Bloc Magazine Spring 15

MOOMIN A fter more than 70 years charming children in books, newspaper comic strips and TV series, the Moomins are finally making their big screen debut. The film’s launch coincided with the centenary of the birth of Finnish novelist and illustrator Tove Jansson, who published her first book featuring the loveable trolls, The Moomins and the Great Flood, in 1945. Hand-drawn feature-length epic, Moomins on the Rivieria, took four years to complete and will be released to UK audiences on May 22. Jansson based the hippo-like characters in the books on her own bohemian, nature-loving family members. She said that she had drawn the first Moomin after arguing with one of her brothers about the philosopher Immanuel Kant. Jansson sketched “the ugliest creature imaginable” on the toilet wall and wrote under it “Kant”. It was a plumper and friendlier version of this doodle that later brought her worldwide fame. The books have sold in their millions and been translated into 44 languages, they have spawned their own theme park and the estate sells £370million of Moominmerchandise each year. Jansson’s niece Sophia said: “They go on excursions to the islands - the Jansson family did exactly that. “They went sailing and they went camping on the islands, and if you read the Moomin books there are many things that are, to me, completely normal and to other people are completely fantastical. “But in Finland that’s what you do when you are on the islands. That’s what they did and it’s what we’ve always done.” Moomin is voiced in the English- language version by Being Human star Russell Tovey, while his parents are Moominpappa and Moominmamma are played by Inspector Lynley’s Nathaniel mania ------------------------------------------- 60 // WWW.BLOCHOTELS.COM