Crocodile Gena is a fictional, friendly crocodile

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

 in the series of animation films

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 “Gena the Crocodile”, “Cheburashka”

Cheburashka (film)

Cheburashka is a 1971 Soviet/Russian film directed by Roman Kachanov.- Plot summary :Crocodile Gena's birthday. Cheburashka wishes him a happy birthday and gives him a gift...

 and “Shapoklyak”

Shapoklyak (film)

Shapoklyak is a 1974 Soviet Russian film by Roman Kachanov.-Synopsis:Crocodile Gena and Cheburashka decide to go to the sea on vacation. Shapoklyak steals their train tickets, and so they are kicked off the train...

 by Roman Kachanov

Roman Abelevich Kachanov

Roman Abelevich Kachanov was a Russian animator, one of the founders and leaders of Russian stop-motion animation.Kachanov was the director and screenwriter of the trilogy about Cheburashka, Gena the Crocodile and Shapoklyak.- Early years :...

 (Soyuzmultfilm

Soyuzmultfilm

Soyuzmultfilm is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union...

 studio).

The 50-year-old Gena works in a zoo

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

 as a crocodile. In his spare time, he plays the garmon and likes to sing. His two best-known songs are "Pust' begut neuklyuzhe..." and Goluboy vagon ("The Blue Train Car").

Gena is best friends with Cheburashka

Cheburashka

Cheburashka , also known as Topple in earlier English translations, is a character in children's literature, from a 1966 story by the Russian writer Eduard Uspensky. In Estonian the character is called Potsataja...

, the title character in the series.

One rainy day, which happens to be his birthday, Gena sings the song "Пусть бегут неуклюже пешеходы по лужам..." ("Let the pedestrians run clumsily over puddles..."), which contains the famous line: "Such a pity that one's birthday happens only once a year." This song, written by Vladimir Shainsky

Vladimir Shainsky

Vladimir Yakovlevich Shainsky is a Soviet and Russian composer.Vladimir Shainsky was born in 1925 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. In 1936, he became a student at the musical school in Kiev, where he learned to play the violin. However, his studies were interrupted by the German-Soviet War , when...

, has since become known as "Crocodile Gena's Song". It continues to be extremely popular among Russophone

Russophone

A Russophone is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial...

s of various ages and generations.

He is voiced by Vasily Livanov

Vasily Livanov

Vasily Borisovich Livanov MBE is a Soviet and Russian film actor, and screenwriter.-Biography:His father Boris Livanov was a prominent actor of the Moscow Art Theatre...

in the animated films.