I have never heard of Moomin. Never heard of the stories, never heard of Tove Janssen, never even knew this was a thing back in the 80s. But it was a thing, and apparently it was huge for a handful of folks both here and abroad, and if it wasn't for a simple YouTube collection of clips I would have gone the rest of my life still ignorant on it. Maybe that would have been for the best...
So I'm still not entirely sure what this show is or what is about. Near as I can tell it's based on a family of hippo-like creatures called the "Moomins" who live in "Moomin Valley" (...right), where the child of the family Moomintroll (called simply "Moomin" here) gets into mischief and adventures with his parents and/or his friends in Snufkin, Little My, Snork Maiden and Sniff. There are also other secondary characters who come and go throughout the series; the botanist Mr. Hemulin, the inventor Snork, some grody brown thing called Stinky, and whatever else was going on at the time. It sorta runs the standard episodic animated series trope with a singular central plot and a few forays into side tales, yet every once and again some interesting stories bleed over with occasional recurring themes, thereby keeping this as a simple one-shot program.
But it's so, just...BAD. In a lot of ways. The animation is sticky, cheap and a bit creepy; backgrounds are repeated (NOTICEABLY!) as characters walk, every person/beast has this glazed over expression regardless of what they're saying or the action presented on-screen like they were all fully dosed with premium valium, and everyone for the most part is, underneath, just so mean to one another. It's probably not intentional, but save for the Moomin parents, Moomintroll and Snufkin it seems like everyone else secretly can't stand each other (in particular the petulance of Little My and Sniff).
The English voice-acting is interminably awful in almost every capacity in differing values of annoying, from the simply bothersome (Moomin, the police chief, Mr. Hemulin) to the insufferable and shrill (Little My, Sniff, Alicia), with the lone exception being John Chancer putting on quite a show as Snufkin. And it's so poorly done; you can clearly notice cues being missed and characters speaking when the lip-syncing has stopped. No correction, no new takes, just one go and you're done, I swear.
There's really no character that stands out as important or memorable in any positive way, though I supposed the aforementioned Snufkin, with this world-weary wisdom and rich tone of voice, is enough to make him as popular as he is with a lot of people. But the rest? I dunno...Moomin is precocious and naive (of course...), Moominpappa is the bumbler ham (of course...), Moominmamma is quiet and even keel, Little My and Sniff I want to punch in the mouth for their endless, air-raid sireny shrieking and whining, just...my poor, poor ears. And it's not terribly memorable; stories and plots just come and go, with the only ones worth noting or remembering being the tales that take more than one episode to finish. Really, that's it. It just comes and goes, leaving no impact, so I really don't understand why its fanbase is so rabid and obsessive.
In the end I found this too loud, annoying, insufferable and mean-spirited to appreciate. I don't get the hype, nor do I get the nostalgia, and even back in my 80s youth I'd've found this not worth my time.
So I'm still not entirely sure what this show is or what is about. Near as I can tell it's based on a family of hippo-like creatures called the "Moomins" who live in "Moomin Valley" (...right), where the child of the family Moomintroll (called simply "Moomin" here) gets into mischief and adventures with his parents and/or his friends in Snufkin, Little My, Snork Maiden and Sniff. There are also other secondary characters who come and go throughout the series; the botanist Mr. Hemulin, the inventor Snork, some grody brown thing called Stinky, and whatever else was going on at the time. It sorta runs the standard episodic animated series trope with a singular central plot and a few forays into side tales, yet every once and again some interesting stories bleed over with occasional recurring themes, thereby keeping this as a simple one-shot program.
But it's so, just...BAD. In a lot of ways. The animation is sticky, cheap and a bit creepy; backgrounds are repeated (NOTICEABLY!) as characters walk, every person/beast has this glazed over expression regardless of what they're saying or the action presented on-screen like they were all fully dosed with premium valium, and everyone for the most part is, underneath, just so mean to one another. It's probably not intentional, but save for the Moomin parents, Moomintroll and Snufkin it seems like everyone else secretly can't stand each other (in particular the petulance of Little My and Sniff).
The English voice-acting is interminably awful in almost every capacity in differing values of annoying, from the simply bothersome (Moomin, the police chief, Mr. Hemulin) to the insufferable and shrill (Little My, Sniff, Alicia), with the lone exception being John Chancer putting on quite a show as Snufkin. And it's so poorly done; you can clearly notice cues being missed and characters speaking when the lip-syncing has stopped. No correction, no new takes, just one go and you're done, I swear.
There's really no character that stands out as important or memorable in any positive way, though I supposed the aforementioned Snufkin, with this world-weary wisdom and rich tone of voice, is enough to make him as popular as he is with a lot of people. But the rest? I dunno...Moomin is precocious and naive (of course...), Moominpappa is the bumbler ham (of course...), Moominmamma is quiet and even keel, Little My and Sniff I want to punch in the mouth for their endless, air-raid sireny shrieking and whining, just...my poor, poor ears. And it's not terribly memorable; stories and plots just come and go, with the only ones worth noting or remembering being the tales that take more than one episode to finish. Really, that's it. It just comes and goes, leaving no impact, so I really don't understand why its fanbase is so rabid and obsessive.
In the end I found this too loud, annoying, insufferable and mean-spirited to appreciate. I don't get the hype, nor do I get the nostalgia, and even back in my 80s youth I'd've found this not worth my time.