Shapoklyak (1974)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Shapoklyak" is another short film from over 40 years ago that stars Cheburashka and the gang. The writer and director is Roman Kachanov again and also like the first two films, this one runs for 20 minutes here. I enjoyed the previous installments and I like this one here too. I think they did a good job by including old familiar faces and bringing in new characters. And constructing convincing stories around these old and new faces. The film scores once again on the cuteness level through Cheburashkas's looks and through story telling with the (not too dramatic) drama they brought up here. It is obvious that you should not start with this one, but watch it chronologically. If you did not hate the first two films, this one is definitely worth seeing. I recommend it.

Being an amateur animator myself, I've always enjoyed seeing all types of animation work specially when they are foreign made. But this "Shapoklyak" is greater than what I've ever seen.I adored this cartoon. Just consider the kind of technology and resources that Soviet studios had in the 1970s and compare it to, say, Nick Park's Wallace and Grommit.. Wallace really pales in comparison to Cheburashka! "Shapokliak" is a marvel, a real jewel in animation history. (And don't misunderstand me, I do love Wallace & Grommit..)Shapoklyak is one of four Cheburashka features produced by Soyuzmultfilm studio (or at least that's the number of episodes included in the DVD; if anybody knows any other episodes please tell me about them).I do think there's something very special about this particular Cheburashka cartoon. To me, it is the more "cinematographic" if you would (just watch the marvelous ending with a train fading away in the distance as Gena plays very melancholic accordion music). The script is equally strong, with krokodil Gena actually sabotaging a very polluting factory. Just don't ask me what the old woman is up to, since I watched it in Russian without any translation of subtitles at all!Yet that's actually the fun of Cheburashka: the animation is so great that you don't actually need to understand what the characters are saying. This is a very universal and timeless work of art (as evidence of this, just watch the rising popularity of these series in Japan).