Moomins
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Moomins |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | Tove Jansson |
| Date(s): | 1945 and 1993 October 5, 1969 – December 27, 1970 9 January 1972 – 31 December 1972 1977 – 1982 April 12, 1990 – October 3, 1991 October 10, 1991 – March 26, 1992 August 8, 1992 25 February 2019 – present |
| Medium: | books, comics, cartoon |
| Country of Origin: | Finland |
| External Links: | a IMDb (1969–1970) at IMDb (1972) at IMDb (1977–1982) at IMDb (1990–1992) at IMDb (musical tv series) at wikipedia (characters) at wikiedia (1969 anime) at Wikipedia (1972 anime) at Wikipedia (77-82 tv series) at Wikipedia (90-92 tv series) at wikipedia (musical tv series) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article or section needs expansion. |
The Moomins started out as a book series by Finnish writer Tove Jansson, and from there developed into a long-running comic and many different cartoon series made by an international array of figures, and both a museum and a theme park in Jansson's native land, Finland.[1]
Fandom
Moomin Renaissance
A new cartoon, Moominvalley, led to a "Moomin Renassiance," in early 2019 where the Moomins went viral on tumblr and twitter, introducing English-speakers around the world to the franchise. It was helped by Big Name Fans like passionpeachy. New fans overwhelmingly shipped Moomin and Snufkin, which was often called Springdove, a name termed by liebrenado.[2] Other used ship name is Snufmin.
The show was often praised for having a soft aesthetic and alleged queer subtext,[3] though this was controversial and led to discourse about age gap ships and shippers. The Moomin Renaissance fizzled out at some point in mid or late 2019.
Age Discourse
According to The Official Moomin Site, Moomintroll is stated to never "reach adulthood during the Moomin stories, but he does grow up a lot in the book Moominland Midwinter"[4] information found on the website until 2019, later it was deleted from the character's page. Snufkin's name means "scruffy old man" in Swedish.[5] This led to some shipping discourse, since for some fans as one they are a child and one is an adult -- what is neither confirmed nor denied by canon.
Springdove shippers largely responded to accusations of age gap shipping by insisting that the characters do not have canon ages, although at some point they canonically had it.
[passionpeachy]
just an fyi literally almost none of the moomin characters have canon ages and even characters like snufkin who smoke from a pipe are unclear because children are allowed to drink and smoke in moominvalley. It's really just up to your interpretation[6]
[passionpeachy]
I think Tove Jansson just didn't care to state their ages lol little my is the oldest one of the friend group though, even older than snufkin[7]
On June 30, 2019, loopnoid made an artwork panel to show some characters read as LGBT and that marked the childhood of many, including Moomintroll and Snufkin kissing. The tweet in question sparked some pro and con reactions, as well as discussion about accepting straight and queer relationships between non-human characters in the fannish community.
[passionpeachy]
it literally doesn't even matter if snufkin is a human tho. he's not but if he was this is a fantasy setting and moomin and him are obviously equals + how much do I bet you those ppl would be ok with the straight versions of this ship[10]
There are also those who remember that the canonical age of the characters was never a thesis signed by author Tove Jansson, which of course leads to disagreements among fans about the real age of the characters.
[moomintrivia]
Ages in Moomin stories are very vague and this is likely intentional on Tove Jansson’s behalf. Vague age makes it easier for the author to have characters do different things without having to worry about it being age-appropriate.[12]
The ship garnered enough discourse to be included two times in the Problematic Ships Project Tumblr.[13]
You’d think “adorable hug-shaped cartoon best friends” would pass every purity test, but people manage to get mad about it anyway.[13]
Other Topics
- If shipping Springdove supported Tove Jansson's vision or went against it
- The characterization of the Joxter, and the shipping of him with his son, Snufkin
- Differences between Scandinavian fandom culture and American fandom culture
References
- ^ "Moomins". Wikipedia. 2023-03-24. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ liebrenado (2019-04-21). "i feel some type of way whenever i see anybody..." Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ moomintrivia (2019-05-22). "There have been many analysis on homosexual themes in Tove Jansson's work, ..." Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ "Moomintroll - Moomin : Moomin". The Official Moomin Site. 2019-01-08. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ "List of Moomin characters - Snufkin". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ passionpeachy (2019-03-01). ""just an fyi literally almost none of the moomin ch…". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ passionpeachy (2019-03-01). "I think Tove Jansson just didn't care to…". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ loopnoid (2019-06-30). ""[…] 3. snufkin and moomin don't have canon ages but they're both approximately the same age". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ loopnoid (2019-07-01). ""4 because people keep bothering m…". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ passionpeachy (2019-07-01). ""it literally doesn't even matter if snuf…". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ loopnoid (2019-07-01). ""oh no i agree (i actually brought up the fact…". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ moomintrivia (2019-05-19). "Ages in Moomin stories are very vague and this is likely intentional on Tove Jansson's behalf..." Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.
- ^ a b Erin Ptah art at Problematic Ships Project (2019-05-09). "You'd think "adorable hug-shaped cartoon …". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25.