The Wolf, commonly transliterated into English as Volk (Russian: Волк), is initially portrayed as a hooligan who eagerly turns to vandalism, abuses minors, breaks laws, and is a smoker.

His appearance was inspired by a person the director Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin saw on the street, specifically a man with long hair, a protruding belly, and a thick cigarette between his lips.

In spite of his rough appearance, many of the Wolf's attempts to catch the Hare are often characterized by unexpected abilities on his part (including figure skating, ballet, gymnastics, and waltzing) for humorous contrast.

The Wolf became increasingly timid or even outright cowardly during this time period, contrasting sharply with his initially "macho" persona and actor's voice.

Not infrequently, he loses most of his clothes during the chase, going on in his chintz underpants only (those are a realistic depiction of Soviet-style underwear), though in episode 6, he retains only his shirt and pulls it down to cover up his "naked" hindquarters.

The story also features a supporting cast of animal characters, the most commonly appearing of whom is the physically strong and heavy Hippopotamus (Russian: Бегемот Begemot), who participates in various roles (e.g., a museum caretaker, shop keeper, passer-by, doorkeeper, etc.)

Another repeating character is the Cat (Russian: Кот Kot), who is an illusionist and appears in several stage performances throughout the series.

However, once the Wolf is on board, he pretends to mop the deck in front of the Captain, tricking him into believing he is one of the crew members.

The Captain is later seen closing the lid on top of the boat's storage room, which results in the Wolf and Hare being trapped together in the darkness.

Other animals are shown in the series, including bears, red foxes, elephants, beavers, dogs, and pigs (in a swimming suit with three bras).

The prologue is a separate short story, approximately 2 minutes long, at the end of which the Wolf shouts "Well, [rabbit], just you wait!".

was created for the animation studio Soyuzmultfilm in Moscow by the writers Felix Kandel, Arkady Khait, and Aleksandr Kurlyandsky, whose works included humourist and satirical writings.

[10][11] In case of the music, the majority of the soundtrack throughout the series during Soviet times was edited directly from existing international records, though there were also original compositions.

was not intended to become a long-running series, but the cartoon reached immense popularity and Soyuzmultfilm received many letters from viewers asking for more adventures of Wolf and Hare.

However, it was temporarily halted for political reasons after the seventh episode in 1973, as script writer Felix Kandel and his family wanted to emigrate to Israel, but were denied by the Soviet authorities.

[13] They were produced by Soyuzmultfilm in collaboration with the Ukrainian Institute for Professional Advancement of Film, Television and Radio Workers (credited as Studio 13) and were co-directed by Vladimir Tarasov.

Late Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin's son Aleksey was offered to direct them, but initially hesitated to accept, as he was not sure whether the standards set in Soviet times could be achieved, and also because of the failure of the 17th and 18th episode.

[6] It was not possible anymore to simply insert popular international music into the shorts like during Soviet times, as copyright had to be taken into account now.

Therefore, it was decided to approach a domestic artist, namely Andrei Derzhavin of the band Mashina Vremeni, who immediately agreed to create a diverse soundtrack.

A cameo of a sitting girl in Episode 16 refers to Viktor Vasnetsov's painting Sister Alenushka Weeping about Brother Ivanushka.

For his part, Vyacheslav Kotyonochkin was not a follower of auteur films (many of which were being made at the studio at the time) and considered them to be examples of someone needlessly showing off.

[15] Since the 1990s, when the fall of the Iron Curtain allowed better exchange of films, both Russian and Western audiences have noted similarities between Nu, pogodi!

The director has admitted that he was learning from Disney animated films which were brought into the USSR from Germany immediately after World War II, particularly Bambi.

In August 2012, it was decided television airing of the cartoons would not cut out scenes of the Wolf smoking because of laws prohibiting material "deemed harmful to children".

The majority of the soundtrack was edited directly from various international lounge and dance LP records from the 1960s–1980s, many of which were part of the music supervisors' personal collections.

Some of the known performers whose music was featured in Nu Pogodi are Chico Buarque, Herb Alpert, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Digital Emotion, Günter Gollasch, Vyacheslav Mescherin, Bill Haley, Ted Heath, Leroy Holmes, Halina Kunicka, James Last, Muslim Magomayev, Paul Mauriat, Hazy Osterwald, Pesnyary, Edita Piekha, Franck Pourcel, Perez Prado, Alla Pugacheva, Eric Rogers, Earl Scruggs, Igor Sklyar, Terry Snyder, Studio 11, Mel Taylor, Klaus Wunderlich, Billy Vaughn, Helmut Zacharias, Zemlyane, Yuriy Antonov and Blue Effect.

The opening credits theme was edited from Vízisí (Water Ski), written by Hungarian composer Tamás Deák and performed Magyar Rádió Tánczenekara & Harmónia Vokál.

Originally, the cult Russian singer/actor Vladimir Vysotsky was cast for the voice of Wolf, but the studio did not get the approval they needed from a Soviet state organization to use him.

Volk and Zayats were given new designs and three new characters were introduced; Ulya the Roe Deer, Shu the Hedgehog, and Tim the Badger.

[40][41] One of the only living original creators, Felix Kandel, expressed his displeasure at seeing the remake and offered to pay the studio to not release it.