It was a strange thing about Uspensky's stories either "Сheburashka" or "Prostokvashino" that in written book form it was a kind of a psychotic adult graphomanic Jew humour pulp for kids, because nobody else gonna read this uneasy reading, but when his books sourced material for cartoons, it became an instant hit. In case with "Prostokvashino" success was reached from the second attempt. The first screening of "Prostokvashino" was cut out figures animation, and was unknown to me until this year 2016. But from the second attempt, when they used different animation style, remade the entire story according to the normal standards of the Soviet comedy, invited famous actors to dub the animals, the cartoon turned an instant hit. Imagine a 7 year old kid and a stray cat leave home, find an abandoned house in a distant village, a stray dog joins them, and they three start their own household. All economic issues are solved easily - they go outside the village, dig the earth and find a hidden treasure chest. A local postman becomes their antagonist. Finally parents get to know the location and take their kid home, while cat and dog stay to look after the house. In further series, mom and dad got to love the village , first dad, then mom, and to make their choice between sea beach and the village. The third part features Happy New year in village. This cartoon features the phenomena of soviet comedy, when you don't have to produce 500 parts like Tom & Jerry, but even 2 last parts can be excessive, because all super-catchphrases (like cat's "how wrong is your sandwich eating, you should turn your sandwich sausage down, for sausage contacts your tongue, that's much more tasty", or mom's "I thought cats are capable only of yelling on trees", or postman's "Why I was angry ? Because I didn't have a bicycle. But when I have a bicycle now I will start to grow much kinder and get a pet.", or dad's "I know you (mom) for a longer time, and this cat I see for the first time", or birds's "Who is there ?") are coming from the first part only, which can be considered as 20 minutes catchphrases concentrate. So first part is sizzling hot, second part is pretty hot, and third part is nicely warm. I can not remember any catchphrase from the third part I would even like to repeat. The general idea of the series is kids need pets and a call for village life. Also nuances of personal relationships are explored with soft kind humour, all time cat's sentence on dog: "Somehow it seems to me that we are feeding this dog in vain". With this message delivered with lots of kindness and humour the "Prostokvashino" series stand out as Soviet urban classics.
