Tanoshî Mûmin ikka

When I was small Muumilaakson tarinoita was my favorite TV-show by far, and I wasn't the only one. Based on the books and comics of Tove and also Lars Jansson, the stories are about Moomin, his parents and his many friends and the adventures they have, and every episode is quite unique and never boring! All the characters are lovely and even the "bad" ones turn out to be not so bad at some point and Moomins are always nice to them! The voices do a good job and the music is wonderful. The episodes might be sad, funny or teaching, and I have never seen a bad Moomin episode except the "new episodes" made later are nothing compared to these, these are the original ones and people should start with watching these! This is not an average children's TV-show, this is better!

No phenomenon has had such a large impact on my childhood as the Moomins. I was a sucker for the awesome comics by Lars and Tove Jansson, I bought tons of little models of the cast of characters, my family even took me to Moomin Valley in Nådendal, Finland (of course, a human-sized Muminmamma trying to hug me was a bit too much for a 5-something-year old like me... brrr...). As I grew older and a brain, I read through all of the wonderfully atmospheric novels which, after all, started it all. But the single most powerful thing about the Moomins was the TV show. It had it all.

Horror! The scene where Moomin was transformed into a monster when he hid in the Wizard's hat scarred me for life. I still shudder as I see the Groke outside the Moomin valley, staring at the poor sods. I don't care if the Groke was a pitiful and sad creature who only wanted to make friends, to me she'll always be the greatest movie monster that humanity has ever created. Monsters like King Kong or Freddy Krueger are barely a 0.5 out of 10 on the Groke scale.

Comedy! Sniff and Little My, the hotheaded redhead, cracked me up.

Drama! The sorrow Moomin feels when his best friend the Snusmumrik leaves for the south during the autumn is something anyone can relate to.

Characters! The Moomin family, the Snorks, the Sniff, Little My, Snusmumriken, The Hemul, The Groke, Too-ticky, Stinky, Ninni, the Witch, etc, etc, etc, there were a myriad of multi-layered characters in these stories, none of them a stereotype or a one-note character, each with a billion times more depth than any of the "deep" Hollywood dramas.

As I grew a little older I left Moomin and started watching a more "badass" show that actually had some action in it - Pokémon (although it sucked in retrospect, it was a Saturday morning fave for me). But the Moomin series has stayed with me and it is, in some way, a part of me. As awful, dumb and naive series like Pokémon or Moomin may seem to adults, it's all us kids of the nineties have. When you were five, did you really want to watch Goodfellas or Nattvardsgästerna? No, you wanted to watch The Transformers, or Flash Gordon, depending on how old you were when they aired. Pretty lame as they may seem today, they were great when you were a kid, and classic today for anyone who grew up with series like these.

Ramble ramble... to sum up: This is a great show and I love it with all my heart. It's been a while since I saw it but I'm positive even adults will be able to enjoy it - unless you're scared of losing your status. Moomin is awesome. That's it. (r#38)

This Show Is Beyond My Favorite Moomin Shows Of All Time!

The first commentor complitely missed the point. It is, however, refreshing to see someone who apparently did not like Moominland stories.

The Japanese TV series is amazingly close in atmosphere to the original books. Much of this is assumably because of the author, Tove Jansson, spent a lot of time looking over how her characters are treated by others.

Let's look at it from this point of view: isn't it nice to see a show where each character is an individual. Not everyone is either picture book good or simply bad. Amidst all the adveture, dangers, monsters, comets, and unexpected events there is an overall atmosphere of love and acceptance the characters feel for each other. This is completely opposite from Pokemon that I would not let my children to watch.

And one more possibly important item: Moominland stories are children's stories that adults like to read and watch as well. Children, at least in Finland, are simply hypnotized by them.

My only wish is that these will come out on DVD before my children have grown up.

Oh! However, Whatever be the situation, I always remember the MoominValley