What is "shapoklyak"

Shapoklyak ( - Old Lady Shapoklyak) was a popular villain from a story about Cheburashka written by Russian writer Eduard Uspensky. The first appearance of Shapoklyak (in the movie) was in the animated film Gena the Crocodile (1969) by Roman Kachanov ( Soyuzmultfilm studio).

She appears as an old woman, wearing an outdated hat and carrying a purse, in which she carries her pet rat Lariska. In the film Cheburashka Goes to School (1983) she admits that she has not received secondary education and is sent to school together with Cheburashka. Her name is the Russian word for the hat she wears — borrowed from the French word chapeau claque, an obsolete spring-loaded top hat, which sounds funny for the Russian ear.

Shapoklyak (, from French Chapeau claque) is a 1974 Soviet Russian animated film by Roman Kachanov.