The Three Bogatyrs

The Three Bogatyrs (Три богатыря) is an animated franchise produced by Melnitsa Animation Studio. Voices of Sergey Makovetsky, Dmitry Vysotsky, Liya Medvedeva, Valery Soloviev, Oleg Kulikovich, Oleg Tabakov, Anatoly Petrov, Andrei Tolubeyev and Fyodor Bondarchuk with Elizaveta Boyarskaya are featured in the films. The overall plot through the series follows the adventures of three most famous bogatyrs: Alyosha Popovich, Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets.

The series has now grossed over $135 million, making it the most high-grossing Russian animated films and earning a spot as one of the most profitable Russian films in the last 10 years.

This animated film is anachronistic, following the lead of the other films in this series. Set in medieval times, this film combines the history of early Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and Slavic and Russ folklore with more modern elements including a nod to Alexander Pushkin and video games. Each of the first three films featured one of the bogatyrs, Russ epic heroes, based very loosely on the heroes in the legends about Prince Volodymyr in the Kyivan-Rus’ bylina cycle, a collection of traditional Russ oral epic narrative poems. The fourth film, The Three Bogatyrs and the Shamakhan Queen, unites all three of the bogatyrs, Alyosha Popovich, Ilya Muromets and Dobrynya Nikitych, in one film and includes unforgettable sidekicks such as Julius the talking horse, introduced in the previous films. Unlike the other three animated features, this film also makes reference to the Russian literature from 19th century and the famous narrative epic of Alexander Pushkin: The Tale of the Golden Cockerel (Сказка о золотом петушке, 1834) with the addition of the Shamakhan Queen.

The commercial success of this series has been increasing since the release of the first film in 2004, in part, because of such marketing.