Moomin

7 comments on Hacker News

1. Negativei_hate_moominsApr 13, 2025

   Light hearted? Suitable for small children? Are you kidding me.

   I'm in my mid-30's and still remember nightmares those stupid series gave me when I was in kindergarten. It was X-Files-tier scary ("The X Files" being other show aired by polish TV around same time), masquarading behind cute animations. How can anyone in their right mind call the episode where the Moomintroll swaps bodies with Stinky lighthearted and positive? What about the collection of monsters like Groke or Hattifnats? On some occasion I remember my parents would call me to get out from my room to watch the "wieczorynka" and I would pretend I can't hear and come out only as I hear the outro song starting, just to avoid whatever insane plot the Moomins would bring on me that time. I hate Moomins so much and wish could erase it from existence. Calling it "cute and happy" is like saying candybar with razorblade inside is delicious; technically true but not exactly an accurate description.

2. Mixedthih9Apr 13, 2025

   > It was cute, it was happy

   Many episodes had darker undertones as well, especially those with the Groke[1] or hattifatteners. Tvtropes has a list[2].

   > The Groke was so horrifying in fact, that in Poland it caused a nation-wide fear in almost all children, some of which were even left traumatised for years, leading to some parents forbidding their children from watching Moomins, and some using the Groke as a Bogeyman to scare their children into good behavior. Any 90s or 2000s Polish kid will know how it felt.

   [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Groke

   [2]: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/TheMoomins

3. NeutralbradorApr 13, 2025

   Significant number of lost episodes of MOOMINS. Was around 20 episodes never found last time I checked.

   It used to be even more but someone from Japan found a few.

   And the creator refuses to talk about some of the lost episodes.

4. PositivesandgiantApr 13, 2025

   I highly recommend the 1990 Polish stop motion TV series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moomins_(TV_series). The only one that, to me, captures the magic of the books.

5. NeutraltarvainaApr 13, 2025

   There are actually six different TV series:

   1959: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Muminfamilie

   1969: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin_(1969_TV_series)

   1972: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Moomin

   1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moomins_(TV_series)

   1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin_(1990_TV_series)

   2019: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moominvalley_(TV_series)

6. Neutralgs17Apr 13, 2025

   I don't think there's any reason to gatekeep this so strongly. The original anime and it's sequel, maybe, but both Tove and Lars Jansson were heavily involved with other series.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moomins_(TV_series) :

   > It is, in contrast to the 1990s series, widely believed to be the most faithful TV adaptation of Tove Jansson's stories, and much closer to her vision. Tove herself had a great deal of involvement during the series' production and was very happy with it (as revealed in an interview with Anne Wood in Simon Sheridan's 2007 book The A to Z of Classic Children's Television). The scripts for each episode were translated from Polish into Swedish and sent to Tove and Lars Jansson, who, if they felt that anything needed to be changed, corrected the script, expanding or rewriting it; afterwards, the scripts were sent back and only then did production of the particular episode begin.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin_(1990_TV_series) :

   > Tove and Lars Jansson were also involved with the screenplay by doing certain changes in scripts.

7. PositivewaihtisNov 12, 2020

   For folks with kids, I'd like to add the Finnish-Japanese-Dutch TV-series "Moomin." It is an iconic TV show here in Finland and generally quite good quality. It is of course a bit old by now.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin_(1990_TV_series)