Pingu

Pingu
Reissue title card of Pingu used in Series 1 and Series 2.
Genre	Children's stop motion comedy
Created by	Otmar Gutmann
Written by	Silvio Mazzola
Starring	Dave Sandham (series 1–4) Marcello Magni David Sant (series 5–6)
Composer(s)	The Pygos Group
No. of seasons	Original series: 4 Revived series: 2 6 (total)
No. of episodes	Original series: 105 Revived series: 52 157 (total) (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	Approximately five minutes
Production company(s)	Trickfilmstudio Otmar Gutmannn SRG/ZRG/Telepool/Editoy (1986–1996) The Pygos Group (1998) HiT Entertainment (1998–present) Hot Animation (2003–2006) Big Idea Productions (1998-2006)
Distributor	SF DRS (1986–2000), BBC Two (2003–2006)
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC Two, CBBC (1986–2001), CBeebies (2002–present), CITV (1995-2005)
Picture format	4:3 Fullscreen (Series 1–4) 16:9 Widescreen (Series 5–6)
Original run	28 May 1986 (1986-05-28) – 3 March 2006

Pingu is a BAFTA award-winning British-Swiss stop-motion claymated television series created by Otmar Gutmann. The series was produced by The Pygos Group and Trickfilmstudio for Swiss television, and centers on a family of anthropomorphic penguins living at the South Pole. The main character is the family's son and title character, Pingu. The show was made by HiT Entertainment and HoT Animation, British companies, from seasons 5–6.

The show originally ran for four seasons from 28 May 1986 to 9 April 2000 on SF DRS. In 2001, there were 2 Pingu episodes made (one of them being "Pingu & the Doll") that did not air during the original run. The episodes were run later, in 2000, as part of a Pingu marathon. HiT Entertainment's request for more episodes convinced Pygos to bring back the show in 1998, with two more series. Of note, season 1 (1986–1990) and season 2 (1991–1994) were run consecutively but took 4 years for each season to complete, while season 3 (1995–1996) and season 4 (1998–2000) took 2 and 3 years to complete – the show was not cancelled in between. To this day, Pingu maintains a cult following, and enjoys occasional reruns on Cbeebies in the United Kingdom. It aired on BBC in 1995 until 2005.

Background

The program is set in Antarctica and centres around penguin families who live and work 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 the Seal.

One reason for Pingu's international success is its lack of real spoken language: nearly all dialogue is in an invented "penguin language" consisting of babbling, muttering and sporadic loud honking noises.^[1] This was initially retroscripted by Carlo Bonomi, who created all the sound effects for the series. This feature allows people of different linguistic backgrounds to be able to follow the story.

Characters

These are some of the characters appearing in Pingu.

Pingu's family

• Pingu is the main character of the series. When he gets excited or angry or wants attention, he shouts "Nonk! Nonk!" and makes a megaphone-shaped beak to indicate his elevated feelings. Pingu can also change his shape like as morphing into a ball and how he can increase or decrease his total height. He also increases his height to let someone in, which was first seen in Pingu Finishes the Job.

• Pinga is Pingu's sister. She first appears in the episode "The New Arrival" and has an appearance similar to a baby emperor penguin, as do other very young penguins throughout the show. Like her brother, she can morph, but to a much lesser extent than Pingu can.

• Mother and Father are Pingu and Pinga's parents. Father is a postman who constantly smokes some pipes in the early episodes, but quits later his job.He has a motorized sledge to deliver the mail with help from Pingu. Mother spends most of her time cooking and does all the work in the home. Mother sometimes gets help from Pingu and Pinga, and she always gives them a cuddle when they have learned a lesson. Mother and Father's names are never revealed throughout the show.

• Grandfather is Pingu and Pinga's paternal grandfather. He is an expert accordianist as demonstrated Pingu in the episode "Music Lessons". He is also a former professional weight lifter. He first appeared in the episode "Music Lessons".

Pingu's friends

• Robby is a grey seal. His name resembles the German word for seal, Robbe. In the first four seasons, he is bluish-grey, but light grey in the last two. He first appeared in the episode "Pingu Goes Fishing".

• Pingo is a somewhat foolhardy penguin. He has a long beak that is essentially flat at the bottom but slightly rounded on the top and a head that is wider and taller. He often persuades Pingu to do wild and silly things with him.

• Pingg is Pingu's other penguin friend. He also has a long beak, but a shorter head than Pingo.

• Pongi is a penguin who wears glasses and has a short round beak. He first appeared in the episode "Ice Hockey".

• Punki is a penguin who first appeared in the episode "Pingu Delivers The Mail". He has a tuft on his head and wears striped trousers. Punki only appears in a handful of episodes.

• Bajoo is Pingu's other non-penguin friend. HiT Entertainment reveals him as a "strange newcomer" to the Antarctic in the appearance of an abominable snowman. He debuted in 2005, and appeared in the final episode, "Pingu & the Abominable Snowman". He also appeared in the 7–11 music video and "The Pingu Show".

• Pingi is Pingu's girlfriend and Pinga's best friend. She has thick, white eyelashes and a somewhat mushed beak. She first appeared in the episode "Pingu's Admirer". Pinga is sometimes envious of her because of Pingu paying more attention to her.

Other

• The Schoolmaster is Pingu's teacher. He lives in a nearby school and rings the bell when it is time for school to begin or end. He first appeared in the episode "School Time".
• The Doctor is the neighborhood's doctor. He lives in a nearby igloo clinic and frequently treats Pingu's injuries, as well as aid in the birth of Pinga.

Production history

A total of 156 five-minute episodes and one special 20-minute episode were originally made, from 1986 to 2000, and then again from 2003 to 2006. The episodes were written by Silvio Mazzola and were directed and animated by Otmar Gutmann using clay animation, at Trickfilmstudio in Russikon, Switzerland.^[2]

In 1993, David Hasselhoff released (in Switzerland only) the single "Pingu Dance",^[3] a rap song based on the Pingu shorts and featuring samples of Penguinese. A portion of this song is used as the theme to Pingu in international airings, and was also heard in the new version of the "Pingu Looks After the Egg" episode and replaced the "Woodpeckers From Space" song from the original version. The original theme remains in some international airings, including on BBC's Cbeebies.

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

In 2001, HiT Entertainment bought the United Kingdom rights to the series, including the original 105 episodes, for £15.9 million.^[4] Later, HiT decided to bring back the show, and produced a further 52 episodes, created at Hot Animation Studios in 2004-2006, continuing in stop motion but using resin casts of the original clay puppets which had deteriorated by this time. Cbeebies airs only the original version of Pingu with the original cartoon title card (series 1 and 2) from 52 episodes, and shows 13 episodes from series 3 with the claymated inspiration intro. Contrary to some sources, there was never any CGI used in these later episodes. Presumably due to a language barrier, Carlo Bonomi he was replaced with new voice actors Marcello Magni and David Sant. Magni and Sant, Italian and Spanish actors based in London, both have a mime and clowning background and were already aware of the clown language of "Grammelot" on which the penguin language was based. In 2006, after the last episode aired, Pingu finally ended its 20-year run on TV.

Pingu first aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's Sunday morning omnibus program Small World, which featured various cartoon shorts produced internationally, from 1996 until the show's discontinuation in 2001. The show returned to America in 2005, when episodes began to air on PBS Kids Sprout. On 11 April 2010, HiT Entertainment removed Pingu from the Sprout schedule due to low ratings.^{[citation needed]}

Pingu has also been a mainstay of the children's programming blocks on TVOntario since the mid-1990s.

In 2006, Pingu was featured in a music video for Eskimo Disco's first single, "7–11".

In India, Pingu was aired by Doordarshan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since 2000, it is aired by Hugama TV and Animax.

In Japan, Pingu currently airs as part of NHK's children's program Nyanchu's World, and also on Cartoon Network Japan. Toys in the likeness of Pingu characters also featured in Japanese KFC restaurants as part of their Kids' Meal.

In the UK, Pingu was featured in the Children In Need 2009 video by Peter Kay, which contained many other popular characters. This was shown on live television across the UK, and then sold on both CD and DVD.

A Japan-only game made for the Nintendo DS, Pingu no Waku Waku Carnival ("Pingu's Wonderful Carnival") was made by Square Enix and released in November 2008. This game is a series of mini games starring Pingu and his friends, including one in which Pingu's mother and father bake a heart-shaped cake, with the gameplay style resemblant to that of Cooking Mama.^[5]

Another game for the Nintendo DS is Fun Fun Pingu. Little is known about the storyboard, though.

Other video games based on the series are Pingu's 'Barrel of Fun! for the PC in 1997 and Pingu and Friends in 1999, (both of which were developed in the UK by BBC Multimedia, and were then released in USA in 1999 and 2001, being distributed by Infogrames), Pingu for the Game Boy in Japan in 1994, and Fun Fun Pingu for the PlayStation also in Japan in 1999.

Pingu aired in New Zealand on TV3 from 1997 to 2006, and on Four beginning in 2011.

In Canada, the show aired between programs during lunchtime hours on YTV from 2004 until 2006. It can still be seen on TV in that country since APTN airs "The Pingu Show" as part of its morning children's programming block "APTN Kids", and the show is available in English and French language versions. Some of the controversial episodes, such as "Pingu Quarrels With His Mom" and "Little Accidents", have aired uncut on APTN Kids. In British Columbia, Pingu is aired during commercial breaks on Knowledge Network.

Episode lists

DVD and VHS releases

References

External links

• Official website
• Pingu at the Internet Movie Database
• Pingu at the Big Cartoon DataBase