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Moomins (The) AKA Opowiadania muminków AKA Die Mumins AKA Muumien maailma
R0 - Visual Comparison - Various Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (10th April 2014). |
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The Show
 Fuzzy Felts: The DVD history of "The Moomins (1978-1982)" TV series Scandinavia vs Scandinavia (Remastered) vs UK vs Germany The versatile Finnish artist and author Tove Jansson (this year we're actually celebrating her 100th anniversary) is best known for creating the Moomin characters and stories. The Moomins started their life in a series of books and a comic strip, but it was only a matter time before they appeared in their own television series. While the most popular of these various serials and animations is probably the Japanese-Finnish-Dutch co-production "Moomin AKA Tanoshii Mūmin Ikka (1990-1992)", it was the puppet animation "The Moomins AKA Opowiadania Muminków (1978-1982)" that gathered the cult following. The series was shot on 35mm film and animated in a traditional, beautiful stop motion style. Apparently Jansson herself read and "approved" the scripts from Finland, so the series was true to its roots: "The frightening and the safe; the strange and the familiar; threatening nature and the warmth of the home. But they always have a happy ending." The Polish-Austrian-German co-production was also popular in the UK - often nicknamed as "The Fuzzy Felt Moomins" - where it was originally shown on ITV, as part of its ‘Watch It!’ strand of children’s programming, in 1983-86. The first DVD release of the series was Austrian based, released in the UK and Germany in 2006, with both releases being identical. All original 78 episodes (German versions) and shortened 100 episodes (UK) were included and even optional English subtitles were included for the German versions (and German subtitles for the UK ones). So far, so good. Sadly, both German and UK versions are using old, mediocre masters (perhaps Betacam source for television or 16 mm film?) which doesn't fare well in our comparison. The images are often soft and murky, and some scenes just look artificially brightened or even sharpened. Specs and dirt are also visible (with minor film wobbling), so it's fairly say that no remastering has been done. The German versions have a minor edge in terms of the overall look, but the verdict probably varies between the episodes and different shots. Both DVD sets are now OOP, but many fans probably still want to track them down. Two versions with every episode included (in their original aspect ratio) is a pretty good way to release a TV series on DVD. Shame about the visual quality. The original author Tove Jansson's background also meant that Finland (and also Scandinavia) was the prime market for the Moomins outside Japan, especially after "The Moomin Boom" in the 1990s. During that time probably every child in Finland had at least some episodes of Moomin recorded on VHS tapes. Later many bought the DVDs. That being said, it's a bit surprising that it wasn't until 2007 when the first DVD's of "The Moomins AKA Opowiadania Muminków" series were released in Scandinavia (apparently some legal and right issues prevented the earlier plans). At that time many children's TV series were released in separate, cheaper DVD volumes (instead of a bigger box sets) to maximize their demand and this also happened to "The Moomins" (first to the 1990-1992 series, though). During the first DVD run in Scandinavia, seven volumes were released of the 1978-1982 series (although the last one only in Finland and Sweden, it seems), and each volume included six episodes basically bundled together: Three episodes were divided to "chapters" and placed under general "episode" name. While these releases improved the image (colors and black levels are deeper and image is more detailed) and kept the OAR of 4:3, it still left a lot to be desired. Furthermore, only 42 episodes were released, so the series was left incomplete in Scandinavia. One reason for this "cancellation" could've been the fact that in the behind the scenes the series was - finally - being remastered. Finnish producer (and CEO of Oy Filmkompaniet Alpha Ab holding the rights of the series) Tom Carpelan resurrected the series in a different phase. After his company finally secured the rights in 2006, the long restoration process started (apparently at the nick of time, since the material was in a deteriorated stage). This also meant that new dubs were recorded for the series, with proper voice actors supporting the narration. Like in the original German (by Hans Clarin), Polish (by Stanisław Wyszyński for episodes 1-12, and by Stanisław Kwaśniak for episodes 13-78) and UK (by Richard Murdoch) versions, the first Finnish dub was also narrated by the sole actor Harri Hyttinen. The new Finnish dub was recorded in 2007 and during the process also the original Polish and German scripts were partly re-written and sometimes "corrected" to be more faithful to Tove Jansson's books. This new dub was shown on Finnish tv channels and was also included in the 2007-2009 DVD release (which didn't include the actual remastered versions yet). Next were the feature films "Moomin and Midsummer Madness AKA Muumi ja vaarallinen juhannus (2008)" and "Moomins and the Comet Chase AKA Muumi ja punainen pyrstötähti (2010)", which were edited from the now remastered and color corrected episodes (some new bits of animation was added here and there for the feature films). The restoration was done in HD and the latter film was even shown on 3D. The Moomins were truly "hip" again and the international rights for the feature films were sold in several countries. Then in 2010, the actual remastered episodes were shown on Finnish children channel and selected episodes were also released on DVD. Only 24 episodes were released in Finland at that time and after four DVD volumes the production quietly stopped. Forward to 2013. The 1978-1982 series was released again on DVD, but now in the whole Scandinavia. 11 DVD volumes have been released so far, so two volumes are yet to be released (since 12 episodes are missing). Like the earlier 2010 Finnish releases, all the remastered episodes are cropped/framed from the OAR of 4:3. However, even when the top and the bottom of the image are cropped, you can see that the anamorphic 1.78:1 image actually adds slightly to the sides. And as you can see from the episode "The Mystery of the Barometer", it depends on the scene/shot how the image was re-framed. It's nice to see that the quality is improved even from the 2011 DVD releases, since the colors are now bold and vivid, black levels solid and the sharpness feels natural (the series was shot in multi-layered approach, so everything is nicely three dimensional). Since the second feature film "Moomins and the Comet Chase (2010)" was released in 1.66:1 aspect ratio on DVD/Blu-ray one could argue why the whole remastered series wasn't presented in that way (since 1.66:1 is often a decent compromise). I don't claim that I have compared every episode or analyzed every shot or scene (especially when in animation the framing can differ and you can often "choose" screenshots that are tight in frame or screenshots that have plenty of space), but I was still pretty happy with the remastered 1.78.1 image on the 2013 releases. It's not the ideal way in terms of the original aspect ratio (and it would be interesting to know what was the original "colour scheme" of the series), but it's hard to go back to the older DVDs after seeing Moomintroll, Little My, Stinky, Groke and other inhabitants of Moomin Valley in such a great quality - after all these years. Clear win for the 2013 releases in our image comparison if you just look at the technical merits. The obvious question from many international fans is when we'll see these remastered prints with English dub? There was an announcement on the official Facebook page that the series "will be re-shown with new voices", but "no channel yet" for the UK. However, at least selected episodes are available for streaming via Windows Moomin App. Perhaps you could start there.
Video
UK series, title screen (2006): 
German series, title screen (2006): 
Finnish series, title screen (2008): 
Finnish series, alternate title screen, remastered (2010): 
Finnish series, title screen, remastered (2013): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #1: Episode "Dispute with the Groke" (Mörön oikeudenkäynti) UK DVD (2006): 
German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2008): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #2: Episode "Dispute with the Groke" (Mörön oikeudenkäynti) UK DVD (2006): 
German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2008): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #3: Episode "The Funfair" (Huvipuisto) UK DVD (2006): 
German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2010, remastered): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #4: Episode "The Funfair" (Huvipuisto) UK DVD (2006): 
German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2010, remastered): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #5: Episode "The Funfair" (Huvipuisto) German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2010, remastered): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #6: Episode "Christmas Eve" (Joulujuhla) UK DVD (2006): 
German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2008): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #7: Episode "The Mystery of the Barometer" (Ilmapuntarin arvoitus): UK DVD (2006): 
German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
--- --- --- IMAGE COMPARISON #8: Episode "Cocktail Party with a Countess" (Kreivittären kutsut) UK DVD (2006): 
German DVD (2006): 
Scandinavian DVD (2008): 
Scandinavian DVD (2010, remastered): 
Scandinavian DVD (2013, remastered): 
Audio
What is the "original” audio of this series anyway? After all, the creator of Moomins, Tove Jansson was Finnish, but worked and wrote mainly in Swedish (which is the second official language of Finland). Furthermore, the 1978-1982 series was Polish-Austrian-German co-production and apparently the scripts for each episode were translated from Polish into Finnish and sent to Tove and Lars Jansson. The fact still is that the completed episodes were first dubbed into German and Polish in the early 1980s (not sure which one came "first" or whether they arrived at the same time). The UK dub was produced a few years later. The 2006 German/UK DVD releases include the original mono tracks and fortunately they sound surprisingly decent. There is minor hiss and some unwanted noise, but nothing major. The news of a brand new UK dub probably brings conflicting thoughts for some of the older fans who grew up with the narration by Murdoch in the 1980s. Since the remastered episodes are running ~9-minute each it could be difficult to add the older UK dub (which was done for the ~5 minutes duration each). I highly doubt that the shorter ~5 minutes UK versions are being remastered in any time soon (unless some UK licensor wants to "re-cut" those remastered prints to the shorter ~5 minutes length and license the older dub). The original Finnish and Swedish dubs were recorded some years after the original UK dub (probably somewhere in the mid-late 1980s). The remastered Scandinavian DVDs includes the new dubs (with re-recorded voices) in 2.0 surround, which obviously sound superior in pure audio wise. But why 2.0 surround, when you can have 5.1 mix?
Extras
No real extras on these releases.
Packaging
Normal Keep cases. UK/German sets were also available in a box set and some of the Scandinavian releases were released in a special metal box. If you're visiting in Finland, you can find the "Remastered volumes 1-4 in a metal box" set from "Ateneum Art Museum", where you can also check the new Tove Jansson exhibition.
Overall
The remastered series is also shown on Japan's NHK broadcasting organization (new dub) and it seems to be coming to the Chinese, English (U.S.) and Spanish language markets. Let's hope that that the English language versions are also released on DVD at some point, since those various Scandinavian releases (or the Polish DVD releases that are not from the remastered prints) are not English friendly. Furthermore, since the series was remastered in HD, where's the Blu-ray release? They could add several dubs and subs for the Blu-ray disc (let alone extras) and create a lavish box set (to my knowledge, the only Blu-ray release connected to the Moomins was released in Japan, where season one of "Moomin AKA Tanoshii Mūmin Ikka (1990-1991)" is available). I guess there are many ownership and licensing issues in play here which makes a truly multi-language release difficult. The DVD sales have also diminished and now even children prefer watching movies and series from tablet and various streaming services. At this point the focus seems to be in the upcoming, brand-new feature film Moomins on the Riviera. Perhaps after that, the demand for the Moomins will be even higher on home video too. For more info, please see the interview with Finnish producer Tom Carpelan HERE.
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