''The Moomins'' ( Polish: ''Opowiadania Muminków'', German: ''Die Mumins'') is a

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

based on the

Tove Jansson Tove Marika Jansson (; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Stockholm, Helsinki and ...

Moomin The Moomins ( sv, Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, and a comic strip by Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish by Schildts in Finland. They are a family of white ...

series of books which was produced by

Se-ma-for Se-ma-for was a Polish animation studio. Founded in Łódź, Poland in 1947, the company has created many animated cartoons and stop motion animations for young and older audiences. The name, meaning literally ''Se-ma-phore'', is an acronym of ''S ...

and Jupiter Film between 1977 and 1982 for Polish, Austrian and German television. The series was later sold to other countries including the UK. The British version was adapted by

Anne Wood Anne Wood, CBE (born 18 December 1937) is an English children's television producer, responsible for creating shows such as ''Teletubbies'' with Andrew Davenport. She is also the creator of '' Tots TV'' and ''Rosie and Jim''. She was a recipie ...

FilmFair FilmFair was a British production company and animation studio that produced children's television series, animated cartoons, educational films, and television advertisements. The company made numerous stop motion films using puppets, clay animat ...

for

ITV Central ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands. It was created following the rest ...

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 Richard Bernard Murdoch (6 April 19079 October 1990) was an English actor and entertainer. After early professional experience in the chorus in musical comedy, Murdoch quickly moved on to increasingly prominent roles in musical comedy and rev ...

. This series was the third series to be made based on the Moomin books. Two more were subsequently made. It is one of the two best-known Moomin series (along with the Japanese-made

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

version ''

'' (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

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.

Music

The series had an orchestral score, composed by Andrzej Rokicki, with a whimsical opening theme, resembling the melody of a

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 ...

. The German and Austrian dub retained most of the score, and added themes written by Eugen Illin, who also composed a different opening theme. For the shortened and re-edited UK release, a new score was composed by Graeme Miller and

Steve Shill Stephen A Shill (born 1957) is a British television and film director, actor, screenwriter and television producer. Early life Shill was born in 1957 in Buckinghamshire, England. He attended Keswick Grammar School in Keswick, Cumbria, England ...

. Its opening titles featured a bouncy theme tune consisting of flutes and synthesizers, played against a popular still of Moomintroll holding a hat.

Episode list

The original Polish series consisted of 78 ten-minute episodes, narrated initially by Stanisław Wyszyński, and subsequently by Stanisław Kwaśniak. The German and Austrian dub retained the full length of the original series, with the narration provided by

Hans Clarin Hans Clarin (14 September 1929 – 28 August 2005) was a German actor. He became a well-known voice actor of characters in children audio plays, particularly the kobold ''Pumuckl'' (including its TV and cinematic film adaptations), the German voic ...

. The UK adaptation was shortened and re-edited into 100 five-minute episodes, narrated by Richard Murdoch. Series 1 of the UK release consisted of 50 episodes, and was first broadcast Mondays to Fridays at 4:15 pm, 24 January to 6 April 1983 on Children's ITV. Series 2 consisting of another 50 episodes first aired Monday to Fridays at 4:15 pm, 7 January to 15 March 1985 on Children's ITV.

Series one

Series two

The order above is the correct broadcast order, for when the episodes were first shown on UK television in 1983 (taken from the original script list). The episode order in the recent DVD boxset was changed, so that the English episodes were intended to match the German broadcast order (but they were in fact different). In the UK, the series ended with the Comet in Moominland story. Series 1 was shown in 1983 and series 2 in 1985. Series 2 was repeated in 1986. The series was also repeated in its entirety in 1988. (Confirmed by the sleeve notes from Finders Keepers Moomin soundtrack release 2016).

Impact and critical reaction

In 2008 the series was listed at number 25 in a list of top 50 children's TV by

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

. Excerpts from the series have been shown at film festivals in the UK and Japan.

Home release

A Region 2 DVD boxset was released in 2004, in both English and German editions (both versions manufactured in Austria). Single DVD releases are also available, which contain English and German episodes. The German episodes have English subtitles and the English episodes have German subtitles. The complete series in its original Polish version, which was longer than the UK re-edit and had a different musical score, was released in Poland in 2009, as a 5-DVD Region 2 box set.

Films

* '' Moomin and Midsummer Madness'' was released in 2008, based on a compilation of Episodes 51-65. * ''

Moomins and the Comet Chase ''Moomins and the Comet Chase'' is a 2010 3D stop motion animated fantasy adventure comedy family film compiled from the ''Comet in Moominland''-based episodes of the 1977–1982 ''The Moomins'' TV series animated at Se-ma-for in Poland, resto ...

'' was released in 2010, based on a compilation of Episodes 88-100. * '' Moomins and the Winter Wonderland'' was released in 2017, based on a compilation of Episodes 23-33.

References

*Simon Sheridan ''The A to Z of Classic Children's Television'' (Reynolds & Hearn books, 2004, reprinted 2007) . Contains a long chapter on the making of the TV series, a rare photo of

and an interview with UK series producer

Notes

External links

Fuzzy Felts: The DVD History of ''The Moomins'' (1978–1982) TV Series
*
The Moomins TV Series Distribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moomins, The 1980s British children's television series 1977 Polish television series debuts 1982 Polish television series endings 1983 British television series debuts 1985 British television series endings ITV children's television shows Moomin television series Television shows based on children's books Stop-motion animated television series Television series by FilmFair Television series by Cookie Jar Entertainment Television series by DHX Media Television series by ITV Studios British children's animated adventure television series Polish children's animated adventure television series 1970s Polish television series 1980s Polish television series 1970s animated television series 1980s animated television series Telewizja Polska original programming