Trivia / The Moomins

• Acting for Two:
  • In the English dub of the '90s anime, Snorkmaiden and Little My are voiced by the same actor. She and Snufkin's VA frequently pick up the side female and male roles respectively.
  • In the 2019 series Susie Brann voices both the Groke and Bob.
• Approval of God:
  • Tove spoke most fondly of the 1977 stop motion series, which she had direct involvement with.
  • She also expressed approval of the 1990 anime series.
• Bad Export for You: Strangely enough. The Game Boy Color game Moomin no daibouken was released first in Japan. When it was eventually released in its home region of Europe^note Remember that The Moomins were created in Finland as Moomin's Tale, half of the content as well as many cutscenes were absent...
• Banned Episode: Happens to the nineties anime in certain countries (ironically, where it's also rather popular (see further below)):
  • In Finland, episodes 12, 50 and 102 were described as "un-Moomin-like" and have never been aired. Episode 12 featured a villain who acted violently to Snork Maiden and even threatened to hurt her, while episode 50 featured an imp who was considered too scary for younger viewers. Episode 102 was skipped, however, for the story being seen as incoherent, but also for the Nightmare Sequence of the protagonist mocking Little My at her birthday party. Finland finally aired all these episodes in 2017, when the series was re-dubbed in Finnish.
    • Starting from 2011 onwards, episode 41 ("Crooks in Moomin Valley") was covertly left unaired as well, due to negative feedback from parents. As the linked blog post mentions, this was not widely noticed, as Yle did not mention it anywhere, nor does the episode play a major role in the mythology of the series.
  • In Norway, the episodes 35, 38 and again 50 were taken off air after airing once. Banning episode 35 is strange given that it introduces two new characters who stick to the series for quite some time. Episode 31 was also skipped, but was later released on DVD.
  • Sweden did not air episode 31, though it's important to the Snork's flying ship plot.
• Bury Your Art: The second season of the 1990 anime, Delightful Moomin Family: Adventure Diary, was maligned by the show's own producers, with Dennis Livson stating that they ran out of material to adapt and that the season should never have been made. Consequently, the second season was never dubbed into English and remains in No Export for You status, with the official YouTube channel for the anime stopping firmly at episode 78.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: The Moomins have grown into a multimedia empire which rakes in 700 million euros a year, with TV shows, movies, video games, and stage plays regularly being produced, two theme parks (one in the series' native Finland, and another in Japan, where the franchise is ludicrously popular), and, of course merch. Lots and lots of merch, including the famous collectible Moomin Mugs.
• Completely Different Title: The English translations insisted on sticking "Moomin" in every single of the books' titles to make it clearer that they were a series. Thus:
  • "The Comet Is Coming" became Comet in Moominland.
  • "The Hobgoblin's Hat" became Finn Family Moomintroll.
  • "Dangerous Midsummer" became Moominsummer Madness.
  • "Trollwinter" became Moominland Midwinter.
  • "The Invisible Child (and other stories)" became Tales from Moominvalley.
  • "The Father and the Sea" became Moominpappa at Sea.
  • And "Late in November" became Moominvalley in November.
  • Three of the other books as well. "The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My", "An Unwanted Guest" and "The Moomins and the Great Flood" was originally "What happened then?", "The Crook in the Moominhouse" and "The Tiny Trolls and the Great Flood" respectively. The last one is actually closer to what the author intended before her publisher forced her to change it because they where afraid readers whould be turned away by a word they didn't know.
• Creator Breakdown: Tove wrote Moominvalley in November while grieving for her recently passed-on mother. Part of why the Moomin series takes a dark turn around Moominland Midwinter is because of Tove's own burnout and growing dislike of the series' popularity, reportedly stating that she could "vomit on the Moomintrolls".
• Crossdressing Voices: In some adaptations, Moomintroll is voiced by an actress. For the 1990s anime for example, he is voiced by Minami Takayama and Susan Sheridan in the Japanese and English dubs respectively.
• Deleted Scene: In Moominvalley (2019), a scene where Toffle reads from his book about the Nummulite in the episode "November" was cut from unknown reasons in the Sky UK broadcast, its original network. The scene is still present in international showings.
• Disowned Adaptation: The authoress hated the 1969 anime, particularly for turning Moomintroll into a more scrappy and self-serving character, which is why...
• Executive Meddling: ... the series has two animation studios, TMS and Mushi Productions.
• Fake American: Some of the characters are voiced by English voice actors using American accents in the English dub of the '90s anime.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1969-1972 series was only released on video and laserdisc in Japan, which have long-since been discontinued, making it difficult to view legally these days.
  • For the longest time, this was the case for anyone that lived in North America as the 90s anime was only released on DVD in Europe, but not North America, despite the anime airing briefly in Hawaii.
  • Was the case for the '90s anime as a whole for a while, as only 52 episodes of the first series were released on DVD. Episodes beyond that from home-tapings would pop up online occasionally. Recently averted though, as the official Moomin channel has uploaded all 78 episodes of the first series to YouTube. Still applies to the sequel series, Bouken Nikki, which has not seen a home DVD release outside of Japan.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: In the 2019 series Iina Kuustonen voices Toft/Toffle both in the original English and in the Finnish dub.
  • Two characters also have the same voice actor in the Swedish and Finnish dubs: Arja Saijonmaa as Emma the Theater Rat, and Peter Kanerva as Mr Fillyjonk.
• No Export for You:
  • Unfortunately, the US (aside from a broadcast in Hawaii) only got a brief print-on-demand DVD release of the '90s anime, and did not get the game at all. Even worse, while the the first 52 episodes were released on DVD in Europe, the United States has yet to receive the same treatment, with fans from the States having to use different needs to watch the series. Averted as of recently, as the official Moomin channel has been uploading episodes of the '90s series to YouTube and they've made the episodes available for anyone to watch from any country, including the United States.
  • Also, only 78 of 104 '90s episodes got aired in the UK and only 52 in Germany.
  • Not every episode was translated to Finnish either. The reason is believed to be that they were too intense for the target audience, but since they got away with much worse scenes, it's unlikely. This was later amended when the rights of the show lapsed and new network decided to redub the show, including the formally unaired episodes.
    • Some books, for example Moominpappa at Sea, were never published in Italy.
• The Other Darrin: The Comet in Moominland film adaptation was a tied to the 90s anime and thus maintained a lot of the same voice actors in the Japanese and Finnish versions. The English dub was performed by a different studio and actors however (if trying to varying degrees to sound like the series cast).
  • This happened frequently in the English dub of the 90s anime, with many characters suddenly having different voice actors out of nowhere. The most notable example is probably Younger Mymble who had three voice actresses throughout the series' run.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Moominmamma and Ursula share the same voice actress in Finland.
    • This goes the same with Salem and Kirumi Tojo when it comes to her Japanese voice actress.
  • Dio Brando's voice actor of all people voiced Snufkin in the Japanese version of the 90s anime.
  • Years ago, before Cliff Unger, Mads Mikkelsen was Sniff in the 1977 stop-motion series.
• Promoted Fanboy: Edvin Endre stated that his favorite character in his youth is Snufkin, the character that he voiced as in the 2019 animation.
• Reality Subtext: Moominvalley in November was written after Tove's mother passed away. In it, a young orphan named Toft goes to Moominvalley in search of Moominmamma, who in his eyes will be the perfect mother. It doesn't quite go to plan.
• Reclusive Artist: Some of the English cast of the 1990 series have done very little voice acting since. Most notably Little My and Snorkmaiden's voice actress Toni Barry, who seems to have retired from acting in 2002 and has completely dropped off the map since.
• Remake Cameo: Voice acting example - Kikuko Inoue, who voiced an episodic character Nana in the 1990 anime, returned in the Japanese dub of Moominvalley to voice Moominmamma.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The 1969 live-action TV series has the overarching plot of the king deciding that the Moomins' bohemian lifestyle doesn't fit in a modern welfare state and that they, as an "ethnic minority," need to be integrated into "normal" society. The most startling change is that he decides their noses are too big and orders them off — which leads to one of the most memorable (and Nightmare Fuelish) aspects of this series, namely that the actors in the Moomin suits take off the oversized Moomin heads/masks they're wearing, revealing their normal human heads underneath. This is not only what the series is remembered for today but is also a pretty effective demonstration of how the Moomins' individuality is threatened by the integration process... but really, the reason behind is probably just as much that the Moomin heads were big, awkward and difficult to deal with on the set — it's extremely clear that the actors can barely see when wearing them, leading to a lot of clumsiness and fumbling around. Removing the heads allowed the actors to move about much more freely.
• Voiced Differently in the Dub:
  • In its home region of Finland, the 90s anime gives Moomintroll a young masculine voice (this take is generally uniform with other animated works). In the Japanese edit however, he is voiced by a female actress, giving him a very childlike voice. The English dub follows the direction of the Japanese version.
  • Likewise, the Finnish, Swedish, and Japanese versions of the anime give Snufkin a calm, monotone voice. The English dub, however, makes him sound a lot more energetic and playful.
• What Could Have Been: Apparently, Walt Disney wanted to buy the rights to the brand.
• Write Who You Know: Jansson has herself said that Moominmamma was modelled after her own mother and Too-Ticky after her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä. Also, although never confirmed by Jansson, it seems pretty clear that Tofslan and Vifslan (Thingumy and Bob in the English translation) are based on Tove as a young art student and her first girlfriend Vivica Bandler, that Moominpappa was based on her own father, and that Jansson's boyfriend in the 1940s, Atos Wirtanen, and his old green hat were probably the inspiration behind Snufkin.

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