The Mézga Family

The Mézga Family (- international title, in Hungarian "Mézga család") is a fictional family from three animated TV series shot by PannóniaFilm studios, Hungary between 1968 and 1978.

Scripts for the series were written by József Romhányi and József Nepp. Nepp also served as the film director. The series proved to be very popular, reaching cult status and televized, among others, in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Italy and both German states. The series still regularly appear on television. Each consists of 13 episodes.

The Family

The family consists of Géza, the father, a comical and inept figure similar to Homer Simpson, his wife Paula who actually dominates family affairs, pubertal daughter Kriszta and 12-year old son Aladár, a child prodigy. The cat Maffia and a dog, Blöki (Zorro) accompany the family. Dr. Máris, their cynical neighbour, is regularly and unvoluntary involved in disasters surrounding the family.

The name "Mézga" means bad luck in Hungarian and was translated as "rodina Smolíkových" in Czech, "La famiglia Mezil" in Italian, "Familie Metzger" in German,"Семейство Мейзга" in Bulgarian, "Família Mézga/Mesga" in Portuguese, and "Miazgovci" in Slovak, always maintaining the literary meaning.

The Series

The Mézga family

The first series was shot during 1968/1969 under the name "Üzenet a jövőből – A Mézga család különös kalandjai" ("Legacy from the future - fantastic adventures of family Mézga"). The family makes contact with MZ/X, their descendant from 30th century. MZ/X sends them, through the time, various hypermodern gadgets which invariably result in a disaster.

The series were named "Odkaz budoucnosti aneb Podivuhodná dobrodružství rodiny Smolíkovy" in Czech, "Messaggi dal futuro" in Italian, "Heißer Draht ins Jenseits – Phantastische Abenteuer der Familie Mézga" in German, "Невероятните приключения на Семейство Мейзга: Послания от Бъдещето" in Bulgarian and "Miazgovci I" in Slovak.

The Adventures of Aladár Mézga

The next series was shot in 1972 under the title "Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai" (The Adventures of Aladár Mézga). Every night Aladár visits a different inhabited planet using an inflatable interstellar cosmic ship. In this series, Blöki can talk, as Aladár has taught him to speak, so he would make a suitable assistant for space travel. The series satirised various human and societal vices; for this reason two episodes were not allowed to be shown in communist Czechoslovakia.

The series were named "Podivuhodná dobrodružství Vladimíra Smolíka" in Czech, "L’astronave" in Italian, "Adolars phantastische Abenteuer" in East Germany, "Archibald, der Weltraumtrotter" in West Germany, "Семейство Мейзга: Невероятните приключения на Аладар" in Bulgarian, "Miazgovci II" in Slovak.

The Mézga Family on Holiday

The third series was shot in 1978 under name "Vakáción a Mézga család". Pisti Hufnágel,a character mentioned a few times in the first series, the first love of Paula and her ideal invites the family to spend holidays in Australia. A spare ticket is given to the neighbour - Dr Otokar Marish. It turns out that Hufnágel is a swindler and the Mézgas are left abandoned and penniless. Their effort to get home flings them into the most strange places, including South Pole, and into bizarre situations. Pisti Hufnágel secretly follows them and always turns their hopes into catastrophe. Only when they finally arrive at home and find out their flat completely ransacked by Hufnágel Paula loses her faith in her ideal.

The series were named "Podivuhodné prázdniny rodiny Smolíkovy" in Czech, "Le vacanze della famiglia Mezil" in Italian, "Die Abenteuer der Familie Metzger" in German, "Семейство Мейзга във ваканция" in Bulgarian and "Miazgovci na cestách" in Slovak.

New series

During 2005 studios Ex-Ist prepared a new series, where the family gets acquainted with computers and the Internet. [http://index.hu/kultur/media/mezga2951/]

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0136650/ IMDb record]
* Information about the series in German [http://www.mezga.de.vu/] & [http://www.adolar.de.vu/] , [http://www.zeichentrickserien.de/jenseits.htm] & [http://www.zeichentrickserien.de/adolar.htm] , in Czech [http://www.tv-porady.cz/?clanek=clanek10] , in Italian [http://www.antoniogenna.net/doppiaggio/anim/lafamigliamezil.htm] . Extensive list of Hungarian language websites and literature can be found on [http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9zga_csal%C3%A1d Hungarian Wikipedia] .