Pingu to return to screens with new Aardman adaptation
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Beloved children’s TV series Pingu is set to be revived in a new adaptation from Barbie company Mattel and Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman.
The original Pingu launched on BBC One in 1990. A Swiss-German production, the TV series was designed by Otmar Gutmann, and followed the adventures of an impish penguin in the South Pole. The character was known for his catchphrase, “Noot noot”.
Pingu originally ran until 2000, and was briefly revived on British TV between 2003 and 2006.
The new series will be stop-motion animation, in the same vein as the original.
Mattel Television Studios, the TV arm of toy conglomerate Mattel, acquired the rights to Pingu in 2011 when it purchased HIT Entertainment.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Mattel chief franchise officer Josh Silverman said: “You couldn’t ask for a more perfect marriage [than between Mattel and Aardman]. I was just with their team. We are overjoyed about the project.
“It’s going to be really, really special. Pingu just continues to, organically, have a tremendous amount of affection and attention. And a tremendous amount of relevance.”
Aardman are also currently working on a new Wallace & Gromit sequel, titled Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
The feature-length film, which will debut in the UK on BBC One around Christmas, will see the return of the villainous Feathers McGraw, the malevolent penguin first seen in the 1993 Wallace & Gromit short The Wrong Trousers.
The creators of the new film teased earlier this month that Vengeance Most Fowl would be an “emotional” return for the popular man-and-dog duo.
Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders London event on Saturday 12 October, executive producer Carla Shelley said: “I think we’re going to make everybody cry. We’re going to surprise everybody and make you laugh as well. It’s really emotional. That’s what’s at the heart of it.
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Vengeance Most Fowl represents the first feature-length Wallace & Gromit outing since The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005.
Last year, Aardman also released a sequel to the hit 2000 poultry-themed animation Chicken Run.
In a three-star review of the film, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget may not quite rise to its predecessor’s level, but if this is the closest Aardman ever comes to selling out then, well, there’s still hope for animation’s future.”
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