Cheburashka



Soviet series of books by Eduard Uspensky and animated puppet stop-motion shorts about Cheburashka, critter of ambiguous nature who is a friend of Gena The Crocodile who works in a zoo (as a crocodile).

All four of the shorts are available with English subtitles on Youtube:
 * Gena the Crocodile (1969)
 * Cheburashka (1971)
 * Shapoklyak (1974)
 * Cheburashka Goes to School (1983)

Book and shorts provide examples of:

 * Cartoon Creature
 * Credits Brand Products: in the first short
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Shapoklyak's voice actor is male in Gena the Crocodile.
 * I Just Want to Have Friends
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Shapoklyak, ultimately
 * Lean and Mean: Shapoklyak
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Lariska the rat, to Shapoklyak
 * Plot Hole: in the first short Cheburashka comes to Gena's place because he read an ad about him looking for friends on the bulletin board. Later, he read a sign about scrap metal collection. And then the fourth short is all built around Cheburashka being unable to read.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter
 * Ridiculously-Fast Construction: "house for friends" was built in ten days
 * Road Sign Reversal: one of the Shapoklyak's pranks
 * Villain Song: Shapoklyak