Kikoriki


Kikoriki, known in the United States as GoGoRiki and in Russia as Smeshariki, is a Russian animated television series consisting of 209 episodes of 6 minutes and 30 seconds each, aimed at children of 3 to 8 years. The first episode premiered in Russia on May 17, 2004. The Smeshariki are stylized rounded animals. 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.
In May 2019, in Beijing as part of the talks between Asian civilizations, Russian and Chinese animators have made two agreements regarding cooperation, one of which involves the joint creation of the cartoon entitled Панда и Смешарики. The Chinese side of this project will be represented by the animation division of the Central Television Agency of China. After 8 years of break, the show has been renewed for official 3rd season, which serves as a continuation for the original 2D animated series; it has been sponsored by Yandex and the new 52 episodes will be available exclusively on a streaming service Kinopoisk HD.

Distribution

distribution rights to the series were acquired by 4Kids Entertainment from worldwide distributor Fun Game Media, Munich and began airing as part of The CW4Kids block on The CW on September 13, 2008, under the name GoGoRiki. GoGoRiki began its second season in the United States on August 22, 2009. Fun Game Media was also producing a European version, which began airing on KI.KA on December 8, 2008. Since 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 FUN Union.

Episodes

Characters

The series 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 feature film was to be made by the St. Petersburg company "Marmelad-media" to be released in December 2011. This movie 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 or limited to Russia. Popov considered spending anything over $5 million to be unprofitable. The film was released domestically in December 2011, but received a limited release in the UK in early 2012. In the United States the film was released by Columbia Pictures. The film is considered a well thought-through prequel, its plot explaining events that brought the nine animal characters together in the first place.
Two other films, titled Kikoriki: Legend of the Golden Dragon and Kikoriki: Deja Vu were released on March 17, 2016 and April 26, 2018.

Spin-offs of Kikoriki

The ABCs of Safety (2006–2012)

"The ABCs of Safety of the Kikoriki" — 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, :ru:Основы безопасности жизнедеятельности|Fundamentals of safety and life, health, morals, reading skills, children's rights, etc.
After a long hiatus, in August 2017, a new category of episodes, titled "ABCs of the Internet" debuted, where the characters are taught to work on the Internet.

New Adventures

"Kikoriki. New Adventures" — a series of 3D CGI shorts starring the original characters, designed as a continuation of the original 2D shorts. It was broadcast from October 27, 2012 to December 28, 2013, consisting of 57 episodes. This series was scheduled for November 11, 2011, but the actual premiere on the "Channel One" was held on October 27, 2012.

Sport

A continuation of "Kikoriki. New Adventures" which also uses 3D CG graphics. The premiere is dated September 1, 2017 and took place on the official YouTube channel of this animated series.

Pin-Code

"Pin-Code" — an educational spin-off designed to develop interest in inventing, programming and science in children from 4 to 14 years old. Initially, it was supposed to be done in flash-animation, but later this idea was abandoned and production began in 3D computer animation instead. The show airs on Channel One on Sundays at 8:45 at Moscow time. From January 18, 2015 to February 7, 2016, the new season of the series aired under the title "Leap to the Future".
In the first season, the characters travel on Sharolyot, a ship invented by Pin, which can travel through the air, under the water, underground, and even in space. The adventures of the heroes are accompanied by stories of Losyash and Pin about the world around them. Each episode of the season, having the subtitle "Nobel Season", ends with information about Nobel Prize winners.
The plot of the second season "Jump to the Future" is built around time travel, in which the characters are sent using the unique invention, the "Sharoscope-3000", capable of answering any scientific questions. Pin thinks that it is impossible to interfere with the opening of the future, and Losyash, on the contrary, is obsessed with the idea of knowing everything. Now all the Smeshariki are used to the Sharoscope and they learn about the inventions of the future.
September 1, 2017 marked the premiere of the new, third season of the "Pin-Code".
It is planned to create 6 seasons, 182 episodes.

BabyRiki

A pre-school version of this series was created with the same company named BabyRiki

Merchandise

Character stickers on bananas depicting a Kikoriki character holding a peeled banana have been used by Russian company Navkus and a banana sticker promoting the show has the line “Попробуй Мультик на вкус”.

Video Game

A video game based on the series was released titled "Шарарам" in Russian.