Pingu

Pingu was a Swiss animated series aimed at children. It featured a family of penguins who lived at the South Pole, and primarily focused on the antics of the son, Pingu, and his friend Robby the Seal. However there were also a lot of family based episodes, featuring the mother and father and (after she was hatched) his baby sister Pinga, as well as several other minor characters.

104 episodes of the series were made from 1986 onwards. Each episode was 5 minutes long, and they were directed and animated by Otmar Gutman for Swiss TV (Trickfilmstudio) using claymation techniques.

One of the features that made Pingu an international success was the fact that there was no dialogue as such. All dialogue was given in a kind of penguin language (Pinguish), performed (without script) by Carlo Bonomi.

In 2004, Hit Entertainment bought the UK rights to the series (including the original 104 episodes), and have released a further 52 episodes, starting in the same year. These feature new voice actors Marcello Magni and David Sant, as Bonomi, now in his sixties, was considered too old. Also, 2004 will see the release of a new Pingu DVD.

Pingu

See also