So, people in the Animation Twitter Community have been sharing shows they've been watching recently. One is sharing their One Piece thoughts, one of my Twitter Friends is sharing her thoughts on The Owl House and Avatar, so I figured I'd share some thoughts on what I've been watching. Recently, I have gotten the entire series of the original "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?", it's a fun if really dated bit of animation. I've been working my way through Amphibia, made a deal with a friend that I'd watch it if they watched DuckTales, so I've been chipping away at it slowly, but I'm liking what I have watched so far. I've also been casually watching The Red Green Show, that is a live-action comedy show, a big piece of Canadian pop culture, it is a bit of an acquired taste and of its time humour, so I don't know if a lot of it will go over well with modern audiences, but I find it to be a fun little blast of nostalgia. Also I've been watching a lot of Pingu, and that is surprisingly the most interesting of the four shows, also I've been sick recently so I just want to write something quick and hopefully fun.
So, why have I been watching Pingu? Well, easy answer is I got that nostalgic itch. You know the feeling, the feeling you get when you remember something from your childhood, a movie, a show, a song, a video game, and you have the urge to check it out, even just for a minute, because you desperately want to reconnect with an easier, less stressful time in your life. Be wary of this itch my friends, your favourite childhood entertainment may not actually hold up as well as you remember, we all have that one thing that we loved as children, but as adults we just cannot get past the flaws that are so intrinsic and obvious that we wonder how stupid we were as kids to accept it. For me, sad to say, that was Jak and Daxter on the PlayStation 2, the double jump mechanic is just broken and it frustrates me, and Daxter is one of the worst video game characters ever made, but I'm getting off topic. Pingu is one of those were my enjoyment has lessened, but not faded.
I mean, what really is there to hate about Pingu? It's just a simple little slice-of-life series about this little Penguin and his friends and family, and the odd adventures he gets up to. Each episode is less than ten minutes, and the language isn't even comprehensible, it's all mutterings and noises and the occasional, but frequent, "Noot Noot!". It is such a simple series, and yet it makes for really good comfort viewing. Just something to put on when you are drained, tired, sad or whatever, and just need something that isn't overly hilarious, but can still put a smile on your face. I'm venting aren't I? Regardless, Pingu is a little kids show, it is not meant to be super deep or anything. So why, after I have scratched that nostalgic itch, do I still watch it?
Well, firstly, I am a huge fan of stop-motion animation. Again, I grew up with Wallace & Gromit, but I also grew up with this show. Stop-motion animation is probably my favourite form of animation, no disrespect to traditional hand-drawn or computer generated animation, but having done all three types (Stop-motion, hand drawn and both Flash and ToonBoom) I think I know what my preference is. I think a lot of what makes Stop-motion, especially claymation, so uncanny to a lot of viewers is absent here. Stop-motion can be uncanny because we're looking at almost human puppets moving in an almost human way. Pingu has no humans, it is all penguins, a seal and the occasional other animal, and frankly the puppets are really adorable. I could watch a ten minute video of Pingu and Pinga playing and feel the same as watching a thirty second video of a kitten.
Really, that is all Pingu is. It's just this Penguin having some fun days, like going fishing and dealing with a pesky seal stealing his bait, or going to a funfair, or getting lost in an ice cave. There are big adventures, for a kid anyway, and there are small adventures, and all of them are driven by just how likeable Pingu is. Pingu is playful, curious, excitable, he's a kid. He can also be a right little pain in the butt, but clearly he never means to be a bad kid, and he often does know when he messed up, like in one episode where he shirks responsibility for incubating his mothers egg, and there are times where Pingu does actually get disciplined for his actions. Though he mostly gets scolded and made to right his wrongs, there are two episodes where Pingu's punishment is physical. One episode where his mom spanks him and he runs away, and another where his mom straight up smacks him in the face. The latter episode is infamous and some people may even cite it as one of the worst episodes of the show. I, can't agree, not that it isn't absolutely awful seeing Pingu get smacked, but because his mother clearly felt remorseful afterwards, like she knew she overstepped. That being said, this was more early season, which makes this a good opportunity to talk about this show's history.
So, Pingu originally aired from 1990 to 2000 by Trickfilmstudio in Switzerland. Then, it was acquired by HIT Entertainment and a further two seasons were produced from 2003 until 2006. This lead to some changes, mostly is the tone. The original Pingu seasons could get very negative, Penguins got angry and would threaten Pingu, Pingu's Dad had a temper on him, one episode had Pingu's dad deliver a letter to a penguin and evidence suggests that the letter was notifying of a relative passing away. There was also hints about poverty, which lead some viewers to believe the show takes place during or after a war. The HIT Era of the show has less of this edge, and even looks brighter. They apparently changed the original clay puppets to resin casts, it just gives everything a sheen to it, I do kind of prefer the grungy look of the original seasons, but I won't deny that the HIT era seasons look good. That being said, I do kind of also prefer the stories in the middle seasons, mostly three and four. They aren't as negative as the first two seasons, and aren't as bright as the last two seasons.
So, why did I do this? I don't know, I guess I just wanted to talk about Pingu. I have this weird thing where I like to talk and share information about things I like, I think it is called being a fan of something and wanting it to not be an obscure thing I can only talk to a handful of people about, or maybe it's just a neurodivergence thing, I dunno. Fandom usually doesn't seem to want the thing they like to actually have a fanbase, but anyway, I've been enjoying my time with Pingu, and learning new things about it, for example, replacing all the words in Camilla Cabello's "Havana" with Pingu noises improves the song by 100 percent, and the song "7-11" by Eskimo Disco is actually not bad, even if the band name is a bit... iffy. In all seriousness, I do think Pingu is a fine, comfortable show to watch. It is not bingeing material though, after a while the Penguinese can start to grate on you, plus, many of the episode compilations on YouTube tend to have the same episodes amongst them, so be prepared to skip over a lot of them if you chose to watch the show this way. All-in-all, Pingu has flaws, but overall, it's just a comfort watch for me, and I think it's a good show for little kids as well.
Well, that's that out of my system, movie review next Saturday on the First.
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