Since the advent of the first animated films, the main characters in them have become cartoon animals. The childhood of generations and generations of Soviet children passed in anticipation of the next cartoons that went to the cinema in the morning and afternoon, and the program "Good night, kids!" only then it was considered "watchable" if after a short dialogue the host with the dolls showed a cartoon.
Animated or animated films by technique are divided into drawn and puppet, later plasticine was added to this technique. But the main aesthetic credo of animation is convention. Moreover, cartoons were not always shot based on children, nevertheless, they are traditionally perceived as a children's genre of cinema, and the main characters in them are cartoon animals. Pictures with them were printed on the covers of notebooks, bookmarks, calendars, postcards. Many even collected collections with various cartoon characters.
And, probably, even now, such collectors will find photos of funny animals that have become the main characters of animated films. If you build a hit parade of cartoon animals, probably each viewer will have their own priorities. Undoubtedly, one of the most popular cartoon characters in the entire post-Soviet space was the Wolf from "Well, wait a minute!" The children eagerly awaited the release of new episodes, retold them and discussed, which is not surprising. But the hooligan wolf was much more popular than the exemplary hare. The director V. Kotenochkin practically failed to reconcile these heroes - the viewer did not accept this plot twist! The actors who voiced the main characters made their huge contribution. Cartoon animals spoke with the voices of Klara Rumyanova and Anatoly Papanov.
Another hit of the Soviet animation was the series about Prostokvashino. Moreover, people in this cartoon coexist on equal terms with animals, which also became an inextricable part of culture in the post-Soviet space. Replicas of the cat Matroskin (Oleg Tabakov) went to the people, becoming winged expressions, and they are pronounced precisely with the intonation of the cartoon character. Dog Sharik, speaking in the voice of Lev Durov, is also a character, not just recognizable, but super popular.
Continuing the theme of cats in animation, one can not help but recall the cat Leopold with his "Let's live together." But still, the most popular cat in world animation is the Disney Tom from "Tom and Jerry." And, of course, it was thanks to Walt Disney that the cartoon animals became cult characters in mass culture. In addition to the mentioned Tom and Jerry, of course, you need to start with another mouse - Mickey Mouse, in fact, from which it all started.
This is then the Disney studio will turn into a huge empire, a factory for the production of not only animated, but also feature films, entertainment towns around the world. And before that there were cartoon animals: a Dumbo elephant, a Bambi fawn, Chip and Dale chipmunks - the list goes on.
The animators of Hungary brought their charming and popular animals to the world: the film studio "Pannonia" was created by the fox Vuka. And in Czechoslovakia they shot a series about a funny mole.
What will modern animators offer to modern children? Time will tell.