Germans Love David Hasselhoff / Eastern European Animation

• KikoRiki is about as popular in China as it is in its native Russia, being one of the few countries to export some of the printed media based on the show. The series was also chosen for Russian-Chinese co-production by CCTV, Panda and Krash, which stars their own panda mascot and one of the main characters from KikoRiki, akin to their co-productions with other foreign studios.
• The Russian series Masha and the Bear:
  • It became a huge hit in Italy. Rai YoYo broadcasts it seven times per week.
  • It's also one of the few works of Eastern European animation to become a crossover hit in America (compare again Nu, Pogodi!, which has a small cult following in America but is otherwise considered "too foreign" to catch on).
  • It has such a strong following in Canada that it was made the secondary flagship show of Treehouse TV for a while (with homegrown series Toopy and Binoo being the main one).
  • It's also popular in many Muslim countries, likely due to Masha being one of the few non-Muslim cartoon heroes who dresses appropriately by their standards (hair and legs covered).
• The Soviet/Russian series Nu, Pogodi!:
  • It has a small but dedicated cult following in America, thanks to its lack of dialogue and being Popular with Furries. It also has a following in, of all places, the Republic of Cyprus.
  • Unsurprisingly, the series is very popular in CIS countries and former Eastern Bloc countries, where Soviet animations were often exported, such as Vietnam. And speaking of Vietnam...
  • As evidenced by this video, Nu, Pogodi! has a sizable presence in Vietnam akin to Doraemon, given the existence of children's book adaptations and DVD releases. It is so popular that in fact, a Vietnamese animation studio created their own "adaptation" of Nu, Pogodi! in the 1990s. The end result was a shoddy copycat with some of the most atrocious animation to ever exist — even by their Soviet allies' standards. Ironically, when the shorts made its way to Russia, fans become really interested, mainly because they want to see the atrocious animation by themselves.
• Pat and Mat, the Czech series:
  • The show is extremely popular in the Netherlands (where it's called Buurman en Buurman, and the cartoons are given dialogue provided by actors Kees Prins and Siem van Leeuwen), so much so that it not only has a plethora of toys and other merch, but snack foods based on it.
  • Pat & Mat also enjoys a good bit of adoration in South Korea, where it saw both a broadcast and home release on VHS and DVD. What's interesting is that, like the Dutch version of the show, South Korea received dubs as well, not only in Korean but also English, the latter for educational purposes (alongside a live-action educational side-series featuring two actors in Pat and Mat costumes). They even got a game before the rest of the world did.
• The Snow Queen (1957) has been very well received in Japan and would frequently air on television as a New Year's staple when it was first shown in 1960. The most famous Japanese fan of the film is none other than Hayao Miyazaki!

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