Die Sendung mit der Maus

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Die Sendung mit der Maus

The mouse, mascot of the show
Genre Children's television
Created by Dieter Saldecki
Gert Kaspar Müntefering
Armin Maiwald
Country of origin Germany
Language(s) German
Production
Producer(s) WDR, RBB, SR, SWR
Running time 30 min.
Broadcast
Original channel Das Erste
Original run March 10, 1971 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

Die Sendung mit der Maus (The programme with the mouse) is a children's series on German television, airing uninterrupted since 1971. Its goals are comparable to those of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: To encourage children to actively participate in life, to ask questions and to shape their own lives through taking action.

The show first aired in 1971, and is shown in a weekly Sunday morning slot, usually at 11:30 a.m. in the ARD and the ARDs / ZDFs children's channel KI.KA.

Contents

[edit] Format

The format is aimed at younger children, and the language used in the show is a version of German that refrains from using "big words" and long sentences which might confuse children. More complicated concepts are broken down into smaller parts which then are explained in a way easily understandable and comprehensible to young children. However, due to the long running of the show, many of the show's early viewers are now in their twenties, thirties, or even forties, who fondly remember the show from their childhoods and encourage their own children to watch the programme, thus contributing to the show's lasting success and impact on German society.

Each show consists of a similar pattern of short featurettes, separated from each other by a short mouse cartoon.

[edit] Introduction

The show always starts with its iconic theme, unchanged since 1971 and recognised throughout the German population. After the first few bars of the theme, a voice-over starts to list the contents of the show in German, which is then repeated in a foreign language, which changes every week. After the music has ended, it is revealed after a short pause what foreign language that was, giving the children (and their parents) a chance to take their own guesses first.

[edit] Mouse cartoons

Each part of the show is separated from the next by a short cartoon of about 30 to 60 seconds in length, featuring the eponymous orange mouse, the small blue elephant, and sometimes the yellow duck. None of the characters speak, but noises from walking or other doings are audible. At times, the blue elephant trumpets with his nose to get the mouse's attention. The cartoons show some small everyday adventure, but always displayed in a light-hearted manner. These cartoons serve to logically separate each segment from the next, relax the children and avoid sensory overload by a too-rapid succession of input.

[edit] Factual story

A large part of each show is used for factual stories, explaining how some everyday article or service works or is made. Sometimes, do-it-yourself instructions are given for things children can make on their own or together with their parents, like baking a cake or building a simple kite. Usually two of these stories are shown in every show. Examples include:

Care is taken to explain everything in a way that is understandable and comprehensible to young children. Therefore, all explanations are very tangible. Often everyday items already known to most children are used to explain things so as to enable them to concentrate on the process explained without confusing them with the tool used to explain it. In the case of industrially produced things, each step is shown in great detail, so one can actually see how, for example, a piece of metal is formed by a tool. If something happens too fast for the naked eye it is shown filmed in slow motion. After each step, usually the previous steps including the new one are recapped briefly to help children remember what they already saw. Concepts which are not visible at all are explained with some form of analogous portrayal. The internet, for example, was explained by showing "messengers" running through the hallways of a large building, delivering request and answer messages (in envelopes) from the user to servers and back, with the hallways being the data lines, and the offices being internet hosts.

Accordingly, the language used in the narration is kept very simple. Sentences are short. The use of pronouns is very limited, instead the proper names of things are usually repeated each time, freeing children from the task of keeping track of what is meant by "He", "She", "It", "This" and "That". "Big words" are not used or explained, and difficult concepts are first verbally broken down in smaller parts and then explained part by part. Again, this is designed to free children from the more abstract concepts and devices of language, thus giving their minds space to comprehend the concepts explained rather than having to struggle comprehending the language of the explanation.

Factual stories are usually narrated by Armin Maiwald, Christoph Biemann, or Ralph Caspers.

[edit] Cartoon

At least once in every show a several minutes long cartoon is shown, often together with a song. There are no regular cartoons, but some are shown in a semi-regular manner, like the adventures of the small black mole.

[edit] Käpt'n Blaubär

As the last part of every show, Käpt'n Blaubär ("Captain Bluebear") tells his red, green, and yellow grandchildren, and Hein Blöd ("Hein Stupid", his rather silly sailor rat) a cock-and-bull story, which his grandchildren always doubt to be true. The characters of Käpt'n Blaubär, his grandchildren, and Hein Blöd were created by Walter Moers, and made popular by Moers's book The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear and Blaubär's appearance on Die Sendung mit der Maus. Käpt'n Blaubär is voiced with deep timbre and a slight accent of the Plattdeutsch ("Low German") common in the seaside parts of Germany by veteran German actor Wolfgang Völz. The scenes on board Blaubär's ship are made with Muppets-style puppets, while his stories are short animated films.

Sometimes Käpt'n Blaubär gets replaced with or complemented by Shaun the Sheep produced by Aardman Animations (who made Wallace & Gromit).

[edit] Awards

Die Sendung mit der Maus and its creators continue to receive high praise from both television critics and pedagogic experts. The most notable of the about 75 awards won by the show and its creators are:

[edit] Dubbed airings

In countries outside of Germany that carry the English-dubbed version of the show, Die Sendung mit der Maus airs under the title of Mouse TV. The program retains much of its original format, but the dialogue and narration have been dubbed into English. Currently it is known to be airing on the following networks:

It is also aired on the Franco-German channel arte on Sunday mornings. This is to encourage French children to learn German and vice versa. The show is thus dubbed into French for German viewers. In both countries subtitles in the respective mother tongue help to understand the show. The show is advertised as La souris souriante (The smiling mouse).

[edit] External links