MOOMINS AND THE WINTER WONDERLAND / CERT: U / DIRECTORS: IRA CARPELAN, JAKUB WRONSKI / SCREENPLAY: PIOTR SZCZEPANOWICZ, MALGORZATA WIECKOWICZ-ZYLA / STARRING: STELLAN SKARSGÅRD, ALICIA VIKANDER, BILL SKARSGÅRD / RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 2ND
If you grew up in the ‘80s, you may remember The Moomins as a strangely animated TV series. The stop motion animated felt looked like nothing else on British television. Most of us didn’t know at the time that the whole thing was adapted from Finnish author Tove Jansson’s children’s books. This weird, moving fuzzy felt affair fascinated and creeped out kids across Europe, combining fairy tales with a uniquely Scandinavian worldview.
For the unenlightened: Moomins are magical fairy tale-like creatures that live in Moominvalley. They look like tiny hippos, hang around with pixie-like creatures and have names like Moomintroll, Sniff, and Snork Maiden. They have eccentric adventures in near magical area of natural beauty which resembles an idealised version of pastoral Finland.
Moomins and the Winter Wonderland is a re-edit of Episodes 22 to 33 of the ‘80s show, concentrating on what the Moomin family do over winter. It seems that our magical fuzzy hippo people have the ability to hibernate during the cold season, a power most of us would envy them for. Of course, watching cute beasties snore their way through the night would make for dull viewing, so plot gets in the way. Moomintroll can’t get to sleep and distant cousin comes visiting, so the Moomin family ignore their ability to sleep through the bad weather and instead discover Christmas instead.
The story is sweet though not terribly linear. But given that it’s been cut together from a sequence of shorter films, that’s understandable. The animation itself is rich and beautiful. The Moomins look utterly unique and their expressions are both adorable and strange. The overall effect is child-like, as if we are delving into someone’s innocent dream.
The voice acting has been re-done. We have Alicia Vikander, Stellan Skarsgård and Pennywise himself, Bill Skarsgård, doing the bulk of the vocal work, and the result is a mesmerising if slightly weird experience.
Moomins and the Winter Wonderland won’t hold much interest for most adults. Beyond the lovely animation and fantastic acting, there’s little here to hold a grown-up enthralled for the full 80+ minutes. However this strange little show is perfect for kids, especially if they’re a little bit odd or just really into nature. Certainly one to keep the kids quiet over the winter holidays.
