25.1.2019

New Moominvalley series teaches how to become better ourselves

The orginal stories by Finnish-Swedish author Tove Jansson on Moomintroll, and his friends living in Moominvalley, have been adapted to animations for several times. The brand new version, that will celebrate its TV premiere in Feberuary  2019 in Finland on YLE and a bit later in Spring on UK channels Sky One, Sky Kids and NOW TV, wants to get as close as possible to the orginal values, those that often get forgotten, like love, friendship, respect to the nature and tolarance towards all bizarre things in life.

The first season of the new series will consist of thirteen twenty-two-minute episodes. It will air on primetime and is targeted for the whole family. It is produced by Finnish production company Gutsy Animations , that have operations both in Helsinki, Finland, and Bristol, UK.

The English team has onboard Oscar winning director Steve Box, known for his successful work at Aardman studios, as well as BAFTA and Emmy winning producer John Woolley and Emmy-winning scriptwriters Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler. Creative team in Finland includes producer and a creative director Marika Makaroff,  musicians Pekka Kuusisto and Samuli Kosminen, that have composed totally new and original score for the series, many times awarded Finnish 3D animation studio Anima Vitae, and as a creative consultant Sophia Jansson, who is Tove Jansson’s niece and manages Tove’s heritage by running Moomin Characters company.

At the same time with the beginning of the enchanting new series there is going to be shown a making-of documentary called My Moomin A Journey to Moominvalley. It starts with the launch of the crowdfunding campaign and travels along both with the series’ creators with their challenges, as well as Japanese fans from the archipelago, where Tove have lived on Klovharu island, to the Moomin Museum opened a two years back in the Finnish town of Tampere. The documentary, that includes lots of original footage from the life on an island, has been directed by Ditte Uljas and shows lot of animatics made for the series too.

Additionally, the documentary shows the pressure and tensions throughout the animation process, as transforming familiar characters into the 3D modeled world does not take place so easily. It is said by Sophia, and repeated by Marika, that it is by making an animation, how feelings that the characters have, will be conveyed to the audience. The English series producer John Woolley tells us also, how he has learnt that Moomins are a part of DNA for the majority of Finnish people.

Watch the premiere atmosphere on Yle Areena with interviews in English, Finnish and Swedish.

Liisa Vähäkylä

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