Rebecca Sugar To Direct 'Moomin' Feature for Annapurna
Tove Jansson's Moomin stories are beloved around the world, but have never been such a big deal in the United States. That could be about to change, however, with the announcement of the first American-made adaptation. Moomin Characters and Annapurna Animation have announced that the characters are coming to the big screen in an adaptation to be written and directed by Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe).
Julia Pistor, who was responsible for the SpongeBob SquarePants movies and the Rugrats films, will produce.
“We are thrilled to partner with the talented Rebecca Sugar as well as Annapurna for this milestone new film. We are excited to see how this accomplished team will reinterpret the beloved Moomin stories and for them to be discovered and rediscovered by old and new fans alike,” said Roleff Kråkström, CEO of Moomin Characters.
“We’re honoured to bring Tove Jansson’s timeless vision to the big screen” said Robert Baird and Andrew Millstein, co-presidents of Annapurna Animation. “Along with Rebecca and Julia, we can’t wait to introduce these beloved characters—and the humour, heart, and subversive spirit Tove brought to her work—to new audiences.”
The first Moomin story was published in 1945. It followed a family of fuzzy, friendly and eccentric creatures that included Moomintroll, Moominmama and Moominpapa. They went on to feature in a series of books that was translated into 60 languages and in a syndicated comic strip that was published in over 40 countries.
They have been adapted into animation numerous times, with series and films made in Finland, France, Germany, Russia, Poland and Japan. They've covered puppetry, stop-motion, 2D animation, CGI and even actors in costumes.
They first appeared in a German puppetry series in 1959 and then subsequently in a Japanese anime series in 1969, in a version that notoriously made changes to the source material. A much more faithful version, this time in stop-motion, followed in 1977 and ran until 1982.
Japan had a second crack at it in 1990, this time in a co-production with Finland and The Netherlands. This stuck much closer to the books than the prior anime adaptation, but made some changes of its own. An English-language adaptation was shown in the UK on Children's BBC and later Boomerang.
The Moomins came to the big screen in a 2D animated French adaptation, Moomins On The Riviera, released on the 100th anniversary of Jansson's birth.
Most recently came 2019's Moominvalley, a UK/Finnish co-production that represented the first CG Moomin series. A faithful adaptation of the original books, the series has won several awards and has run for four seasons so far.
How faithful will Sugar remain to the source material? It's too early to say, but it'll surely be interesting to see whether it will be drawn directly from the original stories or whether it will feature an all-new story. It would surely be controversial with Moomin fans to stray too far from Jansson's originals.
All other details such as plot and release date are being kept under wraps for now, but we'll be following the production of this one.
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