#I saw an amazing moomin edit

[leafleerob]

The Sun and The Moon ☀️🌘

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The A-Z of Classic Children’s Television by Simon Sheridan - The Moomins

ITV / Produced 1979-1980 / A Semafor Studios Production for Film Polski-Jupiter Films (UK version adapted by FilmFair for Central Independent Television) / Created by Tove Jansson / Animated by Lucjan Dembinski, Krystyna Kulczycka, Dariusz Zawilski and Jadwiga Kudrzycka / Adapted and written by Anne Wood / Edited by Andi Sloss / Music by Steve Hill and Graeme Miller / Narrated by Richard Murdoch / 100 episodes (UK) / First broadcast (UK) 24 January 1983

Jansson and Pietilä travelled the world with the royalties from the Moomin books (by the mid-1970s her books had been translated into 30 languages) and in 1978 an animation studio called Semafor, based in Poland’s central city of Lodz, approached the author’s publishers with a view to adapting her novels for TV. Poland has always had a strong tradition of animated films, although many of the cartoons were barely-disguised critiques of the country’s communist rule. At the time all Polish animation studios were state owned, but were pretty much allowed to do what they wanted, provided they adhered to the strict bureaucratic guidelines. Studio Semafor was famous for its esoteric children’s animation, something that Tove had admired for some time. After agreeing to let Semafor adapt her books, as well as some stories from the Moomin cartoon strip, which had appeared in the London Evening Standard from the mid-1950s, the author travelled to Poland to oversee the project.

The original Polish productions were nearly an hour long, but throughout the world the animation was adapted for different television channels. In 1981 Lewis Rudd, the then-head of children’s programmes for ITV, bought the series in its original format and offered it to producer and writer Anne Wood, hoping that she could Anglicise it for a UK audience. ‘I was thrilled to be asked,’ recalls Anne, now better known as the creator of Rosie and Jim, The Teletubbies and Boohbah. ‘I knew Tove Jansson’s work very well since I’d worked in children’s publishing and on a magazine called Books for Your Children. Her work was just brilliant. It transcends age and culture and I had long recognised her as a very great writer.’

Anne had no doubts that she could adapt the series. ‘I felt a great affinity to Tove’s work and, because she had personally visited Studio Semafor when it was being made, I knew it would be good stuff,’ she says. ‘It was distributed by a German company back then and I seem to recall we cut it down from half hour chunks. ITV wanted it in five minute long episodes so Andi Sloss, the editor, and I got to work on it. All-in-all, it probably took us about two years to complete.’

Anne recalls her determination to not lose a single second of footage for her adaptation. ‘I saw the series and was amazed at how beautiful it was,’ she remembers. ‘I didn’t waste one scrap of film, although creating 100 episodes out of it was quite a task. Poland has produced some wonderful animation in the past and the visual quality of The Moomins was second to none. The Studio Semafor was the best in Europe and the total opposite of Disney’s productions in the US. The thing about The Moomins was that it had such great depths and lushness, something you just can’t capture using cell animation.’

The Polish animators used a stop-motion technique to bring Jansson’s imaginary world to life. Three-dimensional felt characters gracefully glide over delicately painted backgrounds - the series has been dubbed by aficionados as ‘The fuzzy-felt Moomins’, to distinguish it from an inferior Japanese cartoon version from 1991. In addition to the cuddly warm shapes of the Moomins, there is a vibrant use of textures (sand, glitter, flowers, buttons, feathers) and fabrics (corduroy, gingham and woollen skeins). By creating layers of exotic colour and interesting weaves the series’ fastidious animation style is completely unlike any British series of the era.

‘I totally revered Tove’s original books,’ admits Wood, ‘so when I was writing the scripts for my version of the series I constantly referred to the Puffin paperbacks, marked up in pen with all the relevant dialogue.’ However, Wood was surprised when some of the Polish visuals had no connection with the novels. ‘Andi Sloss and I would be watching the episodes and we’d stumble on subliminal political messages! It would be like: “Oh, what’s this then? This isn’t in the book!”‘ Although careful to remain faithful to the text of the novels, Wood still managed to cleverly inject some of her own dry humour into the storytelling. Snufkin, for instance, becomes an out-and-out hippy, affixing a ‘Far out, man!’ to the end of much of his dialogue and slipping in the odd line never seen in any of Tove’s novels. ‘Cocktail parties are not my scene,’ he drawls in one particularly droll episode. Even Moomintroll gets to laugh at himself. ‘I’m not a hippo,’ he explains. ‘I’m a Moomin!’

The job of voicing the Moomin characters was awarded to veteran actor Richard Murdoch. He brings a befuddled tension to the stories - on occasion it sounds like he’s ad-libbing - yet he still flits between the numerous, crumbly voices with great aplomb. Murdoch, who was 78 at the time of recording, created some minor headaches for the British production. ‘We had a discussion, early on, as to who we wanted to do the narration,’ explains Wood, ‘and we came up with Richard’s name. I was always there when he did the dubbing, and although he was excellent, I did have to coax him through it. He was always late to the recording sessions too and and because it was a period when so many great actors had suddenly died, like Peter Sellers and Arthur Lowe, I was always worried that he’d never make it back!’

The breath-taking Polish animation perfectly captures the melancholy spirit of Jansson’s illustrations. It’s like watching the highly decorated lid of a chocolate box, just after the Christmas holiday: there are still so many delights, but you can’t help but feel slightly sad. The series is imbued with a certain amount of dark horror too. The menacing Hattifatteners, long white sock-like creatures with pale eyes and sharp paws, spookily crackle with electricity across the screen. Worse still is the Groke - the dread spirit of winter, who glides across the grass, freezing everything she touches. The latter creature, animated with flashing eyes and dubbed with slow, heaving breathing, is enough to give any four-year-old nightmares for a month. ‘It’s very difficult to pull off tension and horror in a children’s serial,’ explains Anne Wood. ‘There’s a definite fear factor in The Moomins. I mean there’s that scene where Moomintroll climbs into the Hobgoblin’s hat and then emerges as a monster. That is really frightening for little children. But the stop-frame animation and the cuddly, toy-like characters help children to accept these terrifying concepts.’

Also adding to the melancholy is the series’ haunting incidental music, composed by two young British performers, Steve Shill and Graeme Miller. ‘We did the music in three batches, I think,’ says Miller, ‘and we supplied individual themes for each character or situation. We had to be very specific when writing music for creatures like the Hattifatteners because so much of Jansson’s writing is quirky and ironic. There’s a kind of nostalgic quality to her books and we tried to reflect that in the music.’ The pair’s music, performed on synthesizers, is some of the saddest ever to make its way onto kids’ TV. ‘We were very influenced by the sad theme to Robinson Crusoe [an imported black-and-white series, screened by the BBC during the sixties and seventies], but also by Kraftwerk, so there’s a bit of both in there,’ he laughs. ‘You must remember that we were only in our early twenties when we wrote the music, so it was such a thrill when, at 4.15pm, we’d hear our tunes on the telly. Writing a theme for a children’s TV series is like writing an ice cream van jingle in a way; it is injected right into people’s consciousnesses.’

Miller and Shill’s enchanting music captures the Eastern European flavour of the animation, and the wistful penny whistle-like theme tune is eerily memorable. This emotive music, coupled with the whimsical dreamlike quality of the animation, creates a deeply affecting atmosphere of dark forebodings in the Moominvalley shadows. Despite the stories not being in chronological order, the Polish production is undoubtedly the definitive accompaniment to the novels. The Moomins is consistently dazzling and you’d be hard pressed to find a more beautiful image in classic kids’ TV than the shimmering, bejewelled seahorses leaping out of the ocean in the series’ adaptation of Moominpappa at Sea. It is quite simply breathtaking.

‘I was really proud to have been associated with The Moomins,’ says Anne Wood. ‘People forget that creating a children’s series is actually an art form, but it really is. In general terms children’s TV is not given serious attention, and this is a tragedy. I later met some of the animators from Studio Semafor and used them on my own series, Tots TV, because you don’t get animators of their calibre very often. The important thing about The Moomins is that it was a children’s series made with great skill, with great respect to Tove Jansson and ultimately made with a lot of love.’

[iemondropsss]

*sees post, cracks nuckles* Ok Eden, let's hear your answer to all of the questions!

THANK YOU LAE!!!! Hehe I already answered some but here’s the rest! :D

✨ Snufkin or Moomin. Moomin because I kin him Snufkin because,, well, he’s Snufkin! Perfectly imperfect ratty ol’ crime man with the peak of character design I could draw him every day and never get tired. Oh wait—

🍄 My favorite story of all <3 so I was scrolling on Pinterest and came across this ol’ thing

And I was like oh wow. Epic moment. I looked up Snufkin. Looked at the wiki page and learned he was the foil of sniff. Not helpful to me then but oh well XD and got a picture of 2019 him and sent it as a comment (rest in peace the Pinterest comment “trying” system btw)

I did not realize it was edited until much much later XD. Um anyway forgot about it a bit after that until! That’s right same energy was requested to me on YouTube. I went into a rabbit hole and rewatched the “every time Snufkin talks” video whenever I got stressed. Literally. aaand then we got to the animatics and I never returned. Also side note so I had Lemon Boy by Cavetown on repeat for like a month and a half before this and I saw an animatic for it and lost my MIND when I realized what the lyrics were. 1 in the morning and… goodness XD anyway I love that

🕊 springdoveee of course <3 ahhck I’m just a sucker for ships that expand upon the themes, in this case freedom and home and how it’s possible to have one AND the other, but it takes work and love to come to compromise and companionship. Just WOW. I could go on for days

🍯 the pancakes!! They’re very hyped up I need them now. Also Mamma’s witchcraft cures <3

🏔 Honestly, I would love to dance through the Forest near Moominhouse. Nothing to crazy, and with the gang or by myself. Just living in this amazing world

🏕 hehe yes I doooo @iemonzzest is where all my fanart goes and I’m lemondropss on AO3!

🎵 HOHOHOHOHOHOHO I have a 570 song long playlist I am obsessed with Moomin-like songs and let me tell you there are a LOT!

They usually fall into one of three categories:

1)the seasons. Spring already symbolizes growth and returning and winter is often sadness so it’s not that hard to find EXACTLY what we’re looking for ;)

2)leaving. I realize mainly it’s about breaking up in a relationship? But really come on XD

3)home. Song with the word home in it? PLAYLIST

it’s a science at this point <3 I’ve even got a whole playlist of specifically *banjo* music that feels like moomins. Through all this searching though I believe the most Moomin-like songs in the world is Lucky by Jason Mraz please listen to it it’s unbelievably perfect akshakhskshd

But of course there are LOADS of songs that remind me of Moomin all in slightly different ways I could talk about each of them for hours XD

[redbullseb]

🍓‽

jan your name rolls off the tongue so well that whenever i see ur username or a moomin avi i;m like yes. that's jan caesar. i remember the first time i saw one of your edits and my jaw dropped bc it was like. THE COLOURS. and textures! you've got an incredible creative eye, i couldn't dream of the stuff you've done. love that we connected on disc and how it's you 🤝 me: twoset. cheers babe mwah you're amazing 🖤

send me a 🍓for a compliment!

[wromwood]

Love Yourself Challenge

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc. ) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I was tagged by @penny-anna​. Thanks, friend! :3

1. Softboy Pillowman!

I honestly had to stop myself from making all 5 of these choices Softboy PIllowman. I haven’t been so dedicated to a major artistic project like this at any other point in my life. Even after months of working on my senior thesis (the starting place of these characters and their story), I’m still excited to draw new Softboy content every week for my Softboy Pillowman sideblog. I love this world, and I love all the feedback I get from people who are as delighted by these characters as I am. I hope that one day, Softboy Pillowman will grow into something even bigger and better. Until then, please consider checking it out!

2. Invader Fel and JIR

I may have only drawn them once, but I’m still very attached to these cute OC results of my Invader Zim phase. It may not have become a hyperfixation, but I’m still grateful to Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus for finally getting me to watch the show. 

3. Mallowmarsh

OK, this drawing is the farthest back I can go and still be within the last year. I may not be active in the Moomin fandom, but I really do enjoy it. I even made my own OC, Mallowmarsh, whose shirt is obviously very inspired by another original character of mine. I want to make more content with him, but am always sad by how Snufkin wouldn’t like him. (He’s just too loud of an extrovert)

4. Dungeons and Dragons and Dad

Bob opened his mouth for a moment before letting it close. He tapped his fingers on his belly, swaying awkwardly in the empty space.

Finally, he sat down across from Will and set the bag of dice on the table.

Bob paused in his examination of the board. There were three player pieces set up, since Dustin had just gone off to summer camp, but a few unused pieces lay haphazardly in the nearly-empty box for the board. They looked custom-made. Bob supposed Mike, or a relative of his, had bought an unusual set of them from some toy store or something. Whatever the reason, the shortest piece intrigued him like nothing else.

My first and, so far, only entry into the Stranger Things fandom. I wrote this after the newest season of Stranger Things left me feeling really sad for Will and super dissatisfied with Hopper. I was also reminded of how much I miss Bob Newby, and I just couldn’t stop thinking of how much it would’ve helped Will to have Bob around during Season 3. Fortunately, this fanfic not only cheered me up, but it also seemed to brighten the days of a few people on AO3. 

5. Still Hot

Sam carefully lifted the hot pie out of the oven and placed it on the windowsill. Even through his favorite potholders, it was obviously boiling inside. He could see the sugary juices bubbling through the gaps in the crust, a sure sign that his creation had finished baking.

Once the pie was safely on the windowsill, he turned back to start cleaning up the mess he had made.

He had only just grabbed a handful of apple peels when something rustled outside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a tangled mass of hair and a drooling grin leering over his freshly baked dessert.

This Samfro fic may be very short and very fluffy, but it made me very happy to write. Sometimes, that’s all you need. (This fic was inspired by the many apple pies I made after a school apple picking trip)

Aw man, penny-anna already tagged a few of my writing/artist friends. I shall tag... @mywingsareonwheels​ and @rose-of-pollux​. (I need to make a list of writer/artist friends for challenges like this)