Grew up watching Moomin on TV and it left with life lessons, good values and deep trauma…
Same. Here's the first season (in English) for anyone who's interested https://archive.org/details/moomin-season-1/%5BMoomin+Master...
The dark side of the Moomins
51–60 of 112 posts
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love the books, I have read them all to my kids, and I agree that I think the article takes its thesis too far. The books are strange tales. They have dark undertones. And sometimes the adults take actions that only someone with life experience would really understand (e.g. Moominpappa wanting to suddenly upend everything in the families life and move to an isolated island). But, my kids mostly pick up on the adven…
Based on your experience, what age do you think is ideal for introducing the books to kids?
Mine started 5/6, but the more recent books are made for kids. The
earlier newspaper cartoons are not. Same with TV, the later
Japanese/Dutch produced TV series is lovely. The earlier TV series
(there are several) are dark as the cupboard under the stairs and the
Groke goes postal killing everything in one.
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#53Don't have time to read through the whole article. But just wanted to point out that there are also Moomin cartoons which have really politically uncorrect stories: like Moomins travelling to spain, trying to buy opium but eating some weird drugs instead and then staring for sea for a week and missing their fligth back.
Moomins at Torrelorca: https://www.oocities.org/ghb17/muumit.html
Relevant pages:
https://www.oocities.org/ghb17/muumi/18.jpg
https://www.oocities.org/ghb17/muumi/19.jpg
https://www.oocities.org/ghb17/muumi/20.jpg
https://www.oocities.org/ghb17/muumi/21.jpg
"Waiter, four marijuanas" - they end up scoring LBJ pills instead as marijuana was so last season.
Note that the comic is by Lars Jansson, Tove's brother.
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#54My favorite piece of Moomin lore is that the very first proto-Moomin sketch was a caricature of Immanuel Kant Tove made to tease her sister, who was a big fan of that guy.
I read that same story a long time ago, but apparently it had things mixed up and this is the way it actually went down: https://www.moomin.com/en/blog/the-story-of-moomintrolls/
"On a summer day, she was discussing literary philosophy with her brother Per Olov Jansson next to the outhouse at their summer cottage in the archipelago. Tove quoted Immanuel Kant, who Per Olov immediately downplayed. To get back at her brother, Tove drew the ugliest creature she could imagine on the outhouse wall. That drawing, out of chance, is the first glimpse of a Moomin-like figure, although Tove called it a Snork."
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Spot on. I think the author did not think through their argument: ""One of the oddest aspects of the Moomin phenomenon is how these complex tales of apocalypse, breakdown and disfunction have been consistently misread as cutesy celebrations of domestic life."" But that's exactly what makes domestic life worth celebrating - at best it sustains you through disaster and hardship. What better way to celebrate it than to…
Is it really a celebration of family life when Moominpappa uproots the whole family because of his midlife crisis and sends Moominmamma into depression?
They come through it wiser and more in touch with themselves.
A family is a place where you should be able to also be something else than the ideal version of yourself that you’d like to show the rest of the world, something less perfect and more work-in-progress. Moomins lean heavily on showing how that actually makes their family stronger.
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#56I never read any of the books, didn't actually know they were originally a book. I grew up with the TV show though. Hated it. I've never watched TV or film for the feels. Tv and film for me is escapism, I don't want to be depressed or have to think. I'm assuming this is why I never liked the moomins.
There are actually six different TV series:
1959: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Muminfamilie
1969: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin_(1969_TV_series)
1972: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Moomin
1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moomins_(TV_series)
1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin_(1990_TV_series)
2019: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moominvalley_(TV_series)
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think there's any reason to gatekeep this so strongly. The original anime and it's sequel, maybe, but both Tove and Lars Jansson were heavily involved with other series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moomins_(TV_series) : > It is, in contrast to the 1990s series, widely believed to be the most faithful TV adaptation of Tove Jansson's stories, and much closer to her vision. Tove herself had a great deal of…
OK but the article in question describes and reviews the books and illustrations by the Finnish artist Tove Jansson. It is not about a tv-show.
People like the animation too, there's no reason to gatekeep Moomin of all things.
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it really a celebration of family life when Moominpappa uproots the whole family because of his midlife crisis and sends Moominmamma into depression?
They come through it wiser and more in touch with themselves. A family is a place where you should be able to also be something else than the ideal version of yourself that you’d like to show the rest of the world, something less perfect and more work-in-progress. Moomins lean heavily on showing how that actually makes their family stronger.
> They come through it wiser and more in touch with themselves.
Are you sure? Or is this just projecting the ideals we think childrens books are supposed to have? How is Moominmamma changed after the ordeal on the lonely island? - we don’t know, because the next book is about missing her and about how her absence affects the characters left behind.
The darker threads in the Moomin books are not hidden. It is all in plain view.
Like the squirrel which is too absent minded to seek shelter when the hard frost hits. Guess what - it freezes to death. They give it a nice burial though.
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#59Just got done reading Moominpapa's Memoirs to my kid! Great book.
Re: The dark side of the Moomins
#60Don't have time to read through the whole article. But just wanted to point out that there are also Moomin cartoons which have really politically uncorrect stories: like Moomins travelling to spain, trying to buy opium but eating some weird drugs instead and then staring for sea for a week and missing their fligth back.
“How can I be so thirsty when I've been drinking all night?” – Moomintroll (in the Cartoon)