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

According to the Associated Press, "Masha, who is dressed in a folk costume with a headscarf, became a household name in many Muslim nations including Indonesia." Dmitry Loveyko, managing director of Animaccord, said that "It's a Muslim country, so we thought we're lucky she wears a headscarf and her legs are covered!"

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:
EpisodeTitleDebut date
1The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids21 October 2017
2The Magic Swan Geese22 October 2017
3The Fox and the Rabbit23 October 2017
4Red Riding Hood24 October 2017
5Father Frost25 October 2017
6The Wolf and the Fox26 October 2017
7The Tops and the Roots27 October 2017
8The Frog Princess28 October 2017
9The Snow Maiden28 October 2017
10Tom Thumb29 October 2017
11Wee Little Havroshechka29 October 2017
12The Straw Bull-Calf30 October 2017
13Three Little Pigs30 October 2017
14The Valiant Little Taylor11:27 7 February 2018
15Ali Baba26 November 2017
16Cinderella1 November 2017
17Caliph Stork11:20 am 9 February 2018
18Jack and the Beanstalk2 November 2017
19The Swineherd11:20 am 11 February 2018
20Bluebeard11:27 am 11 February 2018
21By the Pike's Wish11:20 am 12 February 2018
22The Fox and the Rolling Pin11:27 am 12 February 2018
23Axe Porridge11:20 am 13 February 2018
24Go I Know Not Whither
11:27 am 13 February 2018
25The Golden Cockerel11:20 am 14 February 2018
26The Humpbacked Horse11:27 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:
EpisodeTitleDebut date
1Soul Freezing Tale of Grim Forest and Tiny Timid Bug11:20 am 15 February 2018
2Super Scary Story of a Little Boy Who Was Afraid of Washing11:27 am 15 February 2018
3Terrifying True Story About Monsters And Those Who Fear Them11:20 am 16 February 2018
4Troubled Fable About a Kitten Who Was Lost But Found11:27 am 16 February 2018
5Nightmarish Kids Belief About Christmas Rhymes
11:20 am 17 February 2018
6Grim Parable About Superstitious Girl
11:27 am 17 February 2018
7Grim Testament About One Snotty Boy
11:20 am 18 February 2018
8Grim Tale About One Girl Who Was Afraid Of Animals11:27 am 18 February 2018
9Horrifying Story of Grandmother And Grandson
11:20 am 20 February 2018
10A Myth Full of Grief And Despair About One Historical Error
11:27 am 20 February 2018
11Panic Unbearable Legend About The Insects11:20 am 21 February 2018
12Troubled Story About Baba-yaga11:27 am 21 February 2018
13Sinister Saga Of A Sick Tummy And A Girl Who Was Afraid Of Doctors11:20 am 22 February 2018
14Fantastic Story About A Hedgehog, A Boy And Green Humanoids11:27 am 22 February 2018
15Horrible True Story Of How A Boy Was Transferred To Another School11:20 am 23 February 2018
16A Terrible Tale About A Cow Herder On A Stump11:27 am 23 February 2018
17A Ghost Bike Saga Which Makes You Shiver11:20 am 24 February 2018
18Scary Story About Spooky Stories
11:27 am 24 February 2018
19Creepy Tale About Useful Inventions
11:20 am 25 February 2018
20Gloomy Story About the Darkest Dreams
11:27 am 25 February 2018
21Terrible Legend about Thunder and Lightning
11:20 am 26 February 2018
22Terrible Truth about Those Who Are Afraid to Be Little
11:27 am 27 February 2018
23Bloodcurdling Saga about Joyful Event
11:20 am 27 February 2018
24Monstrous Tale about Tall and Short
11:27 am 27 February 2018
25Frightening Incident at the Circus
11:20 am 28 February 2018
26Shocking Story about a Girl Who Was Afraid of Everything
11:27 am 28 February 2018

Criticism and political controversies

On 10 July 2017, activists of the Ukrainian public organization “Council of Public Security” from Odessa demanded that the State Committee for Television and Radio-broadcasting of Ukraine and other state services ban the broadcast of “Masha and the Bear” in Ukraine. The organization called the animated series “a Russian media propaganda product” and stated that “Russian propagandists send a clear message to children: the bear, which is traditionally considered to be a symbol of Russia and is associated with this country, appears as a big strong hero who seizes someone else’s property, house, land with impunity ". Animaccord reacted to the allegations, saying that only the first two seasons are broadcast in Ukraine, and that Ukrainian viewers mostly watch the animated series on the Ukrainian-language Masha and the Bear channel on YouTube, access to which is not blocked in Ukraine.