Prostokvashino is a Russian children's franchise created by Eduard Uspensky. It started with a novel Uncle Fyodor, the Dog and the Cat in 1974, which was followed by multiple sequels, animated adaptations, and a children's magazine based on it.
The main characters of the series are Uncle Fyodor, a Wise Beyond Their Years boy, and Talking Animals Sharik the dog and Matroskin the cat. Sharik and Matroskin live in the village of Prostokvashino (derived from prostokvasha, buttermilk), and Uncle Fyodor either stays with them or with his parents in Moscow.
The series progresses in Comic-Book Time and has no overarching plot; each of the novels and short stories has a plot of their own.
The definitive Audience-Coloring Adaptation, a series of three animated movies directed by Vladimir Popov, was released in 1978, 1980 and 1984 respectively.
The series provide examples of:
- Cat/Dog Dichotomy: Practical and strict Matroskin the cat vs. careless and free-spirited Sharik the dog.
- Comic-Book Time: People move on from communism to capitalism and from snail mail to computers, but the characters don't age a bit.
- Deus ex Machina: In the first book, Uncle Fyodor, Sharik and Matroskin go to search for treasure – and randomly find a huge chest full of gold, which allows them to set up the household.
- Drunk on Milk: Quite literally in the first book. Murka eats hop flowers and goes temporarily crazy, and when Matroskin, Pechkin and even tr-tr Mitya drink her milk, they go temporarily crazy as well.
- Furry Confusion: Matroskin and Sharik are talking, sapient animals, Hvatayka the jackdaw's intelligence varies, and the rest of the animals featured in the franchise are usually treated as normal, non-sapient ones (with occasional exceptions, such as Murka the cow suddenly talking – and never doing it again – or a sapient beaver turning up out of the blue).
- Internet Safety Aesop: Uncle Fyodor Goes to School appeared after the start of the Internet era, hence it being an example of the trope. Nancy "The Morning Star", an online friend of Prostokvashino's residents, acts very sweet and sends them a photo of a beautiful young woman... only to turn up as an overbearing middle-aged Brawn Hilda Big Eater. Due to the overall fluffy nature of the books, she is more extremely clueless than actively malicious, but everyone is still extremely relieved when she decides to leave of her own accord.
- Mistaken for Cheating: In Winter in Prostokvashino, Uncle Fyodor's parents suspect each other of cheating and both confide in their son. The suspicions are especially strong against his mother Rimma (even Uncle Fyodor starts to think she has found someone else), because she has started to care for her looks a lot more than before and spends a lot more time away from home. Turns out she is preparing to perform at a concert.
- Natural Disaster Cascade: Played for Laughs in Uncle Fyodor's Aunt. At one point, Sharik, hiding in a box, pretends he is a radio, and makes up a weather forecast for the next day, warning about "early frost leading to a flood" and "earthquake leading to a solar eclipse".
- Telegraph Gag STOP: In the animated adaptation, Hvatayka reads out letters in that style, with a clearly enunciated "PE-RI-OD!" and "CO-M-MA!"
- The Power of the Sun: In the first book, Matroskin receives a model of the Sun from the Institute of Solar Physics. They use the model to warm their house instead of wasting firewood.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Cousins Tamara, a no-nonsense retired army colonel and strict disciplinarian, and Rimma, a shop assistant at a clothes shop and amateur singer who loves her evening dresses.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Nobody except for maybe Pechkin bats an eyelid at a six-year-old boy and two talking animals living by themselves.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Matroskin and Sharik quarrel all the time but are the greatest of friends.
