Almost two decades after its last episode aired, the highly popular children's animated series Pingu is being remade by stop-motion studio Aardman and Mattel.
The news was shared by Mattel’s chief franchise officer, Josh Silverman, who confirmed the team-up. "You couldn’t ask for a more perfect marriage [than between Mattel and Aardman]. I was just with their their team. We are overjoyed about the project. It’s going to be really, really special," said Silverman in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "Pingu just continues to, organically, have a tremendous amount of affection and attention. And a tremendous amount of relevance."
Pingu, the little model penguin who we all fondly remember from our childhoods, was created in 1980 and made out of plasticine by Swiss animators Otmar Gutmann and Harald Muecke. Pingu is best known for his mischievous ways, using his beak as a trumpet, and speaking in ‘Penguinese.’ Since then, Pingu has starred in several TV appearances, a pilot movie, and a six-season long series, which ran until 2006. The series follows Pingu and his family living in an igloo in Antarctica, who goes on various adventures with his little sister Pinga and his friends.
But now, the cheeky little penguin is returning to the small screen. And who better to recreate Pingu’s funny little life than British animation studio Aardman, best known for creating Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and Shaun the Sheep? The studio is set to bring the penguin back to life using 3D computer graphics that recreate the texture of the original Claymation.
This is just one of Aardman’s exciting upcoming projects, as the studio will soon release a new Wallace and Gromit film titled Wallace and Gromit: Vengence Most Fowl. The film follows the duo as trouble breaks out when Wallace’s ‘smart gnome’ develops a mind of its own, and past villain Feathers McGraw reenters the scene. Wallace and Gromit: Vengence Most Fowl premiers on Christmas Day on BBC One in the UK and on Netflix in the US on January 3, 2025.
