Japanese Moomin animations have a competitor in Poland

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In the autumn, Subtv Junior, a pay-TV channel of MTV Media, will start showing a Polish Moomin puppet series entitled Muumien maailma ("Moomin World") from 1980. The Moomins are the central characters in a series of books and a comic strip by Finnish writer Tove Jansson, originally written in Swedish.
      The Polish Moomin puppet series will also be brought out on DVD, and a 75-minute movie will be launched early next year.
     
The Polish series is actually about ten years older than the Japanese Moomin series, which was made known to Finns by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. The series has been highly successful, with several re-runs, videos, DVDs, and a feature film.
      Finnish MTV showed the animation series produced by Film Polski already in 1980. Then its name was Muumilaakson tarinoita (”Tales from Moominvalley”). The series was removed from the Nordic market after some copyright violations relating to illegal spin-off merchandising.
     
The Polish Moomins were rediscovered by Tom Carpelan, the Managing Director of Filmkompaniet, a small Helsinki firm specialized in the distribution of high-quality children’s programmes and films.
      The current producer of the series has been granted all rights to the animation series, but Carpelan wants to ensure that even the official copyright holders of the Moomin characters will be listened to when the new Moomin series is being edited.
      Carpelan has asked Sofia Jansson to read and approve all translated texts on behalf of Moomin Characters Ltd.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  There is only one Moominvalley in the whole wide world (Jansson obituary, 3.7.2001)

Links:
  Oy Moomin Characters Ltd
  Moomins (Wikipedia)

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