Masha and the Bear

Masha is a four-year-old girl who lives in the forest in an unspecified location in Russia (possibly in Tver Oblast) 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 after multiple failed attempts, the unlikely duo become friends.^[4]

In each episode of the show, Masha is portrayed as a bright little girl who loves exploring the world around her. Masha's shenanigans result in unexpected but entertaining situations that are at the heart of the show's episodes. The kind-hearted Bear is always trying to keep Masha out of trouble. 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 (the Bear's cousin), two wolves who live in an old UAZ ambulance, 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.^[5]

According to the project's director, Denis Chervyatsov,

^[10]

The series' production has been handled domestically at Animaccord Animation Studio since 2008.^[10] 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.^[11]

Masha, her cousin Dasha, and Father Frost are the only characters who speak. The others communicate through gibberish 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 animation studio confirmed that the new voice of Masha would be 6-year-old Barbara Sarantseva and then replaced again by Yulia Zunikova in 2020. The show's sound designer, Boris Kutnevich and Denis Naskarov, provide voices of Bear. Mark Kutnevich provides the voice of Bunny.

For the English version, Elsie Fisher – the voice of Agnes Gru 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), Kaitlyn McCormick (ep. 53-78), Adriana Figuredo (ep. 78-84) and now dubbed by West Rubin and Sofia Calasso.

The soundtrack for each episode is written by Russian composer Vasily Bogatyrev.^{[citation needed]} Many compositions are stylized for famous works: Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, a circus theme from the film Circus, and in the episode "One-Hit Wonder" the rockstar Masha performs a song in the style of the group AC/DC. Most of the songs used in the cartoon, such as the soundtracks of "Laundry Day" and "The Grand Piano Lesson" episodes, became popular in Russia and abroad.^{[citation needed]}

Within Russia, the influence of Masha and the Bear was the subject of debate. Detractors compared it negatively to Western children's shows and saw Masha's behaviour as setting a bad example for Russian children.^[12][13] Lidia Matveeva [ru], a professor at the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University, stated that Masha contradicts "traditional values" about the role of women and fathers in Russian society.^[14] She believes that Masha receives positive reinforcement for her disrespect towards the Bear, whom Matveeva described as both a father figure and a representation of Russia, and general disregard for social norms.^[14] Conversely, Egor Moskvitin of Ogonyok argued that the show promotes progressive pedagogy, in that it portrays Masha learning from her mistakes through experience and gentle help from the Bear rather than through punishment.^[12]

The success of Masha and the Bear abroad was analysed both within and outside Russia. Moskvitin compared the slapstick style to that of Leonid Gaidai and the Marx Brothers, which he believes appeals to a broad range of viewers across the world.^[12] Nataliya Vasilyeva of the Associated Press noted the show's popularity in many Muslim countries, particularly Indonesia, and attributed it to Masha's "folk costume with a headscarf".^[15] A number of European politicians and media outlets have argued that Masha and the Bear is an instrument of Russian soft power.^{[16][17][18][19][20]} Priit Hõbemägi [et], an Estonian journalist and lecturer at Tallinn University, stated that the bear is a symbol commonly associated with Russia and that its portrayal in the show aims to form a positive image of the country in children.^[21] Mark Galeotti, a British historian and expert on Russia, argued that fears about Masha and the Bear were greatly exaggerated and risked fueling unnecessary censorship and xenophobic attitudes toward Russian culture.^[22] Animaccord stated that their project is independent and they have never received funding from the Russian government.^[15][18] During the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, the show is still accessible on YouTube in its Ukrainian-language version and remains highly popular in Ukraine.^[23]

Masha and the Bear on 2019 stamps of Russia

• 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.^{[citation needed]}
• In February 2015, Masha and the Bear won a 2015 Kidscreen Award for Best Animation in the Creative Talent.^[24]
• 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.^{[citation needed]}
• In 2018, the cartoon was included in the Guinness World Records as the most-watched animated video on YouTube, with the episode "Recipe for Disaster" that today counts over 4.4 billion views.^[25] The episode was included in the most viewed video of all time, together with such well-known artists as Ed Sheeran with "Shape of You" video and Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee with "Despacito".^{[citation needed]}

The first Masha and the Bear mobile app was released by Apps Ministry in August 2011.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Netflix has released 27 of the first 29 episodes in 9 episodes of 3 segments each.^{[citation needed]} Many of the videos were uploaded multiple times on three YouTube channels ("Маша и Медведь", "Get Movies" and "Masha and The Bear") so their view counts across up to three channels have been combined.^[26][27][28]

• English (United States; all English-speaking countries) – Masha and the Bear
  • Teletoon (2016–2017)
  • Treehouse TV (2017–2020)
  • Universal Kids (2017–2025)
  • Disney Junior
  • Tiny Pop (2017–2026)
  • Pop Plus
  • Kabillion
  • ABC Kids
  • DreamWorks Channel
  • Netflix
  • Cartoonito
  • National Communications Network
  • A2Z (2021, 2023)^[30]
  • Kapamilya Channel (2022)^[31]
  • Yey! (13–30 June 2020)^{[32][unreliable source]}
  • iWantTFC (2020; 2023)^[33]
  • Cartoonito
• French (Canada) – Masha et Michka
  • Télé-Québec (formerly)
  • Télétoon (formerly)
• French (France) – Masha et Michka
  • Piwi+
  • France 5 (Zouzous block)
  • RTBF
  • La Trois
• German (Germany) – Mascha und der Bär
  • KiKA
  • Boomerang (formerly)
  • ORF 1 (formerly)
  • SRF 1
  • SRF zwei (formerly)
• Swiss German (Switzerland) – Mascha und dä Bär
  • SRF 1^[34]
• Greek (Greece) - Η Μάσα και ο Αρκούδος
  • Boomerang (formerly)
  • Star Channel
• Ukrainian – Маша та Ведмідь
  • 1+1 (formerly)
  • PlusPlus (formerly)
  • ТЕТ (formerly)
• Hungarian, Czech, Serbian, Romanian, Slovene
  • Minimax
• Urdu (Pakistan)
  • LTN Family
• Vietnamese
  • K+
• Arabic (Middle East And North Africa) – ماشا و الدب
  • Spacetoon (2015–present)
• Indonesian
  • ANTV (2013; 2023–2025)
  • VTV Indonesia (2023–present)
  • Kids TV (2022-present)

Masha and the Bear left Universal Kids in the US on 1 January 2023, but cable TV providers like Charter Spectrum and DirecTV state that it is still there, and also streaming services like FuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, and DirecTV Stream. The show returned to Universal Kids in the US on 4 August 2023 after seven months of being off the air.^{[35][better source needed]}

• List of most-viewed YouTube videos
• Be-Be-Bears
• List of most-subscribed YouTube channels