Smeshariki

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Logo and characters

Smeshariki (Russian: Смеша́рики) is a Russian animated television series consisting of 208 episodes of 6 minutes and 30 seconds each, aimed at children of 4 to 9 years. The first episode premiered in Russia on July 7, 2004. The series has been aquired by 4Kids Entertainment in the United States and will air as part of the CW4Kids block beginning this fall.

The Smeshariki (the name is derived from "smeshnye" meaning "funny ones", and "shariki" meaning "little balls") are stylized round animals. Each of the 10 characters has a unique personality and range of interests, and there are no negative characters among them. Plots are built not on the battle of opposing forces but on the unexpected situations which the animated characters stumble upon in their interactions, which are similar to ones that children may encounter in their everyday lives. Much attention was given to the humour in the series, some of which has attracted adults as well.

The roundness of the characters, according to the creators, highlights their kind personalities and allows them to be easily drawn even by a child.

1 Creators
2 Characters
3 Feature film
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Creators

The series was created as part of the cultural-educational project "World Without Violence" as part of the federal program "Forming bulwarks of tolerance and preventing extremism in Russian society". It is made with the help of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and with the participation of the company "Master-Film" at the computer animation studio "Peterburg", which was created in March 2003 specifically for Smeshariki.

Artistic director: Anatoliy Prokhorov
General producer: Ilya Popov
Co-producers: Aleksandr Gerasimov, Vyacheslav Mayasov
Leading drector: Denis Chernov
Leading writer: Aleksey Lebedev
Art director: Salavat Shaykhinurov
Composers: Marina Landa, Sergey Vasilyev

[edit] Characters

[edit] Krosh

A happy rabbit. He firmly knows that everything in the world must be interesting and fun. He loves all questionable adventures such as a hike in the mountains (series "Good News"), diving for treasures, where their submarine was almost almost destroyed ("Ballast"). He does not like to fulfill his promises if it is difficult to fulfill them ("Streets of Kapatych"). He once lost his entire crop of carrots to a slot machine ("Big Whoop"). And the fact that he does not like to sleep in the afternoon almost ended poorly for him, though because of Kar-Karych ("Pedagogical Poem"). Even his house reflects his character: it has two entrances, with an outside ladder leading to the second one on which it is possible to run up.

Voice: Anton Vinogradov

[edit] Yozhik (Hedgehog)

Quiet and behaved. Unlike Krosh he does not like the adventures which his best friend loves; this is because of those adventures almost ended poorly for him ("Good news"). He must fulfill all of his promises, no matter how unpalatable they are ("Promises"). But sometimes he's simply unrecognisable. For example, he once drew his portrait on the field of Kopatych, stamping down the stalks so that it would be visible from the top ("Do They Think About You on the Stars?"). Unlike Krosh, he believes in Father Frost ("Operation "Father Frost">). Around his house in the form of a mushroom is a small garden with apples. Yozhik likes to collect various things, and this once almost cost him his friendship with Krosh ("Collection"). He likes to grow cactuses. He looks for them in the desert, where Big Races take place.

Voice: Vladimir Postnikov (Before voice - Anton Vinogradov)

[edit] Nyusha

A pig who wants to become a princess. More than anything else, she likes to beautify herself and read books about princes and knights ("A Prince for Nyusha"). She's afraid of scary stories ("A Scary Story for Nyusha"). She dreams of becoming a beauty queen ("Miss Universe"). Can't cook blintzes, but is learning how to ("Maslenitsa"), and one time she even went on a submarine to look for pirate gold as ballast ("Ballast"). She loves when guests come to visit her, rather than when she comes as a guest to someone else's place ("How to Quickly Gather Friends").

Voice: Svetlana Pismichenko

[edit] Barash (ram)

A poet. He loves to create poetry, though it doesn't always come to him. He sometimes goes to extraordinary lengths to find inspiration ("Play, Garmon!"). Barash is a "night owl" in that he goes to sleep late and wakes up late ("Live Clocks"). He's afraid of heights ("Talisman"). He dabbles in music sometimes, though sometimes with poor results ("La"). Sometimes through outside circumstances he finds himself in an adventure ("Goodbye, Barash"). He feels that becoming sick is a good thing.

Voice: Vadim Bochanov.

[edit] Kar Karych

A crow. An artist in the widest sense of the word. Sometimes, his artistry leads to some bad results: for example, he once hit a goal into his own net because he tried to hit a goal into the opposing net in an artistic way ("Football, First Time"). He believes that one should sleep during the day as well. One time this helped Pin, who took a nap while steering a seaplane which then accidentally picked up the skeeping Kar Karych in his rocking chair ("Flights in Dream and Feel"). Kar Karych once destroyed with a hammer eight telegraph devices at night that Krosh and Yozhik found in Pin's stores, after they started communicating with each other exclusively through them ("Telegraph"). His house is peculiar in that it is painted only on the front.

Voice: Sergey Mardar

[edit] Sovunya (owl)

is a doctor in the Round Country. She cures anything. Sometimes Kar Karych is also present, and the two have arguments about what the patient is sick with, a cold or a flu ("ОРЗ"). She lives in the den of a big tree on a high hill in the north-east of the country, to where it is very difficult to wheel a bed with a sick Nyusha ("How to Gather Friends Quickly"). She teaches Nyusha how to cook pancaкes(Pancake week). If anyone is depressed, she raises their spirits ("Plywood Sun"). If she's very angry, she can bring forth rain with thunder ("The Energy of the Snore").

Voice: Sergey Mardar (Before voice - Svetlana Pismichenko)

[edit] Pin (penguin)

A self-taught inventor who speaks with a German accent. He constructs anything from anything and doesn't care how well it works; to him, the process is the most important thing. He once constructed a garbage incinerator that ate half of his own fence and notebook and Yozhik's doormat ("The Energy of the Snore"). This machine greatly helped them when they found in their lagoon several dozen barrels of oil which were leaking ("Small Big Sea"). He made a computer for Losyash ("Triumph of Reason"), a lawn mower for Kopatych ("Repair is a Collective Job"), a snowmobile for himself ("Where Does the Old Year Go?"), a fireworks machine ("Day of Fairness"), a robot for Krosh and Yozhik, whom they couldn't take ("Metallic Nanny"), and the robot Bibi. He sleeps in a specially-equipped refrigerator which stands near his home.

[edit] Bibi

an intelligent robot whom Pin created without much effort. First he learned everything that Pin could teach him, and then disappeared ("Bibi and His Father"). After some time he came back and it was found out that he had been in space and had come to visit for a little while ("Bibi's Holidays"). After some time Pin decided to go and look for him ("Cosmic Odyssey")

[edit] Losyash (moose)

A real scientist. His home is filled with books. He can predict the weather ("Meteorology") and the future ("A Gift of Fate"). At the time of Krosh's, Yozhik's and Barash's ascent up the mountain, he had a communication station at his home, with the second belonging to Krosh ("Good News"). In the episode "Pedagogical Poem", he inspected Krosh, received the encephalogram and put forth his diagnosis: "He's asleep".

[edit] Kopatych

A bear farmer, growing everything except pineapples. It's he who grows the best carrots for Krosh, some mushrooms for Yozhik, and the best cherry for the pirogis of Kar Karych. he also has several fields adjoining his property, on which he grows wheat and fagopyrum. It was them that Pin sprayed from his seaplane ("Flights in Dream and Feel"), and it is there that Yozhik drew his portrait.

[edit] Feature film

On January 24, 2007, it was announced that a Smeshariki feature film is being made by the St. Petersburg company "Marmelad-media" (which owns the brand) for a planned release of late 2009.^[1] An initial budget of $1 million was given to produce a "test film" to show to international partners. According to Marmelad-media's general director Ilya Popov, the final budget will depend on a number of factors, such as whether the film is made in 2D or 3D and whether it will be sold internationally (in which case the budget would be up to $15 million) or limited to Russian theatres (in which case it will cost around $3-4 million). If the film is limited to Russia, Popov considers spending anything over $5 million to be unprofitable (the highest-grossing Russian animated film, Prince Vladimir, cost $5 million and made $5.8 million, meaning that it was likely not profitable since part of the profits go to distributors).