In 1993 Moray graduated with an honours degree in fine art from the Limerick School of Art and Design and later that year co-founded Bui ...
Me for one. My daughter has me hooked. I must admit it's kind of weird. I had never heard of Peppa Pig until my daughter saw it on a childrens TV channel and was, from then on, addicted. And I do mean addicted, well and truly obsessed. Up until 6 months ago I had no idea who Peppa Pig was but I had heard mutterings and whisperings of and about her from friends who also had small children. I naively thought that my wife and I would be spared this affliction. Our strict control of the television would prevent our daughter falling into the black hole of pig addiction. We were so wrong. She found Peppa Pig and is now officially an addict. Hooked to a cartoon pig.
So who is this mysterious pig?
Peppa Pig is a little girl pig who has a small brother called George, a mammy, daddy, granny, grandpa and lots of friends and they all live happily on tops of hills and love jumping in muddy puddles. The drawings are extremely simple, with bold outlines and clean colours. The stories are simple and sweet, the characters warm and cuddly. Personally, I'd love to live in Peppa Pig land, everything is fun, bright, happy and without the stress and anxiety of a world of economic bailouts, political corruption and utter incompetence. However, what I find most interesting about my daughters addiction to this pig is that she became hooked all by herself. She only has a few words, has no friends as such and it will be a long time before she goes to school so her love of the cartoon didn't come via her peers, reading reviews, books, television listings, social networks, from the word on the street, the playground, etc. No. She saw it, loved it, simple as that. It seems the popularity of the cartoon connects to all children. It is a phenomenon and a pretty big achievement for its creators. But what makes it click with millions of kids? What makes it work so well? Is it the animation, the colour, the lightness, the voices, the warmth? Who knows? What I do know is that it is very clever and I love watching it too.
Problem though is that my daughter thinks it's on all the time, that there is a 24hour Peppa Pig channel so whenever she sees a TV - on or off - she grabs the remote control and says 'Peppa' or 'George' (that constitutes about 20% of her entire vocabulary). Naturally, being only a tot she doesn't understand that there is such a thing as TV schedules and so ensues a long protracted argument which inevitably ends with me, or my wife, desperately seeking a way out, a distraction to diffuse the situation (the promise of milk or raisins usually works). What makes all this worse is that because we live in a world of merchandising my daughter sees Peppa all around her, all the time, everytime we going shopping together. Peppa is on duvets, sheets, pillows, toys, cups, cards, dvds, etc, etc, etc.
My wife and I are trapped in the world of a cartoon pig and her family. Does anyone else have the same problem? Does anyone else like Peppa Pig? I've embedded an episode for you. Let me know what you think in the?comments box below.
And just an insider tip: The voice over actor for Nanny Plum in Ben and Hollys little Kingdom (another great cartoon) does the voice for Rebecca Rabbit in Peppa Pig...
This article is part of The Mutation, an Irish arts and culture ezine The Mutation is the voice of http://www.mutantspace.ie. We're an online arts co-operative, based in Ireland, that freely resources its members in the development and production of independent arts projects. We view our ezine as an ongoing collective project, a vehicle that enables our members to show their work and write on subjects that interest, amuse and irritate them.
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This article has been viewed 14 time(s).Article Submitted On: November 22, 2010
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