Masha and the Bear

Masha and the Bear
Russian	Маша и Медведь
Genre	Adventure, comedy
Created by	Oleg Kuzovkov
Opening theme	original theme
Country of origin	Russia
Original language	Russian
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	81
Production
Running time	7 minutes per episode
Production company	Animaccord Animation Studio
Original release
Network	Samaa TV (2011—2018) Russia-K (2014—present)
Release	18 January 2009 (2009-01-18) – present

Masha and the Bear (Template:Lang-ru; Russian pronunciation: [ˈmaʂə i mʲɪdˈvetʲ]) is a Russian animated television series created by Oleg Kuzovkov and produced by Animaccord Animation Studio (Moscow, the Russian Federation), 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 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" ("Recipe for Disaster") has more than 4.1 billion views as of August 2019, making it the site's fourth most viewed video of all time, and the most viewed video on YouTube that is not a music video. The remaining 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 780 million views; "La Dolce Vita", with over 720 million views; "Hocus-Pocus", with over 670 million views; "One, Two, Three! Light the Christmas Tree!", with over 630 million views; "Two Much", with over 490 million views; "Little Cousin", with over 470 million views; and "Home-Grown Ninjas", with over 360 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 COMUNIQUE acquired a license to create an ice show based on Masha and the Bear stories called Masha and the Bear on Ice. 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. All the animals in the forest are afraid of her as she is constantly forcing them to play with her. One morning, Masha sees a butterfly and inadvertently follows it inside the home of a bear who has gone fishing. While playing there, she makes a big mess. When the Bear 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

A sculpture of Masha and The Bear along with their friend Hare in Yelan.

Masha (a diminutive form of Maria) is a six-year-old girl. Masha is naughty and hyperactive, and always thinks about playing. She lives in a house near a railway station; near her house there is a path that leads to Bear's house. Masha loves Bear very much, but in her games she tends to create problems for Bear. Her parents do not appear in the series. She loves sweets, jumping in a bucket, and looking at drawings of Masha and Bear. Masha's character combines the characteristics of 6-year-olds (making grammatical errors when speaking, crying when she is not given what she wants) with adult skills (playing tennis, fishing, making preserves, playing electric guitar). She is voiced by Alina Kukushkina. In English, Masha was voiced by Giselle Nieto, Elsie Fisher and Rebecca Bloom.

Bear

The Bear is a retired circus bear who lives in a house hollowed out of a tree in the forest. His past occupation makes him very talented in performing arts (like juggling, unicycling, and even stage magic) although he's also known to dabble into other hobbies and even some intellectual pursuits. Some episodes feature flashbacks in which he remembers his childhood as a cub in the same house. In some episodes of the Russian-language version, Masha calls him "Mishka" (Russian: Мишка, lit. "Little Bear"), which is a traditional name given to bears in Russian tales. He is a huge bear with a big heart and he is Masha's father-like figure, as well as a friendly figure to her. He was voiced by Boris Kutnevich.

Masha's Pets

A dog, a goat, and a pig (and in the first episode, chickens) who live outside Masha's house in her front yard but almost every time Masha comes out they hide themselves to avoid her. The Pig is often forced to play with Masha, who makes it dress up like a baby in a stroller. In the episode "Dance Fever" it is revealed that the pig's name is Rosie.

The Wild Animals

The wild animals are a hare, squirrels, hedgehogs, and two wolves. Masha and a certain Hare (in the episode 'One, two three! Light the Christmas Tree' the present list of Father Frost in English describes this creature as 'Bunny') often play hockey together (and make a mess or accidentally hurt someone), and the Hare is occasionally an antagonist of the Bear, due to stealing carrots from the Bear's garden. The two Wolves live in a derelict ambulance car on top of a hill and often look for something to eat, and strangely act as medics for any apparent injuries or illnesses though they sometimes fear Masha (due to the Russian idiomatic expression "wolves are orderlies of the woods" ("Волки — санитары леса"), living in an ambulance cab and acting as medics is a pun).

She-Bear

The She-Bear is a female bear. The Bear is enamored of her and sometimes goes out of his way to impress or even woo her. The first time she rebuffed him in favor of the Black Bear, only to realize how self-absorbed he is, and another time she turned her nose up at the Bear's classical guitar playing as she preferred more modern music. Even so, the She-Bear usually opens up to the Bear, such as the time she agreed to have a dinner with him, and she is sometimes kind to Masha, such as giving her a fashion magazine, helping to train her for her tennis match against the Black Bear, and helping her learn to ice-skate.

Dasha

Dasha is Masha's cousin from Moscow. She looks like Masha but she is very different, she has beige hair, blue eyes, wears blue glasses and an orange dress. She is afraid of the Bear and calls him "Shaggy".

Panda

Panda is a panda cub and the Bear's young cousin from China. He and Masha are rivals, often bickering every time he comes for a visit, but they occasionally get along and have fun together.

Whiskers n' Stripes

A tiger who is Bear's best friend from their days performing together in the circus.

The Black Bear

A himalayan black bear, who is Bear's worst enemy and Bear's chief rival for the attentions of the She-Bear. The Black Bear has an arrogant and unsportsmanlike personality, cheating to win against Masha in a tennis game, and laughing at her when she grows gigantic. Bear's biggest fear is if Black Bear and She-Bear marry which is shown in Game Over when Bear imagines what will happen if he plays games his whole life.

Penguin

A penguin that first appears in "The Foundling", as an egg that Masha finds and makes the Bear hatch. The Penguin quickly imprints on the Bear as his parental-figure and the Bear forms a sincere bond with him but chooses to send the Penguin to live in Antarctica for his own health. Even so, they stay in touch and the Penguin once visited.

Father Frost

A Santa Claus-like character from Russia who appears in Christmas-themed shows.

Four-eyed aliens

These aliens appeared in episode 65. They live far away from Earth in the Universe. When 3 specimen accidentally crashed on Earth they were helped by Bear and Masha to get back to their spaceship.

Sources

According to the project's director, Denis Chervyatsov,

Masha was based on a real person… In the 1990s, the project's artistic director, Oleg Kuzovkov, was on holiday when he saw a little girl on the beach. The child was so genuine and open that she could easily walk up to a stranger and play chess with him or pick up his flippers and go swimming. However, after a few days, the vacationers began to hide…

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 (MashaBearTV).

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 (seven years later in 2015), 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 (ep. 27–39) and Angelica Keamy (ep. 40–52) and now is Giulia De Carvalho and Kaitlyn McCormick.

Music

The music for each episode is written by Russian composer Vasiliy Bogatirev. 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 (Kidscreen Hot50) and the top 10 production companies of the year.
• As of August 2019, one copy of the video "Recipe For Disaster" has received over 4.1 billion views on YouTube, making it the site's fourth 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.

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 ("Маша и Медведь", "Get Movies" and "Masha and The Bear") so their view counts across up to three channels have been combined.

Episodes

First season (2009–10)

Episode	Title	Netflix sequence	YouTube views (millions)
1	How They Meet	1.1.1	441
2	Don't Wake Till Spring!	1.1.2	320
3	One, Two, Three! Light the Christmas Tree!	1.1.3	850
4	Tracks of Unknown Animals	1.3.1	306
5	Prances with Wolves	1.2.2	318
6	Jam Day	1.2.1	666
7	Springtime for the Bear	1.2.3	213
8	Gone Fishing	1.4.1	205
9	Call Me Please!	1.4.3	226
10	Holiday on Ice	1.6.1	309
11	First Day of School	1.8.1	284
12	No Trespassing!	1.8.3	123
13	Hide and Seek Is Not for the Weak	1.5.2	318
14	Watch Out!	1.3.2	182
15	Little Cousin	1.6.3	631
16	Get Well Soon!	1.9.2	302
17	Recipe For Disaster	1.7.1	4253
18	Laundry Day	1.5.1	1317
19	The Grand Piano Lesson	1.8.2	323
20	Stripes and Whiskers	1.4.2	230
21	Home Alone	1.3.3	209
22	Hold Your Breath	1.7.2	290
23	The Foundling	1.7.3	882
24	Bon Appétit!	2.6.2	1512
25	Hokus-Pokus	1.6.2	786
26	Home Improvement	1.5.3	373

Second season (2011–2015)

Episode	Title	Netflix sequence	YouTube views (millions)
1/27	Picture Perfect	2.1.1	338
2/28	Time To Ride My Pony	1.9.3	216
3/29	One-Hit Wonder	1.9.1	236
4/30	Growing Potion	2.1.3	357
5/31	Swept Away	2.1.2	119
6/32	All in the Family	2.3.3	285
7/33	Sweet Life	2.2.1	786
8/34	Just Shoot Me	—	197
9/35	Kidding Around	2.2.2	147
10/36	Two Much	2.4.3	498
11/37	Bon Voyage	2.2.3	164
12/38	Trading Places Day	2.3.2	201
13/39	The Thriller Night	2.7.2	205
14/40	Terrible Power	2.4.1	279
15/41	Hat Trick	2.4.2	257
16/42	And Action!	2.5.1	192
17/43	Self-Made Hero	2.7.1	312
18/44	Once upon in a Year	2.3.1	276
19/45	The Weird Case	2.5.3	154
20/46	Dance Teacher	2.7.3	215
21/47	Victory Cry	2.5.2	344
22/48	Cave Bear	2.8.1	295
23/49	Dear Show	2.6.3	307
24/50	Harvest Party	2.8.2	412
25/51	Home-Grown Ninjas	2.6.1	479
26/52	See You Later	2.8.3	246

Third season (2016–19)

Episode	Title	Netflix sequence	YouTube views (millions)
1/53	Coming Home Ain't Easy	3.1.1	193
2/54	The Very Fairy Tale	3.1.2	275
3/55	Hey, Let's Run!	3.2.1	298
4/56	It's Scary As a Horrified	3.2.3	145
5/57	The Camping Trip	—	144
6/58	Cat and Mouse	3.2.2	202
7/59	Game Over	3.4.2	131
8/60	At Your Rules!	3.3.1	298
9/61	Do Not Part With Your Toy!	3.4.3	172
10/62	Please, Sleep, Sleep!	3.1.3	313
11/63	Surprise! Surprise! Happy Easter	3.3.1	460
12/64	Three Musketeers	3.3.3	104
13/65	Have Contact	—	90
14/66	Tee for Three	—	83
15/67	Best Medicine	—	188
16/68	Additional Entertainment	—	77
17/69	Relax and Just Relax	—	116
18/70	The Star from the Sky	—	175
19/71	What a wonderful game!	—	72
20/72	That's Your Cue!	—	72
21/73	Fishy Story	3.3.2	123
22/74	Monkey Business	—	90
23/75	Not a Royal Affair	—	88
24/76	All Life in the Theater	—	56
25/77	Around the world in one hour	—	28
26/78	What to Be?	—	35

Fourth season (2019–)

Episode	Title	Netflix sequence	YouTube views (millions)
1/79	Where All Love to Sing	—	16
2/80	Latest Fashion	—	22
3/81	Patience and Labor	—	22

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 premieres on Junior. It will premiere on Malyatko TV in Russia, Chutti TV in India, and Mult and Tlum in Russia on August 1, 2019.

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 (voiced by a much older actress) 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 (Such as putting a magical nutcracker who turns into a prince when she adapts Cinderella). 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 (reruns 9 February 2018 at 11:27 am)
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 (TV guides misspell "Whither" as "Wither")	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 (aka "A ghastly belief about New Year verselet")	11:20 am 17 February 2018
6	Grim Parable About Superstitious Girl (aka "A gloomy parable of a superstitious girl")	11:27 am 17 February 2018
7	Grim Testament About One Snotty Boy (aka "A gloomy covenant about a 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 (aka "A horrific story about a Grandma and her Grandson")	11:20 am 20 February 2018
10	A Myth Full of Grief And Despair About One Historical Error (aka "A full of despair myth about a historical mistake")	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 (A classic spooky story.)	11:27 am 24 February 2018
19	Creepy Tale About Useful Inventions (A spooky story about useful inventions.)	11:20 am 25 February 2018
20	Gloomy Story About the Darkest Dreams (Computer games with monsters.)	11:27 am 25 February 2018
21	Terrible Legend about Thunder and Lightning (A story about thunder and lightning.)	11:20 am 26 February 2018
22	Terrible Truth about Those Who Are Afraid to Be Little (A story about being little.)	11:27 am 27 February 2018
23	Bloodcurdling Saga about Joyful Event (Hearing news about joyful events.)	11:20 am 27 February 2018
24	Monstrous Tale about Tall and Short (Masha discovers a strange law of nature.)	11:27 am 27 February 2018
25	Frightening Incident at the Circus (A scary story about a strange clown.)	11:20 am 28 February 2018
26	Shocking Story about a Girl Who Was Afraid of Everything (A story about a girl who is 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.

See also

• List of most-viewed YouTube videos

External links

• Official website
• Masha and the Bear's channel on YouTube
• Masha and the Bear at IMDb