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Pingu

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Pingu
Genre
Created by
Written by
  • Erika Brueggemann
  • Silvio Mazzola
Voices of
Composers
  • Antonio Conde (1990–1994)
  • Andy Benedict (1995–2000)
  • Keith Hopwood (2003–2006)
Country of origin
  • Switzerland (original)
  • United Kingdom (revival)
Original languageGrammelot
No. of series6
No. of episodes156 (+1 special) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Theresa Plummer-Andrews (2003–2006)
  • Jocelyn Stevenson (2003–2006)
  • Christopher Skala (2005–2006)
Producers
  • Otmar Gutmann (1990–1993)
  • Seishi Katto (1993–2000)
  • Javier Garcia (1993–2000)
  • Jackie Cockle (2003–2006)
  • Bella Reekie (2003–2006)
Running time
  • 5 minutes
  • 25 minutes (special)
Production companies
Original release
Network
  • SF DRS (Switzerland, series 1–4)
  • ZDF (Germany, series 1–4)
  • CBeebies (UK, series 5–6)
Release7 March 1990 (1990-03-07) –
present
Related

Pingu is an animated children's television series originally produced in Switzerland. It was co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann[1] that centres on the titular anthropomorphic emperor penguin and his family, who live in the South Pole. The series aired on SF DRS for four series from 7 March 1990 to 9 April 2000, and was produced by the Swiss animation studio Pingu Filmstudio; with Swiss toy company Editoy AG, and later on, Pingu BV handling IP ownership of the series.

The series has been popular outside of Switzerland, particularly in the United Kingdom and Japan, in part due to its lack of a real spoken language. Nearly all dialogue is in an invented grammelot "penguin language" referred to as 'Penguinese' or 'Pinguish',[2] consisting of babbling, muttering, and the titular character's characteristic sporadic honking sound, which can be popularly recognized as "Noot noot!" or other variants,[3] accompanied by turning his beak into a megaphone-like shape.[4] In the first four series, all the characters were performed by Italian voice actor Carlo Bonomi, using a language of sounds he had already developed and used earlier for Osvaldo Cavandoli's La Linea.

After British children's company HIT Entertainment purchased Pingu from Pingu BV in 2001, they produced a revival run of two additional series in the United Kingdom through their in-house studio Hot Animation, which aired on CBeebies from 1 August 2003 to 3 March 2006. It was nominated for a BAFTA award[5] in 2005. The characters were jointly voiced by David Sant and Marcello Magni.[4] A computer-animated revival series produced in Japan, entitled Pingu in the City, ran for two seasons on NHK from 7 October 2017 until 30 March 2019. A third revival series, being animated in stop-motion like the original, is currently under development at Mattel Television Studios and Aardman Animations.[6][7]

The IP rights to Pingu are currently held by an entity owned by HIT/Mattel named Joker, Inc., which is usually called through its trade name "The Pygos Group" on copyright and trademark notices related to the Pingu property.

Storyline

[edit]
Main article: List of Pingu episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
Original series
Test animations31980 (1980)26 May 1986 (1986-05-26)
1267 March 1990 (1990-03-07)27 October 1990 (1990-10-27)
2263 November 1991 (1991-11-03)20 December 1994 (1994-12-20)
32617 June 1995 (1995-06-17)5 September 1996 (1996-09-05)
4265 January 1998 (1998-01-05)9 April 2000 (2000-04-09)
First revival series
5261 August 2003 (2003-08-01)6 February 2004 (2004-02-06)
6263 January 2005 (2005-01-03)3 March 2006 (2006-03-03)
Second revival series
7262025 (2025)[7]TBA

The program is set in Antarctica and focuses around penguin families living and working in igloos. The main character, Pingu, belongs to one such family. He frequently goes on adventures with his little sister, Pinga, and often gets into mischief with his best friend Robby and his love interest, Pingi.

Production history

[edit]

In 1984, Erika Brueggemann was working at Schweizer Fernsehen (the German-speaking division of SRG SSR) when she was introduced to animator Otmar Gutmann. Gutmann pitched a clay animation show starring sea lions who crawled around in a funny way. Erika Brueggemann liked the idea of a clay cartoon character, but she preferred the clay penguins that Gutmann had made. She suggested that the main character should walk upright like a human and asked, "Why not a penguin?"[8]

Brueggemann's colleague, Guido Steiger, agreed with her idea. Gutmann was not immediately convinced, since he had already created many sea lion characters out of plasticine, but he eventually pushed forward with the penguin idea too. According to Erika Brueggemann, she gave "countless demonstrations on my part about how 'my' penguin had to move and act".[8] From this framework, Brueggemann, Gutmann and their team created a seven-minute pilot, "Pingu: Eine Geschichte Für Kinder Im Vorschulalter", which was finished in 1986.

The pilot was screened at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Kleiner Baer award.[9] Its positive reception persuaded the director of Schweizer Fernsehen, Ulrich Kündig [de], to commission an entire series of Pingu cartoons.

The series began production in 1988 and started airing on SF DRS from 1990–2000, originally consisting of 104 five-minute episodes and one special 25-minute episode. The original stories were written by Brueggemann and Guido Steiger,[8] and some of the later stories were written by Silvio Mazzola. These episodes were animated at Trickfilmstudio in Russikon, Switzerland.[10] In the styling of voices, a retroscript was chosen, and all voices were performed by Italian voice actor Carlo Bonomi without a script, using a language of noises he had already developed and used for Osvaldo Cavandoli's La Linea.[11][12][13][14] This feature enabled people of diverse linguistic backgrounds to follow the story.[13][14]

In 1993, David Hasselhoff released a single titled "Pingu Dance", a rap song (in Switzerland only) based on the Pingu shorts and featuring samples of Penguinese. A portion of the song is used as the theme to Pingu in the third and fourth series, as well as the re-dubs of the first two series. It was also heard in the re-dubbed version of the episode "Pingu Looks After the Egg" (retitled "Pingu Helps with Incubating"), replacing the "Woodpeckers from Space" song from the original version.

A special 25-minute episode, Pingu at the Wedding Party, was also produced in 1997, and introduced a family of green penguins.[15]

HIT Entertainment buyout

[edit]

On 29 October 2001, HIT Entertainment bought the rights to the series, including the original 104 episodes and the wedding special, for £15.9 million.[16] HIT later revived the show and produced a further 52 episodes from 2003–2006. These episodes were animated through stop motion like the original, but used resin casts of the original clay puppets, which had deteriorated by this time.[17]

The HIT Entertainment episodes were made by a completely new team at HOT Animation, but co-creator Erika Brueggemann still traveled to the company's headquarters in the United Kingdom to check on production. At the time, she said, "Last year a production company from England bought everything... I traveled to Manchester last summer and met their highly motivated team who worked with great commitment, humor and responsibility towards children. I think Pingu is in good hands now."[8]

Contrary to some sources, there was never any CGI used in these later episodes. When HIT Entertainment bought the rights, Carlo Bonomi was replaced with new voice actors Marcello Magni and David Sant.[18][4] Magni and Sant, Italian and Spanish actors based in London, both had mime and clowning backgrounds and were already aware of the clown language grammelot, on which the penguin language was based.[4]

In February 2012, Mattel acquired Pingu through its purchase of HIT Entertainment which was rebranded to Mattel Television shortly after.[19]

Japanese popularity and Pingu in the City

[edit]
Main article: Pingu in the City

From its debut in the country in 1992, Pingu became well known in Japan. According to writer Silvio Mazzola in 1996, Pingu was most popular with high-school girls, with over 90% of Japanese girls aged 13–17 knowing about it.[20] In 2020, an exhibition event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the original "Hugo" animation was held in Tokyo.[21] Pingu currently airs as part of NHK's children's program Nyanchu's World, and also on Cartoon Network Japan. Various merchandise exclusive to the country has been created, including tie-in toys with KFC and Mister Donut, as well as various video games.

A Japanese-produced reboot of the series, titled Pingu in the City,[22] was announced in 2017. It premiered on NHK-E on 7 October 2017. Unlike its previous series, it is computer-animated, and features Pingu and his family moving to a big city. Each episode involves Pingu attempting to help out anyone there with their jobs, although he usually messes it up. The series was produced by Polygon Pictures in the same style of the original stop motion series through computer animation.[23] It was directed by Naomi Iwata and written by both Kimiko Ueno and Shigenori Tanabe, with music done by Ken Arai.[24] It features voices by Ryota Iwasaki and Fumiya Tanaka, in a similar style to Carlo Bonomi, David Sant, and Marcello Magni.

2025 revival

[edit]

On 21 October 2024, it was announced that a remake of the series was being co-developed by Aardman Animations and Mattel Television.[25][26]

Reception

[edit]

Pingu has received mostly positive reviews. Common Sense Media have it 4 out of 5 stars, stating: "Parents need to know that this claymation series is funny, endearing, and entertaining. Although [it] is appropriate for all ages, the plots might be difficult for the youngest viewers to follow".[27] According to a 2008 Slate article, the series is "an international sensation", but still remains obscure among American audiences.[28]

Internet popularity

[edit]

Pingu has been the subject of various internet memes online. In 2012, a fan film called Pingu's The Thing, a crossover with John Carpenter's The Thing by animator Lee Hardcastle, went viral on release and again over the following years.[29][30][31][32]

In 2022, a viral animation involving Pingu doing his trademark "Noot noot!" before staring off into the distance as Lacrimosa plays in the background gained popularity, using the choir symphony to depict feelings of terror and dread.[33][34]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Formerly known as Trickfilmstudio Otmar Gutmann for series 1–2.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Pingu season 5 end credits. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Originated by: Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann
  2. ^ Stevens, Dana (1 February 2008). "The March of the Pingu". Slate. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  3. ^ "Pingu Fact #5 (viewable in webpage source code)". Archived from the original on 2 February 2007.
  4. ^ a b c d Dickson, Andrew; Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (11 January 2016). "How we made Pingu". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  5. ^ "2005 Children's Pre-School Animation". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
  6. ^ "Aardman and Mattel to co-develop Pingu animated TV series". app-aardman-cms-prod.azurewebsites.net. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Mattel and Aardman bring back Pingu". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d "Erika Brüggemann, langjährige Redaktorin im Kinder- und Jugendprogramm, über "Pingu"" (PDF) (in German). April 2004.
  9. ^ "Obituary: Otmar Gutmann". Independent.co.uk. 20 October 1993.
  10. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions about Pingu". Archived from the original on 10 March 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
  11. ^ "The Man Who Voiced Pingu Looks COMPLETELY Different to How We Imagined - Entertainment - Heart Radio". Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  12. ^ "The man who voiced Pingu is NOT what we expected". Her.ie. 14 September 2016.
  13. ^ a b Wahlgren, Yens (2 February 2021). The Universal Translator. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-9592-4.
  14. ^ a b Thorne, Tony. "Pingu's Lingo, or How to Get By in Penguinese".
  15. ^ "Pingu Family at the Wedding Party". ABC Television.
  16. ^ "Pingu sold for £16m". Business. BBC News. 29 October 2001. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
  17. ^ HIT Entertainment PLC (14 October 2002). "HIT Entertainment PLC Announces Record Year End 2002 Results". prnewswire.com.
  18. ^ "Pingu gets new voice". Irish Examiner. 17 August 2003.
  19. ^ Adler, Tim (24 October 2011). "Mattel Buys A $680M Ticket For Thomas The Tank Engine With HIT Entertainment Deal". Deadline. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  20. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions about Pingu". Archived from the original on 10 August 2020.
  21. ^ "日本初公開の貴重な資料や当時のクレイ人形も展示！ピングーの魅力が詰まった「ピングー展」詳細決定！2020年8月12日(水)～8月24日(月)". 24 June 2020.
  22. ^ ピングー in ザ・シティ, Pingū in za Shiti
  23. ^ "ピングー：新作テレビアニメは初のオールCg ポリゴン・ピクチュアズ制作". 4 September 2017.
  24. ^ "Polygon Pictures Makes New Anime for Swiss Character Pingu". Anime News Network. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  25. ^ Ford, Lily (21 October 2024). "Mattel and 'Chicken Run' Studio Aardman Team Up on Stop-Motion, Animated 'Pingu' Series". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  26. ^ "Wallace and Gromit makers to create new Pingu series". BBC Newsround. 22 October 2024. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  27. ^ "Pingu – TV Review". 19 May 2006. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  28. ^ Stevens, Dana (February 2008). "When will America embrace Pingu?". Slate.
  29. ^ Media Monkey (4 January 2012). "Pingu's The Thing: definitely not kids' stuff". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  30. ^ Watercutter, Angela (4 January 2012). "Video: Claymation Penguins Face Alien Horror in Pingu's The Thing". Wired. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  31. ^ Bedard, Mike (28 March 2021). "The Bizarre Mashup Of Pingu And The Thing That Had Horror Fans Buzzing". Looper. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  32. ^ Poke Staff (16 August 2022). "Pingu's 'The Thing' has gone viral again – and it's a fitting salute to Carlo Bonomi". The Poke. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  33. ^ Billingsley, Kristen (12 August 2022). "Pingu Is Trending On TikTok Again: How To Use The 'Noot Noot' Filter". Screen Rant. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  34. ^ The SportsGrail (6 July 2022). "Terrfied Pingu Penguin Noot Noot Viral Meme And Tiktok Trend Meaning Explained". The SportsGrail. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
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