#-still clinging to marika despite her casting them away

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[skruttet]

Gay Analysis of the Opening Scene of Moominvalley

Buckle up, lads.

Let’s start off with what Marika Makaroff and Steve Box had to say about this scene in the Creators’ Comments video:

Steve: The first thing you see feels a little bit sugary and...

Marika: Pinky clouds, just pinky clouds and everything

Steve: Yeah, saturated and Disney-like or something, for younger children, and straight to the cliché of- ‘cause I think the cloud flight is quite well-known and, you know, very cutesy.

[...]

Marika: And I think that, the whole theme, that first you think that “well, this is a... this might be a kind of nice animation drama”, but then you understand that there are deeper meanings in there.

I personally think that they intentionally made the opening scene fairytale-like and cutesy as an almost parody of what some viewers may expect the series to be like; they’re showing us what we expect from the series (especially if we expect it to be like the 90s series), then they’re subverting that expectation by revealing it to be a dream that Moomintroll is rudely and abruptly awoken from.

At this point early point (the earliest point, even) in the series, Moomintroll has not gone through any character development yet, and we know the series is about him growing up; therefore, in this scene, he is in many ways still a child. The pink clouds are reminiscent of the 90s anime in which he is quite literally a child; in his dream, he is living in the innocent, happy-go-lucky world of his childhood; a fantasy that does not truly reflect the reality in which he lives and must face throughout the series after he wakes up.

Here’s where the queer part of this analysis comes in: in this fairytale-like dream world, one of the aforementioned expectations would be that Moomintroll is in a romantic relationship with his female friend Snorkmaiden - and, ah yes, right on queue, she appears, casting a shadow on him in the process (I’ll let you decide if there’s something in that). 

The episode then sets up how their relationship will play out in a lot of the future episodes, with Snorkmaiden being the one to usually initiate any romantic advances, as she seductively encourages him to join her on the cloud (to tip this to the “moomintroll is bi” side of things, you could say that the fact that this is happening in his dream shows that he is to some extent attracted to girls and to Snorkmaiden, but if you’re on the “moomintroll is gay” camp, you could argue that this is just how she presents herself to him in real life and so his mind is just replicating that).

Our hero is hesitant and reluctant to her advances, pointing at himself in question as if to stall, then when he prepares himself to jump, he looks scared to death.

Despite this, he takes the leap of faith and lands rather clumsily onto the cloud, Snorkmaiden once again being the initiator in clinging onto his arm. As a more positive look at their relationship, this could be a reflection of how she pushes Moomintroll throughout the series to tackle dangerous situations head-on, therefore helping him in his process of growing up.

...However, a lot of the times when she does that, it isn’t quite what he needs. Whenever she pushes him, or he attempts to lead the way/protect her, they are just desperately trying to fit into the heteronormative roles of Hero and His Damsel, and it usually leads to Snorkmaiden ironically having to save Moomintroll. In the Hattifattener episode, she tells him that he must go rescue Little My alone; because he is afraid of doing so, he stalls, so much so that Little My returns to them on her own and saves him the trip. They would’ve had a much better chance at finding her sooner if they had both gone out together, but because they stubbornly stuck to fulfilling their traditional gender roles, they only succeeded in annoying each other. In the Park Keeper episode, Moomintroll grabs Snorkmaiden’s hand and leads her into the woods to look for Little My, saying he knows the forest like the back of his paw. He does not, and causes them to get lost. He tries to ask some forest people if they saw My, but this proves futile and it is Snrokmaiden who suggests that they build a bonfire; this plan goes more smoothly yet she gives him the credit, calling him “my clever Moomintroll”. In Ghost Story, Moomintroll plays the role of the brave hero yet again, but ends up just scaring and then angering Snorkmaiden, who puts the ghost on the windowsill, inadvertently sending her love to his doom, and she ends up saving him. (In contrast, Snufkin helps Moomintroll get through a scary unfamiliar situation in the Groke episode by guiding him through it and being there with him to save and support him when needed, yet still letting him get the hang of it on his own, and the two have fun together in the process).

You could argue the same negative consequence happens in this dream, where Snorkmaiden encourages him to ride the cloud which eventually disappears from beneath him, though I don’t think it’s quite the same. Regardless, Moomintroll initially does not look happy, but rather worried as Snorkmaiden whisks him away:

Luckily, he’s cheered up in the next shot, enjoying the view seemingly more than he is enjoying Snorkmaiden; the two glance at each other, though whilst Snorkmaiden holds the gaze, Moomintroll quickly looks away and at his parents on the ground, pointing them out so that she stops looking at him. I personally see this as another little shred of evidence that Snrokmaiden is much more invested in their relationship than he is, and he may not in fact return her romantic feelings for him (or at least those that she thinks she has for him).

Snorkmaiden waves at mamma and pappa and Moomintroll follows suit, which I’m honestly not quite sure what to make of. I don’t know why he doesn’t just immediately wave back to his parents and instead only does so when he sees Snorkmaiden doing it. Maybe he’s just enjoying the moment.

Moomintroll then looks quite joyful to be on the cloud, until a hole appears in it and then Snorkmaiden turns into clouds herself, waving goodbye to him before poofing out of existence. The cloud he’s riding quickly does the same and he falls before waking up. This is quite literally a wake-up call: Moomintroll needs to wake up from the sugar-coated fantasy of his past & what’s expected of him and face the real world. The fact that Snorkmaiden is a part of this world shows to me that she is no longer what’s best for him, at least not as a romantic partner, and he needs to move on; much like how he needs to become less dependent upon his parents, who are also a part of this dream.

This ties into the larger theme of his struggle between family & freedom, or childhood & adulthood, or dependency & independency, with Snorkmaiden being a representation (or a part) of the former, and Snufkin of the latter.

My bi ass of course believes he should leave the safety and comfort of a heteronormative life to pursue the true desires of his heart - and, yes, it’ll be scary, but one must sometimes face their fears head-on in their pursuit of lasting happiness; interestingly, Moomintroll has already faced the Groke once, and we know that she’ll be returning in the future. Who knows what he’ll learn about himself.