Who are the Moomins

If you are wondering what the Moomins are, let me just say you are in for a treat!  The Moomins are a family of trolls with fluffy-ended tails, who hibernate during the winters. Their roundish shape and delicate, large snouts give them a resemblance of a friendly hippopotamus.

The Characters

Allow me to introduce the Moomins to you, let´s start with the Moomin Family.  There is Moomintroll is the instigator in many of the thrilling expeditions. He is a curious, happy-go-lucky boy.  Moominpappa knows that experiencing things for yourself is the best way to learn.
Sensible Moominmamma always has a kind and encouraging word for everyone. She never loses her calm, even when faced with the worst of disasters – as long as she has her purse with her, with all the essentials inside.

There are also the friends that are almost part of the family, mainly because they are at the  Moomins house all the time.  Meet Snorky a natural problem solver and well organized in contrast of Snorkmaiden his sister She is always happy and full of energy, often found grooming her pretty golden fringe, some say that Moomintroll has a secret crush on her.

Sniff has lived with the family for a long time, and so has Little My. Sniff is fun and enthusiastic, yet can become a scared little animal when faced with any real dangers. Little My, on the other hand, is spunky and bold. She doesn’t give a rat’s tail about what others say, just speaks her mind and does as she pleases – which is often the opposite of what she’s told to do.
Snufkin, Moomintroll’s best friend, is an easy-going philosophical type that sees the world as his home. When winter comes, he disappears on his travels. He doesn’t believe in possessing things, and likes to sleep in atent whenever possible. The Moomins value individuality and freedom, are a bit bohemian, and do not always behave as is expected by the norm. Yet there is a lot of warmth and caring; they accept all their quirky acquaintances with all their flaws, whether it is the bossiness of the Hemulens or the crankiness of Edward The Booble. Whatever the world throws at you, it is safe to be with this family. There is nothing better than after an adventure to come home for a nice meal of tea and pancakes, on the porch or in the garden, with family and friends – or strangers, if they happen to drop by.

The Movie

One day Moomintroll notices that something strange has happened in the Moominvalley – grey dust covers everything; not just the grass, but the river, the trees, and the Moominhouse, too! Moomintroll runs to ask the knowledgeable Mr. Muskrat if he knows what is happening. Muskrat declares that this is the way things tend to look like before the earth faces an awful fate coming from the sky…

With the help of his father, Moominpappa, Moomintroll and his worried friends build the best raft ever and start on a challenging journey to the observatory in the Lonely Mountains. The wise professors there must know what the threat from space is all about!

The trek is not easy. Moomintroll, Sniff and Snufkin have to overcome a garnet monster and a trip down a raging underground river, in order to make it to the observatory. Once there, the anxious bunch finds the clever professors deep in calculations. Finally they are able reveal that a ferocious comet will reach the Earth in four days, four hours, four minutes and 44 seconds. Maybe four seconds later. It’s time to go back home as fast as they can!

But the journey home throws an unexpected number of peculiar creatures and dangers on the path of our brave entourage. But also old and new friends - Snorkmaiden and her brother Snork join their little group, after Moomintroll becomes a hero for rescuing Snorkmaiden from the claws of a creepy angostura bush.

And a nice shop-keeper provides them with an unexpectedly jovial sales method, and a welcome excuse for briefly taking their mind off the terrible, approaching comet.
The sky turns redder and redder, and the air is hotter and hotter. Comets always bring catastrophes unnatural phenomena in their train. Arrival to the seashore brings a shocking sight: the sea has dried out completely. A walk through the dried sea bottom on stilts brings them to a shipwreck. A decision to search for a treasure goes awry, when an octopus attacks Moomintroll. Now it’s Snorkmaiden’s turn to save the day.

It’s a long way home, and it’s full of adventure. Finally they reach the Moominhouse, and discover an additional chilling fact: the comet will fall exactly in the kitchen garden the same night. Will they get everybody safe in time?

The Music

Let me say this surprise was more than amazing, I love Björk and not only is she performing but she composed a song for Moomins! This only makes me like Björk even more.

“I was very honored to be asked to write a song for this Moomin movie. I have for a long time been an admirer of Tove Jansson, both of the Moomins and her other work. She has been an inspiration both with the philosophy she weaves into her stories and also her lifestyle and her relationship with nature. Her welcoming of all things human, however eccentric, has been very inviting and I admire her faith in harmonious interactions of her characters without sacrificing any of their idiosyncrasies.”

With Björk’s The Comet Song, a fresh and superbly original dimension is added to the great tale, originally a book written by the renowned Finnish author Tove Jansson. Björk wanted to bring an understanding of the Moomin world into the song. She emphasized the many layers in the Moomin stories, which make them appealing to people of any age. The stories embrace the different, eccentric and deeply human characters living in the Moomin Valley. According to Björk, Snufkin used to be her favorite character as a child - but as an adult she can find a bit of herself in all of the characters, from Moominmamma to Moominpappa.

The Author

The Moomins were created by the Finnish writer Tove Jansson. Tove was a remarkable personality; an author of nearly 30 books, a painter, an artist of over 1500 comic strips, an illustrator, and an honorary professor of philosophy. Moomins are her most famous creation: the ugly creature she first drew on the wall of an outhouse, evolved into the family of friendly hippo-like trolls with fluffy tails.

Tove captured them in 12 Moomin-related books, which she started to write during the Second World War. Those Moomins are loved around the world today, by children and adults alike. They live on in the books as well as on film, such as in the ‘70’s puppet animation version with which Tove herself was artistically involved with.

The Production

The Finnish company Stereoscape became responsible for the 3D conversion plan, executed by the Japanese Quality eXperience Design (QXD). QXD goes through the restored film material, using their pioneering new half-automatic 3D conversion programme to do the preliminary work, and then finishing the work manually. The goal of this process was to define the placement of each element on-screen: at what distance each object on film appears to be from the cinema-goer, who is viewing those images through 3D glasses.
The methods used to make the original film material were a big help in this, as it had already been designed
as “flat 3D”: the layered scenery and the roundness of the puppets gave a great start in creating the
convincing depth in the images.
Another Finnish company, Undo, is in charge of adding extra visual touches for the film. This includes
emphasising or replacing existing elements at certain places to enhance the 3-dimensional feel of the world
of the film, and fixing some visually problematic images.
The visuals for the beginning and end title sequences are created by the Finnish animation film-maker
Antonia Ringbom, as stop-motion puppet animation, like the film itself. The theme – The Comet Song -
accompanying those sequences is written and sung by the Icelandic singer Björk; lyrics for it were written by
fellow Icelander, the author Sjón. Otherwise film’s music has been edited from the wonderful original
compositions by Andrzej Rokicki.

Production: Filmkompaniet
Director: Maria Lindberg
Script: Joel Backström, Iivo Baric, Anders Larsson, Minna Karvonen
Editing: Maria Lindberg
Music: Björk, Andrzej Rokicki
Producer: Tom Carpelan
Length: ca. 75min
Children's/family film; in strereoscopic 3D
In production; in cinemas autumn 2010

Please visit Moomins website at http://www.originalmoomin.com/

Thanks everybody at Filmkompaniet for all your wonderful information and here at SMW we are really looking forward for some Moomins adventure!