A dynamic, early film by the directing duo of Boris Dyozhkin and Gennadiy Filippov, who made films together until the latter's death in the early 1950s. The bears start off the film slow and sickly, but playing sports brings out their strength and vitality and completely changes their (ahem) bearing. At the end of the film, the ball is thrown at the viewer, as if to say "now it's your turn!"
This was the very first sports cartoon by Boris Dyozhkin, who later became rather famous for them. His genuine enthusiasm for sports always comes through in his art, and this is no exception; although other Soviet animation directors also made films about sports, it's fair to say that only Dyozhkin loved the topic above all else.
The film is notable for including a very "realistic" sports commentary over the entire match which was quite difficult to translate. :) Dyozhkin's later sports films tended to have little dialogue.
I transcribed first the Russian with Lemicnor's help, then translated it to English line-by-line with lots of Googling along the way. Unfortunately, neither I not Lemicnor are very familiar with the sporting lingo. If you think something could be done better, please let me know!