Written by: Jei Beltrano | Published on: January 30, 2020 at 8:30 PM PHT (GMT+8)
A Pingu exhibit event to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the claymation children's television series "Pingu" took place at the Matsuya Ginza Event Square in Tokyo, Japan which started on August 12, 2020 and ran for a month. The exhibition features over 400 items including clay dolls, dioramas and storyboards that were made exclusively for the "Pingu" series.
Though the series was originated from Switzerland, it became popular worldwide especially in Japan where it was aired just recently on October 7, 2017 on NHK-E under the title "Pingu in the City".
Pingu was created by German filmmaker Otmar Gutmann. It was produced from 1990 to 2000 for Swiss television by The Pygos Group (formerly Trickfilmstudio and Pingu Filmstudio) in Switzerland, and from 2002 to 2006 for British television by HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation in the United Kingdom.
The series follows a family of anthropomorphic penguins who live at the South Pole, and the main character is the family's son and title character, Pingu.
Due to its lack of a real spoken language, Pingu became popular worldwide capturing the hearts of children and children-at-heart. Nearly all dialogue is in an invented grammelot "penguin language" consisting of babbling, muttering, and the titular character's characteristic sporadic loud honking noise, which can be popularly recognized as "Noot noot!" or other variants.
The series originally ran for four series (each series is made up of multiple seasons) from 7 March 1990 to 9 April 2000 on SF DRS and was then renewed for two more series from 1 August 2003 to 3 March 2006 on BBC Two. Pingu was also nominated for a BAFTA award. The Pingu pilot episode first aired on Swiss television in 1986 and was later shown at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. (via Wiki)
A Japanese reboot of the series, titled Pingu in the City, began airing on NHK-E on October 7, 2017.
Source: Pingu 40th Anniversary Japan Official Site, Pingu - Fandom Wiki
