Masha and the Bear
Masha and the Bear is a Russian animated television series created by Oleg Kuzovkov and co-produced by Soyuzmultfilm and Animaccord Animation Studio, loosely based on the oral children's folk story of the same name. The show focuses on the adventures of a little girl named Masha and a fatherly bear that always keeps her safe from disasters. The first episode was released in 2009. The series has been translated into 25 languages and was broadcast in more than 100 countries. The series was released on Netflix and through NBCUniversal. Treehouse TV acquired Masha and the Bear as well from 2016–present and then has been formerly acquired on Teletoon too.
Many of the episodes have been successful on YouTube. In particular, the Russian-language version of the episode "Маша плюс каша" has more than 4.3 billion views as of June 2020, making it the site's fifth most viewed video of all time, and the most viewed video on YouTube that is not a music video. The remaining yards top ten most viewed Masha and the Bear videos are: "Bon Appétit", with over 1.3 billion views; "Laundry Day", with over 1.1 billion views; "The Foundling", with over 800 million views; "La Dolce Vita", with over 740 million views; "Hocus-Pocus", with over 680 million views; "One, Two, Three! Light the Christmas Tree!", with over 670 million views; "Two Much", with over 500 million views; "Little Cousin", with over 480 million views; and "Home-Grown Ninjas", with over 370 million views.
The show consists of three full seasons, with 26 episodes each. The first thirteen episodes of the fourth season have been launched already.
For the first season in English, Elsie Fisher – the voice of Agnes, the youngest of the three girls in the Despicable Me films – was chosen to dub the voice of Masha.
In 2015 the Slovak company acquired a license to create an ice show based on Masha and the Bear stories called . The show was presented for the first time on 3 October 2015, in Košice, Slovakia, and has also been performed in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and Estonia.
Plot
Masha is a Russian girl who lives in the forest with her pig, goat, and dog. In the first episode, it is shown that all the animals in the forest are afraid of her, as she is constantly forcing them to play with her. Then Masha sees a butterfly and inadvertently follows it inside the home of the Bear, who has gone fishing. While playing there, she makes a big mess. When he returns, he sees the disaster caused by Masha. The Bear tries to get rid of Masha, but he is unsuccessful, and he and Masha become friends.In each episode of the show, Masha is portrayed as a smart, kind, but mischievous little girl who is exploring the world around her. This leads to many funny and entertaining situations. The kind-hearted Bear is always trying to keep Masha out of trouble, but often ends up the unintended victim of her mischief. There are several supporting characters in the series, including Masha's cousin Dasha, a penguin adopted by the Bear, a young panda cub from China, who is the Bear's cousin, two wolves who live in an old UAZ ambulance car, a tiger that used to work with the Bear in the circus, and a Female Bear that is the object of the bear's affections. Characters also include a hare, squirrels and hedgehogs, a pig called Rosie, a goat, and a dog who all live in Masha's front yard.
Characters
;Masha;Bear
;Masha's Pets
;The Wild Animals
;She-Bear
;Dasha
;Panda
;Whiskers n' Stripes
;The Black Bear
;Penguin
;Father Frost
;Four-eyed aliens
Production
The series' production has been handled domestically at Animaccord Animation studio since 2008. The scenario for each episode is written by Oleg Kuzovkov, creator of the cartoon. Then the storyboarding is developed in accordance with the script and, in general, consists of at least 2000 slides. After the team finalizes the plot of an episode, the work for the 2D animatic kicks off. At this stage, animators define the duration of each scene in an episode, how characters are placed in it and interact with each other. After this step of the production is finished, the episode is passed for dubbing. Dubbing must be completed before 3D animation is applied, as the 3D animators need to know the characters' dialogue, intonations, and emotions in advance in order to keep their lip movements synchronized to the audio and make their facial expressions look realistic.3D animation
The 3D animation process begins right after dubbing has been finished. Animators manipulate all the movements that happen during the scenes, such as opening doors, taking books from bookshelves, and creating all the bodily movements required to bring the characters to life.Rendering
Rendering brings all the processes together. Renderers colorize grey 3D models and add such details as the Bear’s fur, Masha’s hair, etc. They create the lighting and weather in the scene as determined by the script.Composing
Composing is the final stage of production, where the composers review all scenes of an episode, checking the color intensities, smoothing the edges of 3D models, and bringing all the components together to form a complete episode. Then the work is approved by the director and script-writer and uploaded to the show's official YouTube channel.Voice actors
Masha, her cousin and Father Frost are the only characters who speak. The others communicate through pantomime or wordless sounds.For the first two seasons, Masha’s voice in the original Russian version was performed by Alina Kukushkina, who was 6 years old when she began to dub Masha. For the third season, the officials of Animaccord studio confirmed that the new voice of Masha would be 6-year-old Varvara Sarantseva. The show's sound designer, Boris Kutnevich, provides the voice of The Bear. Mark Kutnevich provides the voice of The Hare.
For the English version, Elsie Fisher – the voice of Agnes in the Despicable Me films – dubbed the voice of Masha in the first season. In subsequent seasons Masha was dubbed by Rebecca Bloom and Angelica Keamy and now is Giulia De Carvalho and Kaitlyn McCormick.
Music
The music for each episode is written by Russian composer Vasily Bogatyrev. Most of the songs used in the cartoon, such as the soundtracks of “Laundry Day” and “The Grand Piano Lesson” episodes, became very popular in Russia and abroad.Awards and achievements
- In January 2015, the cartoon was included into a list of "TV Shows Destined to be Classics," which was compiled by the cartoon industry's periodical Animation Magazine to mark its 250 issue.
- In February 2015, Masha and the Bear won a 2015 Kidscreen Award for Best Animation in the Creative Talent.
- In October 2015, Kidscreen Magazine named Animaccord Animation Studios as one of the top 50 leaders in the world of animation and the top 10 production companies of the year.
- As of June 2020, one copy of the video "Recipe For Disaster" has received over 4.3 billion views on YouTube, making it the site's fifth most viewed video of all time, the site's most viewed non-music video of all time, and the site's most viewed animated video of all time.
Mobile apps
The first Masha and the Bear mobile app was released by Apps Ministry in August 2011. In 2013 the first mobile game Masha and the Bear: Search and Rescue was published by Apps Ministry. Later more publishers such as Indigo Kids, PSV Studio, Noviy Disk developed and released games and apps featuring Masha and the Bear.Distribution
Netflix has released 27 of the first 29 episodes in 9 episodes of 3 segments each. Many of the videos were uploaded multiple times on three different YouTube channels so their view counts across up to three channels have been combined.Episodes
First season (2009–12)
Second season (2012–2015)
Third season (2016–19)
Fourth season (2019–)
Broadcast
As of 2019, Masha and the Bear premieres on CTC in Russia, Universal Kids in America, HOP! in Israel, and CTV in Canada. In the Middle East and North Africa, it premieres on Baraem and Jeem TV, as well as Spacetoon. In Germany, it premiered on Junior. It premiered on Malyatko TV in Russia, Chutti TV in India, in the UK on the channel cartoonito and Mult and Tlum in Russia on August 1, 2019. It is also broadcast in Indonesia by ANTV.Spin-offs
Masha's Tales
A spin-off series to the show titled Masha's Tales is also available on Netflix. In the show Masha tells classic Russian fairy tales as well as some Grimms' Fairy Tales to her toys. However, Masha makes up her own way of telling the stories. She also mixes up the morals of the stories by often adding an additional ending so that way it could fit with what she's telling her toys. Masha's Tales premiered on Cartoon Network UK's sister pre-school channel, Cartoonito on June 20, 2016.Debut dates listed per Treehouse TV:
Episode | Title | Debut date |
1 | The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids | 21 October 2017 |
2 | The Magic Swan Geese | 22 October 2017 |
3 | The Fox and the Rabbit | 23 October 2017 |
4 | Red Riding Hood | 24 October 2017 |
5 | Father Frost | 25 October 2017 |
6 | The Wolf and the Fox | 26 October 2017 |
7 | The Tops and the Roots | 27 October 2017 |
8 | The Frog Princess | 28 October 2017 |
9 | The Snow Maiden | 28 October 2017 |
10 | Tom Thumb | 29 October 2017 |
11 | Wee Little Havroshechka | 29 October 2017 |
12 | The Straw Bull-Calf | 30 October 2017 |
13 | Three Little Pigs | 30 October 2017 |
14 | The Valiant Little Taylor | 11:27 7 February 2018 |
15 | Ali Baba | 26 November 2017 |
16 | Cinderella | 1 November 2017 |
17 | Caliph Stork | 11:20 am 9 February 2018 |
18 | Jack and the Beanstalk | 2 November 2017 |
19 | The Swineherd | 11:20 am 11 February 2018 |
20 | Bluebeard | 11:27 am 11 February 2018 |
21 | By the Pike's Wish | 11:20 am 12 February 2018 |
22 | The Fox and the Rolling Pin | 11:27 am 12 February 2018 |
23 | Axe Porridge | 11:20 am 13 February 2018 |
24 | Go I Know Not Whither | 11:27 am 13 February 2018 |
25 | The Golden Cockerel | 11:20 am 14 February 2018 |
26 | The Humpbacked Horse | 11:27 am 14 February 2018 |
Masha's Spooky Stories
Another spin-off of the Masha and the Bear franchise, Masha's Spooky Stories, premiered on Cartoonito UK and Netflix in October 2016.Debuts dates listed are for English releases in Canada on Treehouse TV, original air dates in Russia unknown:
Episode | Title | Debut date |
1 | Soul Freezing Tale of Grim Forest and Tiny Timid Bug | 11:20 am 15 February 2018 |
2 | Super Scary Story of a Little Boy Who Was Afraid of Washing | 11:27 am 15 February 2018 |
3 | Terrifying True Story About Monsters And Those Who Fear Them | 11:20 am 16 February 2018 |
4 | Troubled Fable About a Kitten Who Was Lost But Found | 11:27 am 16 February 2018 |
5 | Nightmarish Kids Belief About Christmas Rhymes | 11:20 am 17 February 2018 |
6 | Grim Parable About Superstitious Girl | 11:27 am 17 February 2018 |
7 | Grim Testament About One Snotty Boy | 11:20 am 18 February 2018 |
8 | Grim Tale About One Girl Who Was Afraid Of Animals | 11:27 am 18 February 2018 |
9 | Horrifying Story of Grandmother And Grandson | 11:20 am 20 February 2018 |
10 | A Myth Full of Grief And Despair About One Historical Error | 11:27 am 20 February 2018 |
11 | Panic Unbearable Legend About The Insects | 11:20 am 21 February 2018 |
12 | Troubled Story About Baba-yaga | 11:27 am 21 February 2018 |
13 | Sinister Saga Of A Sick Tummy And A Girl Who Was Afraid Of Doctors | 11:20 am 22 February 2018 |
14 | Fantastic Story About A Hedgehog, A Boy And Green Humanoids | 11:27 am 22 February 2018 |
15 | Horrible True Story Of How A Boy Was Transferred To Another School | 11:20 am 23 February 2018 |
16 | A Terrible Tale About A Cow Herder On A Stump | 11:27 am 23 February 2018 |
17 | A Ghost Bike Saga Which Makes You Shiver | 11:20 am 24 February 2018 |
18 | Scary Story About Spooky Stories | 11:27 am 24 February 2018 |
19 | Creepy Tale About Useful Inventions | 11:20 am 25 February 2018 |
20 | Gloomy Story About the Darkest Dreams | 11:27 am 25 February 2018 |
21 | Terrible Legend about Thunder and Lightning | 11:20 am 26 February 2018 |
22 | Terrible Truth about Those Who Are Afraid to Be Little | 11:27 am 27 February 2018 |
23 | Bloodcurdling Saga about Joyful Event | 11:20 am 27 February 2018 |
24 | Monstrous Tale about Tall and Short | 11:27 am 27 February 2018 |
25 | Frightening Incident at the Circus | 11:20 am 28 February 2018 |
26 | Shocking Story about a Girl Who Was Afraid of Everything | 11:27 am 28 February 2018 |