Many people know and love from childhood a cartoon about a cute little animal Cheburushka and his friends, led by the crocodile Gena. Millions of children have grown up on the adventures of a cartoon character, but few people know that Cheburashka is … 45 years old.
The official birthday of Cheburashka is considered to be August 20, 1969: it was in this year that the writer Eduard Uspensky presented his work about the adventures of an unprecedented animal in the cartoon genre. However, according to literary data, Ouspensky created his character back in 1966, but Cheburashka gained popularity only with the release of the cartoon.
Unseen animal
Outwardly, Cheburashka is a fluffy brown animal with large ears and expressive eyes. They deprived the doll with a rostik, and therefore both on the screen and in the book Cheburashka is so small that it easily fits into a box from under the cake.
It is believed that the artist Leonid Shvartsam significantly reworked the image of Cheburashka, because initially he planned to portray him with a ponytail, but after much thought he removed the tail and painted big kind eyes.
The unknown animal got its name very simply, it constantly fell and did not sit still, and then the director of the store called it Cheburashka, because it was cheburakhan, that is, it fell.
Eduard Uspensky thought for a long time how to describe the origin of his little hero, and then, as they say, he remembered one life incident. Once on the set in Odessa in the port, he found a box of bananas, showing curiosity, opened it and found an exotic chameleon among the fruits. Based on his recollection, Eduard decided that Cheburashka would emerge from a box filled with oranges. This is how the story of the animal from the tropics appeared, which accidentally fell asleep in a fruit box and found himself in a big city.
Birthday to help orphans
Eduard Uspensky was very proud of his literary masterpiece, because this cute hero became truly alive for him, and like everyone else, Cheburashka has his own birthday. As mentioned earlier, this day is officially August 20, 1969, but over the years, a different date has become associated with Cheburashka's birthday - the day of a charity event for orphans.
The organizers of the action want to draw attention to acute social problems and support young children, surround them with love, care and warmth, inherent in all children's cartoons with the participation of Cheburashka.
Since the beginning of 2003, an all-Russian action called "Cheburashka's Birthday" has been held annually. The promotion starts traditionally in August. It is not surprising that the children's marathon got exactly this name, because orphans have no parents, like Cheburashka in the cartoon, which was found by chance and turned out to be all alone until he met his friends and found his own home.
