The Moomins (TV series)

For the Japanese television series, see Moomin (1990 TV series).

The Moomins
Written byMaria Kossakowska
Lucjan Dębiński
Music byAndrzej Rokicki
Country of originPolish People's Republic, Austria, West Germany
No. of episodes78 (Poland) / 100 (UK)
Production
ProducerSe-ma-for[1]
Running time10 minutes (Poland) / 5 minutes (UK)
Original release
NetworkITV[2][3] (UK)
Release19 November 1978 (19 November 1978) –
1982 (1982)
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The Moomins (Polish: Opowiadania Muminków, lit. 'Moomins' Short Stories', German: Die Mumins) is a stop motion animated children's television series based on the Tove Jansson's Moomin series of books which was produced by Se-ma-for and Jupiter Film between 1977 and 1982 for Polish, Austrian and German television.[4] The original broadcast in Poland premiered on November 19, 1978.[5] The series was later sold to other countries including the UK. The British version was adapted by Anne Wood at FilmFair for ITV Central and broadcast in the UK. Series 1 was first shown on Monday 24 January 1983 at 4:15 pm and series 2 on Monday 7 January 1985 at 4.15pm on Children's ITV, and series 2 was repeated in 1986. The series was last repeated in its entirety in 1988. It was narrated by British actor Richard Murdoch.[6]

This series was the fourth series to be made based on the Moomin books.[7] Two more were subsequently made. It is one of the two best-known Moomin series (along with the Japanese-made anime version Moomin (1990)). The 1977–1982 stop-motion version has been criticised for being scary in places and rather dark in tone for the young audience at which it was aimed. It is, in contrast to the 1990s series, widely believed to be the most faithful TV adaptation of Tove Jansson's stories, and much closer to her vision. Tove herself had a great deal of involvement during the series' production and was very happy with it (as revealed in an interview with Anne Wood in Simon Sheridan's 2007 book The A to Z of Classic Children's Television). The scripts for each episode were translated from Polish into Swedish and sent to Tove and Lars Jansson, who, if they felt that anything needed to be changed, corrected the script, expanding or rewriting it; afterwards, the scripts were sent back and only then did production of the particular episode begin.

In 2010, an HD version of the series was released. It was later followed by a new US-produced English dub in 2017.

  1. ^ "Television for children: problems of national specificity and globalisation" (PDF). reading.ac.uk.
  2. ^ Thomas, Liz. "New kid on the box - ITV's new children's channel CiTV | Features". The Stage. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  3. ^ "Children's TV: CITV - Winning custody of the children. | News | Broadcast". Broadcastnow.co.uk. 3 February 2003. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  4. ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 203. ISBN 9781476672939.
  5. ^ "Muminki kończą 40 lat. Serial, który kochały miliony" [Moomin turns 40. A series loved by millions]. Gazeta Wyborcza (Newspaper). Poland. 19 listopada 1978 roku w Telewizji Polskiej zadebiutował pierwszy odcinek kultowego już dziś serialu animowanego, opartego na książkach Tove Jansson.
  6. ^ Phil De Semlyen; Ali Plumb; Helen O'hara; James Dyer (9 October 2015). "Classic Kids' TV Shows That Still Rock Our World, Feature | Movies - Empire". Empireonline.com. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  7. ^ "BEYOND THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT: EUROPEAN CHILDRen's TV IN BRITAIN by Jonathan Bignell | CST Online".