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(s) | Russian |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 74 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 7 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Animaccord Animation Studio |
| Distributor | Animaccord Animation Studio |
| Release | |
| Original network | Russia 1 |
| Original release | 18 January 2009 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Masha and the Bear (Russian: Ма́ша и Медве́дь, translit. Masha i Medved 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.[1]
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.[2]
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 3.2 billion views, 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.[3] The remaining top ten most viewed Masha and the Bear videos are: "Bon Appétit", with over 1.1 billion views; "Laundry Day", with over 1.0 billion views; "The Foundling", with over 720 million views; "La Dolce Vita", with over 710 million views; "Hocus-Pocus", with over 610 million views; "One, Two, Three! Light the Christmas Tree!", with over 520 million views; "Two Much", with over 480 million views; "Little Cousin", with over 450 million views; and "Home-Grown Ninjas", with over 350 million views. Masha and the Bear is the only non-music artist to have more than one video exceeding a billion 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.[2]
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 October 3, 2015, in Košice, Slovakia, and has also been performed in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and Estonia.[4]
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.
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...[5]
Production
The series' production has been handled domestically at Animaccord Animation studio since 2008.[5] 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.[6]
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.[2] 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.[1]
- In February 2015, Masha and the Bear won a 2015 Kidscreen Award for Best Animation in the Creative Talent.[7]
- 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 2018, one copy of the video "Recipe For Disaster" has received over 3.2 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.[8]
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."[9] 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!"[9]
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
Season 1: 2009-2012
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Season 2: 2012-2015
Season 3: 2015-2018
Masha's Spooky StoriesDebuts dates listed are for English releases in Canada on Treehouse TV, original air dates in Russia unknown:
Masha's TalesSeries description is "Masha retells fairy tales in her own way." Debut dates listed per Treehouse TV:
International broadcast
CharactersMashaMasha (Diminutive form of the name Maria/Mary) 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. BearThe Bear is a retired circus bear who lives in a tree house 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, English: Literally “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 best friend, as well as a parental figure to her. He was voiced by Boris Kutnevich. Masha's PetsA dog, a goat, a pig, and, in the first episode, chickens. They 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 AnimalsThe wild animals are a rabbit, 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-BearThe 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. DashaDasha 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". PandaPanda 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' StripesA tiger who is Bear's best friend from their days performing together in the circus. The Black BearA 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. PenguinA 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 FrostHe is a Santa Claus-like character from Russia who appears in Christmas-themed shows. Four-eyed aliensThese 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. .JPG) A sculpture of Masha and The Bear along with their friend Hare in Yelan. Spin-offsA 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.[28] Another spin-off of the Masha and the Bear franchise – Masha's Spooky Stories – premiered on Cartoonito UK and Netflix in October 2016.[29] See also
References
External links
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