Masha et Michka

The English version is great. Our six year old has no idea it's dubbed. Very cute. It's nice to hear the talking instead of just noises.

I came across Masha and Medved while I was looking for kid's TV shows in Russian, to help me study the language. I fell in love instantly! The characters convey the same delightful spirit as Wallace and Gromit, Calvin and Hobbes, and the animal "cast" of Tundra. The animation is top quality CGI with plenty of attention to details.

My kids like to watch it with me, even though they don't speak a word of Russian. There's plenty of visual humor and the characters' expressions speak for themselves. Any parent can relate to the poor Bear's patient efforts to keep up with busy Masha, and her adventures in the Siberian forest are the stuff of every kids' dreams.

My Russian fiancée introduced me to this gem of an animated series, My Russian is very poor but you can follow these story's easily even if you know no Russian and they are great for kids. Masha is adorable and the bear and other animals are very funny too. You can follow their adventures on you tube and I think you can get the DVD's too. All together a lovely CGI animation from Russia. I really cannot recommend this highly enough, the kids will love it and I suspect a few adults will too, me included. The animation is fantastic and the detail in these short little story's is superb. A charming, heart-warming and funny series of adventures of a lovable little Russian girl and her friend the bear. I don't know if there is an English version but don't worry as the story's are quite charming even if you cannot speak any Russian. Well worth a look for animation fans of any age.

As someone who grew up on classic Russian 2D animation, I was leery of watching anything CGI, no matter where it was produced! I've seen bits and pieces of stuff made by the various animation studios in so-called "3D" animation - they all stink! I don't care what outfit produced it, I hated it.

Well surprise, surprise when I caught Masha and the Bear the first time I was VERY impressed with the quality of the animation and attention to detail. Once again the Russians have proved the grasp they have on the animation media. no matter what format! The series is an updated version of an old Russian folk tale. In this series a terror tot (Masha) is semi adopted by a retired circus bear and there the fun begins! Masha constantly drives the poor bear to distraction with hilarious results. It's on you tube and is easily accessible! Oh yeah, in case you have doubts, how many you tube programs have nearly 11 million hits! Watch it!

This is a really fun Russian animated series, and our 3 year old can't get enough. In fact, our daughter's antics reminds us of Masha all too often!

You don't need to know Russian as the series generally keeps dialogue to a minimum. All the episodes are presented FREE on YouTube by the company that makes the show, so it's easy to give it a go and see if you'll like it. Some of the episodes are real classics and a crack up to watch.

The only downside is the recent English version. It's horrible. Masha is only about 3 or 4 years old in the show, but the English dialogue makes her sound like she's 8 years old. All the charm is lost, the English dialogue is just too mature and poorly written -- it does not suit an innocent three year old. Not only that, but the voice acting isn't great and sounds stilted. Although that could be a result of the poor lines. Now Masha sounds more like an annoying school-age kid in a Disney movie.

Some of the Russian episodes have English subtitles, and even they are more charming to read than watching the botched English version.

Occasionally Masha sings a Russian song, and again the English translation is a real mess, they could've done a much better job translating the lyrics.

Bottom line: Don't let the English version taint your experience, go see the original episodes. Your young children will love it.