Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
KikoRiki
KikoRiki, sometimes known outside Russia as GoGoRiki or BalloonToons, occasionally referred by the original Russian name: Smeshariki (Russian: Смешарики), is a Russian animated television series consisting of 408 episodes of 6 minutes and 30 seconds (and 11 minutes) each, originally intended for children under 14, however behind the outward simplicity and childish naivety of the plots, the authors hid serious, adult, and even philosophical themes. This series uses mostly both flash animation and computer animation.
The first episode premiered in Russia on December 22, 2003. The KikoRiki are stylized rounded animals. Its Russian name, Smeshariki, is a portmanteau of the words смешные, "funny" and шарики, "little balls". The series includes complex themes and specific cultural references. The series is aired in 60 countries, is translated to 15 languages and has an everyday audience of 50 million people. The audience in China surpasses the audience in Russia. As of 2020, episodes are currently available on KinoPoisk in Russia.
Over time, the series gained cult status, with critics praising it for writing, the variety of genres among episodes, including their philosophy, references to other works and the visual style. Some criticize the animation style for artistic primitivism, pointing out certain technical limitations.
English-language licensing rights to the series were acquired by 4Kids Entertainment from worldwide distributor Fun Game Media, Munich, with television distribution handled by CBS Television Distribution, and began airing as part of The CW4Kids programming block on The CW on September 27, 2008, under the name GoGoRiki, and continued to air until November 14, 2009, when The CW's broadcasting rights and 4Kids Entertainment's license agreement expired. Fun Game Media was also producing a European version, which began airing on KI.KA on December 8, 2008 which goes under the name "Kikoriki". It was also adapted for European broadcasting by the German company, Studio 100 Media in 2008 under the name "BalloonToons". On February 2017, all rights to KikoRiki and PinCode outside of the CIS territories, including KikoRiki episodes in all languages other than Russian, are owned by a newly formed company FUN Union based in Hong Kong. Since October 2024, worldwide rights to KikoRiki, PinCode, and BabyRiki are now owned by Animotion Media Group.
The series of Kikoriki was created as part of the cultural-educational project "World Without Violence" within the Russian 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 2000 specifically for Smeshariki.
On January 24, 2007, it was announced that a Smeshariki/Kikoriki feature film was to be made by the St. Petersburg company "Marmelad-media" (which owns the brand) to be released in December 2011. This film was shot in 3D CGI, unlike the 2D Flash-animated series. 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 would depend on a number of factors, such as whether it will be sold internationally (in which case the budget would be up to $15 million) or limited to Russia (in which case it will cost around $3–4 million). Popov considered spending anything over $5 million to be unprofitable (the highest-grossing Russian animated film to date, Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber, cost $2.5 million and made just under $10 million; since around half of the profits usually go to the distributors, if it had cost over $5 million it would not have been profitable). The film was released domestically in December 2011, but received a limited release in the UK in early 2012. The film was considered a well-thought-through prequel, its plot explaining events that brought the nine animal characters together in the first place.
Two other films entitled Kikoriki: Legend of the Golden Dragon and Kikoriki: Deja Vu were released on March 17, 2016, and April 26, 2018.
"The ABCs of Safety of the Kikoriki" (Russian: Азбука безопасности Смешариков) is a series of instructional and educational short cartoons. A total of 73 episodes were issued, lasting either one minute and thirty seconds, or the conventional six minutes and thirty seconds. Each episode was part of several categories: traffic safety, Fundamentals of safety and life, health, morals, reading skills, children's rights, etc.
Hub AI
KikoRiki AI simulator
(@KikoRiki_simulator)
KikoRiki
KikoRiki, sometimes known outside Russia as GoGoRiki or BalloonToons, occasionally referred by the original Russian name: Smeshariki (Russian: Смешарики), is a Russian animated television series consisting of 408 episodes of 6 minutes and 30 seconds (and 11 minutes) each, originally intended for children under 14, however behind the outward simplicity and childish naivety of the plots, the authors hid serious, adult, and even philosophical themes. This series uses mostly both flash animation and computer animation.
The first episode premiered in Russia on December 22, 2003. The KikoRiki are stylized rounded animals. Its Russian name, Smeshariki, is a portmanteau of the words смешные, "funny" and шарики, "little balls". The series includes complex themes and specific cultural references. The series is aired in 60 countries, is translated to 15 languages and has an everyday audience of 50 million people. The audience in China surpasses the audience in Russia. As of 2020, episodes are currently available on KinoPoisk in Russia.
Over time, the series gained cult status, with critics praising it for writing, the variety of genres among episodes, including their philosophy, references to other works and the visual style. Some criticize the animation style for artistic primitivism, pointing out certain technical limitations.
English-language licensing rights to the series were acquired by 4Kids Entertainment from worldwide distributor Fun Game Media, Munich, with television distribution handled by CBS Television Distribution, and began airing as part of The CW4Kids programming block on The CW on September 27, 2008, under the name GoGoRiki, and continued to air until November 14, 2009, when The CW's broadcasting rights and 4Kids Entertainment's license agreement expired. Fun Game Media was also producing a European version, which began airing on KI.KA on December 8, 2008 which goes under the name "Kikoriki". It was also adapted for European broadcasting by the German company, Studio 100 Media in 2008 under the name "BalloonToons". On February 2017, all rights to KikoRiki and PinCode outside of the CIS territories, including KikoRiki episodes in all languages other than Russian, are owned by a newly formed company FUN Union based in Hong Kong. Since October 2024, worldwide rights to KikoRiki, PinCode, and BabyRiki are now owned by Animotion Media Group.
The series of Kikoriki was created as part of the cultural-educational project "World Without Violence" within the Russian 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 2000 specifically for Smeshariki.
On January 24, 2007, it was announced that a Smeshariki/Kikoriki feature film was to be made by the St. Petersburg company "Marmelad-media" (which owns the brand) to be released in December 2011. This film was shot in 3D CGI, unlike the 2D Flash-animated series. 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 would depend on a number of factors, such as whether it will be sold internationally (in which case the budget would be up to $15 million) or limited to Russia (in which case it will cost around $3–4 million). Popov considered spending anything over $5 million to be unprofitable (the highest-grossing Russian animated film to date, Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber, cost $2.5 million and made just under $10 million; since around half of the profits usually go to the distributors, if it had cost over $5 million it would not have been profitable). The film was released domestically in December 2011, but received a limited release in the UK in early 2012. The film was considered a well-thought-through prequel, its plot explaining events that brought the nine animal characters together in the first place.
Two other films entitled Kikoriki: Legend of the Golden Dragon and Kikoriki: Deja Vu were released on March 17, 2016, and April 26, 2018.
"The ABCs of Safety of the Kikoriki" (Russian: Азбука безопасности Смешариков) is a series of instructional and educational short cartoons. A total of 73 episodes were issued, lasting either one minute and thirty seconds, or the conventional six minutes and thirty seconds. Each episode was part of several categories: traffic safety, Fundamentals of safety and life, health, morals, reading skills, children's rights, etc.