Leopold the Cat (Russian: Кот Леопольд, Kot Leopold) is a Soviet animated short film series about a good-natured and prudent cat, Leopold. Leopold always wears a bow tie even when swimming. Throughout the series, he has to deal with two mischievous mice, Grey and White (Mitya and Motya according to an early script version, but the cartoons themselves mention no names). The animation was produced at T/O Ekran in 1975–1987 and its runtime is 87 minutes (10 episodes). As of 1987, there were 11 episodes in total. In 1995, most of the episodes were released on DVD.
It was directed by Anatoly Reznikov (Russian: [[:ru:Резников, Анатолий Израилевич|Анатолий Резников]]), and the screenplay was written by Arkady Khait. Boris Savelyev wrote the music. The operators were by Ernst Gaman (1975, 1981), Igor Shkamarda (1982), and Vladimir Milovanov (1981, 1983, 1984, 1986). Nelli Kudrina was the sound engineer. The character's unusual name came from the antagonist of the movie The New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers named Colonel Leopold Sergeyevich Kudasov.[1]
Leopold's catchphrase is "Guys, let's all get along" (Russian: Ребята, давайте жить дружно). The catchphrases of the two mice are "Come out, Leopold!" (Russian: Выходи, Леопольд!) by the one and "Come out, you foul coward!" (Russian: Выходи, подлый трус!) by the second.The first two episodes, "Revenge of Leopold the Cat" and "Leopold and the Goldfish", were created practically in 1981–1975 parallel, and with a help shifting technique: heroes and decorations were created on cut-out pieces of paper that were shifted under glass.The first two episodes premiered in 1981 and 1985 respectively. Further episodes were realized with the help of hand-drawn animation.
In the first episode, "Revenge of Leopold the Cat", all the roles were voiced by actor Andrey Mironov. He wanted to invite him for a second series ("Leopold and the Golden Fish"), but Mironov fell ill. As a result, all 4 characters were voiced by Gennady Khazanov. From the third ("Treasure of Cat Leopold") to the eleventh ("Car of Cat Leopold") episodes, all the roles were voiced by Alexander Kalyagin. (Excluding the 8th episode of "Interview with Cat Leopold", where Mironov's voice was heard again).