What Cheburashka looked like in the very first book: you will be amazed when you find out!

What if we told you that the very first Cheburashka was completely different from the character we’re all used to?

Eduard Uspensky’s children’s story “Crocodile Gena and his friends” was published in 1966, and in the tale itself the description of the hero was limited to one line: “He was brown, with large bulging eyes and a short fluffy tail.”

However, in the preface, the writer talks a bit more about the “unknown animal”: according to Uspensky, as a child he had a faulty toy that was “so badly made that it was impossible to tell who it was: a hare, a dog, a cat or even an Australian kangaroo.

The eyes of the Cheburashka toy were large and yellow, like those of an owl, the head was round, hare, and the tail was short and fluffy, like that of small bear cubs. Ouspensky admitted that at first he was very afraid of Cheburashka and did not even want to stay in the same room with him, but gradually got used to the toy, and she became as beloved as the rubber crocodile Gena and the Galya plastic doll.

But what happened to illustrator Valery Alfeevsky when he read the description of the hero? These are the images that adorned the first books – as you can see, Cheburashka is not at all like the hero we are used to.

Read also: You’ll never guess which of the actors actually played Cheburashka in the new movie!

The image of Cheburashka familiar to us appeared in 1968, when the first puppet cartoon by director and animator Roman Kachanov was released. And we think we know what you would say if we asked you a question.