Cartoon family the Moomins to celebrate 80th birthday

Western Telegraph

2 days ago

The chubby, white, hippopotamus-like characters have captivated readers worldwide since author and illustrator Tove Jansson published The Moomins And The Great Flood in 1945.
The children's book features Moomintroll and Moominmamma in their search for the missing Moominpappa.
Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn who died in 2001, went on to write eight more books, multiple picture books and a comic strip about the Moomins in Swedish.
Moomins fans celebrate the 80th anniversary of the publication of the Finnish children's classic, The Moomins And The Great Flood (Tommi Ojala/AP)
The series, set in the fictional Moominvalley, has been translated into more than 60 languages, and sparked movie and TV adaptations, children's plays, art gallery exhibitions and an eponymous museum – plus theme parks in Finland and Japan. Finnair, the national carrier, has even put Moomins on its aircraft.
On Saturday, fans flocked to Tampere in southern Finland – home of the Moomin Museum – to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the 1945 publication as well as Jansson's birthday of August 9 1914.
Moomin merchandise is hugely popular across the world. There is a massive market for Moomintroll, Moominmamma and Moominpappa souvenirs across the globe, and secondary characters like their friends Stinky, Sniff, Snufkin, Snork Maiden and Hattifatteners are also well-loved.
'The Moomin mug is one of the best-known collector items worldwide,' Selma Green, director of the Moomin Museum, said. 'You buy a Moomin mug, you like the characters, you maybe see something on TV – but we all go back to the books, the original illustrations.'
Fans in Tampere, Finland, have been celebrating the 80th birthday of the Moomins (Tommi Ojala/AP)
Depictions of the character Stinky, described as a loveable rogue who has captured Moominmamma's heart, generated debate and outcry in Finland this summer after reports emerged in Finnish media that Stinky was removed from murals in an exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York due to concerns that the cartoon might be perceived as racist.
Jansson's drawings of Stinky shows the character with a dark, fuzzy body, with skinny legs and antennae. He has a reputation as an unsuccessful criminal – whose plans get foiled or he gets caught in the act – with an appetite for furniture and other wooden things.
The Moomin stories honour the idea of family as a flexible concept. Diverse gender roles and queer themes also come across in Moominvalley, as well as in Jansson's other works, reflecting her LGBT+ identity.
Her partner of more than 45 years, engraver and artist Tuulikki Pietila, was memorialised as the character Too-ticky in Moominland Midwinter.
While Jansson sought to portray Moominvalley as an escape, Moomin stories have always had a mixture of peril and comfort.
'Her first Moomin book came out in a dark era. She felt it was very difficult to paint, and she started writing what she called a fairy tale, but she excused herself not to include princesses or princes,' said Sirke Happonen, a Moomins scholar and associate professor at the University of Helsinki.