30 June 2008

Cheburashka or Obama?

I think that a nation's animations (i liked how it sounds) are in an inverse proportion to its very essence. Take Japan for example where the animation (or manga in particular) is a nonstop bash of fighting monsters and superheroes in colorful tights and this contradicts with the Japan we know: peaceful monks, cherry trees, zen philosophy...etc. It is no different in Russia as well...watching Russian (mainly Soviet sponsored and politically correct) animations (multiks from multfilmy meaning animated film) will make any decent human being to an altered sublime state of peaceful mind (and obey the Supreme Soviet). No need to say that this contradicts with the Russian (Soviet) soul (Peacefulness? Is that a joke...when they don't have enemies from abroad, they start killing themselves instantly)

Cheburashka


The soviet multiks, if not featuring a well built and clean cut slavic hero fighting against dark, corrupt and hairy enemies from the east (that's us!) and faceless and soulless mass killers from the west in chivalric outfits (that's you, Europe!), usually depicts animal characters and form very interesting bands of characters like crocodiles, hippos and other tropic beats that are only seen in the soviet world in communist zooparks. Dubbing them with Russian also makes them more hyperreal than they seem on the screen and adding a soviet-ambient music makes it larger than life.

CHEburashka is the new face of communism in 21st Century

One of the most,maybe the best, known multik character is Cheburashka, a Russian bearcub-cum-Mickey Mouse. Although its name reminds me of Cheburek, an artery clogging street food -a deep fried stuffed pie- that is widely cooked by Tadjik guest-workers and kindly eaten and painstakingly digested by the middle to low-income Russians and Tadjik guest-workers themselves (when they are not a mobile shooting practice for Russian neo-nazis), it has no connection whatsoever. It was widely accepted as the communist answer to capitalist Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse's life revolves around material (He fights against Daffy Duck for some valuable item), money (opens shops and gets into competition against Donald Duck) and sex (Minnie Mouse, a degradation of feminism). But Cheburashka is an eternal peaceful character which imposes friendship (Friendship of Nations), being hardworking and a life not focused on material but self improvement through common goals. Ok, I admit that it has been rather cheesy so far...it is just a silly animated character to attract the communist youth's attention away from hamburgers and rock music and it worked for some time.

Boring Information: The word Cheburek comes from the tatar Chiburek, supposedly meaning Raw Pie (Çiğ Börek in Turkish).

"Cheburashka, have you checked your ancestors' records?"

Turkish Invasion supports Mr. Obama for a more colorful apporach to the Greater Middle East Plan...

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