Old Lady Shapoklyak (Russian: Шапокляк, romanized: Shapoklyak) is a villain from stories about Cheburashka written by Russian writer Eduard Uspensky. She appeared in a number of tales by Uspensky and animated films by Uspensky's stories.
She is an old woman, wearing an outdated hat and carrying a purse, in which she carries her pet rat Lariska. Her name is the word for the hat she wears, borrowed from the French chapeau claque, an obsolete spring-loaded top hat, which sounds funny to the Russian ear.
In the film Cheburashka Goes to School (1983), Shapoklyak helps have the local school's renovations completed in time for the new school year after Cheburashka is found to be illiterate.
She is notorious for her mischiefs and pranks on the city dwellers. The refrain of her theme song contains her motto, "One won't ever get famous for good deeds" Russian: Хорошими делами прославиться нельзя. However near the end of some stories she turns around and helps the protagonists, only to return to pranks with the next story.
The character's name derives from the French term chapeau claque, referring to a collapsible top hat.
Contents
In print
1966: Uspensky, ''Gena the Crocodile and His Friends
1970: Uspensky, Kachanov, «Чебурашка и его друзья» (play)
1974: Uspensky, Kachanov, «Отпуск крокодила Гены» (play)
1974: Uspensky, «Крокодил Гена и грабители»
1992: Uspensky and Inna Agron (Инна Е. Агрон), Gena The Crocodile's Business
1998: Uspensky, «Крокодил Гена — лейтенант милиции»
1998: Uspensky, «Чебурашка уходит в люди»
2001: Uspensky, «Похищение Чебурашки»
2001: Uspensky, «Новый год с Чебурашкой»
2017: Uspensky, «Чебурашка едет в Сочи»
Reception
Literary scholar Mark Lipovetsky has classified Shapoklyak among the trickster figures of Soviet popular culture, alongside characters such as Carlson and Sherlock Holmes as portrayed in Soviet adaptations.
Animation
Gena the Crocodile
Shapoklyak
Cheburashka Goes to School
Cheburashka (2010 Japanese animation)
Cheburashka (2023 Russian remake of the Japanese animation)
Cheburashka (2023 film)