Pingu

Pingu is a Swiss animated television series created by Otmar Gutman, about a family of penguins who live at the South Pole. The main character is their son and title character, Pingu.

Background

The programme is set in Antarctica, where the penguin families and businesses live and work in igloos.

One reason for "Pingu"'s international success is its lack of dialogue per se. All dialogue is in a honking "penguin language" (called Penguinese [cite web |url= http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/03/08/18/Pingu's%20Lingo,%20or%20How%20to%20Get%20By%20in%20Penguinese.doc |title= Pingu's Lingo, or How to Get By in Penguinese, by Tony Thorne |accessdate=2008-08-18] ), and was initially performed without script by Carlo Bonomi (in a similar way to "La Linea", which was also dubbed by Bonomi).

History

104 five-minute episodes were originally made, from 1986 onwards. The episodes were written by Silvio Mazzola, and directed and animated by Otmar Gutmann using clay animation, at Trickfilmstudio in Switzerland. [cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/5681/pinguFAQ.html |title=Frequently Asked Questions about Pingu |accessdate=2007-07-21]

In 1989, David Hasselhoff released (in Switzerland only) the single "Pingu Dance" [ [http://www.david-hasselhoff.com/multimedia.html | www.david-hasselhoff.com | ] ] , 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 the airings in North America.

A special 20-minute episode ("Pingu at the Wedding Party") was also produced, in 1997, which introduced a family of green penguins and a killer vacuum cleaner.

In 2001, HIT Entertainment bought the UK rights to the series (including the original 105 episodes) for £15.9 million [cite news |title=Pingu sold for £16m |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1626014.stm |work=Business |publisher=BBC News |date=2001-10-29 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ] and produced a further 52 episodes, created at Hot Animation and first broadcast in 2004. These feature new voice actors Marcello Magni and David Sant, as Bonomi, who was based in Italy and could speak no English, was considered too impractical. 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.

"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 that show's discontinuation in 2001. The show would come back to America in 2005, when episodes began to air on PBS Kids Sprout.

In 2006, Pingu was featured in a music video for Eskimo Disco's first single, "7-11" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7RcqRmBlIQ] . Also in 2006, pop icon Madonna told Swedish talk-show host Kristian Luuk that she considered Pingu (and TV in general) to be a bad influence on children. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20061219/ai_n17080941 (Reference from article by Ed Caesar, in the "London Independent", 19 Dec 2006. Retrieved via findarticles.com on 10 Feb 2008.)]

Although unsuccessful by international standards, the show garnered success in Malaysia comparable with the internationally acclaimed SpongeBob SquarePants. Fact|date=April 2008 It is also very popular in Japan, and currently airs as part of NHK's children's program "Nyanchu's World".

Pingu is currently featured in Japanese KFC restaurants as part of their Kids' Meal.

Episode lists

::*Alphabetic list of Pingu episode titles (includes alternative titles)::*Lists of Pingu episodes with synopses - series 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • special

Notes
*"Derivation of episode titles"
:No official episode title appears on screen, so the lists were initially created from the titles used on various official DVD releases. The main episode titles for Series 1 to 4 were taken from the official Japanese DVD releases, and the alternative titles from the official European DVD releases. Episode titles for Series 5 and 6 were taken from the European DVD releases. :Changes have subsequently been made to these titles to bring them more into line with English usage and practice (e.g. to correct spelling and grammar) and to relate them to the titles used on UK DVDs produced by HIT Entertainment. Alternative titles have also been appropriately added, amended, etc. Title data has also been supplemented with information from other sources, such as the titles used by the BBC for television broadcasts and on video tapes.
*"BBC broadcasts":In the UK, the BBC appear never to have broadcast any of the normal 5 minute episodes from the latter half of series 3 (3.13 – 3.26) or from series 4 (4.1 – 4.26). [cite web|url=http://catalogue.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/series/PINGU| title=BBC Programme Catalogue - (infax beta) |accessdate=2007-07-26 ] Of the episodes that have been broadcast, all have been broadcast since 4 September 2006 inclusive except for episodes::• 1.1 (“Hello Pingu”, last broadcast 2 May 2003), ::• 1.14 (“Pingu Runs Away”, last broadcast 18 February 2005) ::• 1.26 (“Pingu’s Dream”, last broadcast 15 May 2003)

Commercial VHS and DVD releases

Characters

These are some of the characters appearing in "Pingu".

*Pingu is the main character of the series. His age is 5. He is considered mischievous and a in the episode "Pingu Runs Away". He commonly uses the "megaphone-like beak" gesture and "NUG, NUG!" [ [http://www.pingu.net/uk/index.htm Welcome to the official Pingu web site!] ] sound to indicate anger, happiness, frustration or to get attention (even though at the end of most series 5-6 episodes he says it at the end). Pingu can also change himself into many shapes at will, such as a ball. Pingu is also very accident-prone, much to his parents annoyance.

*Pinga is Pingu's little sister. She first appeared in the episode "Pinga is Born". In all of the series 1 and early 2 episodes she appears to be about 18 months old. Although she is seen attending kindergarten in one episode, Pingu gets jealous when she has to stay home while he has to go to school.

*Mother and Father. Pingu's father is a postman, who smokes a pipe. He has a motorised sledge to deliver the post. Pingu's mother spends most of her time at home in the igloo. Mother and Father share a lot of the work in the home e.g. knitting, cooking and ironing. Mother sometimes gets help from Pingu & Pinga, but in the episode "Pingu Refuses to help", the kids decide not to help her. They helped her again in "Pingu's Pancakes"

*Grandpa is Pingu's grandfather. He's an expert accordionist, and a former weight lifter.
*Robby the seal is Pingu's best friend. His name is a pun; 'Robbe' is German for 'seal'. He first appeared in in the episode "Pingu Goes Fishing".

*Pingi is Pingu's girlfriend. She first appeared in in the episode "Pingu's Admirer".
*Pingo is a friend of Pingu. He has a long beak, basically flat at the bottom but slightly rounded on the top, which is slightly shorter than that of "Pingg". He usually tries to get Pingu to do wild and silly things.

*Pingg is a friend of Pingu. He's rather shorter than "Pingo", and his beak is slightly longer and more pointed than that of "Pingo".

*Pongi is a friend of Pingu. He wears glasses.

*Punki is another of Pingu's friends. He has tufts on the top of his head and wears stripey trousers.

*Bajoo is also one of Pingu's friends. He is actually an abominable snowman who only appeared on the last Pingu episode "Pingu and the Abominable Snowman". He also appeared in the music video.

*The Schoolmaster is Pingu's teacher. He lives in a nearby school and rings the bell meaning that is time for school to begin or end.

ee also

* Clay animation

References

External links

* [http://www.pingu.net/ Official website]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/pingu.htm Toonopedia article]
*imdb title|id=0366069|title=Pingu
*dmoz|Arts/Television/Programs/Children's/Pingu