The Three Bogatyrs

The Three Bogatyrs is a Russian animated franchise produced by Melnitsa Animation Studio, built around three heroes of Russian epic tradition: Alyosha Popovich, Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets. The characters are drawn very loosely from the bylina cycle about Prince Vladimir of Kievan Rus, a body of traditional oral epic poems, but the films are deliberately anachronistic comedies that mix medieval settings with modern references, including nods to Pushkin and video games. The first film appeared in 2004, and the series continued with a run of sequels, among them How Not to Rescue a Princess in 2010, which unites all three heroes with sidekicks such as the talking horse Julius. The films rely on traditional drawn animation finished digitally. The series grossed more than 135 million dollars and is described as the highest grossing Russian animated film series.