had in childhood, depicting a strange animal: either a bear cub or a hare with big ears. His eyes were large and yellow, like those of an eagle owl, his head was round, hare-shaped, and his tail was short and fluffy, such as is usually the case with small bear cubs. The boy's parents claimed that this was an animal unknown to science that lives in hot tropical forests. Therefore, in the main text, the heroes of which are allegedly the children's toys of Eduard Uspensky, Cheburashka is really an unknown tropical animal that climbed into a box of oranges, fell asleep there, and as a result, together with the box, ended up in Big city. The director of the store where the box was opened called it “Cheburashka”, since the animal, which had eaten too many oranges, was constantly falling (cheburashka):

He sat and sat and looked around, and then suddenly fell off the table and onto the chair. But he couldn’t sit on the chair for long - he fell over again. On the floor.
- Wow, what a Cheburashka! - the store director said about him, - He can’t sit still at all!
This is how our little animal found out that its name is Cheburashka...

Stories and plays about Cheburashka were written by Eduard Uspensky (plays together with Roman Kachanov):

“Crocodile Gena and his friends” (1966) - story
“Cheburashka and his friends” (1970) - play (together with R. Kachanov)
“Gena the Crocodile’s Vacation” (1974) - play (together with R. Kachanov)
“The Business of Gena the Crocodile” (1992) - story (together with I. E. Agron)
"Gena the Crocodile - Police Lieutenant"
"Cheburashka goes to the people"
"The abduction of Cheburashka"

Based on the book, director Roman Kachanov created four cartoons:

"Crocodile Gena" (1969)
"Cheburashka" (1971)
"Shapoklyak" (1974)
“Cheburashka goes to school” (1983)

After the release of the first series of cartoons, Cheburashka became very popular in the USSR. Since then, Cheburashka has been the hero of many Russian jokes. In 2001, Cheburashka gained great popularity in Japan.

On summer Olympic Games 2004 in Athens he was chosen as the mascot of the Russian Olympic team. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, the symbol of the Russian Team, Cheburashka, changed into white winter fur. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Cheburashka was “dressed” in red fur.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Cheburashka mascot became the owner of blue fur.

In the 1990s and 2000s, disputes erupted around the copyright of the image of Cheburashka. They concerned the use of the image of Cheburashka in various products, names of kindergartens, children's variety studios and clubs (which was common practice in Soviet time), as well as the authorship of the image of Cheburashka itself, which, according to Eduard Uspensky, belongs entirely to him, while his opponents claim that the characteristic image of Cheburashka with big ears, known today, was created by Leonid Shvartsman. In the 1990s, Eduard Uspensky also acquired the rights to the Cheburashka trademark, which had previously been used in products such as candy and children's cosmetics. The use of the name became the subject of a dispute between the writer and the Red October confectionery factory. In particular, in February 2008, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Film Fund of the Soyuzmultfilm Film Studio” (the owner of the rights to the image) expressed its intention to demand compensation from the creators of the film “The Most best movie"for using the image of Cheburashka without permission.

Origin of the word "Cheburashka"

Uspensky rejects the version about the defective toy, set out in the introduction to his book, as composed specifically for children. In an interview with a Nizhny Novgorod newspaper, Eduard Uspensky says:

I came to visit a friend, and his little daughter was trying on a fluffy fur coat that was dragging along the floor,<…>The girl constantly fell, tripping over her fur coat. And her father, after another fall, exclaimed: “Oh, I screwed up again!” This word stuck in my memory and I asked what it meant. It turned out that “cheburahnutsya” means “to fall.” This is how the name of my hero appeared.

IN " Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language" by V. I. Dal is described both the word "Cheburakhnutsya" in the meaning of "fall", "crash", "stretch out", and the word "Cheburashka", which he defines in various dialects as "a saber of a Burlatsky strap hung on the tail ”, or as “Vanta-Vstanka, a doll that, no matter how you throw it, gets to its feet on its own.” According to etymological dictionary Vasmera “cheburakhnut” is derived from the words chuburok, chapurok, cheburakh - “a wooden ball at the end of a burlatsk tow” Turkic origin. Another related word is “chebyrka” - a whip with a ball on the end of the hair.

The origin of the word “Cheburashka”, in the sense of a tumbler toy, described by Dahl, is due to the fact that many fishermen made such toys from wooden balls, which were floats for fishing nets, and were also called Cheburashka.

Cheburashka- a character in the book “Crocodile Gena and His Friends” by Eduard Uspensky and the film “Crocodile Gena” by Roman Kachanov, based on this book in 1969. He became widely known after the release of this film.
Outwardly it is a creature with huge ears, with big eyes and brown fur, walking on hind legs. The image of Cheburashka, known today, first appeared in Roman Kachanov’s cartoon “Crocodile Gena” (1969) and was created with the direct participation of the film’s production designer Leonid Shvartsman.
After the film was released on English language originally translated as "Topple" and into Swedish as "Drutten".

Story

Cheburashka was invented in 1966 by the writer Eduard Uspensky, who claims that the prototype was a defective children's toy - a half-hare, half-bear cub, which received the nickname "Cheburashka" in the family.
According to the text by Uspensky, Cheburashka main character was named for the fact that after surviving an uncomfortable journey in a box of oranges, he constantly strived to “cheburah”, that is, to fall. This is how it is described in the first book of the series: He sat, sat, looked around, and then he suddenly fell from the table onto the chair. But he couldn’t sit on the chair for long - he fell over again. On the floor. - Wow, what a Cheburashka! - the store director said about him, - He can’t sit still at all! This is how our little animal found out that its name is Cheburashka...
It does not seem that Ouspensky realized then that he had discovered a treasure. Suffice it to remember that his book was called “Gena the Crocodile and His Friends,” that is, the animal unknown to science was not its title character.

Nor did director-animator Roman Kachanov see any particular charm in the animal, who wrote in his book “The Wisdom of Fiction” (1983): “When I read E. Uspensky’s story “Crocodile Gena and His Friends” in 1967, neither Cheburashka nor Crocodile Gena did not make much of an impression on me. I liked the city in which people and animals lived together without any conditions. So, easily, my housemate could be a crocodile who works at the zoo.”

It seems that only the artist Leonid Shvartsman fell in love with the character, endowing him with all the external characteristics necessary for an animated star: large ears and round eyes, which once brought success to Mickey Mouse.

After the first film – “Crocodile Gena” (1968) – it became clear who was in charge here: the second series was already called “Cheburashka”. A total of four puppet films were made. They disagreed on quotes, Gena and Cheburashka firmly entered into children's folklore and became the heroes of jokes.

This couple also had some modest fame abroad: in Sweden in the 1970s it was shown on television children's show Drutten och Gena with Cheburashka and Gena in the lead roles. True, the Swedes used wrist dolls and composed a different biography for the heroes.

The revolution happened in the 2000s, when our country discovered that the main thing in mass film culture is a memorable character. It is he who makes viewers return to the same work over and over again, which means that thanks to him it is possible to produce kilometers of serial production and make crazy money on licensing.

And then real recognition came to Cheburashka. It turned out that this is one of the few authentic characters created Soviet culture. Moreover, unlike others Soviet heroes Cheburashka did not lose its charm during the regime change.

Cheburashka became at the same time part state ideology and a flagship of the marginalized, an object of trade and a participant in social scandals, an ambassador of goodwill and a muse for artists of different schools. Somehow amazingly Cheburashka could turn out to be both the mascot of the Russian Olympic team (sounds like a joke, given the legendary awkwardness of the character, imprinted even in his name), and a symbol of anti-glamorous dance parties (at the beginning of the 2000s, DJ Svodnik organized the so-called “Cheburan parties”, which were attended by representatives of bohemia , ready to recognize themselves as “Cheburashka”). A public charity movement “Cheburashka's Birthday” has appeared, which annually at the end of August organizes a holiday for orphanage children. Images of Cheburashka increasingly began to appear on various products, the press increasingly discussed the legal dispute between Uspensky and Shvartsman, in different cities Monuments were created to Cheburashka, and young artists found new interpretation a familiar and familiar image from childhood.

Cheburashka was also appreciated abroad. His image was liked by the Japanese (it is believed that due to its resemblance to Pokemon). As a result, the animal took its place in the Studio Ghibli museum, and the anime series “Cheburashka - who is it?” appeared on Japanese television screens. (Cheburashka Arere?). This rather strange work consists of twenty-six three-minute episodes (2 minutes 10 seconds are occupied by the plot, the rest of the time is credits), in which characters, exactly copied from our dolls, act out various comic and sometimes lyrical scenes. In the first episode, Gena finds Cheburashka in a box of oranges, in the second he takes him to the zoo (this word is written in Cyrillic in the series), in the third episode he meets Shapoklyak, etc.

Cheburashka had own song- “I was once strange toy wooden”, performed by Klara Rumyanova. But in final version she was not included in the cartoon. And it remained only on records and in concert performances.

A few years ago, a scandal broke out over the authorship of the image of Cheburashka. The fact is that it was Uspensky who wrote about Cheburashka, but he appearance invented by artist Leonid Shvartsman. “When I was offered to become an artist for a series about the crocodile Gena and Cheburashka,” recalls Shvartsman, “I struggled for a long time with the image of the main character. And finally, he came up with these gentle eyes, touching paws and removed the tail. This was in 1968. After the collapse of the USSR, Uspensky copied my Cheburashka, made a drawing and took it to the patent office. There, his authorship was not questioned and all the papers were drawn up. I’m very upset: after all, Edik just wrote a book, but it was me who came up with and drew the image of Cheburashka.”

Origin of the word "Cheburashka"

E. N. Uspensky rejects the version about the defective toy, set out in the introduction to his book, as written specifically for children. In an interview with a Nizhny Novgorod newspaper, Uspensky says:

I came to visit a friend, and his little daughter was trying on a fluffy fur coat that was dragging along the floor,<…>The girl constantly fell, tripping over her fur coat. And her father, after another fall, exclaimed: “Oh, I screwed up again!” This word stuck in my memory and I asked what it meant. It turned out that “cheburahnutsya” means “to fall.” This is how the name of my hero appeared.

In the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by V. I. Dal, both the word “cheburakhnutsya” is described in the meaning of “fall”, “crash”, “stretch out”, and the word “Cheburashka”, which he defines in various dialects as “a saber of a burlatsky strap” , hanging on its tail,” or as “a stand-up roly-poly, a doll that, no matter how you throw it, gets to its feet on its own.” According to Vasmer's etymological dictionary, “cheburakhnut” is derived from the words chuburok, chapurok, cheburakh - “a wooden ball at the end of a burlatsk tow”, of Turkic origin. Another related word is “chebyrka” - a whip with a ball on the end of the hair.
The origin of the word “Cheburashka”, in the sense of a tumbler toy, described by Dahl, is due to the fact that many fishermen made such toys from wooden balls, which were floats for fishing nets, and were also called Cheburashka.

Figurative meanings of the word “Cheburashka”

• “Cheburashka” is often called objects that in one way or another resemble Cheburashka, including: L-410 Turbolet and An-72 aircraft, with a characteristic “eared” engine arrangement
• spherical spinning weight with two wire loops
• sports figure of driving a car, including a double figure eight
• electric locomotive ChS2 - associative external resemblance to Cheburashka due to the massive frames of the windshields; In the cartoon Shapoklyak, the characters ride an electric locomotive, similar to a hybrid of ChS2 and VL22.
• Zaporozhets cars of the ZAZ-966 / 968 / 968A models - due to the characteristic air intakes protruding from the sides of the body.
• car "Moskvich"-2733-van
• There is also an ironic expression “Cheburashka fur”, or “Cheburashka natural”, meaning artificial fur.
• Sometimes large full-size headphones are called “Cheburashkas”.
• In socionics, “Cheburashka” is a slang name for a person who is not classified as one of the 16 socionic types.
• In planimetry there is the concept of “Cheburashka ears” - this is the name of the GMT, of which a given segment is visible at a given angle.
• Also, “Cheburashkas” in some regions of Russia in the second half of the 80s of the 20th century were called bottles with a capacity of 0.33 liters, into which beer, mineral waters and other drinks were bottled, and in the 90s they began to call 0.5 bottles this way l. The bottle got its name from Cheburashka lemonade. In Russia, beer was bottled in similar bottles until 2006.
• Among roleplayers, a “Cheburashka” is often called a double-sided battle axe.

Reminds me of Lenin, and showed what he looks like new hero Cherry, developed by him at the request of the Japanese.

War

In the first days of the war, I did not die thanks to chance. A believer would probably see divine intervention in such a set of circumstances. But I'm an atheist, agnostic, whatever you want to call it, and I think it's just a coincidence.

In the summer of 1941 I turned 21, then it was just the conscription age. I studied in Leningrad, at a school at the Repin Academy of Arts. In May I received a summons. I arrive at the recruiting station, there is a huge room at the military registration and enlistment office, full of people, everyone is being called, but I am not there. I go up to the window and say: “Why don’t you call Schwartzman?” And a young man in civilian clothes answers me: “Don’t make noise, brother. Just between you and me, it looks like we've lost your case. When we find you, they will summon you with a new summons.” Thanks to this clerical error, I am still alive today. If I had been called up then, I would have been gone in the first weeks of the war. All my close friends my age died then.

On June 22, a radio message about the beginning of the war, Molotov’s speech, sounded completely unexpectedly. Everyone knew that we had a non-aggression pact with Germany, and then this was a stab in the back. It became clear that it would be bad, but then I could not even imagine what awaited my family.

I realized that I needed to help my family with food, so I became a turner’s apprentice at the Kirov plant, formerly Putilov plant. I immediately began to receive more bread, that was the main thing then.

Leningrad was quickly surrounded. My mother and sister remained in the city with their husband and small child. I realized that I needed to help my family with food, so I became an apprentice turner at the Kirov plant, formerly Putilov plant. I immediately began to receive more bread, that was the main thing then.

First, my four-year-old nephew Alik died: he contracted meningitis in a bomb shelter and burned to death in just a few days. Then my sister's husband died. In November, the Kirov plant was evacuated to Chelyabinsk and I along with it. There I already worked as a turner, grinding rollers for heavy IS tanks - “Joseph Stalin”. From my brother’s letter I learned that my mother died of hunger.

I was often sent from the plant to work outside the city - to dig anti-tank ditches. At the beginning of September we were digging in the Strelna area, it was getting dark early, and suddenly we saw an amazingly beautiful glow over Leningrad in the sunset rays. It soon became clear that it was the Germans who bombed the Badayevsky food warehouses. From that moment on, hunger began: they immediately cut the quota on cards. Workers received 500 grams of bread, office workers - 300. Then even less. First, my four-year-old nephew Alik died: he contracted meningitis in a bomb shelter and burned to death in just a few days. Then my sister's husband died.

In November, the Kirov plant was evacuated to Chelyabinsk and I along with it. There I already worked as a turner, grinding rollers for heavy IS tanks - “Joseph Stalin”. From my brother’s letter I learned that my mother died of hunger. And then I worked for 14-16 hours in a cold workshop, where the metal literally froze to my hands. Hungry, naturally. I don't know how long it would last me. But in the spring, the plant administration found out that I was an artist, and I was assigned to work on visual propaganda: making posters, slogans, portraits of leaders. For example, for the anniversary of Kirov’s murder, on December 1, I made a huge portrait of him, five meters by three meters, and hung it above the entrance. This transfer to work as an artist essentially saved me: they began to issue some rations and assigned them to another canteen.

In the spring of 1945, when it became clear that the war would soon end, I wrote to the Leningrad Academy of Arts, but received no answer. I also sent a letter to VGIK, their art department had just returned from evacuation. The war is over: victory! And I receive a letter from Moscow: “Come to us to take the entrance exams.” It was very difficult to leave the factory, but I was lucky. The deputy party organizer who supervised my work signed my application. I received a passport from the personnel department and went to Moscow to enroll.

All relatives who remained in the city, all childhood friends, died. I couldn't find anyone.

Later I had a chance to visit Minsk, where I spent my childhood. The area in which I lived - Rakovskaya Street, Nemiga - was turned into a ghetto under the Nazis. All relatives who remained in the city, all childhood friends, died. I couldn't find anyone.

"Soyuzmultfilm"

I passed the exams at VGIK and became a first-year student. He lived outside the city, in a hostel in Mamontovka: he rode the train as a hare to the Severyanin platform, there he squeezed onto a bus to VDNKh - and to classes at VGIK. And all this was running and running, all while dodging the inspectors; there was no money.

“Soyuzmultfilm” was our home, a huge family of five hundred people. The atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood united us all. Modern people, even creative professions, this is not very familiar. There we had love, and marriages, and carnivals, and funerals. What kind of people there were!

In The Snow Queen, Schwartzman created the images of all the characters except the robbers.

Having started working, he moved to Moscow. I didn’t even rent rooms, but corners: in the area of ​​alleys not far from Sretenka, on Kirov Street, now Myasnitskaya. This is how I lived until 1951, when I married my beloved Tatyana and moved to her in a communal apartment on the corner of Herzen Street and the Garden Ring, in two-storey house, preserved from Napoleonic times. We lived there for eleven years until we got a co-op apartment, and it was very, very difficult conditions. Suffice it to say that for 25 people there was one restroom, in which our neighbor Vanya, a huge loader, liked to drink. He didn’t open the door until he had drunk his half liter, and it was a tragedy for the whole apartment. Our other neighbor, one-armed Zhora, loved to beat his wife after drinking. Sorry, she regularly broke into us in the combine, and my wife and I had to save her.

Of course, Tanya and I disappeared day and night at Soyuzmultfilm; it was our home, a huge family of five hundred people. The atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood united us all. Modern people, even those in creative professions, are little familiar with this. There we had love, and marriages, and carnivals, and funerals. What kind of people there were!

In the cafe there was a machine of a rare model, into which you could throw a token purchased at the checkout, and it would pour you a glass of wine. This was called "throwing the disc." Men, first of all, of course, they were the ones who went to “throw the discus” at the beginning of the day, and only then, warmed up and warm, they sat down to work.

The Soyuzmultfilm studio is located near the Novoslobodskaya metro station. There was a small stadium nearby and a glass café pavilion, where there was a machine of a rare model where you could throw a token purchased at the checkout, and it would pour you a glass of wine. This was called "throwing the disc." Our men, first of all, of course, they were the ones who began their day with a trip to the machine. “They threw the disk,” and only then, warmed up and warm, they sat down to work.

When I graduated from VGIK in 1951, Lev Konstantinovich Atamanov invited me and Vinokurov, with whom we studied together, to become production designers. For me, these first ten years were the happiest years of working at Soyuzmultfilm. It was an amazing time. How long did we sit, selecting materials for sketches, in Leninskaya public library, in the theater library, where I later gave many of my storyboards. We made cartoons and worked on Filmstrip at the same time. We went all over the country to festivals and travelled. When they filmed Snow Queen“, of course, they couldn’t go to Copenhagen. But we found everything the right nature in Riga, Tallinn and Tartu and had a great time there.

Cheburashka

In 1966, Kachanov invited me to his place, and that’s how I got into puppet animation. Our first work, “The Lost Granddaughter,” came out very nice. After that there was “Mitten,” which I think is the best film we created together.

Copies of dolls of Shvartsman’s characters made in the Soyuzmultfilm workshops are on a shelf in his office.

And then off we went, “Gena the Crocodile and His Friends” began. Amazing story connected with how this book by Uspensky even got to Soyuzmultfilm. My director, Roman Kachanov, wanted to enlist the support of Khrushchev's son-in-law, Alexei Adzhubey. And I asked him to write us a script. Adzhubey then worked as editor-in-chief of " Komsomolskaya Pravda", visited many countries, often traveled to Africa, and in 1969 he wrote us a script, "Rivals", in my opinion, not very successful. About African football players and some monsters.

I started drawing Cheburashka’s ears: at first they were at the top, then gradually they began to slide down and grow larger.

We started making this film, Adzhubey began to come to the studio, and Kachanov began to visit Adzhubey, who had two small sons. And once while visiting, Kachanov saw that they were enthusiastically reading a book. It was “Crocodile Gena and His Friends” by Uspensky. The next day he bought the same book at the store, brought it to Soyuzmultfilm and said: “That’s it, we’re making a film based on it.”

I got the crocodile done pretty quickly. The script said: “The crocodile worked as a crocodile at the zoo. And when the working day ended and the bell rang, he put on his jacket and hat, picked up the phone and went home.” This was enough to give me the image of a gentleman with a bow tie and a white shirtfront.

With Shapoklyak, everything turned out to be simple too. Shapoklyak is, as you know, the name of a folding cylinder. This is the 19th century, and everything else came from here: a black formal dress, a frill, white lace cuffs, high-heeled pumps. Since she is such a mischievous woman, I made her a long nose, rosy cheeks and a prominent chin. A White hair and I borrowed the bun from my mother-in-law, Tanya’s mother.

It was Leonid Shvartsman who came up with the idea of ​​what the crocodile Gena, Shapoklyak and Cheburashka would look like. The dolls for the cartoon were made in 1968 according to his sketches. In the photo: work on the film “Crocodile Gena’s River,” February 1974.

Vladimir Rodionov / RIA Novosti

Five months is the preparatory period for the film, and half of this time I was busy with Cheburashka. He immediately made his eyes look childlike, surprised, human. Although large, they are not “like an eagle owl.” Uspensky’s “preface, which is not necessary to read,” says: “When I was little, my parents gave me a toy: fluffy, shaggy, small. With big eyes like an eagle owl. With a round hare's head and a small tail, like a bear's." All. Not a word about big ears.

I started drawing Cheburashka’s ears: first at the top, then they gradually began to slide down and grow larger. Kachanov regularly came to me, I showed him sketches, we discussed them, argued, he expressed his wishes, I redrew them. Thanks to such joint efforts, the final sketch emerged; it is kept in my home, signed 1968. On it, however, Cheburashka still has a bear tail, which was later greatly reduced. And the legs were longer at first, but Norshtein advised making them small, as they are now. After creating a sketch in color, I made a drawing, and the master puppeteers made Cheburashka, and he took on a life of his own.

Nakamura asked me to draw the main character. This is the heroine’s favorite toy, also an “animal unknown to science,” which can become either big or small. I drew this character, his name will be Cherry. The Japanese made a doll, they've already filmed everything, and now they're dubbing it. When they finish it, they bring it, they will show it to me.

The Japanese fell in love with Cheburashka, they call it Chebi. You probably know that several new episodes have been released based on their scripts, but with our characters. They were made by director Makoto Nakamura, he came to Moscow and visited me. Now he does new job, and asked me to draw the main character for him. This is the favorite toy of the heroine, a little girl. Like Cheburashka, “a beast unknown to science,” and besides, it can become either big or small. I drew this character, he was called Cherry. The Japanese have made a doll, everything has already been filmed, the twenty-minute film is finished, and now they are dubbing it. When they finish it, they bring it, they will show it to me.

Parrot and Ilyich

There was a period when I simultaneously worked in both hand-drawn and puppet animation. In 1976, director Ufimtsev invited me to be a production designer for the series “38 Parrots.” And at the same time, Atamanov invited me again, we began filming “A Kitten Named Woof.” And both series are based on scripts by Grigory Oster.

Then I made sketches all the time: in the subway, and on the tram, and in the courtyard, and on the boulevard. He loved to draw little children and animals. All my life I went to the zoo, drew from life - this was necessary to create characters. But I can't stand snakes. And yet, when I started creating characters for “38 Parrots,” I had to constantly draw a boa constrictor from life. This character didn’t work out at all; at first he was very unpleasant. And only when I stretched out his face, drew a nose, freckles and made his eyebrows into a house, he healed with me, became a dreamer, a philosopher.

Norshtein said: “The tail is in the way, we need to remove it.” They removed it, and immediately the parrot became nimble, began to walk energetically in the frame, and began to make oratorical gestures. We began to think, who is this? At first they decided that this was our director, Boyarsky. And then they realized, no, take it higher - Ilyich! And we began to make and film him like this, with all Lenin’s habits.

1968. And before that, Lamis Bredis made a cartoon about the “Marshall Plan”, where Marshall was portrayed as a boa constrictor, and European countries- like rabbits. It was also “closed”. I don’t remember any other such cases.

What saved us was that they didn’t take us seriously. At the ministry they tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Go and play with your dolls.” We only had internal censorship. Hence the quality. Our cartoons were watched and loved not only throughout Soviet Union. Even during the Iron Curtain, Pope Pius XII said that children should be raised Soviet cartoons, because they bring goodness and teach only good things.

On August 14, 2018, one of the most beloved children's writers, whose works became classics of literature and animation, Eduard Nikolaevich Uspensky, passed away. His books were sorted into quotes in the post-Soviet space, his characters are extremely popular in Japan, his books have been translated into 20 languages. And thanks to him, everyone knows exactly how to eat a sandwich correctly - “You need to put the sausage on your tongue.”

The naive Cheburashka, the intellectual crocodile Gena, the charismatic old woman Shapoklyak, the weather-independent Uncle Fyodor, the controversial Pechkin, the janitor from “The Plasticine Crow” - all his heroes became a real encyclopedia Russian life. His books and cartoons have long been disassembled into quotes, and they still miraculously help fathers and children find a common language today.

How it all began

And when a cartoon was made based on the book, the army of fans of Uncle Fyodor and his friends increased many times over. By the way, each cartoon character had his own prototype - one of the members of the team working on the cartoon or their relatives.

Cheburashka and all, all, all

Worldwide fame

Plasticine crow

However, the fairy tale did not lose anything from the ease of its birth and became truly universally loved.

And completely non-cartoon projects

In the 1980s, Uspensky hosted the radio program “Pioneer Dawn” and turned to his young listeners with an unusual request - to send ideas they had invented or heard horror stories. The results of such creative communication were a book of stories with unusual plots, and every child could feel involved in its writing.

Travel lover

Some recent years Eduard Nikolaevich fought with cancer. In August 2018, he returned home from Germany, where he was undergoing treatment, and his condition sharply worsened. He refused hospitalization and last days spent at home without getting out of bed. On August 14 he passed away. Bright memory...

Remembering the work of Eduard Uspensky, the story is about that.

Cheburashka is one of those cartoon characters that we continue to feel sympathy for, even as adults. We will not retell in detail the work “Crocodile Gena and His Friends” (he is its hero), but let’s find out the following point: why Cheburashka was called Cheburashka.

And who is the author?

There can be no discrepancies in the answer to this question: the character appeared from the pen of the Soviet and Russian writer, screenwriter, author of children's books Eduard Uspensky. This happened in 1966. At the same time, another of his works was published - “Down the Magic River”. Uspensky became popular. To answer the question: “Why was Cheburashka called Cheburashka?” - we'll look a little lower.

The writer’s homeland is the city of Yegoryevsk (Moscow region). After graduating from school, he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute. During the same period, his first literary works appeared in print.

Today, the writer’s place of residence is also the Moscow region. The author's works continue to be published in the Samovar publishing house. We hope that there will be no difficulties in answering the question: “Who wrote Cheburashka?” - readers will not have this material.

The character himself became famous after the cartoon about the crocodile Gena and his friends was released (1969).

The original version of the book introduced readers to a clumsy, unsightly creature. Small ears, brown fur - so in general outline his appearance was described. We owe the appearance of the good-natured image of Cheburashka, who is distinguished by big ears and big eyes, to the production designer

By the way, in the period 1990-2000, the writer had to participate in disputes regarding authorship on this image. We were talking about its use in the names of various children's institutions, in various products (this was a common practice in the Soviet period).

We remembered who wrote Cheburashka. Next, let's list the character name options.

Animal from hot countries

There is a version that in childhood future writer played with a soft toy, apparently not the most best quality. She had a strange appearance: with big ears and equally big eyes. It was impossible to understand exactly which order of animals of the world it belongs to. Then the parents' imagination suggested the animal's name - Cheburashka. Hot countries were chosen as his place of residence. We have given so far one version of why Cheburashka was called Cheburashka.

Summer, girl, fur coat

Uspensky himself gives an explanation for this name of the fictional character in one of his interviews. A little daughter grew up in a family of acquaintances of the writer. One of the purchases that her parents decided to please her with was a small fur coat. It was a warm summer outside. The fitting of new clothes took place under Eduard Uspensky. The girl dragged her large fur coat along the floor; it was uncomfortable for her to walk. After she once again tripped and fell, her father said: “I screwed up again!” Uspensky became interested in the meaning unusual word. A friend explained to him the meaning of the word “cheburahnutsya.” It means "to fall."

You can also find out about the origin of the word from V.I.’s dictionary. Dalia. It also contains the meaning that we have already given, and such as “crash”, “stretch”. Dahl also mentions the word “Cheburashka”. Various dialects define it as “a saber of a barge strap, it hangs on its tail” or as “a roly-poly, a doll, it rises to its feet on its own, no matter how it is thrown.” The word also has figurative interpretations.

Book version of the title

In order to understand another option why Cheburashka was called Cheburashka, let's remember the plot of the book itself. So, the favorite food of an animal unknown to science that lived somewhere in the south was oranges. One hot day, he climbed into a box with his favorite fruits found on the shore. I ate well and fell asleep. Then the boarded up box ended up in our country and was delivered to the store. After opening the box, instead of the expected fruit, a plump, furry creature appeared before the store director. Having no idea what to do with it, the director decided to put the animal on a box. The animal could not resist and fell. The director burst out with the phrase: “Ugh, what a Cheburashka!” This is how this name stuck with the character.

Our story about Cheburashka is coming to an end. I would like to supplement it with some interesting facts.

Today, many monuments have been erected to this hero and his friends. sculptural compositions. You can meet them in such populated areas, like the village of Gaspra (Yalta, Crimea), the city of Ramenskoye near Moscow, the city of Khabarovsk, the city of Kremenchug, the city of Dnepr.

Since 2003, Muscovites have held a charity event “Cheburashka’s Birthday” every August weekend. It is aimed at helping orphans.

In Moscow, in kindergarten No. 2550 (Eastern Administrative District), the Cheburashka Museum was opened in 2008. The typewriter is stored in it. It was on it that the story of a character beloved by both children and their parents was created.