Nu, pogodi! (Russian: Ну, погоди!, Well, Just You Wait![1] or You Just Wait![2]) is a Soviet/Russian animated series produced by Soyuzmultfilm. The series was created in 1969 and became a popular cartoon of the Soviet Union. Additional episodes have been produced in Russia since 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 trying to catch (and presumably eat) a hare. The series has additional characters that usually either help the hare or interfere with the wolf's plans.
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 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 Hare, commonly translated 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. Therefore, the sympathies of some viewers are more with the Wolf (similar to the premise of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner where the sympathy of the viewers also lies with the "villain").[citation needed] 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 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 and "Western"; 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. Soviet critics saw many different subtexts: for example that the films were supportive of the gay cause (because Wolf occasionally gives Hare flowers as a sign of goodwill, which, at the time, was considered as an acceptable social act among men, as much as today's criticism of Batman's relations with Robin in the late 1960s in America), or that they 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.
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