The Return of the Prodigal Parrot (Возвращение блудного попугая, 1984) by Valentin Karavayev

2. Admin 2022-03-21 22:58:39 (edited 2022-03-22 18:25:53)

>Thanks for the great memories :)

You're welcome. :) It went with the era, I think. Did you see the article I linked to in the "series" page? (it's in Russian, but you can use Yandex or Google Translate to read it) I don't know how much I agree, but I thought it was interesting to see how the character and the series is seen nowadays (at least, by some of those who give it enough thought to write articles about it). For what it's worth, the opinion of someone I know who owned a parrot, when I described Kesha's character to them, said "it seems that the writers knew what parrots are like!"

Here's the conclusion of the article (from Yandex Translate, manually fixed-up where needed):

---

The cartoon is certainly witty and its phrases have long since become quotes that live separately from the original source (about Tahiti and "they don't feed us too badly", about "bubblegum" and so on). In the animation and the dynamics, all is wonderful. And therefore, even more disgusting. A mediocre cartoon (or movie, or book) will not really affect one's consciousness.

However, the main character here is a nasty piece of work, and even the mice from "Leopold the Cat" are better. There, at least, the eternal confrontation of cats and mice is played out, but here is just vile betrayal carried out from film to film. What is terrible about this plot? The very possibility of being a scumbag and setting up loved ones...

Everything is served up through a fairy tale. From the mid-1980s, they [that is, "they"] began to actively lay the foundations for a new morality - moreover, the creators themselves did not even realize what they were doing. Kesha is an ideal symbol of the Perestroika society with its endless cries of: "Give! We want changes! Where are our jeans and gum?! Give us music videos and tape players!"

I will note that the prodigal parrot's tastes are typically philistine, pro-Western, and the not-on-brand Vovka, deprived of prestigious imported benefits (which he does not need), constantly turns out to be a fool. He is humiliated, forsaken, but invariably they come back to him with broken wings.

The question arises: why are you needed, Kesha? Why are you loved? Yes, in the 2000s, several more sequels were filmed, but they were completely disastrous, because Kesha was a phenomenon during Perestroika, and in the 2000s, children were already watching other birds, fish and monsters.

---

I think there was indeed a bit of a trend of "cool" characters acting nasty and then either having nothing bad happen to them or being 100% forgiven by their victims in 1980s Soviet animation. Never a majority trend, but it was there. Besides "Kesha", I can think of the aforementioned mice in "Leopold" and Butyrin's "If I Were My Dad" (especially the second one).

>>1
>Thanks for the great memories :)

You're welcome. :) It went with the era, I think. Did you see the [url=https://zen.yandex.ru/media/zina_korzina/samyi-otvratitelnyi-geroi-sovetskogo-multfilma-5edd9eaab03ad22fde04ccd4]article[/url] I linked to in the "series" page? (it's in Russian, but you can use Yandex or Google Translate to read it) I don't know how much I agree, but I thought it was interesting to see how the character and the series is seen nowadays (at least, by some of those who give it enough thought to write articles about it). For what it's worth, the opinion of someone I know who owned a parrot, when I described Kesha's character to them, said "it seems that the writers knew what parrots are like!"

Here's the conclusion of the article (from Yandex Translate, manually fixed-up where needed):

---

The cartoon is certainly witty and its phrases have long since become quotes that live separately from the original source (about Tahiti and "they don't feed us too badly", about "bubblegum" and so on). In the animation and the dynamics, all is wonderful. And therefore, even more disgusting. A mediocre cartoon (or movie, or book) will not really affect one's consciousness.

However, the main character here is a nasty piece of work, and even the mice from "Leopold the Cat" are better. There, at least, the eternal confrontation of cats and mice is played out, but here is just vile betrayal carried out from film to film. What is terrible about this plot? The very possibility of being a scumbag and setting up loved ones...

Everything is served up through a fairy tale. From the mid-1980s, they [that is, "they"] began to actively lay the foundations for a [i]new morality[/i] - moreover, the creators themselves did not even realize what they were doing. Kesha is an ideal symbol of the Perestroika society with its endless cries of: "Give! We want changes! Where are our jeans and gum?! Give us music videos and tape players!"

I will note that the prodigal parrot's tastes are typically philistine, pro-Western, and the not-on-brand Vovka, deprived of prestigious imported benefits (which he does not need), constantly turns out to be a fool. He is humiliated, forsaken, but invariably they come back to him with broken wings.

The question arises: why are you needed, Kesha? Why are you loved? Yes, in the 2000s, several more sequels were filmed, but they were completely disastrous, because Kesha was a phenomenon during Perestroika, and in the 2000s, children were already watching other birds, fish and monsters.

---

I think there was indeed a bit of a trend of "cool" characters acting nasty and then either having nothing bad happen to them or being 100% forgiven by their victims in 1980s Soviet animation. Never a majority trend, but it was there. Besides "Kesha", I can think of the aforementioned mice in "Leopold" and Butyrin's "If I Were My Dad" (especially the second one).

Year	1984
Director(s)	Karavayev Valentin
Studio(s)	Soyuzmultfilm
Language(s)	Russian
Genre(s)	Misc.
Animation Type(s)	Drawn (cel)
Length	00:10:18
Wordiness	9.28
Animator.ru profile	Ru, En