In what city was Cheburashka born? An animal unknown to science, or why the Cheburashka was called Cheburashka

Cheburashka is one of those cartoon characters, which 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. The appearance good-natured image Cheburashka, who is distinguished by big ears and big eyes, we owe to the production designer

By the way, in the period of the 1990-2000s, the writer had to participate in disputes regarding authorship on this image. The discussion was about its use in the names of various children's institutions, in different products(this was common practice during 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 soft toy, apparently not the most best quality. She had a strange appearance: with big ears and the same 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

Explanation of this name fictional character Uspensky himself cites 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 in the yard warm summer. 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's in Once again tripped and fell, the father said: “I screwed up again!” Uspensky became interested in the meaning of the 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 stand-up doll, 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) in 2008 the opening of the Cheburashka Museum took place. It stores typewriter. It was on it that the story of a character beloved by both children and their parents was created.

Cheburashka is a character invented by children's writer Eduard Uspensky, a cute furry animal with large ears, resembling either a hare or a bear cub.

No matter how ridiculous the animal Cheburashka is, absolutely everyone loves him - both children and adults. Indeed, it is simply impossible not to love a cute, shy and harmless animal with huge and ridiculous ears. Moreover, he wants to protect Cheburashka and protect him from dangers, and this is precisely what he is doing, participating in his difficult fate. main friend- Crocodile Gena.

The history of Cheburashka began in 1966, it was then children's writer Eduard Uspensky first came up with his own hero. How exactly the writer came up with the fantasy of creating such an absurd beast is unknown, but there are several versions. So, according to one of them, in childhood Uspensky had an old defective toy, which his parents called “an animal unknown to science that lives in hot tropical forests.” According to another version, thoughts about a strange animal came to him while visiting friends, whose little daughter was walking around the house in a huge fluffy fur coat, constantly stumbling and falling. Her father commented on her fall as “she screwed up again.”

Be that as it may, there is still a hint that Cheburashka is a tropical animal, because according to the plot of the book and cartoon, he first appears in a box of oranges, which probably arrived from distant tropical country.

to what type of animal, and therefore, as a result, the unfortunate Cheburashka ended up on the shelf of a discount store. By the way, this is exactly what is sung in the famous song “I Was Once strange toy nameless, to whom no one approached in the store..."

However, in future fate turned out to be more favorable towards Cheburashka - he met with Best Friend His Life - Crocodile Gena. It must be said that Gena, who “worked as a crocodile at the zoo,” was endlessly lonely, and it was loneliness that forced him to post advertisements with the words “A young crocodile wants to make friends.”

So the shy, furry creature with huge ears ended up on the threshold of Gena the crocodile’s house with the words “It’s me, Cheburashka.”

As a result, Gena and Cheburashka became great friends, and it was as a couple - Gena and Cheburashka - that Russian children of several generations came to know and love these heroes.

It is not known whether Cheburashka would have expected such a resounding success if it had not been very successful screen image. Cartoons about Cheburashka and Gena were created by the talented director Roman Kachanov; the first cartoon was released in 1969. The production designer was Leonid Shvartsman.

Then “Cheburashka” (1971), “Shapoklyak” (1974) appeared, and later, already in 1983, “Cheburashka goes to school”.

Surprisingly, it was Cheburashka who became very famous hero and outside our country. So, they especially loved it in Japan, where they not only showed soviet cartoons, but they made remakes of them, and also filmed several

just own projects like "Cheburashka Arere?"

In Sweden, Cheburashka is known and called Drutten (Swedish “drutta” - to fall, stumble), and the plots of their cartoons are completely independent. In general, Cheburashka has appeared in cartoons in many countries - German viewers know him as Kullerchen or Plumps, in Finland Cheburashka is called Muksis, and Lithuanian children know him as Kulverstukas.

In 2008, the Cheburashka Museum even opened in Moscow, among the exhibits of which there is an old typewriter on which Uspensky first created the image of this cute animal. And Cheburashka has already become the mascot of the country’s Olympic team several times.

By the way, in 2005, Eduard Uspensky himself announced that Cheburashka’s official birthday is August 20.

It is known that already in the 2000s, Eduard Uspensky repeatedly tried to defend his copyright on the image of Cheburashka, but lost several times. At the same time, Leonid Shvartsman also claimed the image of Cheburashka - despite the fact that the writer came up with it, it was the image of Cheburashka drawn by Shvartsman that was so loved by the audience, and it was thanks to the cartoon that Cheburashka became so popular.

However, whatever the litigation of the creators, millions of Russian children continue to grow up with good cartoons about Cheburashka and his friends.

It is simply impossible not to love the endlessly charming, charmingly defenseless and kind Cheburashka.

Soon the forever young Cheburashka will celebrate his 50th birthday.

Cheburashka is a character invented by children's writer Eduard Uspensky, a cute furry animal with large ears, resembling either a hare or a bear cub.

No matter how ridiculous the animal Cheburashka is, absolutely everyone loves him - both children and adults. Indeed, it is simply impossible not to love a cute, shy and harmless animal with huge and ridiculous ears. Moreover, he wants to protect Cheburashka and protect him from dangers, and this is precisely what his main friend, Crocodile Gena, is doing, participating in his difficult fate.

The story of Cheburashka began in 1966, it was then that the children's writer Eduard Uspensky first came up with his hero. How exactly the writer came up with the fantasy of creating such an absurd beast is unknown, but there are several versions. So, according to one of them, in childhood Uspensky had an old defective toy, which his parents called “an animal unknown to science that lives in hot tropical forests.” According to another version, thoughts about a strange animal came to him while visiting friends, whose little daughter was walking around the house in a huge fluffy fur coat, constantly stumbling and falling. Her father commented on her fall as “she screwed up again.”

Be that as it may, there is still a hint that Cheburashka is a tropical beast, because according to the plot of the book and cartoon, he first appears in a box of oranges, which probably arrived from a distant tropical country.

They called him Cheburashka for the same reason as a play on words - the animal could not sit quietly and was “Cheburashka” all the time. The director of the store that received the oranges tried to place the strange animal in the zoo, but they could not find a place for it, it did not fit into any type of animal, and therefore, as a result, the unfortunate Cheburashka ended up on the shelf of a discount store. By the way, this is exactly what is sung in the famous song “I was once a strange, nameless toy that no one would approach in the store...”

However, later fate turned out to be more favorable to Cheburashka - he met the Best Friend of His Life - Crocodile Gena. It must be said that Gena, who “worked as a crocodile at the zoo,” was endlessly lonely, and it was loneliness that forced him to post advertisements with the words “A young crocodile wants to make friends.”

So the shy, furry creature with huge ears ended up on the threshold of Gena the crocodile’s house with the words “It’s me, Cheburashka.”

As a result, Gena and Cheburashka became great friends, and it was as a couple – Gena and Cheburashka – that Russian children of several generations came to know and love these heroes.

It is unknown whether Cheburashka would have been such a resounding success if not for a very successful screen image. Cartoons about Cheburashka and Gena were created by the talented director Roman Kachanov, the first cartoon was released in 1969. The production designer was Leonid Shvartsman.

Then “Cheburashka” (1971), “Shapoklyak” (1974) appeared, and later, already in 1983, “Cheburashka goes to school”.

Surprisingly, it was Cheburashka who became a very famous hero outside our country. So, he was especially loved in Japan, where they not only showed Soviet cartoons, but made remakes of them, and also filmed several of their own projects like “Cheburashka Arere?”.

By the way, in 2005, Eduard Uspensky himself announced that Cheburashka’s official birthday is August 20.

However, no matter what the creators’ litigation may be, millions of Russian children continue to grow up with good cartoons about Cheburashka and his friends.

It is simply impossible not to love the endlessly charming, charmingly defenseless and kind Cheburashka.

It must be said that this simple question (or rather, the answer to it) is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance. funny hero literary works, cartoons, which is also official symbol Russian team at olympic games, at one time became the stumbling block of several legal disputes. We will try to talk about why this happened and who actually invented Cheburashka in our article.

Literary character

On the one hand, this is a bookish image. And the writer Eduard Uspensky came up with it. Yellow eyes (like an eagle owl). Round big head(like a hare). The tail is fluffy and short (like a little bear cub). By the way, in the first issues of the book about Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena, published even before the appearance of the famous cartoon in 1966, the animal looked different. This is how two other artists Alfeevsky and Kalinovsky saw his image. In short, we can say: it’s not similar at all!

Cartoon hero

The bright and unforgettable image of Cheburashka from Soviet cartoon, published in 1969, was created by cartoonist Leonid Shvartsman (real name Israel Aronovich Shvartsman). And after that, in all the other cartoons about Cheburashka, it was this brilliant Soviet artist who created the characters. So the right to the cartoon animal belongs to him.

Origin of the name

According to Uspensky’s fairy tale, an unknown animal, when transported along with oranges, tried to “cheburah”, that is, to fall, simply put. Hence the name - Cheburashka. In Dahl's dictionary, the concept of “cheburahnutsya” is described as: “to crash”, “to stretch out”, “to fall”. And the word “Cheburashka” means: a doll like a Vanya-Vstanka, which, no matter how you throw it, gets on its feet.

Brand division

The trials between Uspensky and Shvartsman began after the collapse of the USSR, in the nineties. The peak occurred in 2004-2007. The artist drew attention to the fact that the image of Cheburashka in the first editions of the books was significantly different from the cartoon character drawn later. And the difference is definitely there. Therefore, it is still reasonable to talk about two different author’s characters: a cartoon hero and a literary hero.