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Ned something neat for the kids{old folks also) to watch? Pingu is pretty neat
The program is set in Antarctica and centres around penguin families who live and work in igloos. The main character, Pingu, belongs to one such family. He frequently goes on adventures with his little sister, Pinga, and often gets into mischief with his best friend, Robby the Seal.
One reason for Pingu's international success is its lack of real spoken language: nearly all dialogue is in an invented "penguin language" consisting of loud honking noises, though occasionally words in Swedish are discernable.[1] This was initially retroscripted by Carlo Bonomi, who created all the sound effects for the series. This feature allows people of different linguistic backgrounds to be able to follow the story.
[edit]Characters
These are some of the characters appearing in Pingu.
[edit]Pingu family
Pingu is the title character of the series. His catchphrase is "Nug, Nug!" (more commonly spelled Noot noot!) when he makes a megaphone-shaped beak to indicate anger, happiness, sadness, frustration, or to simply gain attention. Pingu can also change his shape (such as morphing into a ball) and increase or decrease his height.
Pinga is Pingu's sister. She first appeared in the episode "The New Arrival."
Mother and Father are Pingu and Pinga's parents. Father is a postman who constantly smokes pipes in early episodes, but quits later on. He has a motorized sledge to deliver the mail with help from Pingu. Mother spends most of her time cooking and does all the work in the home. Mother sometimes gets help from Pingu and Pinga, and she always gives them a cuddle when they have learned a lesson. Mother and Father's given names are never revealed.
Grandfather is Pingu and Pinga's paternal grandfather. He is an expert accordionist, as demonstrated in the episode "Music Lessons". He is also a former professional weight lifter. He first appeared in the episode "Music Lessons".
[edit]Pingu's friends
Robby is a grey seal. His name means is "seal" in German (which is originally spelled with an e at the end). In the first four seasons, he is bluish-grey, but then light grey in the last two seasons. He first appeared in the episode "Pingu Goes Fishing".
Pingo is a somewhat daredevilish penguin. He has a long beak that is essentially flat at the bottom but slightly rounded on the top and a head that is wider and taller. Despite his daredevilish behaviour, he often persuades Pingu to do wild and silly things with him.
Pingg is Pingu's other penguin friend. He also has a long beak, but a shorter head than Pingo.
Pongi is a penguin who wears glasses and has a short round beak. He first appeared in the episode "Ice Hockey".
Punky is a penguin who first appeared in the episode "Pingu Delivers The Mail". He has a tuft on his head and wears striped trousers. Punki only appears in a handful of episodes.
Bajoo is Pingu's other non-penguin friend. HiT Entertainment reveals him as a "strange newcomer" to the Antarctic in the appearance of an abominable snowman. He debuted in 2005, and appeared in the final episode, "Pingu & the Abominable Snowman". He also appeared in the 7-11 music video and "The Pingu Show".
Pingi is Pingu's girlfriend and Pinga's best friend. She has thick, white eyelashes and a somewhat mushed beak. She first appeared in the episode "Pingu's Admirer". Pinga is sometimes envious of her despite Pingu paying more attention to her.
[edit]Other
The Schoolmaster is Pingu's teacher. He lives in a nearby school and rings the bell when it is time for school to begin or end. He first appeared in the episode "School Time".
[edit]History
A total of 157 five-minute episodes were originally made, from 1986 to 2000, and then again from 2004 to 2005. The episodes were written by Silvio Mazzola and were directed and animated by Otmar Gutmann using clay animation, at Trickfilmstudio in Russikon, Switzerland.[2]
In 1993, David Hasselhoff released (in Switzerland only) the single "Pingu Dance",[3][dead link] a rap song based on the Pingu shorts and featuring samples of Penguinese. A portion of this song is used as the theme to Pingu in international airings, and was also heard in the new version of the "Pingu Looks After the Egg" episode and replaced the "Woodpeckers From Space" song from the original version. The original theme remains in some international airings, including on BBC's Cbeebies.
A special twenty-minute episode, "Pingu at the Wedding Party", was also produced in 1997, and introduced a family of green penguins.
In 1998, pop icon Madonna told Swedish talk show host Kristian Luuk that she considered Pingu, and television in general, to be a bad influence on children.[4]
In 2001, HiT Entertainment bought the United Kingdom rights to the series, including the original 105 episodes, for £15.9 million[5] and updated all the classic episodes in 2002 with new music and voice tracks (though some original dialogue clips and the sound effects were mostly the same.) The original cartoon title card of the show was replaced with a claymated inspiration of the intro, which was initially used on new episodes around 1995, and the music is half of the Pingu Dance single. Carlo Bonomi reprises his roles, and these versions are the only versions broadcasting today. Later, HiT decided to bring back the show, and produced a further 53 episodes, created at Hot Animation Studios in 2004, continuing in stop motion but using resin casts of the original clay puppets which had deteriorated by this time. Cbeebies airs only the original version of Pingu with the original cartoon title card (series 1 and 2) from 53 episodes, and shows 13 episodes from series 3 with the claymated inspiration intro. Contrary to some sources, there was never any CGI used in these later episodes. When Bonomi's non-English language became a problem, he was replaced with new voice actors Marcello Magni and David Sant. Magni and Sant, Italian and Spanish actors based in London, both have a mime and clowning background and were already aware of the clown language of "Grammelot" on which the penguin language was based. In 2006, after the last episode aired, Pingu finally ended its 20-year run on TV.
Pingu first aired in the
The program is set in Antarctica and centres around penguin families who live and work in igloos. The main character, Pingu, belongs to one such family. He frequently goes on adventures with his little sister, Pinga, and often gets into mischief with his best friend, Robby the Seal.
One reason for Pingu's international success is its lack of real spoken language: nearly all dialogue is in an invented "penguin language" consisting of loud honking noises, though occasionally words in Swedish are discernable.[1] This was initially retroscripted by Carlo Bonomi, who created all the sound effects for the series. This feature allows people of different linguistic backgrounds to be able to follow the story.
[edit]Characters
These are some of the characters appearing in Pingu.
[edit]Pingu family
Pingu is the title character of the series. His catchphrase is "Nug, Nug!" (more commonly spelled Noot noot!) when he makes a megaphone-shaped beak to indicate anger, happiness, sadness, frustration, or to simply gain attention. Pingu can also change his shape (such as morphing into a ball) and increase or decrease his height.
Pinga is Pingu's sister. She first appeared in the episode "The New Arrival."
Mother and Father are Pingu and Pinga's parents. Father is a postman who constantly smokes pipes in early episodes, but quits later on. He has a motorized sledge to deliver the mail with help from Pingu. Mother spends most of her time cooking and does all the work in the home. Mother sometimes gets help from Pingu and Pinga, and she always gives them a cuddle when they have learned a lesson. Mother and Father's given names are never revealed.
Grandfather is Pingu and Pinga's paternal grandfather. He is an expert accordionist, as demonstrated in the episode "Music Lessons". He is also a former professional weight lifter. He first appeared in the episode "Music Lessons".
[edit]Pingu's friends
Robby is a grey seal. His name means is "seal" in German (which is originally spelled with an e at the end). In the first four seasons, he is bluish-grey, but then light grey in the last two seasons. He first appeared in the episode "Pingu Goes Fishing".
Pingo is a somewhat daredevilish penguin. He has a long beak that is essentially flat at the bottom but slightly rounded on the top and a head that is wider and taller. Despite his daredevilish behaviour, he often persuades Pingu to do wild and silly things with him.
Pingg is Pingu's other penguin friend. He also has a long beak, but a shorter head than Pingo.
Pongi is a penguin who wears glasses and has a short round beak. He first appeared in the episode "Ice Hockey".
Punky is a penguin who first appeared in the episode "Pingu Delivers The Mail". He has a tuft on his head and wears striped trousers. Punki only appears in a handful of episodes.
Bajoo is Pingu's other non-penguin friend. HiT Entertainment reveals him as a "strange newcomer" to the Antarctic in the appearance of an abominable snowman. He debuted in 2005, and appeared in the final episode, "Pingu & the Abominable Snowman". He also appeared in the 7-11 music video and "The Pingu Show".
Pingi is Pingu's girlfriend and Pinga's best friend. She has thick, white eyelashes and a somewhat mushed beak. She first appeared in the episode "Pingu's Admirer". Pinga is sometimes envious of her despite Pingu paying more attention to her.
[edit]Other
The Schoolmaster is Pingu's teacher. He lives in a nearby school and rings the bell when it is time for school to begin or end. He first appeared in the episode "School Time".
[edit]History
A total of 157 five-minute episodes were originally made, from 1986 to 2000, and then again from 2004 to 2005. The episodes were written by Silvio Mazzola and were directed and animated by Otmar Gutmann using clay animation, at Trickfilmstudio in Russikon, Switzerland.[2]
In 1993, David Hasselhoff released (in Switzerland only) the single "Pingu Dance",[3][dead link] a rap song based on the Pingu shorts and featuring samples of Penguinese. A portion of this song is used as the theme to Pingu in international airings, and was also heard in the new version of the "Pingu Looks After the Egg" episode and replaced the "Woodpeckers From Space" song from the original version. The original theme remains in some international airings, including on BBC's Cbeebies.
A special twenty-minute episode, "Pingu at the Wedding Party", was also produced in 1997, and introduced a family of green penguins.
In 1998, pop icon Madonna told Swedish talk show host Kristian Luuk that she considered Pingu, and television in general, to be a bad influence on children.[4]
In 2001, HiT Entertainment bought the United Kingdom rights to the series, including the original 105 episodes, for £15.9 million[5] and updated all the classic episodes in 2002 with new music and voice tracks (though some original dialogue clips and the sound effects were mostly the same.) The original cartoon title card of the show was replaced with a claymated inspiration of the intro, which was initially used on new episodes around 1995, and the music is half of the Pingu Dance single. Carlo Bonomi reprises his roles, and these versions are the only versions broadcasting today. Later, HiT decided to bring back the show, and produced a further 53 episodes, created at Hot Animation Studios in 2004, continuing in stop motion but using resin casts of the original clay puppets which had deteriorated by this time. Cbeebies airs only the original version of Pingu with the original cartoon title card (series 1 and 2) from 53 episodes, and shows 13 episodes from series 3 with the claymated inspiration intro. Contrary to some sources, there was never any CGI used in these later episodes. When Bonomi's non-English language became a problem, he was replaced with new voice actors Marcello Magni and David Sant. Magni and Sant, Italian and Spanish actors based in London, both have a mime and clowning background and were already aware of the clown language of "Grammelot" on which the penguin language was based. In 2006, after the last episode aired, Pingu finally ended its 20-year run on TV.
Pingu first aired in the