Movies - Nu, pogodi!

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Nu, pogodi! (Russian: Ну, погоди!, English translation: Just you wait!) is an animated cartoon series directed by Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin, produced at the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow, between 1969 and 1986. Additional series were produced in 1993 and 2005.

The plot of the series follows the mischevous and artistic Wolf (Волк, Volk) trying to catch the Hare (Заяц, Zayats), presumably with intention to eat him. Wolf is portrayed as a typical hooligan: a heavy smoker, eagerly turns to vandalism (i.e. knowingly destroys museum exhibts), abuses minors, and breaks laws. On the other hand, many of Wolf's attempts to catch the Hare are often characterized by his uncanny abilities to play guitar, figure skate, or waltz, which develop his more refined side. Unfortunately - in spite of these talents - Wolf's schemes eventually fail or turn against him. The Hare is portrayed as a supposedly positive hero. He gets much less screen time, and is less developed than Wolf, most of his actions are reactions to Wolf schemes (i.e. running away and hiding, sometimes in ingenuous ways). The Wolf was voiced by Anatoli Papanov; The Hare by Klara Rumyanova.

The story also features supporting cast animal characters, the most common of which is the physically strong Hippopotamus, who participates in various roles (i.e. as a policeman, museum caretaker, shop keeper, passer-by, etc), and whom Wolf usually annoys and has to run away from. Many episodes feature friendly bears in various supporting roles.

In some ways the plot of the series is similar the American cartoons Road Runner, or Tom and Jerry. The director has admitted he was learning from the USA animated movies which were brought into USSR from Germany immediatelly after World War II.

There are very few spoken lines in the series (the most common is wolf saying "Nu pogodi" (Just you wait) at the hare after he fails yet again), but it features many grunts, laughs and songs. Series trademark is that at the end each episode (and at the end of the pre-title introduction) the Wolf, having failed his schemes, says: "Nu, zayats, nu pogodi!" (Hare, just you wait!).

Many action sequences of the cartoon are choreographed to fit various recogniable tunes, from classical music to pop hits, with tunes selected to match the action. Sometimes the words of the songs are modified or altogether substituted to correspond the action.

Some viewers may notice "politically incorrect" elements in the show: cross-dressing, nudity (Wolf often ends up stripped down to his underwear in public places), and other actions that can be interpreted as sexual innuendos (i.e. male Wolf often makes male and young Hare dance with him, and instead of eating he usually tries to kidnap Hare, and finally visits him with champagne and roses, etc.).

The series were eventually cancelled after the death of Anatoli Papanov (voice of Wolf). The 1993 revival used samples of his voice recorded earlier (studio had archived all outtakes of his work for the series). It featured a lot of product placement and the quality of animation and the originality of the storyline suffered when compared to the original series. The 2005 series were voiced by Igor Khristenko (Wolf) and Olga Zvereva (Hare).

Originally, the cult Russian singer/actor Vladimir Vysotsky was cast for the voice of Wolf, but the studio didn't get the needed approval of Soviet state organization to use him. However, some homage to Vysotsky remains, as in the opening episode, the Wolf is whistling his "Song of a Friend".

The 2005 series were done by Christmas Films studio (#19 is complete and about to be released, #20 is in production). They were directed by Aleksey Kotyonochkin (son of deceased Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin), one of the writers is Aleksandr Kurlyandsky who wrote participated in writing all other episodes.

List of episodes

The "Nu, pogodi!" episodes are numbered but not named. Each episode is set in a different environment. Release dates in parentheses.

#City and beach (1969) #City park (1970) #Road (1971) #Stadium (1971) #City (1972) #Countryside (1973) #Sea voyage (1973) #New Year celebration (1974) #Television studio (1976) #On construction site (1976) #Circus (1977) #Museum (1978) #Olympic games (1980) #Children's extra-scholar activities center (1984) #The house of Culture (1985) #In the world of Russian folk tales (1986) #Exotic land on island(1993) #Supermarket (1993) #On a health-resort (2005) #(in production)

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