Mr. Prokouk

Mr. Prokouk (Czech: Pan Prokouk) is a character created by Karel Zeman for a series of Czech animated short films in the 1940s and 1950s.

Prokouk, a stop-motion animation puppet made of wood,^[1] is a sympathetic, irrepressible everyman character^[2] with a bristling mustache, a long nose,^[3] and a pork pie hat.^[4] The French newspaper Le Monde described the character as an "animated cousin" of Jacques Tati's character Monsieur Hulot,^[5] and the catalogue of a 2001 Karel Zeman retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive suggested that Prokouk might be taken as Zeman's alter ego.^[4] The short films in which he appears are comic^[6] with a didactic touch.^[1]

The character first appeared in the 1946 short Podkova pro štěstí ("Horseshoe for Luck").^[5][7]

Prokouk became the most well-known character in Czech animated cinema^[8] and a familiar figure in Czech culture.^[1][5] The films were especially popular with young audiences.^[9]