Masha and the Bear

Masha

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

Masha (a diminutive form of Maria) is a 4-year-old girl who is portrayed as 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 the Bear's house. Masha loves the bear very much, but in her games she tends to create problems for him. In the series, neither Masha's parents nor the parents of her friends are shown. She loves sweets, jumping in a bucket, and looking at drawings of her and Bear. Masha's character combines the characteristics of 4-year-old (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 and throwing tantrums). In the episode "God Save the Queen", it is revealed that Masha has super strength, as she managed to pull a multi-ton train near her house just to give an elegant reception for the Lion King. She is voiced by Alina Kukushkina in Russian, and in English by Elsie Fisher.[5] In subsequent seasons, Masha was dubbed by Rebecca Bloom (ep. 27–39), Angelica Keamy (ep. 40–52), Giulia De Carvalho (53-91), and now dubbed by Kaitlyn McCormick. She is usually shown wearing a white shirt under a purple dress with a purple hood covering her short hair.

Bear

The bear is a retired circus Kamchatka brown 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 the Russian-language version, Masha calls him "Mishka" (Russian: Мишка, a diminutive form of Russian name Misha, lit. "Mikey", fig. "Little Bear"), the 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 & Irina Kukushkina. He earlier also resided in Moscow.

Masha's Pets

A terrier, a goat, and a pig (and in the episode "How They Met", three 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 Rabbit, red squirrels, hedgehogs, and two wolves. Masha and a certain Hare—in “One, two three! Light the Christmas Tree”, Father Frost’s list calls him ‘Bunny’, and in “Surprise! Surprise!” he delivers painted eggs—often play hockey together (and make a mess or accidentally hurt someone). 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, often looking for something to eat, and act as medics for any apparent injuries or illnesses, though they sometimes fear Masha (living in an ambulance cab and acting as medics is a pun on the Russian idiomatic expression Волки — санитары леса, "wolves are orderlies of the woods").

She-Bear

The She-Bear is a female grizzly bear. The Bear is enamored of her and sometimes goes out of his way to impress her. The first time she rebuffed him in favor of the Black Bear, only to realize how self-absorbed he is. Another time, she turned her nose up at the Bear's classical guitar playing as she preferred more modern music.[6] 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, who looks like Masha, but is more "ladylike", has platinum-blonde hair and blue eyes (Masha's are green), wears boxy blue-rimmed glasses and an orange dress. She is afraid of the Bear and calls him "Shaggy", "Monster" and "Beast".[7] She is voiced by Alina Kukushkina.

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.

Lion

A lion wearing a crown, who is a good friend of the bear. He sometimes visits the bear, to play together the game of chess or for collective outdoor adventures. He was always disturbed by Masha, sometimes being advised to him not to help bear as a king is not supposed to help anyone. Once the lion offered his crown to Masha, making her a queen for temporary basis.

Whiskers n' Stripes

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

An Adélie 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.[8] Even so, they stay in touch and the Penguin once visited.

Ded Moroz (fig. Grandfather Frost)

A Russian version of Santa Claus (from Russian fairy tales) who appears in Christmas-themed episodes.

Four-eyed aliens

A trio of alien specimens who accidentally crashed on Earth, they were helped by Bear and Masha to get back to their spaceship.

Twelve Months

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 Manager 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.

Compositing is the final stage of production, where the compositors review all shots of an episode, checking the color intensities, smoothing the edges of 3D models, adding 2D/3D effects 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 'Masha and the Bear - Official Channel' formerly 'MashaBearTV' before it can be shown on TV.

Logo of 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.[20]

Debut dates listed per Treehouse TV:

Another spin-off of the Masha and the Bear franchise, Masha's Spooky Stories, premiered on Cartoonito UK and Netflix in October 2016.[20]

Debuts dates listed are for English releases in Canada on Treehouse TV, original air dates in Russia unknown: