Pingu is the latest cartoon to get the reboot treatment, courtesy of Aardman, and details of the revival have landed. More here.
Stop motion master Aardman has confirmed that it is developing a new series of Pingu in collaboration with toy company Mattel, who acquired the rights to Pingu when they purchased HIT Entertainment in 2011.
The new series will use a mixture of stop motion and 3D animation.
Pingu was originally created in Sweden in 1986 by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. After some years of development, the show made its debut in 1990. The stop motion cartoon followed the adventures of the titular mischievous penguin, who speaks in a series of noises and mumbles that came to be known as ‘Penguinese’. Because of the lack of a language barrier, the show became popular in other countries, particularly the United Kingdom and Japan.
The description for the new series reads as follows:
The new animated series will be inspired by Mattel’s loveable and mischievous young penguin who lives in the snow and ice of the South Pole. Often finding himself in tricky and comical situations, Pingu meets the challenges of life head on along with his mom, dad, little sister Pinga, and all his friends.
The show is being developed by Sarah Cox and Alan Thorpe for Aardman, and Sidney Clifton, Rob David and Melanie Shannon for Mattel.
Sarah Cox, Chief Creative Director of Aardman, said in a statement, “At Aardman, we love collaborating with IP that shares our commitment to humour, charm and great storytelling. From our earliest conversations with Mattel, we felt an immediate and strong connection in our shared love of Pingu, the authentic appeal of the original IP, and comedy that transcends language barriers to speak to audiences everywhere.
“Aardman and Pingu is such a natural and enticing combination. The charm of the stop frame animation along with the quirky irreverence and character driven storytelling aligns perfectly with our creative approach. There are so many stories yet to tell, we can’t wait to get started”.
The original Pingu is available to stream on Amazon Prime.