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Straits Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Moomins enter the cuteness pantheon, with help from Gen Z
A long mural for 'The Door Is Always Open,' a new exhibition that celebrates the Finnish author Tove Jansson and her Moomin family creations, at the Brooklyn Public Library in New York, on July 17. The Moomin family – Moominpappa, Moominmamma and Moomintroll – live in Moominvalley, where they welcome all friends, visitors and vagrants for adventures and sweet treats. Lately, though, the milk-white hippo-esque characters created by Finnish author and artist Tove Jansson, have taken over the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in New York City. With huge, friendly eyes and protruding, snuffly snouts, they peer from balconies and dance across giant pink and green floor displays. On a recent summer afternoon, Ms Meera Sastry, who was visiting from Los Angeles, stopped by to see the exhibit on the recommendation of a college friend. 'I remember Moomins growing up, from online – I was big into Tumblr,' said Ms Sastry, 23, pausing to admire a photograph of Ms Jansson by the Finnish coast. 'Of course they were cute, like Sanrio characters. But I liked that they were also anxious, and had little narratives.' Ms Sastry hadn't read any of the nine books featuring the characters, she admitted: 'I'll have to get on that.' Others browsing the exhibit, including an art teacher on a road trip with her friends, had also first learned of these lovable creatures online, where Moomins have gone the way of Snoopy and Miffy – decades-old cartoon characters who have been rediscovered and embraced by a younger generation and have spread widely through merchandise and online content. When the library announced the exhibition on Instagram, said Ms Linda E. Johnson, the president and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library, it became the account's highest-performing post to date. Mr Lukas Dean, 22, a Norwegian singer who recently appeared on 'The Voice', mainly uploads content about two things on TikTok: music and Moomins. One video, captioned 'pov: when someone asks me what happened to all my adult money,' features Dean cross-legged on a kitchen floor, flanked by stacks of Moomin-themed dishware. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World Trump says many are starving in Gaza, vows to set up food centres Asia Cambodia, Thailand agree to 'immediate and unconditional ceasefire' to de-escalate border row World US, China hold new talks on tariff truce, easing path for Trump-Xi meeting Asia Giant algal bloom off South Australia devastates marine life, threatens seafood exports Sport Dare to dream, urges Singapore's first International Swimming Hall of Famer Joseph Schooling Singapore 44 suspects under probe for involvement in SIM card fraud Singapore Tanjong Katong sinkhole: Road recovery works progressing steadily, tests under way Singapore ST Explains: What we know about the Tanjong Katong sinkhole so far The comments sympathize with his situation: 'relate so hard,' 'literally me,' 'ok don't call me out like this.' Mr Dean's obsession with Moomin collectibles began when his father brought him back a treat from a blood drive: In Norway, everyone who donates receives a Moomin mug. Now he has a collection of about 40 of them (not all from donating blood). Choosing one each morning, he said, 'sets my mood for the day.' 'A lot of people like the nostalgia aesthetic,' he added. This year is the 80th anniversary of 'The Moomins and the Great Flood', the children's book by Ms Jansson that originated the Moomin universe. From the beginning of Moomintimes, the characters and their stories have been related but separate entities, from a business perspective. In the 1950s, Ms Jansson and her brother Lars founded Moomin Characters Ltd to manage the copyright of the booming Moomin brand. The brand, already renowned and beloved in Ms Jansson's native Finland, quickly expanded internationally when the artist began making comic strips for The Evening News in London. The characters surged in popularity in the 1990s, when Moomin-themed video games and television shows fueled a Moomin renaissance in Europe and Japan. (It was also in this decade that the Moomin mugs, which were originally hand-painted by Ms Jansson, were reintroduced and mass produced.) Now, the Moomins have entered a global pantheon of cuteness: The Brooklyn Public Library Exhibit is the first in the United States to celebrate Ms Jansson's creatures. 'Moomins are being discovered in the US by new generations, spreading word from person to person,' said Mr Thomas Zambra, 36, the director of business development for Moomin Characters. He and his brother, Mr James Zambra, the company's creative director, are Ms Jansson's grandnephews and the third generation of family members to run the business. In the United States, awareness of Moomins began in 'small pockets bubbling up here and there,' Mr Thomas Zambra said. That has been changing rapidly, particularly as major American retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Urban Outfitters begin to carry Moomin products, and as 'younger generations are organically discovering the Moomins through social media and the '90s animation on YouTube,' the Zambra brothers, who are based in Finland, wrote in an email. The brand collaborations have helped, too. In the past few years, high-end luxury labels, including Rimowa, Acne Studios and Comme des Garçons have introduced products like Moomintroll luggage tags (Rimowa), a US$620 (S$798) Moomin-printed button down (Acne) and an entire collection of Jansson-inspired designs (Comme). Worldwide sales of Moomin products, not including books, are more than US$800 million a year, Mr Thomas Zambra said. The characters surged in popularity in the 1990s, when Moomin-themed video games and television shows fueled a Moomin renaissance in Europe and Japan. PHOTO: SARA KRULWICH/NYTIMES But Moomintroll were always intended by Ms Jansson to be something of an adorable Trojan horse for more serious social issues. Ms Jansson was an outspoken pacifist, and her first Moomin book, which was published in 1945 and portrays her Moomin family traveling through a dark forest is often read as an allegory for World War II. Ms Jansson was also lesbian and lived with her life partner, Ms Tuulikki Pietila, sometimes on a remote island that inspired the settings for her adult novels 'The Summer Book' and 'Fair Play'. The Brooklyn Public Library exhibition, which is titled 'The Door Is Always Open,' champions Ms Jansson's message as a call for acceptance and inclusivity. It opened in June, LGBTQ+ Pride Month. 'An openly queer women at that time writing about the issues and the themes that are part of her work was avant-garde,' Ms Johnson said. NYTIMES
New York Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Moomins Enter the Cuteness Pantheon, With Help From Gen Z
The Moomin family — Moominpappa, Moominmamma and Moomintroll — live in Moominvalley, where they welcome all friends, visitors and vagrants for adventures and sweet treats. Lately, though, the milk-white hippo-esque characters created by the Finnish author and artist Tove Jansson, have taken over the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. With huge, friendly eyes and protruding, snuffly snouts, they peer from balconies and dance across giant pink and green floor displays. On a recent summer afternoon, Meera Sastry, who was visiting from Los Angeles, stopped by to see the exhibit on the recommendation of a college friend. 'I remember Moomins growing up, from online — I was big into Tumblr,' said Ms. Sastry, 23, pausing to admire a photograph of Ms. Jansson by the Finnish coast. 'Of course they were cute, like Sanrio characters. But I liked that they were also anxious, and had little narratives.' Ms. Sastry hadn't read any of the nine books featuring the characters, she admitted: 'I'll have to get on that.' Others browsing the exhibit, including an art teacher on a road trip with her friends, had also first learned of these lovable creatures online, where Moomins have gone the way of Snoopy and Miffy — decades-old cartoon characters who have been rediscovered and embraced by a younger generation and have spread widely through merchandise and online content. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
The adorable trolls behind the memes: Enter the world of Tove Jansson's Moomins
The English-speaking world tends to be resistant to children's literature from other languages. 'Serious' literature — whether in French, Russian, Spanish or Sanskrit — finds its way across language barriers, helped along by awards and prizes, but this genre has it harder. How many young Indian readers have heard of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi and her book, Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (1981)? It is the bestselling Japanese book of all time, and has been translated, among other languages, into Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. Nikolai Nosov's 1980s stories about Dunno the Know-Nothing were very popular behind the Iron Curtain but are virtually unknown in the West, for both ideological and linguistic reasons. The Brazilian José Mauro de Vasconcelos's Meu Pé de Laranja Lima (My Sweet Orange Tree; 1968) is a children's classic in the Portuguese-speaking world, but is far less-known in the English. One children's classic that has made it past the language barrier and into the popular cultural consciousness, albeit belatedly, is Tove Jansson's Moomin series. Beloved in Scandinavia, particularly in the author's native Finland, and immensely popular in Japan, the Moomins are now having their moment in the sun in the English-speaking world too. Moomins are a kind of troll. They look like bipedal hippopotami, and are small and soft. You can draw a moomin's shape with a single stroke of the pencil. Jansson (1914-2001) once said they were partly inspired by a story her uncle once told her, about strange little creatures who lived in his pantry and came out to rub their cold noses on food thieves. Tove Jansson once said the Moomins were partly inspired by an uncle's story about strange creatures who lived in his pantry and rubbed their cold noses on food thieves. In 1939, Jansson, who was already a published author, illustrator and cartoonist at 25, found herself facing up to the reality of World War 2. 'One's work stood still; it felt completely pointless to try to create pictures. Perhaps it was understandable that I suddenly felt an urge to write down something that was to begin with 'Once upon a time'... What followed had to be a fairytale… but I… (avoided) princes, princesses and small children and chose instead my angry signature character… and called him the Moomintroll,' she wrote, in the introduction to the first in the series, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945). This was followed by Comet in Moominland, published in 1946, with the comet standing in for shadow of the atomic bomb. But it was with the third book, Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), that the series really took off. .Over the next two decades, Jansson wrote six more novels featuring a recurring cast of characters: young Moomintroll; the affectionate and capable Moominmamma; the adventurous Moominpapa; cowardly little Sniff, Moomintroll's companion; carefree Snufkin, a thinker and wanderer; and Hemulen, the family friend from a collection-obsessed species. There were also picture books and a syndicated comic strip that, at one point, ran in 120 newspapers across 40 countries. In Finland, there are Moomin cafes. There's a museum devoted to Jansson and her creations. Some Finnair planes have her characters painted on their sides. The Moomin World theme park is one of the country's biggest tourist attractions. There were animated TV shows, starting as far back as 1959, in Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, Japan and even the erstwhile Soviet Union. In 2019, the most recent such series, a Finnish-British collaboration with Taron Egerton as Moomintroll and Rosamund Pike as Moominmamma, was released. There are videogames as well. The most recent, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, was released by Hyper Games last year. Last month, to mark 80 years since the first book, the first-ever Moomin exhibition in the US opened to visitors at the Brooklyn Public Library (it is on till September 30). For its fans, Moominvalley is a safe, gentle space where Moominmamma is always at hand, in her red apron and handbag, ready with a kind word or a hot meal. Storms and comets may come and go but there is always room for kindness and gentle humour. And order is always restored. It is this mood that permeates the memes by which many more now know the books. The valley was intended as a happy place. But in another theme resonant today, Jansson's creatures were also occasionally cast as migrants, searching for a new home, mourning lost loved ones. The sense of loss would intensify, and a feeling of absence permeates the last Moomin novel, Moominvalley in November. Published in 1970, the year of Jansson's mother's death, the book aches with poignancy, making it more suitable for adults, despite working well as a children's book. 'Snuffkin padded along calmly, the forest closed round him and it began to rain. The rain fell on his green hat and on his raincoat, which was also green, it pittered and pattered everywhere and the forest wrapped him in a gentle and exquisite loneliness...' she writes in chapter one. 'There are those who stay at home and those who go away, and it has always been so. Everyone can choose for himself, but he must choose while there is still time and never change his mind.' Jansson's mother, Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, was an artist as well, and a big influence on her life. When she died, Tove couldn't return to Moominvalley in quite the same way. There would be no more Moomin novels. (K Narayanan writes on films, videogames, books and occasionally technology)
Asahi Shimbun
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: Snufkin shows the freedom found in solitude and simplicity
'One can never be truly free, if one admires someone else too much.' Such counsel could only come from someone like Snufkin—a philosophical wanderer, poet at heart, who values freedom, independence and solitude above all else. It's the kind of advice he might offer to those who idolize him, gently warning against the dangers of attachment. A beloved figure in the Moomin series, Snufkin follows a ritual all his own: He departs on solitary travels before winter sets in and faithfully returns to Moominvalley with the coming of spring. At "Tove Jansson and the Moomins," an exhibition currently on view in Tokyo celebrating the artistic world of the Finnish creator behind the beloved literary family, Snufkin stands out as a crowd favorite. Every illustration and sketch of the free-spirited wanderer draws a cluster of admirers. With his trademark wide-brimmed pointed hat pulled low and a harmonica in hand, he is often depicted fishing beside his close friend Moomin. His enduring appeal seems rooted in his steadfast devotion to freedom. Author Tove Jansson (1914–2001) once reflected on Snufkin's personality and his inner contradictions. As cited in 'Tove Jansson' by Mayumi Tomihara (1954–2025), a Japanese scholar of French philosophy and Swedish literature, Jansson described the nomadic vagabond as someone who, alongside his longing for freedom, is inevitably drawn to solitude. This disposition, she noted, contains 'a self-centered weakness.' Jansson, a Finnish national, was born into a minority Swedish-speaking family. During World War II, as Finland found itself precariously positioned between two powerful and hostile forces—the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany—she began creating the Moomin characters as a means of escaping the turmoil of those dark and uncertain times. As a longtime reader, I've always been drawn to Snufkin's philosophical yet unpretentious words. In one scene from the Moomin books, he advises his friends to leave behind the gemstones they find in the valley, keeping them instead as memories. 'It's much more fun to keep things in your head than in a suitcase,' the contemplative wanderer says. I've come to believe that Snufkin is a restless traveler because he can only compose poetry and songs when tested by harsh environments. That's why he sets off each year before winter, leaving behind a sorrowful Moomin. He brushes aside sentimentality and embraces solitude with quiet dignity, carrying his ego without apology. There's something profoundly moving in that image. —The Asahi Shimbun, July 23 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Japan Times
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Moomins enjoy enduring popularity in Japan on their 80th anniversary
Finland's beloved Moomins — the fictional roundish trolls with distinctive large snouts — continue to enjoy enduring popularity in Japan as the world celebrates the 80th anniversary of the first novel's publication. The charming characters along with their diverse cast of companions from the series have captivated Japanese audiences for generations, appealing to both children and adults alike. A Moomins-themed park that opened in 2019 in Hanno, Saitama Prefecture, attracts large crowds of visitors. Last year, the company managing Moomins-related licenses in Japan reported record-high sales, and the strong trend has continued into the current year. The story of Moominvalley began in 1945 with Finnish author Tove Jansson's novel, "The Little Troll and the Big Flood." Since then, the Moomins and their friends have captured the hearts of readers around the world, not only through Jansson's books, but also through comic strips serialized in a British evening newspaper and popular anime adaptations, including those broadcast in Japan. Even after Jansson's passing at the age of 86 in 2001, new anime inspired by her original works continue to be produced, ensuring that the magic of Moominvalley lives on for new generations. Moominvalley Park in Hanno, located northwest of Tokyo, along with the adjacent Nordic lifestyle facility "metsa village," marked a combined total of 5 million visitors in January this year. According to the operating company, visitor numbers have been steadily recovering since a decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. The complex now attracts a diverse range of guests, including many who are not dedicated Moomin fans. This year, the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo, will host "Tove Jansson and the Moomins," an exhibition commemorating the 80th anniversary of the publication of the first Moomin novel. The exhibition will run for about two months from July 16. After its Tokyo debut, the exhibition will travel to various locations across Japan. Moomin licensing in Japan is primarily managed by Tokyo-based Rights & Brands. According to company President Kumiko Ito, sales have been increasing steadily. "It's not just a temporary boom," Ito explained, suggesting that the Moomin stories "may resonate particularly well with the current era." Demand for Moomin merchandise remains strong, and the number of official shops continues to grow. In May, a new Moomins-themed cafe opened in Tokyo's fashionable Omotesando district. Promotional collaborations with companies and other organizations are on the rise. The values celebrated in Moomin tales, such as harmony with nature, acceptance of diversity and a focus on well-being, both physical and mental, strike a chord with audiences today, experts say. Earlier this year, major paper manufacturer Oji Holdings announced a new initiative featuring the Moomin characters to promote the importance of forests. In addition, the company has incorporated Moomin designs into some of its tissue products. For the past two years, major food company Calbee has featured Moomin characters in its advertising campaigns for potato snacks. The beloved characters also play a role in Calbee's product development and food education initiatives, helping the company communicate its commitment to environmental awareness. Last year, Kitahiroshima, a city in Hokkaido entered into an agreement with Rights & Brands to leverage the popular Moomin brand for regional revitalization efforts. Key initiatives under the partnership include educational programs designed to nurture emotional growth, with a focus on local resources and nature-based experiences. Additionally, Kitahiroshima is promoting its unique local confectioneries as special gifts to donors participating in the hometown donation system for tax deductions. Jansson grew up as part of Finland's Swedish-speaking minority, a community that made up less than 10% of the country's population. Also, as someone with a same-sex partner, she experienced life on the margins of mainstream society. Jansson began writing the Moomin novels in 1939, at a time when her homeland was being drawn into the turmoil of war. Ito said, "At a time when it was difficult to have hope for the future, she created stories that depicted an ideal world, one that existed only in her mind and could not be touched by anyone else." The stories "embody values that are especially important for our era, and they are often described as philosophical," she continued. "We hope that people will take the opportunity to experience these stories."
