Anime Moomin

[Tonberry]

Has anyone here ever watched the Moomin anime adaptation from 1990?

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Moomin (or Mumin as I know him) has played a gigantic part of my life ever since literally before I was born. If you don't know what it is, it's originally a series of Finnish storybooks by Swedish-speaking Finnish author Tove Jansson (and also a self-contained comic strip series with a very different tone). They cover the life and adventures of the Moomin family and their friends. They are a kind of troll with big noses and white fur, and there are all kinds of different characters in the series. They are very special and are appropriate for all kinds of age demographics. The characters all feel very fleshed out and real, and incredibly relatable.

The anime adaptation from 1990 is arguably one of the greatest adaptations ever made, and it's probably due to Tove being on the project as a consultant the entire project (Moomin has a history of shitty adaptations she weren't involved in). It's an incredibly warm, wholesome and exciting world full of endearing characters, nice moments and adventures.

I just noticed that the official Moomin Youtube channel is streaming the english version for everyone to watch. While I'm not a huge fan of the english voices (as they sound too much like cartoon characters and not like people, like the swedish, finnish and japanese versions do) it's still great fun.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

For some reason this was in Argentina for a little while, so I'm familiar with it. It was pretty great.

Then I got reminded of it by Salla Simukka's "Snow White" trilogy and I realized just how massive it must have been to get named-dropped like that on a bestseller.

 

[Tonberry]

just how massive it must have been

Oh, absolutely. Moomin is hugely popular in scandinavia (or at least in Sweden and Finland). People know them just as well as they know names like Mickey Mouse or other similar characters/brands. The anime helped make it even more popular, and for many people it's sort of the go-to version of Moomin, which is fair since it's really really good, though the books are simply amazing.

Also helps that there's lots of merchandise. There's even a sort of beanie baby-esque market of Moomin mugs that people go crazy for. I've collected a few of them myself, too, but I only want ones that feel meaningful to me. Some limited edition ones can go for several hundreds of dollars!

 

[MegaHiro91]

Oh my god dude Moomin was a BIG part of my childhood!! As a Dane I not only loved the catchy as hell theme song: "Hør nu alle børn dyr, tag med os ud på eventyr! Når Mumi og Sniff de går i sving, så sker der en masse sjove ting! Her kommer Mumi!" ...but I also loved the artstyle and the characters (especially the wise and laidback Mumrik (Snufkin). The stories were everything from lighthearted to mature and mysterious, taking its audience serious and the soundtrack was equally epic to match

As an adult, I have gone out of my way to acquire all commercially released DVDs of the show in Danish, which unfortunately isn't all of it, only up to around the 40 first episodes.

 

[Tonberry]

Oh my god dude Moomin was a BIG part of my childhood!! As a Dane I not only loved the catchy as hell theme song: "Hør nu alle børn dyr, tag med os ud på eventyr! Når Mumi og Sniff de går i sving, så sker der en masse sjove ting! Her kommer Mumi!" ...but I also loved the artstyle and the characters (especially the wise and laidback Mumrik (Snufkin). The stories were everything from lighthearted to mature and mysterious, taking its audience serious and the soundtrack was equally epic to match

As an adult, I have gone out of my way to acquire all commercially released DVDs of the show in Danish, which unfortunately isn't all of it, only up to around the 40 first episodes.

View attachment 43396

Nice! I want to collect the swedish ones too, but I've just never got around to it.
Man that old SF logo at the bottom of the case sure makes me nostalgic.
Snufkin is the GOAT, every man wants to be him. Though my favorite character is probably Muminpappan because I feel like I can relate to him alot.

 

[Clippy]

I watched The Moomins a bit when I was a kid and they're very much present in the cultural zeitgeist here, at least among my generation and older. I call my mom Little My even though they're not really alike just because my mom is quite a bit shorter than me. She's still relatively tall, unlike Little My.

I'll be like Snufkin when I grow up one day - dropping nuggets of wisdom, playing harmonica and disappearing for prolonged periods of time.

 

[MegaHiro91]

Yes I grew up with that it was aired on Swedish TV when I was a kid to Technically this was my first anime ever when I was 5 and I was 7 when I watched Robotech. But if we shall be honest first "anime I watched that I knew was anime when I was 14. It was Slayers and Venus war and Dominion tank police.

Yeah I think many of us watched anime before we even knew what anime was. Mine was either Moomin or Mrs. Pepperpot. Which funny enough was based on a Norwegian childrensbook, so a lot of the things I watched back then were apparently based on Scandinavian works.

 

[Clippy]

Yeah I think many of us watched anime before we even knew what anime was. Mine was either Moomin or Mrs. Pepperpot. Which funny enough was based on a Norwegian childrensbook, so a lot of the things I watched back then were apparently based on Scandinavian works.

We used to have quite a a few undercover anime back in the day, like Maya the Bee. We simply didn't know that the Japanese drew it and nobody bothered to tell us since something being anime was far from being the selling point it is today.

 

[sunofpearl89]

Okay, story time.

My first exposure to Moomin involved some weird guy with a Moomin name and picture that tried to groom me into being a femboy, calling me a "little tease" and telling me to "lose the shorts" like that Animal Crossing K.K. slider meme thing.

He failed that conquest, but that whole ordeal got me more than a little curious about Moomin-related media. So I watched the first few episodes of the original Moomin show and it was alright. Perhaps I'll check out the anime.

Bonus: Moomin Gachapon from Akihabara. First try. Even in Japan that dude won't leave me alone!

 

[MegaHiro91]

We used to have quite a a few undercover anime back in the day, like Maya the Bee. We simply didn't know that the Japanese drew it and nobody bothered to tell us since something being anime was far from being the selling point it is today.

Dude my mom didn't even know what anime was, so she couldn't've told me either way. But yeah back then a cartoon was simply just a cartoon.

 

[Tonberry]

He failed that conquest, but that whole ordeal got me more than a little curious about Moomin-related media.

I'm glad you got out of that unscathed, and with a newfound interest in actual Moomin.
Cool Keitaro avatar btw, it really took me back in time seeing it.

 

[Antilocal123]

 

[ThatOneLum]

big fan of the 90s series and the original Tove Janesson books. She was a great author and her material deserves to live on for a long time.

I keep the entire show on my media drive (FYI, you can get it free on YouTube) and I have the cheapo book collection on my shelf too. It's seriously underrated.

I also recommend the recent Snuffkin game: Melody of Moominvalley. it's a fun time if you've seen the show(s)/read the books and know a bunch of the references.

 

[Amag0k1]

Strangely this used to be on in the uk at 4am, this was when the networks would start broadcasting kids shows super early for some reason. It was this, Fraggle Rock, Button moon, Terrahhawks and a few others.

 

[DeadVoivod]

My girlfriend is from Finland and we are 16 years together, so obviously I know them. We have many coffee cups, like every Finn has dozens of them, they're also collectibles and there are some really rare ones out there.

Did anybody already play this new adventure game, apparently it's quite good:

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley​

 

[MegaHiro91]

My girlfriend is from Finland and we are 16 years together, so obviously I know them. We have many coffee cups, like every Finn has dozens of them, they're also collectibles and there are some really rare ones out there.

Did anybody already play this new adventure game, apparently it's quite good:

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley​

View attachment 43458

I have a Danish copy on Switch, but while I am always happy to get new Moomin games, one with Snufkin in the leading role at that, I am disappointed it ain't a 3D adventure game.

 

[Taukyrie]

I remember watching the 1990s series when I was in college. I was very stressed at the time, and it felt very comforting to watch.

Like it felt like pure comfort if you know what I mean.

 

[sunofpearl89]

My girlfriend is from Finland and we are 16 years together, so obviously I know them. We have many coffee cups, like every Finn has dozens of them, they're also collectibles and there are some really rare ones out there.

Did anybody already play this new adventure game, apparently it's quite good:

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley​

View attachment 43458

I played the demo during one of the Steam Next Fests and loved it.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Oh, and just to really drive home just how impactful this was:

The anime was featured on "The Golden Age Of Video", one of the first and most beloved viral videos ever.

 

[hitsugi]

I love Moomin, I used to watch episodes of the anime in 2020 and it was very comforting and relaxing. It’s really long (70 episodes I think) but I wish I could’ve finished it. Over the Garden Wall is also similar to this show, it probably took inspiration from moomin.

 

[Tonberry]

I'd like to share a neat thing I just found today.

As I've said before, Moomin is a Finnish creation, but a lot of Finnish people speak Swedish as their native language, and as such, Moomin's original language is in fact Swedish.

The anime didn't air all the episodes in Swedish, but the ones that exist have a really good dub, particularly because Tove Jansson consulted a great deal during the creation of the 1990s show.

If you're at all interested, I just found a few episodes with the Swedish dub that feature English subtitles. This could be considered the "true" way Moomin is meant to sound (even though the anime is obviously a japanese production) with all the correct naming conventions and voices (the English dub is okay for the mostpart, but it's easy to come off as slightly "baby-fied" due to the ages some voice actors are doing for certain characters, particularly Moomin himself, making it feel slightly less timeless/ageless).

Enjoy!

These three episodes are part of a whole "arc" of episodes:

These two episodes feature the iconic Mårran/Groke who terrified millions of Swedish and Finnish children (yours truly included).