In honor of this cartoon, which, undoubtedly, was adored by Soviet children and today's kids are happy to watch, a special coin was issued. True, not with us, but on the Cook Islands. The coin was silver, its face value is two dollars (moreover, it can be bought from collectors for as much as 140 dollars). And here are the heroes of her favorite cartoon - the cat Leopold and mice. What were the mice from the Cat Leopold called? After all, all viewers know that they are, and their names remained behind the scenes.
Character story
“The Adventures of Leopold the Cat” is a Soviet cartoon that is familiar to several generations of girls, boys and their parents. In short, this is a story about the adventures of a very intelligent red cat and two restless mice, who are constantly trying to cause trouble to the cat.
The animated series consists of eleven episodes. Screen parents of the cartoon about friendship and peaceful coexistence were Arkady Khait and Anatoly Reznikov. The debut series was released 43 years ago, in 1975.
Pretty simple storyline cartoon won the hearts of Soviet kids. In each episode, instructive episodes from the life of a good cat were described.
Similarities and differences with similar characters. "Tom and Jerry"
Fans of cartoons could note the similarity of Soviet mice with the mouse Jerry from the American animated series "Tom and Jerry." And our, Soviet mice, and a foreign mouse equally dirty cats. They run away from them in the same way, coming up with new pranks and dirty tricks.
Here it is necessary to clarify that there are certain differences in the characters of the compared mice. Mouse Jerry in every episode revenges to Tom that the gray cat wants to eat it. Our mice (we learn the name of the mice from the cartoon “Cat Leopold” a bit later) constantly provoke Leopold. They call him to quarrel and all the time they call him a "vile coward."
Similarities and differences with similar characters. Mr. Grabowski
Before we find out the name of the mice from the cartoon “Leopold the Cat”, let's look at the similarities of the characters with another foreign work. We can say with confidence that the main pests of the good red cat Leopold look like mice from another wonderful Hungarian-German-Canadian cartoon "Cat Trap". He came out a few years later - in 1986, but also managed to win a large audience of viewers. Our mice also like to dress up in clothes, and a gray mouse in several episodes appears in a cap. But the similarity ends there. Because ours - white and gray mice - are ugly with experience, and the heroes of the cartoon "Cat Trap", headed by a mouse - the agent of the Intermish organization Nick Grabovsky - are trying to save their mouse race, which cats are trying to destroy.
The kindest cat of the Soviet Union
The central protagonist of this animated series is a decent and very well-mannered cat with a rather aesthetic name Leopold. He is always very neatly dressed, he has a magnificent bow around his neck. The cat walks around the house in slippers, always speaks very simply, but beautifully. Unlike the wolf from “Well, wait a minute!”, He does not drink, does not smoke, speaks quietly and modestly. Leopold is clean and welcoming.
He always solves problems peacefully, urging white and gray mice to live together and not harm each other. The cat is good-natured and peaceful, he forgives offensive mouse pranks, even comes to the rescue of cocky mice.
Incidentally, the name of the mice from the “Cat Leopold” was of interest not only to the smallest, but also more adult fans of the cartoon. Some viewers thought the cat was somewhat weak-willed, because often the intrigues of the mouse were very offensive. The creators of this project, in an attempt to stand up for the cute cat, came up with a series in which he receives the Ozverin medicine in order to be able to repulse the little tailed offenders. But his character is such that it does not make it possible to go on rudeness, so the harmful mice remain intact. Viewers understand that any heart can be melted with patience and a good attitude.
Harmful mouse
The antipodes of such a positive cat in this cartoon are two mice. And yet, what were the names of the mice from “Cat Leopold” - Gray and White or Fat and Thin? This is a really interesting question. So, the white mouse is called Mitya, and the gray one is Motya. Yes, these are the names of the mouse. True, they remained only in the script for the cartoon. In the television picture, the tailed outrages remained nameless.
Now we know the name of the mice from the Cat Leopold. And although these names are cartoonish, for some reason they somehow did not take root in the cartoon itself. The mice continued to be called - according to the color of their fur or physique.
From intrigues to apologies
What are the names of the mice from the “Cat Leopold”, we now know. It is Mitya and Motya that throughout the series of the cartoon are the real hooligans (albeit small ones) who have a lot of different dirty tricks in their stock. And yet, they are very cute. Little viewers, perhaps, are still confident that the mice can improve and become kinder. And the phrases of Mitya and Moti have long become winged. Who doesn’t remember: “We are the muscles ...” and “Leopold, come out, mean coward!”?
For some reason, fluffy hooligans are opposed to a cute red cat, taking its modesty, decency and good breeding for ordinary cowardice. In each series, the mice try to annoy Leopold, but in the end they must repent and apologize.
Is there any benefit from the cartoon?
Those viewers who watched the cartoon very carefully could not help but notice that the first two episodes of the cartoon are strikingly different from the rest. All this is due to the fact that they were made using the technique of shifting: decoration elements and fragments of the bodies of adventure heroes were first cut out of colored paper, and then gradually moved to a microscopic distance after each shot, placed first on glass. So the animation effect turned out. But from the third series there were already drawn cartoons.
The Soviet Union in the seventies proclaimed the idea of ​​world peace. And such an animated series just corresponded to her. The first series that the audience saw was called “Leopold's Cat Revenge”, and the second “Leopold and the Goldfish”. The name of the mice from “Leopold the Cat” never appeared “on air” - neither in these series, nor in the rest .
Although this cartoon clearly had a classic moral background, the artistic council of Soyuz studio did not immediately approve this project. In 1975, the cartoon premiered, after which it was banned, formulating pacifist sentiments and anti-Soviet views.
The chairman of the artistic council Zhdanova was somewhat confused by the fact that the cat can not deal with small rodents in any way. But the creators decided not to quit the project and were absolutely right. Since the eighties of the last century, an unusual story about an intelligent cat and hooligan mice has been broadcast on the country's leading channels. The audience was delighted with the new characters: the kids watched with interest how the cat and mouse relations were developing, and the parents were grateful for such a project that voiced the educational foundations. The resulting success contributed to the motivation of the authors to visualize new ideas.
Interesting facts about the cartoon
For twelve years - from 1975 to 1987 - eleven cartoons were released about the adventures of sworn friends. They talked about finding a treasure, buying a TV, Leopold's birthday, his walk, about the summer spent in the company with mice, about buying a car, going to the clinic, interviewing a cat and flying in a dream and in reality.
A few years later, Soyuz Studio released four more episodes of the new adventures of their favorite characters. In the new season there was a high-quality image, but the semantic load remained exactly the same. It was all called "The Return of the Leopold Cat".
It is impossible to ignore the scoring of the animated series. All this is quite curious. The first series began to be voiced by Andrei Mironov. They began to agree with him on the voice acting of the second series, but he suddenly fell ill. Therefore, Gennady Khazanov worked on the dubbing of the second series. From the third series to the end, Alexander Kalyagin gave his voice to the characters . But in “Leopold the Cat Interview” Mironov’s voice sounded again.
Now that it has become known the name of the mice from “Cat Leopold”, it is possible that today's kids will be even more interested in revising this kind and interesting cartoon, just like their parents once, experiencing all the adventures of his characters.