Kikoriki. Team Invincible

Plot

The film begins before the events of the main series in Chamomile Valley, where the Kikoriki gang lived. Krash and Chiko, while finding a place to bury their time capsule, encounter a cave where they find an old TV set and a dinosaur skeleton. When the cave collapses, they take the TV with them, where it is repaired by Dokko. On the TV, the Kikoriki gang discover a superhero show known as Lucien, where the eponymous character, Lucien, fights Dr. Caligari, a villain who aspires to take over the world. Believing the show's events to be true, Carlin and Krash suggest the group should go to the city and help Lucien.

The next day, the Kikoriki gang build a raft and sail away, leaving Wally, who considers their idea to be crazy, to watch over the lighthouse. However, he changes his mind and swims to the raft on a log, joining the group on their mission. The group encounters a cruise ship and attempt to get attention from its passengers, but no one on the ship notices them. The TV, which they took on the raft with them, is washed overboard by a wave from the ship. A storm appears and the current gets more rough, with a wave damaging the raft and knocking the group unconscious.

Upon waking up, the Kikoriki gang discover that the waves have brought them to the city. A patrol boat approaches them and asks who they are and where they came from, but are not given a clear answer. The seven are arrested and put into quarantine. Carlin believes that the law enforcement officers are agents of Caligari, and decides to send one of his group members to find Lucien, with Wally being chosen. In the process, Krash and Rosa notice that Chiko was left behind on the raft.

Meanwhile, Chiko wakes up on the raft to find himself alone. He goes to the city to find his friends, but fails. After asking a passing homeless man where all the visitors go, he is told to go to the museum. Finding the museum on the other side of the street, he notices it is closed. The museum's guard, Pin, finds him sleeping on the porch and, feeling sorry for him, lets him take shelter.

The next day, the rest of the Kikoriki gang are taken to the hospital to be vaccinated, and Wally escapes. In the city, he searches for Lucien and arrives at the city's TV studio, where the Lucien Show is being filmed. There, Wally meets Barry, the actor playing Lucien. In front of Wally, Barry quits the show, and the producer, Boss Nosor, contractually takes away all his property for debts, and gives his role to another actor, renaming the program the Julien Show. An upset Barry, not listening to what Wally is telling him, signs papers certifying that the Kikoriki gang had come to the city to visit him, and leaves. The Kikoriki gang, wearing blue masks knitted by Olga, follow Barry around, not knowing that Lucien is a work of fiction.

That same night, the museum is robbed by two robbers, deceiving a naive Chiko by telling him they were restoring the items they stole. When the police arrive, Chiko and Pin are accused of being behind the robbery and arrested. Wally becomes the leading weather forecaster in the city, and accidentally leaves the camera on while rehearsing, which as a result records two robbers sneaking around the city. The Kikoriki gang ask a depressed Barry to save Chiko, to no avail. Wally, knowing that Barry is just an actor, explains this to the others. They leave Barry's apartment, crestfallen.

The group decides that they will break Chiko out of prison themselves. Barry, who is tormented by how he inadvertently deceived the Kikoriki gang, finds them and suggests that they come up with a plan. He takes them to Gusen, the actor that played the main villain in The Lucien Show, Caligari, who came up with hundreds of plans. Out of old friendship with Barry, he makes up another plan — a plan to save Chiko. The Kikoriki gang infiltrate the prison, with Krash and Barry successfully freeing Chiko. However, Chiko doesn't want to leave without Pin. With the help of Barry, they free Pin as well, losing some time and accidentally sounding the alarm. Lightning strikes the building, causing the elevator to stop.

In the city, the new episode of the Julien Show is being prepared for screening when the tape Wally recorded is screened instead. The tape show the robbers bringing the artifacts they stole from the museum to their leader, who is revealed to be Boss Nosor. As a result, the fans who came to watch the premiere of the new show are outraged. The operator turns on the screen saver in a hurry, but it's too late.

Meanwhile, Krash, Chiko, Pin and Barry are having a hard time getting out of the ventilation hole onto the roof. They zipline their way out of the prison on a rope, with all except Barry using a safety harness due to the plan not including Pin's rescue. Krash ziplines without Barry, who uses a bag to zipline. An advertising blimp flies onto the roof of the prison and snaps the rope. Barry jumps into the blimp, which is heading towards the sea. The others chase after him in their ice cream truck and catch up. Suddenly, the airship descends and drags the ice cream truck to a cliff. The Kikoriki gang successfully get onto the blimp, except for Wally, who nearly falls to his death before being saved by Rosa. The airship takes off in an unknown direction. The group sees a light, which turns out to be the lighthouse that Wally left on earlier in the film.

The airship crashes into the lighthouse. All the Kikoriki gang survive, but are injured after a few bones got injured. Wally, who has been trying to confess his love to Rosa throughout the journey, rehearses the confession next to her, thinking that she does not hear him. After a while, the Kikoriki gang surprise Barry by building him the house he always dreamed of. He soon is able to walk again, and Rosa can hear. The Kikoriki gang take a picture as a keepsake.

In a post-credits scene, a taxi driver is watching TV, where the news show two robbers from earlier being arrested, and Gusen revealing how he caught them. After that, the taxi driver decides to change the channel.

Cast

Mikhail Chernyak as Dokko, Pin and Lucien a.k.a. Barry

Sergey Mardar as Carlin, Olga and 2nd Robber

Anton Vinogradov as Krash, 1st Robber, Radio DJ and 2nd TV announcer

Vladimir Postnikov as Chiko

Svetlana Pismichenko as Rosa

Vadim Bochanov as Wally

Mikhail Khrustalyov as Dr. Caligari a.k.a. Eugene

Stanislav Kontsevich as Boss

Kseniya Brzhezovskaya as 1st TV announcer and Maria

Vladimir Maslakov as Bull Cop and Prison Warden

Elena Shulman as Nurse

Alena Polikovskaya as Camel's wife and granny

Sergey Vasilyev as Crocodile

Igor Yakovel as Kikostankino's security

Changir Suleymanov as Camel

Oleg Kulikovich as Flamingo and Voice of "Jump to the Abyss"

Valeriy Solovyov as Sheriff

Andrey Lyovin as the 3rd TV announcer and Judge

Nastya Pashenkova as Translator

Denis Chernov as Homeless and Julien

Production

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).

Release

The film was released domestically in December 2011 in Russia, but received a limited release in the UK in February 2012. The film is considered a well thought-through prequel, its plot explaining events that brought the nine animal characters together in the first place. On the RikiGroup YouTube channel, there is a trailer with a different English dub then the one released. (https://youtube.com/nz2b3zS903k?si=rtvsXdOAnSPltOyq) Notably it feature's the voice cast from the third English dub of the TV show.