Line #8 Animation/InvestigationHeldByKolobki


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kolobki_1567.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Our heroes - [[TheComicallySerious Chief]] in gray, [[PluckyComicRelief Colleague]] in green.]]
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4	''Investigation Held By Kolobki'' ("Следствие Ведут Колобки"; translit. "Sledstvie Vedut Kolobki") is a two-part [[EasternEuropeanAnimation Soviet cartoon]] written by EduardUspensky and directed by Igor Kovalyov and AleksandrTatarskiy - the first part coming out in 1986 and second in 1987. The plot kicks off [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn somewhere in the USSR]]. Deep at night, the two investigators named Brothers Kolobki hear a loud thump, which they [[ItsProbablyNothing promptly dismiss as nothing]]. The next morning, they're staring dumbfounded at the four huge holes in their rooftop. The smarter of two partners, Chief (Шеф; translit. "Shef") figures out that the holes are actually elephant footprints. And sure enough, the local newspaper has an article about the disapperance of the rare striped elephant from the city zoo. Chief and his partner, literally named Colleague (Коллега; translit. "Kollega") embark on an investigation to find out just what is happening in their sleepy backwater city.
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6	In 1988 the creative team formed an independent Pilot Studio. They had a falling-out with Uspensky and had to rename their iconic characters from "Kolobki Brothers" to "Pilot Brothers". In TheNineties, a sequel in the form of six short cartoons was made, and in the late 1990s and 2000s, a video game series based off the cartoons was created, available on PC, iOS, and Android.
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10	!!This cartoon provides examples of:
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12	* ActorAllusion: At the zoo administration, Chief (voiced by Leonid Bronevoy) says "[[Series/SeventeenMomentsOfSpring And you I'll ask to stay here]]."
13	* BaldOfEvil: Karbofos.
14	* BrickBreak: Parodied. Colleague uses a karate chop to break a pack of maccaroni in half.
15	* BrickJoke: The zoo guard who flies away in the opening later flies into the director's window, and even later he is seen sleeping with an anchor chained to his leg, as to prevent flying away again.
16	* TheCameo: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Captain_Vrungel Captain Vrungel]] makes two appearances, first buying airplane tickets and then going through customs at the airport. The reason is that Aleksandr Tatarskiy worked on the ''Animation/AdventuresOfCaptainVrungel'' as well as ''Investigation Held by Kolobki''.
17	* CaptainObvious: Chief tends to do it, the more profound and famous example being (when Colleague is being late from the assignement): "Either something is wrong, or it's one or the other".
18	* CockADoodleDawn: In the finale, as the brothers drive off to the airport.
19	* TheComicallySerious: Chief lapses into it sometimes by virtue of being a calm, [[TheStoic stoic]] investigator in a zany cartoonish world.
20	* EgomaniacHunter: Karbofos, sort of. He is an animal trader, not a hunter, so he has to capture his game alive - but he's most definitely a bastard about it.
21	* EndangeredSpecies: A made-up one - rare striped elephant - is the reason for the plot happening.
22	* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Chief's pistol shoots suction cup darts, sometimes with a wire attached, and Karbofos' gun also shoots suction cup darts that [[spoiler:deploy baloons to lift the target up into the air.]]
23	* FourFingeredHands
24	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A lot of them.
25	* HighPressureEmotion: The zoo's director literally turns red after the Brothers confiscate the elephant's case file and the guard from the opening breaks his window immediately after.
26	* HilarityInZoos: The animals appear in three fairly long scenes, and do a lot of funny things: giraffe turns into a spotlight thanks to a lightning strike, rhino hides inside his "armour plating" and then folds into nothingness, etcetera.
27	* InNameOnly: This cartoon started as an adaptation of Uspensky's books aimed at children about a pair of not-quite-human (more like living bread loafs) not-quite-policemen Kolobok and Bulkin and a sequel to an earlier StopMotion series made by a different team. Suffice to say Chief and Colleague have nothing in common with them, other than being short and unarmed.
28	* KangarooPouchRide: Inverted. A kangaroo ''catches'' Colleague this way.
29	* KitschCollection: The brothers seem to have an awful lot of clocks in their home, and a shelf with five porcelain elephants of differing sizes.
30	* LoopholeAbuse: Karbofos acquires papers confirming [[spoiler: ownership of the elephant]] this way.
31	* MindControlMusic: The sounds of the flute make [[spoiler: the elephant]] lose free will.
32	* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: This is how [[spoiler: the story ends. Karbofos' lackey grabs his balloon gun and shoots it at him, stopping him from boarding the plane with the striped elephant.]]
33	* NotSoBadassLongcoat: The zoo guard has one, and Kolobki themselves also qualify, since their coats are long relative to their small height.
34	* PoirotSpeak: Karbofos seems to use German like this, for example "Here's gut, ja ja".
35	* PreviouslyOn: Shows up at the beginning of the second part.
36	** OnceMoreWithClarity: At the beginning of the first part, there are only silhouettes visible. In the recap, everything is shown much more clearly.
37	* PunnyName: "Karbofos" is a pun on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buratino#Characters Karabas]], taken from the name of an insecticide also known as "malation".
38	* RedOniBlueOni: Chief maintains the air of a collected and precise no-nonsense guy. Colleague is a bumbling fool often doing silly things just for the hell of it.
39	* RunningGag: Colleague spitting out fish, the crow carrying away whatever it was sitting on, Chief trying to take a button off his fingers.
40	* RummageFail: In the climax, Karbofos' lackey accidentially wields a sausage instead of a gun.
41	* SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty: Unusually for a cartoon, it's drawn in a gritty style, with a lot of detail, signs of disuse such as cracked stucco on buildings, and something akin to film grain in all scenes.
42	** Which just happens to be a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eqHasVPk_Y trademark]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYhAs8vf2FY style]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8lov-9CHcQ of the]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqmeM7AhqaQ studio]]. Maybe it has something to do with all that Perestoika thing that was going on in the USSR at the time...
43	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: The elephant likes [[spoiler: fish oil]] very much.
44	* VisualPun: When Chief orders him to "get on the phone", Colleague literally goes and sits on a phone while calling.
45	** The whole cartoon has a lot of visual puns, in Aleksandr Tatarskiy's trademark fashion.
46	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Lampshaded. The city where the cartoon takes place is referred to as "Ensk", literally "N-City". The sequel shorts retconned it to 1950s [[{{UsefulNotes/Ukraine}} Berdichev, Ukraine]].
47	** Not only that, but the time, even time of day, is never told explicitly in the cartoon -- even if the clock is clearly visible. All characters use expressions "N hours" or "N-teen hours".
48	** N-sk (or "city/town N.") is used in Russian and Soviet works as a reference to a generic location. So basically it's our version of CityWithNoName and/or WhereTheHellIsSpringfield.
49	* WolvesAlwaysHowlAtTheMoon: In the very beginning, with the establishing shot of the moon. Doubles as FridgeBrilliance, since the camera pans down to a zoo -- the only place in the city where the wolves could be.

Context Animation / InvestigationHeldByKolobki