A Moomin winter

A few weeks ago, I received an out-of-the-blue email from Finland, from the good people at Moomin.com.  At some point last year, I had completed a questionnaire on their website, and had been picked at random to be one of their winners - imagine it!  A week later, and into our letterbox popped a little parcel with the most intriguing of stamps.

Lizzie is, of course, the biggest Moomin fan, so all of this was music to her ears.  We carefully opened the envelope, expecting maybe a couple of postcards, when a whole load of goodies dropped out.  Beautiful writing paper, a pen, a cosmetics case, a bike reflector, and a genius Finnish invention, a pot lid lifter, to keep one's cooking from boiling over on the stove.  Suffice to say, it made our day - thanks very much to everybody at the Moomins!

I suppose at this time of year, the Moomins would be deep in hibernation, keeping cosy in their secluded little home, whilst all around them the winds howled and the snows fell.  I wouldn't be lying if I said I'd be happy to join them, such is the cold and grey that makes up the seemingly endless month of January, but as we plough on through, the days are slowly getting lighter, the primroses are showing their vibrant colours in the garden, and croci and daffodils are making their first forays above the ground.  The newness of spring will soon be in the air once again, and I for one intend to go out and find the best of it.  In the meantime, I'd be contented with a little more winter's sleep, and it looks like I'm not the only one... 

Live in peace and plant potatoes and dream

It's easy, in this 24/7, energetic, busy and hassled world, to get a bit wrapped up in your own life.  Those small work decisions that are just so important; the commute home each day in the fraught and choc-a-bloc traffic; bills; politics; technology...  Maybe I'm undergoing a personal revolution, or perhaps I'm simply getting old before my time, but the modern-day bustle of life is fast losing its appeal in my eyes - I don't want the latest iphone, I don't need to stream my movies from "the cloud," and I really couldn't care less about the latest social media craze; the "ice bucket challenge," and "selfies," it has all just blissfully passed me by, and I have to say, I'm the happiest I've ever been.

This current outlook on life meant I really connected with the film I took Lizzie to see for her birthday recently, where a trip to Dartington's Barn Cinema saw us enjoy an hour-and-a-half in the company of the Moomins, in their new feature film, The Moomins on the Riviera.  Now, I have a deep fondness for these loveable, big-nosed creatures stretching back into childhood, and was amazed when I first met Lizzie, to find that she was an even bigger fan.  And what's not to love?  The Moomins live a peaceful life, in a tranquil valley, where an understanding of the world and a one-ness with nature prevails.  As a kid I was enthralled by their adventures, and Tove Jansson's brilliant creations have long been my inspiration for travelling to Scandinavia - an ambition as yet unfulfilled.

Moomin Mama, Moomin papa and precocious Little My

The Moomins on the Riviera was released on 10 October 2014 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Tove Jansson's birth, but only made it onto UK screens at the end of May this year.  There's plenty to get excited by in this new film; for a start, it does something that no other film producer wants to do these days (sit up and take note, Disney) - it has stuck to its traditional, iconic, winning formula of good, old-fashioned, hand-drawn, two-dimensional animation, which for me beats your high-tech CGI computer animation every time.  But beyond the method of production lies the heart of the matter - the Moomins, virtually unchanged from their first animated debut in 1990, holding true to their culture and their values in a world where so many others have taken the money and sold out.  The very presence of this film demonstrates this point, but it is also woven deep into the fabric of the film's plot, in which the Moomins set sail for the Riviera.  During their time living the jet-set lifestyle, Moomin Papa falls in with a rich aristocrat and Snorkmaiden falls for the local playboy, leaving Moomintroll consumed with jealousy, and Moomin Mama to hold the family together, and get them all back on track to their traditional, life-affirming ways.  It's a powerful shot at a weary world, a challenge to a society fuelled by greed and always on the pursuit of financial wealth and riches.

The Moomins on the Riviera (source: official film website)

The timing of the film's screening fell, by some chance, on Lizzie's birthday weekend, which tied in (quite accidentally) with her present from me - volumes one to four of the Moomins TV series on DVD.  I actually worked quite hard to find these, but have already seen how, with the release of the feature film, they are slowly beginning to appear in the shops.  We've started to work our way through the episodes, and there's a definite humour to them that I certainly didn't perceive as a child.  What is the same, though, is that lovely, clean, idyllic Moomin way, and its message is as strong today - maybe even stronger, and perhaps more necessary - as it was when it first hit our TV screens 25 years ago.  The series in their book form, of course, goes back much further, to 1945 - but that's a story for another blog.

Moomin DVDs

Sometimes, when I'm pottering in the garden, watching bumble bees buzz around the lavender, or just admiring the view from our summer house, I feel a little bit like Moomintroll.  I feel like we're both content with what we have, both in touch with the world, both happy to while away the summer evenings with our loved ones, watching the flowers bloom and the vegetables grow.  And I'm happy with that, to have a sort-of kindred spirit in the animated world, and one whose vision of a happy life I really share - that is, to live in peace, and plant potatoes, and dream.

Snufkin