Hugo was a media franchise created in Denmark in 1989 for the purpose of interactive television for children. The Hugo "live one-player multi platform interactive game show" has aired in more than 40 countries[1] and spawned numerous video games and many other merchandise. In 2009 Hugo was selected by Royal Danish Library to be the central part of the Danish digital heritage exhibit.[2] ITE, the original developer, is now part of NDS Group.
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Hugo is a friendly small troll. In the first of the games, Hugo usually fights against Scylla (Afskylia in the original Danish version), an evil witch who has kidnapped his wife Hugolina (Hugoline) and their kids: Rit, Rat and Rut. The other characters are mostly non-human cartoonish creatures and anthropomorphic animals, including Hugo's friends such as the tucan Fernando and Jean Paul the chimpanzee.[3] Eventually, there was science-fiction-style re-boot of franchise named Agent Hugo, in which Hugo became a James Bond-style special agent fighting against high-tech enemies such as mad scientists and robots.
The idea for TV show was created by Ivan Sølvason and Niels Krogh Mortensen in 1987. Their small Danish software company SilverRock Productions (future ITE) developed both the character of Hugo and the computer hardware system ITE 3000 which converted telephone signals into pulses to remotely control the characters in the game and allow the interaction of the audience and the TV action without delay.[4] It was first aired in September 1990, features a video game that was played by the audience via telephone connection. A player would call the show's production, then be prompted by a human host to control a cartoon character on the TV screen in several scenarios by pressing the number keys on the phone, assorted to the character controls. The show was gradually expanded with more characters and more diverse environment and gameplay, eventually creating the new setting titled "Hugo Jungle Island".
The programs were licenced for some 50 TV shows around the world (first in Spain in 1992), often vary widely in content. For example, in 1996-1997 there was a German spin-off Scylla show of the main Hugo-Show[5] called Hexana[6] (also known as Hexana-Schloss, or "Hexana's Castle"[7]) where she was played by the actress Julia Haacke. In Vietnam, Vui cùng Hugo became one of the highest rated shows, reaching 20,000 phone call per episode.[8] A list of these countries, including the TV stations and the dates of airing, can be seen there with some more additional details there (in German).
There are more than 30 games sold in over 10 million copies (including more than 3 million in Germany),[9] for multiple personal computer, game console and mobile phone platforms. In some of them also the family members, friends or even enemies of Hugo are playable characters. Most of the tiles are the platform games or minigame compilations, but there are also several quiz-type educational games.[10]
The first in the long-running of the classic Hugo games was created in 1991. The first 3D platform game, Hugo: Quest for the Sunstones,[11] was published in 2000. In 2005 Hugo was rebranded into Agent Hugo for a new series of four Agent Hugo games.[12]
In 2009 the firm Krea Medie created a complete reboot PC game Hugo - Magic in the Trollwoods, which is now the only game listed on the official website for the Hugo games as the previous content has been entirely deleted. It has no connection with neither the Hugo show characters or the Agent Hugo series.
In 1997 a musical titled The Magical Kingdom of Hugo was played in Tel Aviv, Israel.[13] It tells a story of a group of kids who were sucked into the television screen and summoned directly to the Hugo's world by the witch Griselda (Israeli name for Scylla).
An animated CGI film called Hugo the Movie or Hugo and the Diamond Moon was planned in 1999 to be released in 2002, but later cancelled.[14] A sample for the storyboard for the film can be seen at the website of Frank Madsen's studio.[15]
The characters of Hugo were also used for periodical magazines (Hugo Magazin in Germany in 1999-2003 and Świat przygód z Hugo in Poland in 2003-2010), various food products and other merchandise (children's books, comic books, audio CDs, video VHS/DVDs, educational programs, coloring books, stickers and puzzles, toys, PVC figures, clothing items, etc.) in a number of countries.