The studio «Soyuzmultfilm» made a good New Year's gift to the smallest residents of the country: on December 17, the release of the first series «Well, Just You Wait!» Vacation» — a sequel to the famous Soviet animated series. In the debut episode «Lunapark», the Wolf and the Hare compete for the attention of the sporty roe named Ulya. The seven-minute episode also featured other characters from the series, including the hedgehog-hacker Shu and the good badger Tim.
In honor of the restart, the first episode was shown on 79 street media screens in Moscow, the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Samara, Sochi, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk.
The first series of restart «Well, Just You Wait!» gained 52 thousand views on YouTube in a few hours after its release. The video received a mixed reaction from viewers — 1200 likes versus 967 dislikes. However, Soyuzmultfilm said they expected a similar response from viewers who grew up on the classics. The studio stressed that the animated series is designed for a children's audience, which, according to test screenings, liked it.
And yet, this time, social networks reacted favorably to the continuation of the cult animated series.
The Vodovorot channel experts write:
«In the case of this project, it’s interesting to look at a few points: digital windows and» why do you need to restart the legendary series».
We have already said that the first 26 episodes of the new «Well, Just You Wait!» will be exclusively available on the Okko service, after which they will appear on the Soyuzmultfilm YouTube channel. In total, this exclusive window will last 12 months, after which part of the series will also be released on other platforms. At the same time, the second half of the series, the remaining 26 episodes, will also be available over the next 12 months on Okko and in the format of promotional episodes on YouTube.
Perhaps the most curious thing about these windows is how many audiences and subscribers will be attracted to Okko after the launch. And here we come to the second point.
It would seem, «Well, Just You Wait!» is not only a legendary series, but also a brand recognizable by the majority, which can attract a large audience of both children and nostalgic adults. However, I immediately recall the hate that arose on the Internet about the trailer. In general, the phenomenon when people are afraid to see characters of fifty years ago in modern realities is rather strange and somewhat curious — it was hardly thought to cross out the Soviet legacy by re-release. But it is probably better to be reborn and live a new life than to be embalmed in the memory of the older generation…»
The Zakuliska Telegram channel also believes that the new version looks quite convincing:
«What happened was what everyone was waiting for with tons of negativity and hate prepared in advance — the relaunch of the legendary „Well, Just You Wait!“.
Let's say right away — we don't remember a single, even the most successful, restart of anything cult that fans of the old version would not have met with contempt and accusations of complete failure.
Alas, you can't go into the same river twice, and the classic «Well, Just You Wait!» will forever remain a legend, and the new product is a new product aimed at a new audience living in the fast paced format of acidic 3D short films.
So the new «Well, Just You Wait!» should be compared not with the old «Well, Just You Wait!», but, at best, with «Masha and the Bear» and «Fixiks», or even with the penis-looking pig Peppa.
In such a company, the new version looks quite convincing.
With some even postmodern tricks on the theme of «The Matrix», which was also rebooted the other day, and tons of negativity from fans of the classic version also poured out on the creators of the new one, but even before the premiere, the film broke all records for presales in cinemas.
Let's face it — this is not our wolf, not our hare and not our «Well, Just You Wait!». Ours — old-tv, with Papanov's voice, will stay with us forever.
The new will live with new generations. Let's not be wet blankets».
The Nebozhena channel testifies that children really like the new version, and this is the main thing:
«As you remember, the trailer was a complete nightmare. But there are fewer questions about the series of questions. Yes, the characters have changed and no longer look the way they were drawn by Kotenochkin half a century ago. But the early versions of Mickey and Minnie, Batman and Robin were also significantly different from today's ones. And almost 50 years have passed since 1977.
We, adults, can do as much as we want, we may not like a lot, but the children loved it with a bang. Zhenya looked twice. Soyuzmultfilm, like Marvel, is in the global trend of relaunching iconic franchises. And this despite the fact that our budgets are very modest compared to Western ones.
In general, our animation definitely needs to be given a chance. I remember past attempts to restart «Well, Just You Wait!» in the nineties and later, at first they were also criticized, and now this is already our sacred cartoon heritage…»