Moomin is a children's animated television series based on the Moomin novels and comic strips by the Finnish illustrator and author Tove Jansson and her brother Lars Jansson. It was produced by Telecable Benelux B.V. in co-production with TV Tokyo, Yle, Marina Productions, and , and was animated by and (season 1). It was the third anime adaptation of the property and the first to receive distribution in different countries worldwide. The series was first aired on TV Tokyo from 12 April 1990 to 3 October 1991.
Moomin takes place in the peaceful rural land of Moominvalley, where a young Moomin along with his parents Moominpappa and Moominmamma live in Moominhouse. The series follows the many adventures of Moomin and family, together with their friends, around Moominvalley and sometimes outside of it. Most of the stories involve discovering magical objects and creatures, adventures in different locations or dealing with everyday situations. While many episodes are faithful to or at least loosely based on the novels and comic strips, the series has its own consistent continuity.
The series helped fuel the "Moomin boom" of the 1990s, including an obsession with Moomin plush toys in Japan. After great success of the series, a sequel called was produced and aired on TV Tokyo from 10 October 1991, to 26 March 1992. The sequel series aired in several countries outside of Japan, where it was considered another season of Moomin, although it was never dubbed into English. The original series also spawned a theatrical prequel film Comet in Moominland which is based on the second novel of the same name and video games releases.
The series was dubbed into many languages (including, but not limited to Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, and Spanish) and aired worldwide. In addition, a Northern Sami dub was made by NRK Sámi Radio and aired on NRK 1 in Norway and SVT1 in Sweden alongside the aforementioned Norwegian and Swedish dubs. The series had also been dubbed into English and aired on CBBC in United Kingdom during the same year.
Plot
The series begins with the arrival of spring in Moominvalley. Moomin, along with Little My, Moominpappa, and Moominmamma, wake up in Moominhouse, while Snufkin also comes back from his south travel on the first day of spring. The first eight episodes create a coherent storyline that is based on the third novel, Finn Family Moomintroll. During the story, Moomin and his friends find out the magical silk hat, that turns out to belong to the Hobgoblin. He later gets his hat back from the Moomin family. The Moomins later find a wrecked boat, fix it and travel to a lonely island which is full of Hattifatteners. Next, two small creatures called Thingumy and Bob with a large suitcase arrive to the Moominhouse, and they are followed by the Groke. After the Moomins manage to evict the Groke from their way by giving her Moomin's seashell, it turns out that Thingumy and Bob are keeping the large "King's Ruby" in their suitcase. After Thingummy and Bob return Moominmamma's missing handbag, the Moomins celebrate the event with a large junket, where suddenly the Hobgoblin also arrives. Finally the problem of the King's Ruby's ownership is solved with the Hobgoblin's magic.
Moomin takes place over a three-year period. Moomin and his family or friends manage to take part in two winter periods through the series, although the Moomins are supposed normally to hibernate. Through the series, Snork, the Snork Maiden's inventor brother, designs and creates two flying ships of different type; the first is destroyed due sabotage and the second one gets finished at the end of the series. Before the second winter period the Moomins and their friends also get to know Alicia and her grandmother, who is a witch. She teaches Alicia to become a real witch and has a negative opinion about the Moomins and their nice nature. As the series goes on, the witch however begins to appreciate them. At the end of the series, Snork decides to go on a journey with his finished flying ship while Alicia and her grandmother also leave the Moominvalley for the third winter period. The series concludes when the winter arrives, the Moomins fall into hibernation and Snufkin travels to the south once again.
Production Moomin is the third anime adaptation based on the novels and comic strips. Before the production, author Tove Jansson was already displeased with the previous Moomin anime adaptation from 1969 due to how unfaithful the series' characters and stories were to her original source material. Because of this, both of the first Moomin and New Moomin from 1972 were never distributed or aired outside Japan. Since 1981, Finnish animation and commercial producer Dennis Livson began to beg the rights from Tove and Lars Jansson to make another animated adaptation. Eventually, Livson managed to win both of them over after they saw his previous produced animated series Alfred J Kwak, and rights for another series were obtained. A year later in Tokyo, Livson showed a small preview of the anime series for both Tove and Lars Jansson. According to Livson, Tove commented on the animation by saying "Dom lever ju" ("They are really alive!").
Unlike previous two anime adaptations, Moomin was a co-production of Dutch company Telecable Benelux B.V., Japanese TV Tokyo, Finnish Yle, French Marina Productions, and Spanish . It was animated at the Japanese animation studios and (season 1). Hiroshi Saitō and Masayuki Kojima were the series' main directors while Akira Miyazaki did the screenplay for the first 12 and many later episodes. Tove and Lars Jansson were also involved with the screenplay by doing certain changes in scripts.
Differences from the books The series includes plotlines taken from following Moomin books: Finn Family Moomintroll (eight episodes), Moominland Midwinter (three episodes), Moominsummer Madness (three episodes), The Exploits of Moominpappa (three episodes), Moominpappa at Sea (two episodes) and several short stories from the collection Tales from Moominvalley (five episodes in total). Roughly twenty episodes in the original series and dozen more in the sequel series are based on stories taken from Tove and Lars Jansson's Moomin comic strips. The series does have differences from the books and comic strips, more strongly than European stop-motion series The Moomins that aired between 1977 and 1982, but not as much as the previous two anime adaptations. Certain events and characters from the books and comic strips are missing to fit the series' own continuity or for reasons unknown. Many new plotlines and some new characters have been added, especially in the later episodes. Some notable differences include: Moomintroll is called simply "Moomin", except in the first episode in the Japanese version, where the narrator introduces him as "Moomintroll". Little My appears in the series from the beginning, but appears only in later volumes in the books. Lady of the Cold looks very different from the description in the books. In the books the Moomins exchange the King's Ruby for the Hobgoblin's top hat and the Hobgoblin later arrives, to collect the King's Ruby, with a new hat. In the series however, Hobgoblin gets his top hat back in the second episode and in the seventh episode the Moomins instead exchange the King's Ruby for a heart-shaped sea-shell Snorkmaiden gave Moomin. Also the wishes are different. In the series Mr Hemulen wishes for a new spade to replace the one he borrowed and broke from MoominPappa. Then Snorkmaiden wishes for eyes like the Wooden Lady and Moomin later wishes them back to normal after she ends up hating them. With the last wish Thingumy and Bob wish for a ruby just like the Hobgoblin's. In the book, Mamma wishes for Moomin to not miss Snufkin being gone, and Moomin wishes for some of the party's food to go to Snufkin. A Fillyjonk raises Moominpappa in the orphanage in the series, while in the books it's a Hemulen who raises him. Snorkmaiden and Sniff who disappear occasionally in the book series have bigger roles in the TV series and they appear quite often throughout the series. Snufkin takes a friendly attitude towards people who are not in the Moomin family. He doesn't smoke a pipe in the series. Snork appears regularly and he's portrayed as a scientist and inventor whereas in the books he's a very minor character who mainly tries to solve varying problems with systematic approach. Snork's fixation with flying is not based on the books. Alicia and her grandmother (the witch) are characters who were invented for the series, they did not exist in the books or comic strips.
Cast and characters In the Swedish dub the cast was exclusively made up of Swedish-speaking Finns Finland-Swedes. Generally Finland-Swedish actors are always cast as the Moomins in Swedish productions and localizations because Tove Jansson herself was a Swedish-speaking Finn. The Japanese, Italian, Finnish and Swedish dubs used a female narrator to give the impression that the show was narrated by Jansson herself.
CharacterEnglish actorJapanese actorFinnish actor (1991)Finnish actor (2017)Finland Swedish actor (1991) Narrator Garrick Hagon (episodes 1–26), Peter Marinker (episodes 27–78)Emiko ShiratoriLeena UotilaCarla RindellVivi-Ann Sjögren Moomintroll Susan SheridanMinami Takayama Aksu Palmén Moominmamma Pat StarrIkuko TaniUlla TapaninenKatja AakkulaMargit Lindeman Moominpappa Peter Whitman (episodes 1–47), William Roberts (episodes 48–78)Akio ŌtsukaMatti RuoholaJuha VarisJohan Simberg Snufkin John ChancerTakehito KoyasuTimo TorikkaIlkka VilliMichel Budsko Little My Toni BarryRei SakumaElina SaloKarolina BlomLilli Sukula-Lindblom Snorkmaiden (also known as Floren in the Japanese dub)Mika KanaiAila SvedbergHeljä HeikkinenRagni Grönblom Sniff Jeff HardingRyusei NakaoEero AhreJukka NylundRiko Eklundh Hemulen Garrick HagonMinoru YadaTapio HämäläinenMarkku HuhtamoPeik Stenberg Snork David GrahamYasuyuki HirataSamuli Edelmann (episodes 1–52), Ilkka Merivaara (episodes 53–78)Jon-Jon GeitelDick Idman Mrs Fillyjonk Stacey Gregg (episodes 14–26, 59–78), Joanna Ruiz (episodes 33–56)Sumi ShimamotoLeena Uotila Carla RindellCris af Enehielm Mymble Toni Barry (episodes 6–26), Stacey Gregg (episodes 42–56), Joanne McQuinn (episodes 60–78)Yūko KobayashiAila SvedbergVivi-Ann Sjögren Too-Ticky Stacey Gregg (episodes 9–10, 22–23), Emily Stride (episode 37)Mika DoiMarja PackalénElla PyhältöGumbi Zilliacus Stinky Garrick HagonHiroko MaruyamaMatti RuoholaJuha VarisPeik Stenberg Police Inspector Jeff HardingTakaya HashiTapio Hämäläinen,Ilkka Merivaara (episode 100)Jarmo KoskiSamuel Huber Alicia Stacey Gregg (episodes 35–56), Joanne McQuinn (episodes 62–78)Sakiko TamagawaMarja PackalénElla PyhältöAnnika Miiros The Witch Stacey Gregg (episodes 35–56), Joanna Ruiz (episodes 62–78)Hisako KyodaLeena UotilaCarla RindellSue Lemström The Hobgoblin Jeff Harding (episodes 2, 8), Robert Chase (episode 75)Tomomichi NishimuraTimo TorikkaMarkus BäckmanSamuel Huber Thingumy and Bob Stacey Gregg (Thingumy) (episodes 6–8), Joanne McQuinn (Thingumy) (episode 74), Stacey Gregg (Bob) (episodes 6–8), Joanna Ruiz (Bob) (episode 74)Isamu Tanonaka (Thingumy)You Inoue (Bob)Marja Packalén (Thingumy)Leena Uotila (Bob)Ella Pyhältö (Thingumy)Katja Aakkula (Bob)Sue Lemström (Thingumy)Hellen Willberg (Bob) Ninny Stacey GreggMiina TominagaLeena UotilaElla PyhältöBerit Neumann-Lund The Groke (also known as Morran in the Japanese dub)No actor (episodes 6–7)Jeff Harding (episodes 22, 37–38, 59)Tomie KataokaTapio HämäläinenMarkus BäckmanHellen Willberg Hodgkins (Fredrikson) Robert ChaseRokuro NayaIlkka MerivaaraJon-Jon GeitelJoachim Wigelius Joxter John ChancerTakehito KoyasuTimo TorikkaIlkka VilliMichel Budsko Muddler Jeff HardingRyusei NakaoEero AhreJukka NylundRiko Eklundh Postman Garrick HagonMasamischi SatoMatti Ruohola, Ilkka Merivaara (Bōken Nikki)Markus BäckmanTom Lindblom
Episodes
First series