Nu, pogodi!

Well, Just you wait! (Nu, Pogodi!)

A screenshot from episode #7
From left to right: Hare and Wolf.
Genre Comedy
Created by Felix Kandel
Arkadi Khajt
Aleksandr Kurlyandsky
Directed by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin
Vladimir Tarasov
Aleksey Kotyonochkin
Voices of Anatoli Papanov
Klara Rumyanova
Igor Khristenko
Olga Zvereva
Country of origin  Soviet Union
 Russia
Original language(s) Russian
No. of episodes 20 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time 10 minutes approx.
Production company(s) Soyuzmultfilm
Christmas Films (episodes 19-20)
Broadcast
Original channel ЧТ СССР (1969-1991)
Первый канал (1991-2006)
CITV (2014-present)
Original run June 14, 1969 – October 7, 2006

Nu, pogodi! (Russian: Ну, погоди!, Well, Just You Wait!) is a Soviet/Russian animated series produced by Soyuzmultfilm. The series was created in 1969 and became a popular cartoon of the Soviet Union. The latest episode was produced in 2006. The original film language is Russian but very little speech is used (usually interjections or at most several sentences per episode).

The series follows the comical adventures of a mischievous yet artistic wolf, Volk, trying to catch (and presumably eat) a hare, Zayats. The series has additional characters that usually either help the hare or interfere with the wolf's plans.

Characters

The Hare

Hare from Episode #1.

The Hare, commonly transliterated into English as Zayats (Russian: Заяц), is portrayed as a supposedly positive hero. He gets much less screen time and is less developed than the Wolf, and most of his actions are simply reactions to the Wolf's schemes. In later episodes, the role of the Hare becomes more active and developed, and he even manages to save the Wolf on several occasions. The Hare is portrayed as a percussionist in a number of episodes. The character was originally voiced by Klara Rumyanova.

The Hare's clothing is much less varied than the Wolf's. He is nearly always seen in the same green T-shirt and blue shorts. However, in the prologue of Episode 8 he appears in an ice-skating outfit, and later on in this episode he is dressed as Ded Moroz, a character not typically performed by young boys, which makes the scene deliberately absurd (it becomes even more absurd when the Wolf joins dressed as Snow Maiden).

The Wolf

Wolf from Episode #5.

The Wolf, commonly transliterated into English as Volk (Russian: Волк), is initially portrayed as a hooligan who eagerly turns to vandalism, abuses minors, breaks laws, and is a smoker.

On the other hand, many of the Wolf's attempts to catch the Hare are often characterized by uncanny abilities on his part (including figure skating, ballet, gymnastics and waltzing) for humorous contrast. The Wolf can also play the guitar very well and ride the powerful rocker motorbike.

In the first episode, while climbing a high building to catch the Hare, the Wolf whistles the popular mountaineer song, "A Song About A Friend" (a signature song of Vladimir Vysotsky). In spite of these talents, most of the Wolf's schemes eventually fail or turn against him. The character was originally voiced by Anatoli Papanov.

During the late Soviet and post-Soviet era, however, the Wolf's image slowly denigrates into a more cartoonish and less criminal persona. In the latest episode (#20), for example, the Wolf is seen chewing a lollipop instead of smoking and his drawing style is reminiscent of new Russian cartoons (Russian: Новые русские мультфильмы) rather than the old Soviet slapstick genre. The Wolf has also adopted a lot of cowardly attitudes in many situations since the first episodes, which more or less oppose his initial persona and actor's voice.

The Wolf's most characteristic piece of clothing is his bell-bottoms which can ambiguously be either part of naval uniform or the 1970s fashion. He is most often seen in a pink shirt with a yellow necktie, but occasionally (Episode 7) appears in a naval undershirt (telnyashka). In Episode 11 he wears a jacket in the beginning, but soon removes it when chasing the Hare. Not infrequently, he loses most of his clothes during the chase, going on in his chintz underpants only (those are a realistic depiction of Soviet-style underwear). Humorously, all of his bottom clothes have a special opening for his tail.

The Wolf is enough antropomorphic to have a mop of black hair. In Episodes 1-16 his hairstyle is basically unchanged, though in Episode 14 his hair get briefly done in a style not unlike Elvis Presley's. In Episode 17 he wears a ponytail, and in Episode 18 his forelock is cropped and the mullet is tied into a ponytail. However, in the two final series he resumes his earlier hairstyle of episodes 1-16.

In Episode 8, the Wolf appears in the drag, impersonating Snow Maiden.

Other characters

The story also features a supporting cast of animal characters, the most commonly appearing of which is the physically strong and heavy Hippopotamus (Russian: Бегемот Begemot, "Behemoth"), who participates in various roles (e.g., a museum caretaker, shop keeper, passer-by, etc.) and whom the Wolf usually annoys and has to run away from. In Episode #5 (1972), the Hare finds the Wolf hidden among water-melons (the Wolf's cap camouflages him in the scene). The Hare recommends to the passing Hippopotamus, who's also looking to buy melons, one which actually winds up being the Wolf's head. Hippopotamus squeezes Wolf's head to test the ripeness of the "watermelon", and inadvertently forces him out of hiding. The episode ends with Wolf (on a washbowl) sliding down into the Moscow Metro and slamming head-on into, and ending up under the Hippopotamus.

Another repeating character is the Cat (Russian: Кот Kot), who is illusionist and appears in several stage performances throughout the series. The Cat is shown to be a good magician, but very self-absorbed and highly sensitive to applause. In Episode #9 (1976), the Cat traps the Wolf in his levitation act (which saves the Hare from being caught). He drops the Wolf twice in his act to acknowledge and accept the applause from the Hare.

One of the most appearing on-screen secondary characters in a single episode is the Sea Lion (Russian: морской лев Morskoy Lev), who is the uniformed Navy Captain of the ship in Episode #7, who keeps interfering with the Wolf's attempts at boarding the ship and/or attempting to capture the Hare. However, once the Wolf is on board, he pretends to mop the deck in front of the Captain, tricking him into believing he is one of the crew members. The Captain is later seen closing the lid on top of the boat's storage room, which results in the Wolf and Hare to be trapped together in the darkness.

Other animals are shown in the series, including bears, red foxes, elephants, beavers, dogs and pigs.

Background

Since the 1990s, when the fall of the Iron Curtain allowed better exchange of films, both Russian and Western audiences have noted similarities between Nu, pogodi! and American cartoons, the most noticeable being Tom and Jerry. The director has admitted that he was learning from Disney animated films which were brought into the USSR from Germany immediately after World War II, particularly Bambi. However, he did not see any Tom and Jerry episodes until his son bought a VCR in 1987.[1] Thematically, Nu, pogodi! places greater emphasis on various real-life situations and locations.

A scene from Episode #1.

There are very few spoken lines in the series. The most common line is "Nu, pogodi!" (Well, you just wait!). This is recited by Wolf when his plans fail. The series' trademark is that at the end of each episode (and at the end of the pre-title introduction), Wolf recites "Nu, Zayats, nu pogodi!" (Well, Hare, you just wait!). The series also includes many grunts, laughs and songs.

For the first time the Wolf and Hare duo with the famous line "Nu, pogodi!" appeared in an episode of the "animated magazine" ru:Весёлая карусель.[2]

The series was put on hold after the death of Anatoli Papanov (voice of Wolf). The 17th and 18th episodes from 1993 (which were released in 1994 and 1995, respectively) used samples of his voice recorded earlier (the studio had archived all outtakes of his work for the series). It featured a lot of product placement (the most noted being Nokia) and was sponsored by AMT.

The 2005 series were voiced by Igor Khristenko (Wolf) and Olga Zvereva (Hare) and were done by the Christmas Films studio. They were directed by Aleksey Kotyonochkin (son of deceased original director Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin). The script was written by Felix Kandel and Aleksandr Kurlyandsky, two of the original writers. For two years, they were largely unavailable to the public and were only shown at certain film festivals. However, in late December 2007 a DVD was finally released in Russia which contained the two films, as well as a making-of film and comics drawn by Aleksey Kotyonochkin. As of now, it is available only in the supermarket chains Pyatyorochka and Perekryostok.[3]

Cultural references

The female Fox singer in Episode 15 is based upon Alla Pugacheva. The Hare's subsequent performance in the drag is a parody of one of her songs popular at the time.

A cameo of a sitting girl in Episode 16 refers to Viktor Vasnetsov's painting Alyonushka. The key is that Alyonushka is the heroine of the folk-tale Brother and Sister. She apparently mistakes the Wolf, who had been transformed into a goat, for her brother.

Critical and popular reception

A USSR stamp from 1988, depicting Nu, pogodi!

The series was, for many years, hugely popular among the Soviet public, and it is popular in Russia to this day. The critical reaction of the director's colleagues was less favourable. The director's son Aleksey Kotyonochkin recalls how, although nobody said it to his father outright, the animators and directors of Soyuzmultfilm generally considered Nu, pogodi! to be of low class. For his part, Vyacheslav Kotyonichkin was not a follower of auteur films (many of which were being made at the studio at the time), and considered them to be examples of someone needlessly showing off.

Kotyonochkin disliked subtext and tried to create very simple, straightforward scenarios. The main idea of the series was simple; don't hurt the little guy or you will yourself get into a foolish situation. Because the series was so popular, however, it was often a subject for critical discussion and speculation - namely, that the series represented the struggle between the intelligentsia and the working class (with the Wolf representing the working class and the Hare the intelligentsia). Aleksey Kotyonochkin dismisses these interpretations as groundless.[1]

List of episodes

The episodes of Nu, pogodi! were not named but rather numbered. Each episode has a different setting:

  1. "City and Beach" June 14, 1969
  2. "Fairground at Night" July 18, 1970
  3. "Road and Construction Site" May 29, 1971
  4. "Stadium" June 26, 1971
  5. "City and Train Station" September 23, 1972
  6. "Countryside" April 21, 1973
  7. "Sea Voyage" May 12, 1973
  8. "New Year Celebration" January 5, 1974
  9. "Television Studio" September 4, 1976
  10. "Construction Site and Hospital" October 9, 1976
  11. "Circus" July 30, 1977
  12. "Museum" April 8, 1978
  13. "Olympic Games" (Connected to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Misha appears) May 17, 1980
  14. "The House of Young Technicians" June 2, 1984
  15. "The House of Culture" June 22, 1985
  16. "In the World of Russian Folk Tales" September 27, 1986
  17. "Exotic Land on Island" June 24, 1993
  18. "Supermarket" June 25, 1993
  19. "Airport and Beach" September 3, 2005
  20. "Dacha Community" October 7, 2006

There was also a promotional 30 min. long episode show including various characters from Soviet cartoons (Cheburashka, among others) released in 1981 called The Lost Episodes. The show featured three never before seen sequences of Well, Wait of approximate 10 min. length and were not re-released for home entertainment in spite of various full episode collections. They can, however, be seen on television on some channels during children cartoons time and are viewable through web video recordings (such as YouTube).

In 2001, the characters were redesigned (with Hare being replaced with a chipmunk) for a series of next ID's for Teletoon, produced by Chuck Gammage Animation.[4]

In August 2012, it was decided television airing of the cartoons would not cut out scenes of the wolf smoking because of laws prohibiting material "deemed harmful to children". An agreement was made, "We will not cut anything, not even one cigarette." [5]

Cast and crew

Directors

Screenplay

Main animators - character development

Voices

Camera

Sound directors

Editors

Animators

Music

A number of memorable tunes were written or selected to match the action sequences of the cartoon. The majority of the soundtrack was edited directly from various international lounge and dance LP records from the 1960s-1980s, many of which were part of the music supervisors' personal collections.[6] These recordings were not listed in the credits, so the origins of some remain obscure today.

Some of the known performers whose music was featured in Nu Pogodi are Chico Buarque, Herb Alpert, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Digital Emotion, Günter Gollasch, Bill Haley, Ted Heath, Leroy Holmes, Halina Kunicka, James Last, Muslim Magomayev, Paul Mauriat, Hazy Osterwald, Pesnyary, Edita Piekha, Franck Pourcel, Perez Prado, Alla Pugacheva, Valery Leontiev, Eric Rogers, Earl Scruggs, Igor Sklar, Terry Snyder, Studio 11, Mel Taylor, Klaus Wunderlich, Billy Vaughn, Helmut Zacharias, and Zemlyane.

The opening credits theme was edited from Vízisí (Water Ski), written by Hungarian composer Tamás Deák and performed Magyar Rádió Tánczenekara & Harmónia Vokál.[7]

Sometimes the words of the songs were modified or altogether substituted to correspond to the action, and a New Years holiday song (duet between Papanov and Rumyanova that later became a popular standard[8]) was written especially for the series. Originally, the cult Russian singer/actor Vladimir Vysotsky was cast for the voice of Wolf, but the studio did not get the approval they needed from a Soviet state organization to use him. However, some homage to Vysotsky remains, as in the opening episode, Wolf is whistling his "Song of a Friend".

Soundtrack

Episode 1 - "City and Beach"

Episode 2 - "Fairground at Night"

Episode 3 - "Road and Construction Site"

Episode 4 - "Stadium"

Episode 5 - "City and Train Station"

Episode 6 - "Countryside"

Episode 7 - Sea Voyage"

Episode 8 - "New Year Celebration"

Episode 9 - "Television Studio"

Episode 10 - "Construction Site and Hospital"

Episode 11 - "Circus"

Episode 12 - Museum"

Episode 13 - "Olympic Games"

Episode 14 - "The House of Young Technology"

Episode 15 - "The House of Culture"

Episode 16 - "In the World of Russian Folk Tales"

Episode 17 - "Exotic Land on Island"

Episode 18 - "Supermarket"

Episode 19 - "Airport and Beach"

Episode 20 - "Dacha Community"

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kapkov, Sergey (2007-06-20). Алексей Котеночкин: "Отец никогда не делал фильмов с фигой в кармане". Gazeta (in Russian) №109.
  2. ↑ Жил-был веселый человек. Аркадий Хайт ("Once Upon The Time There lived a Jolly Man. Arkady Khait"), a documentary
  3. ↑ http://kotenochkin.livejournal.com/242735.html
  4. ↑ http://www.cganim.com/work/
  5. ↑ http://bostonherald.com/news/offbeat/view/20120830russian_tv_cartoon_villain_gets_to_keep_smoking/srvc=home&position=recent Russian TV cartoon villain gets to keep smoking
  6. ↑ interview with Alexander Goldstein, music supervisor on episodes 7-14
  7. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixXyj2T0IxM
  8. ↑ footage of Papanov/Rumyanova duet on YouTube

External links

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