Peppa Pig

Peppa Pig is a British preschool animated television series directed and produced by Astley Baker Davies in association with Entertainment One, Nick Jr. and Channel 5. The show revolves around Peppa, an anthropomorphic female pig, and her family and peers. The show originally aired on May 31, 2004, and there have been six series as of 2019, the most recent of which commenced broadcasting in February 2019 in the UK. The series is shown in 180 territories including the UK and US.[1] Reruns were broadcast on the Nick Jr. on Nick block from December 25, 2017 to February 4, 2019.[2]

This article is about the show. For the character, see List of Peppa Pig characters § Pigs.
Peppa Pig
Genre
  • Preschool
Created by
Written by
Directed by
  • Neville Astley
  • Mark Baker
  • Phillip Hall (2011)
  • Joris van Hulzen (2011)
Starring
Narrated byJohn Sparkes
Theme music composerJulian Nott
Composer(s)Julian Nott
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original language(s)English
No. of series6
No. of episodes303 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)Phil Davies
Running timeabout 5 minutes
Production company(s)
  • Astley Baker Davies Ltd
  • The Elf Factory Limited (Season 5)
  • Gaston's Cave Ltd (Season 6)
  • Contender Entertainment Group (2004)
  • Rubber Duck Entertainment (2006–2007)
  • E1 Kids/Entertainment One Family (2009–2012)
  • Entertainment One (2016–present)
Distributor
  • Contender Entertainment Group (2004–2009)
  • Entertainment One (2009–present)
Release
Original network
  • Channel 5
  • Nick Jr.
Picture formatHDTV
Original release31 May 2004 (2004-05-31)–present
Chronology
Related showsBen & Holly's Little Kingdom
External links
Website

On December 31, 2019, Hasbro acquired Entertainment One, including the Peppa Pig franchise, for a US$3.8 billion deal.[3]

On January 31, 2020 Harley Bird announced that she would be stepping down from the role of Peppa Pig.[4]

Background

Peppa Pig is a children's programme broadcasting on Channel 5 and Nick Jr. in the UK, Nickelodeon/Nick Jr. in the US, ABC 4 Kids in Australia and Discovery Kids in Latin America, including Brazil. Each episode is approximately five minutes long. The show revolves around Peppa, an anthropomorphic pig, and her family and friends. Each of her friends is a different species of animal. Peppa's friends are her age, and Peppa's younger brother George's friends are his age. Episodes tend to feature everyday activities such as attending playgroup, going swimming, visiting their grandparents, cousins, going to the playground or riding their bikes.

The characters wear clothes, live in houses, and drive cars, but still display some characteristics of the animals on which they are based. Peppa and her family snort like pigs during conversations in which they are speaking English, and the other animals make their respective noises when they talk, with some exhibiting other characteristics, such as the Rabbit family's squeaking sounds and enjoyment of carrots. The Rabbits are also the sole exception to the rule of human-like habitation, in that they live in a burrow in a hill, though it has windows and is furnished in the same way as the other houses. The characters also blush when embarrassed and their mouths express other emotions such as sadness, happiness, irritation, bewilderment and confusion. Although the main characters—mostly mammals—are anthropomorphic, other animal characters are not, such as Tiddles the tortoise, Polly Parrot, and the ducks. The narrator of the series, John Sparkes, reinforces the action and humour, saying things like "Oh, dear" when something unfortunate happens (such as George starts crying) or "Look out!" when a character is doing something unsafe (such as Peppa riding her bicycle without looking where she's going).

The first series of 52 five-minute episodes started on Channel 5 on May 31, 2004, and had its American premiere as part of Cartoon Network's Tickle-U preschool television programming block on August 22, 2005, redubbed with American actors,[5] and Noggin in December 2007 and January 2008. As of 2011, the series airs on Nick Jr. in the US with the original British dub. It can also be seen on Nick Jr. in the UK, Portugal, Italy, Benelux, Scandinavia and Australia. In Taiwan the show can be seen on Playhouse Disney. The second series of 52 episodes began on Channel 5 on September 4, 2006, with Cecily Bloom replacing Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa, among other cast changes. The third series started broadcasting on the Channel 5 kids block Milkshake! on May 4, 2009 with Harley Bird replacing Cecily Bloom and Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa.

Characters
Main article: List of Peppa Pig characters

Episodes and DVD releases
Main article: List of Peppa Pig episodes
SeriesEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
15231 May 2004 (2004-05-31)30 November 2004 (2004-11-30)
2524 September 2006 (2006-09-04)20 June 2007 (2007-06-20)
Christmas special53+5425 December 2007 (2007-12-25)
3524 May 2009 (2009-05-04)17 December 2010 (2010-12-17)
45223 May 2011 (2011-05-23)28 December 2012 (2012-12-28)
Specials314 February 2015 (2015-02-14)6 March 2016 (2016-03-06)
55224 October 2016 (2016-10-24)21 September 2018 (2018-09-21)
Film7 April 2017 (2017-04-07)
6525 February 2019 (2019-02-05)TBA

Books

There is a line of personalised books in which any child can be added into the story with Peppa and her friends.[6] There is also a series of books based on Peppa Pig, one of which, Peppa Meets the Queen, was written to coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Film and "cinema experience"

A 15-minute film called Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots[7] was released on 14 February 2015[8] alongside several episodes of the TV series.[9] As of December 2015, it had grossed £2,326,328.[10]

A second film, branded a "cinema experience" was released on 16 March 2017, and was shown in cinemas on 7 April 2017. It features nine exclusive new episodes, four of which share the same theme, Peppa's holiday in Australia. Between the episodes are segments with a live-action host named Daisy (played by Emma Grace Arends) and Peppa and George as 3D puppets, based on the Peppa Pig Live stage show.

Peppa Pig World Theme Park
Peppa Pig at a personal appearance in the UK

Peppa Pig World, a family theme park located in the New Forest, Hampshire,[11] opened on 9 April 2011 at Paultons Park, Hampshire, UK with seven rides, an indoor play zone, a muddy puddles water splash park, smaller play areas and themed buildings.

Merchandise

Peppa Pig, the Entertainment One (eOne) brand, grossed over £200 million in UK merchandise sales in 2010, far exceeding the 2009 figure of £100 million. Additionally, for the first time in the brand's history, NPD figures for the year reveal that Peppa Pig was the number one pre-school property in the total toy market for 2010 – moving up four places from its previous position in 2009. Now in its seventh year, new licensees continue to join the Peppa Pig licensing programme, which currently has 63 licensees on board.[12]

In addition to episode DVDs, a variety of licensed Peppa Pig products are available, play including video games and other toys such as playsets, playing cards, vehicles, and stuffed toys. Merchandise has also been expanded to include household items such as bathroom products, stationery,[13] bed-linens, food, drink, clothing, and jewellery. Licensees include Holland Publishing in the United Kingdom. A music album titled My First Album was released in July 2019.[14]

Criticism, controversy, concerns and influences
Comparison of identical frame in original (top) and re-edited versions of the Series 1 episode "Bicycles", with cycle helmets added.

Peppa and her family did not wear seat belts in the first two series. After receiving several complaints, Astley Baker Davies announced that all future animation would include characters wearing seat belts, and that the relevant scenes in the first two series would be re-animated to include them.[15] Similar changes were also made to early episodes with characters riding bicycles to add cycle helmets, which were not included in the original versions.[16]

In April 2010, during the UK General Election campaign, E1 Entertainment confirmed Peppa would not be attending the launch of the UK Labour Party's families manifesto "in the interests of avoiding any controversy or misunderstanding". Peppa had previously been used to promote the Labour government's Sure Start programme.[1]

In 2012, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation received a complaint that the episode "Mister Skinnylegs" was not appropriate for Australian audiences, since it encouraged befriending spiders. Given the toxicity of some common Australian spiders, the complaint was upheld and the episode was restricted from being aired on the ABC's television networks.[17]

In late May 2014, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Mark Scott expressed fears about the future of Peppa on Australian television, given Australian federal budget cuts to ABC funding that were said to affect its ability to pay for, and broadcast, overseas media products such as Peppa Pig. Australian media noted the character's appeal to Australian toddlers and echoed concerns about the future of her Australian distribution rights. Australian Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce made reference to the character as a menu item at a Thai restaurant, while conservative columnist Piers Akerman thought that Peppa "pushes a weird feminist line".[18] On 28 May 2014, then-Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull quelled fears about the future of Peppa Pig on Australian TV, by tweeting that: "Contrary to media rumours, Peppa's is one snout we are happy to have in the ABC trough".[19]

During September 2015, the cartoon once again entered the realm of political parody, as commentators referenced it when making light of the supposed Piggate scandal revolving around David Cameron.[20] Earlier in 2015, former UK health minister Norman Lamb said that programmes such as Peppa Pig should include gay characters, because having arbitrary boundaries as to what relationships are acceptable in children's television was "not equitable".[21]

The British Medical Journal carried a light-hearted article in its Christmas 2017 edition, which suggested that although the programme includes numerous "positive public health messages, encouraging healthy eating, exercise, and road safety", it ran the risk of "contributing to unrealistic expectations of primary care" by depicting general practitioner Doctor Brown Bear as making out-of-hours home visits as soon as contacted about apparently trivial illnesses, and dispensing medicines rather too freely.[22] The media company responsible for Peppa Pig offered no comment when contacted about the article by the BBC.[23]

Peppa in China

Peppa Pig is popular with mainstream China, and has been featured by official news media such as People's Daily,[24] and even endorsed by People's Liberation Army[25] and Chinese weapons manufacturer Norinco.[26] However, social media posts featuring concerned parents complaining against Peppa Pig have also gone viral.[27] In May 2018, digitally manipulated contents featuring adult content with Peppa Pig were blocked on the video app Tik Tok, also known as Douyin in China, due to concerns about exposure of adult content to children.[28] According to some media estimates, some 30,000 clips referenced under "#PeppaPig" were removed by the site.[29] The ban was a result of prevalence of adult content featuring Peppa Pig created by shehuiren (simplified Chinese: 社会人; traditional Chinese: 社會人; pinyin: shè huì rén; literally "society person") subculture, which used Peppa Pig as a criminal "mobster" icon, with members of the subculture creating adult-humored memes and tattoos using imagery from the cartoon.[30] Original Peppa Pig cartoons remain accessible on all online platforms, including Tik Tok (Douyin).

Despite the above controversy, the series and character remain popular within mainstream Chinese culture, as two Peppa Pig theme parks are set to open in Beijing and Shanghai in 2019.[31] In early 2019, to celebrate the Year of the Pig, the 81-minute animation/live-action film Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year was released in China.[32][33] Before the film's release, a five-minute live-action promotional trailer went viral on social media in China, garnering a billion views and being re-posted by numerous state media outlets.[32] The film opened on 6 February 2019, and made US$14 million in the first three days.[34]

Awards and nominations

Awards

  • British Academy Children's Awards
    • 2012, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation[35]
    • 2011, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation[36]
    • 2011, Winner for Best Performer (Harley Bird)
    • 2005, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation series
  • Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2005, Winner of the Grand Prize, The Crystal for Best TV Production[37]
  • Bradford Animation Film Festival 2005, Winner of Best Children's Animation Series
  • Cartoons on the Bay Festival 2005, Winner of Pulcinella Award for Best European Programme of the Year
  • Cartoons on the Bay Festival 2005, Winner of Pulcinella Award for Best Pre-School Series
  • Cartoons on the Bay Festival 2005, Children's audience award for Best Pre-School series

Nominations

  • British Academy Children's Awards
    • 2013, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation[38]
    • 2013, Nomination for Best Writing[38]
    • 2013, Nomination for Best Multiplatform (Peppa Pig's Holiday game)[38]
    • 2010, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
    • 2010, Nomination for Best Writing
    • 2009, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
    • 2009, Nomination for Best Writing
    • 2008, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
    • 2007, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
    • 2004, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation

Video games

Peppa Pig: The Game

Peppa Pig: The Game was developed by Ubisoft and published by Pinnacle Inc. It was released on 27 November 2009 for the Nintendo Wii console and Nintendo DS hand-held game system. It is a children's video game to learn and play, and it contains 11 games and activities.

Peppa Pig: Fun and Games

Peppa Pig: Fun and Games was developed by Ubisoft and published by Pinnacle Inc. It was released on 22 October 2010 for the Nintendo Wii console and Nintendo DS hand-held game system.

Discography

Studio albums
Year Album details Peak chart positions
2019 My First Album
  • Released: 19 July 2019
 79

Singles
Title Album Released
“Theme Music From Peppa Pig” Theme Music EP 1 April 2016
"Bing Bong Zoo" My First Album 14 June 2019
"Bing Bong Christmas" Non-album single 25 October 2019

Extended plays
Title EP details
Theme Music EP
  • Released: 1 April 2016
  • Type: 2-track EP
gollark: Wait. It checks out: they aren't good.
gollark: Except those who make and use PhP.
gollark: Inconsistency. Sounds like PHp.
gollark: <@196639050126327809>ß
gollark: Best bracket style: no newlines! Everything in one line. Removes all hard decisions.

References
  1. "Peppa Pig moved from Labour event". BBC News. 27 April 2010.
  2. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/showatch/peppa-pig/listings/
  3. "Hasbro Closes Deal of Takeover of Studio Behind Peppa Pig". TV Shows. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  4. Davies, Hannah J. (31 January 2020). "Peppa Pig voice actor Harley Bird quits after 13 years". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  5. "Cartoon Network Launches Tickle U To Humor Preschoolers". Animation World Network. 22 August 2005. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  6. "Personalised Peppa Pig Childrens Books". PeppaPigAndMe. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  7. "PEPPA PIG: THE GOLDEN BOOTS". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  8. Simmy Richman (13 February 2015). "TV cartoon Peppa Pig – now worth $1bn a year – is making the leap to the big screen". The Independent. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  9. "Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots review". Den of Geek. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  10. "Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots - International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  11. "Paultons Family Theme Park - Home of Peppa Pig World - New Forest". Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  12. "Record-breaking year for Peppa Pig". LTW Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  13. "Personalised Childrens Books". Penwizard. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  14. "Piggy-Azalea: Peppa and Iggy's album feud plays out on Twitter". CTV News. 17 July 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  15. "Peppa Pig in seatbelt safety row". BBC. 15 January 2009.
  16. Loveday, Samantha (14 December 2010). "ABD adds seatbelts to Peppa Pig episodes | Latest news from the licensing industry". Licensing.biz. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  17. "About the ABC: Peppa Pig, (received), 6th August 2012".
  18. Maley, Jacqueline (28 May 2014). "Peppa Pig held aloft as sacrifice to god of prosperity". The Age. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
  19. Malcolm Turnbull [@TurnbullMalcolm] (28 May 2014). "Contrary to media rumours, Peppa's is one snout we are happy to have in the ABC trough" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  20. "Peppa Piggate: the trial of David Cameron". The Poke. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  21. Murphy, Joe (1 July 2015). "Give Peppa Pig gay friends to diversify children's TV, says Lib-Dem hopeful". London Evening Standard. p. 13.
  22. Bell, Catherine (2017). "Does Peppa Pig encourage inappropriate use of primary care resources?". British Medical Journal (Christmas 2017). doi:10.1136/bmj.j5397.
  23. Westbrook, Ian (12 December 2017). "Peppa Pig's GP visits copied by fans, says doctor". BBC News. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  24. "Qing-style porcelain cup painted with English cartoon figure Peppa Pig goes viral in China". People's Daily. 22 April 2018.
  25. "Plaudits for PLA's Hong Kong garrison on the march with Peppa Pig in Lunar New Year video that ends with a giggle". South China Morning Post. 3 February 2019.
  26. "Lunar New Year puts seal on Peppa Pig". South China Morning Post. 4 February 2019.
  27. "Peppa Pig is a bad influence, vents parent in viral social media post". People.cn. 15 November 2017.
  28. "China bans Peppa Pig because she 'promotes gangster attitudes'". The Independent. 2 May 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  29. Ong, Thuy (1 May 2018). "Peppa Pig blocked on popular Chinese video app for association with counterculture". The Verge. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  30. Jie, Shan (30 April 2018). "Chinese video app removes Peppa Pig, now a subculture icon in China". The Global Times. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  31. Haas, Benjamin (1 May 2018). "Peppa Pig, subversive symbol of the counterculture, in China video site ban". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  32. "See The Heartfelt 'Peppa Pig' Video That Got A Billion Views In China". NPR. 5 February 2019.
  33. "Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year (xiao zhu pei qi guo da nian)-film 1010370" – via www.britinfo.net.
  34. Mendelson, Scott. "Box Office: 'The Wandering Earth' Is China's First Big-Budget Sci-Fi Blockbuster". Forbes.
  35. "2012 Children's Pre-School Animation | BAFTA Awards". BAFTA. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  36. "2011 Children's Pre-School Animation | BAFTA Awards". BAFTA. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  37. "2005 - The Cristal for a TV production". AIAFF. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
  38. "Children's in 2013 | BAFTA Awards". BAFTA. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
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