From en.wikipedia.org:
[Animated children's television series] [date=May 2018] {{Infobox television |
image = Pingu Logo.png | alt_name = | genre = {{ubl
| Animated sitcom
| Children's television series
| Clay animation
| Stop motion
| Comedy
}}
| creator = {{ubl
| Otmar Gutmann
| Erika Brueggemann<ref name="Creator-credits" />
}}
| writer = {{ubl
| Erika Brueggemann
| Silvio Mazzola
}}
| voices = {{ubl
| Carlo Bonomi
| David Sant
| Marcello Magni
}}
| composer = {{ubl
| Antonio Conde (1990–1994)
| Andy Benedict (1995–2000)
| Keith Hopwood (2003–2006)
}}
| country = {{ubl
| Switzerland (original)
| United Kingdom (revival)
}}
| language =
German Grammelot
| num_series = 6
| num_episodes = 156 (+1 special)
| list_episodes = List of Pingu episodes
| executive_producer = {{ubl
| Theresa Plummer-Andrews (2003–2006)
| Jocelyn Stevenson (2003–2006)
| Christopher Skala (2005–2006)
}}
| producer = {{ubl
| Otmar Gutmann (1990–1993)
| Seishi Katto (1993–2000)
| Javier Garcia (1993–2000)
| Jackie Cockle (2003–2006)
| Bella Reekie (2003–2006)
}}
| runtime = {{ubl
| 5 minutes
| 25 minutes (special)
}}
| company = {{ubl
| Pingu Filmstudio[Formerly known as Trickfilmstudio Otmar Gutmann for series 1–2.] (original)
| Hot Animation (revival)|HIT Entertainment (revival)<!--
||Mattel Studios|Aardman Animations}} (second revival) — it’s unknown if it will be a full revival of the original or a separate show like "In the City". -->
}}
| network = SF DRS (Switzerland)<br>ZDF (Germany)<!-- Per Template:Infobox television, Channel parameter is for the original broadcast channel, not international rebroadcast. While ZDF is based in Germany, the broadcaster was one of the co-commissioners and is credited on the end card.-->
| first_aired = [df=y]
| last_aired = [df=y]
| network2 = CBeebies
| first_aired2 = [df=y]
| last_aired2 = [df=y]
| related = [_Pingu in the City_]
}}
_PINGU_ is a stop motion animated children's television series originally
produced in Switzerland. It was co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika
Brueggemann.[1] It 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<!-- (stated to be "Noo,
noo!" by the defunct Pingu website's trivia page)-->,[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 BV in 2001,
they produced a revival run of Pingu for two additional series in the United
Kingdom through their in-house studio Hot Animation, which aired on CBeebies
from 1[nbsp]August 2003 to 3[nbsp]March 2006. It was nominated for a BAFTA
award[5] in 2005. The characters were jointly voiced by David Sant and
Marcello Magni.<ref name="guardian_interview" /> A computer-animated revival
series with two seasons produced in Japan for NHK, entitled _Pingu in the
City_, aired from 7[nbsp]October 2017 to 30[nbsp]March 2019. A third revival
series, being animated in stop-motion like the original, is currently under
development at Mattel 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.
** Episodes
[List of Pingu episodes] [:List of Pingu episodes]
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
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".<ref name="Brueggemann-interview"
/> 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], 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,<ref name="Brueggemann-interview" /> 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]<ref
name="History Press" /><ref name="carlobonomi" /> 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
On 29[nbsp]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."<ref name="Brueggemann-interview" />
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]<ref
name="guardian_interview" /> 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.<ref
name="guardian_interview" />
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_
[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_] was
announced in 2017. It premiered on NHK-E on 7[nbsp]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.[22] It was directed by Naomi Iwata and
written by both Kimiko Ueno and Shigenori Tanabe, with music done by Ken
Arai.[23] It features voices by Ryota Iwasaki and Fumiya Tanaka, in a similar
style to Carlo Bonomi, David Sant, and Marcello Magni.
*** Second revival
On 21[nbsp]October 2024, it was announced that a remake of the series was
being co-developed by Aardman Animations and Mattel Television.[24][25]
** Reception
_Pingu_ has received mostly positive reviews. Common Sense Media gave 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".[26]
According to a 2008 _Slate_ article, the series is "an international
sensation", but still remains obscure among American audiences.[27]
** Notes
[Notelist]
** References
[Reflist]
** External links
[date=2025-03-03]
- [IMDb title]
[Pingu] [Mattel]
Category:1980s Swiss television series Category:1986 Swiss television series
debuts Category:1990 animated television series debuts Category:1990s
preschool education television series Category:1990s Swiss television series
Category:2000s British animated television series Category:2000s British
children's television series Category:2000s preschool education television
series Category:2000s Swiss television series Category:2003 British television
series debuts Category:2006 British television series endings
Category:Animated television series about families Category:Animated
television series about penguins Category:Animated television series set in
Antarctica Category:Animated television series without speech
Category:Anthropomorphic penguins Category:BBC children's television shows
Category:British animated television series Category:British stop-motion
animated television series Category:British television series revived after
cancellation Category:Censored television series Category:Child characters in
animation Category:Child characters in television Category:Children's animated
comedy television series Category:Claymation television series
Category:Culture of Switzerland Category:Fictional penguins Category:Macaronic
language Category:Male characters in animation Category:Male characters in
television Category:Swiss animated television series Category:Swiss children's
television series Category:Television series by Mattel Television