What is Moomin you may wonder now but I will come to that in a second. First of all I want to explain how I come to this topic. Few weeks ago my father had a great idea: Lets buy all Moomin Episodes for Nathan!
For all who do not know about Moomin, it is originally a comic strip and a book series about several characters which resemble white hippos. The author was Tove Jansson, a Swedish-speaking Finn, who created these stories some when in the 1940’s.
By now Moomin is pretty famous in various countries, especially in Finland and Japan! I do not know in how many languages these books and TV series (and movies) have been translated but I believe that the number is not too low as I have seen it on TV in many countries.
At first we wanted to buy for Nathan the German translated version of Moomin however we quickly found out that they only translated 50 odd episodes out of the over 100. In the end we purchased from Finland the complete Moomin DVD collection with all episode plus the 
Movie. In case you are more familiar with Moomin you probably know that there are several different TV adaptation which have been created over the decades. In this case I am talking about the series from 1990-91, its continuation series and movie. This includes Tanoshii Mūmin Ikka 楽しいムーミン一家 (or just Moomin), Tanoshii Mūmin Ikka: Bōken Nikki 楽しいムーミン一家 冒険日記 (or Delightful Moomin Family: Adventure Diary) and the movie Mūmindani no Suisei ムーミン谷の彗星 (Comet in Moominland). As you can see from the names the TV adaptation is from Japan and it is a Dutch, Finnish and Japanese collaboration. There have been previous animated TV series from Japan in int he 1969 version Mūmin ムーミン (Moomin) no other than Hayao Miyazaki was involved in it as well however he also opposed Tove Janssons viewpoint about the original Moomin which caused that she was not too pleased (actually angry) with this version (actually she was never happy with any adaptation).
Anyways, I am very happy that we bought this DVD collection as I grew up with Moomin. I still have many episodes recorded on VHS as well as few comic books. I also believe that this show will keep Nathan for a long time occupied as there are over 2440 minutes of material to watch (and if he is not watching I will gladly take over!). In my youth I always wanted to visit the Moomin World in Finland but I never had the chance, perhaps Nathan will be more lucky. Besides just the Moomin World, Comics, Books, Museums and TV adaptations there are tons of other things related to Moomin as well.
There are Moomin shops in Finland where you can buy everything you can imagine about those white hippos and the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport was for a time decorated with their
images and Finnair even painted Moomin figures on their Japan-line planes. At home we still got numerous Moomin mugs which you can buy in nearly every store in Finland and those are particularly popular with Japanese tourists. More often than not you see Japanese tourists in Helsinki with Moomin shopping bags filled with little fan articles to bring home for themselves or their family and friends. Yes, I will try to bring Moomin also into Nathan’s world and who knows how many mugs with white hippos he will own later on.
Crazy Chinese Family 
I have never heard of Moomin. I grew up watching Sesame Street and Mr. Dress-Up. Have you heard of either of them? However, it seems like Nathan has a lot of viewing in his future, as I am sure he will watch his favorite episodes over and over again. And because you love it a lot, you can have discussions about the shows together! 😉
I know Sesame Street but not Mr. Dresa-Up. Sesame Street is/ was every afternoon on tv here in Germany. Moomin was here always in the morning time 🙂
Yes, Sesame St is popular. There is even a chain of English schools in Taiwan called Sesame St and they use the characters from the show in their books.
I know about the Moomins, I have seen merchandise for sale but I have never watched the series or read the comics.
When I went to Finland almost 10 years ago I bought a keychain with a Moomin and the Finnish flag 😀
I think when you visit Finland you just can’t avoid buying some moomin merchandise and these days also some crazy angry birds stuff 🙂
Thanks for the follow. I love your blog. Your baby is so cute.
LIke Constance, I have never heard about Moomin. I watched something similar in my childhood, though. Something called Ma Mee Moo, a cartoon about a cow and a boy. I’m pretty sure the show doesn’t run anymore. I also watched Sesame Street, Where’s Wally and Mr Bean.
I don’t think you’re too young to visit Moomin World. With all those DVDs you bought for Nathan, I’m sure he’ll be hooked onto the series in no time and he would want to go there. It could be one big family outing with Nathan..with the wife in tow. And perhaps your mum…and MIL 😀
I think if you ever visit finland you will learn about Moomin. I remember when researching some things to do in helsinki for my friends last summer.i always found in the guides moomin related locations 🙂
All the moomin stories are very very peaceful so as a child it is enjoyable to watch as it brings you to a magical world where everything seems to be in harmony. Let’s see if I will be taken back to that world once I start watching it
I hope to learn about Moomin when I visit Finland some day. I really like cute animals, I’m sure I won’t be disappointed with Moomin.
Magical Moomin world. A world where we forget about troubles staring at a cow 🙂
Moooooomiiiiin! ❤ ❤ ❤
What a wonderful thing to bring into your son's life! 😀 I too want to go to Moomin Land, so I shall have to make sure to indoctrinate my future children in the wonders of them to make sure they whine about wanting to go there. "Oh well, I guess we'll have to go then…" (at the park) "Wheeee—!! Kids, you're on your own! Momma's gonna find Snufkin!"
I may or may not have a few Moomin mugs of my own. ^^; I'm happy Japan likes Moomin so much, as it means I can fill my Moomin cravings whenever I want. 😀
I didn’t know that Japan has also so much moomin related things until 2003 as my host family in Finland (I was once an exchange student in Finland…) just had returned from a trip to Japan and brought back many japanese moomin merchandise 🙂
Let’s see when nathan is ready to visit moomin world :p
I love Moomin, I saw them the first time when I went to Finland a few years back now (was there to learn little Finnish)…they had a museum about them in Tampere, so I went there 😀 … I think they’ve just started to broadcast it in Italy as well (or they did a little), and I’ve seen lots of merch here in London 😀
I have been in the museumas a child about twenty years ago in tampere as my aunt was living nearby.
You learned a bit finnish? Very enjoyable language isn’t it:p
Few years ago the moomin corporation started a new merchandise wave but I am surprised that it even reached London!
I didn’t know that little guy originated from Finland 🙂 Always just assumed he was Japanese. He’s so cute. What’s he like? Maybe I’ll check him out on youtube. Nathan will be glued to the tube, I’m sure!
Moomin is a very peaceful piece of tv entertainment, especially for children. Its a magical world full of harmony and violence is barely existent there 🙂
I am looking forward to watch it with Nathan
Yes, Mumin is very popular in Japan. The character “Little Mi” (リトルミイ) is bossy!
There are “Mumin Stores” in Japan.
Yes little Mi or in finnish Pikku Myy is a very bossy character but at the same time funny 🙂
I saw some Moomin fan articles from Japan and also saw on the wiki page that there is this one supermarket chain using Moomin character (or some other kind of market)
Yeah, it’s certainly among the cartoon characters that most Japanese can easily recognize!
I liked fairy tales when I was a child, and I used to enjoy watching Sesame Street with my children. We all enjoy sharing the characters we loved when we were children with our own children. Adult books and movies don’t have nearly the staying power that children’s books have.