First appearance 1956 | Created by Zdeněk Miler Movie Mole Comes To Town | |
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Voiced by Zdeněk Miler's daughters Similar Maxipes Fik, Ferda Mravenec, Koziołek Matołek, Pittiplatsch, Winnie‑the‑Pooh | ||
The Mole (in the Czech original called Krtek, or, for little mole, Krteček) is an animated character in a series of cartoons, created by Czech animator Zdeněk Miler. The premiere of the first short film with the Mole was on Venice Film Festival in 1957. Since its inception, the cartoon won itself an enormous popularity in many Central European countries, as well as India, China, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Russia, Iraq and Japan.
Contents
- History
- Inclusion on US Space Shuttle flight
- US toy market plans
- Mascot
- Little Mole on trip around the world
- Music
- Filmography
- References
History
Krtek was first seen in 1956 in Prague, when Miler wanted to create a children's cartoon about how flax is processed. He wanted a strong Disney influence to the cartoon by choosing an animal for the leading role, and decided to pick a mole after stumbling over a molehill during a walk. The first film called "Jak krtek ke kalhotkám přišel" ("How the mole got his trousers") had premiere on Venice Film Festival in 1957, where it was awarded two Golden Lions. Production for further episodes started in 1963 and since then, around 50 episodes have been created.
The first episode of the cartoon was narrated, but Miler wanted the cartoon to be understood in every country of the world, so he decided to use his daughters as voice actors, reducing the speech to short non-figurative exclamations in order to express the mole's feelings and world perception. They also became the bottleneck of the creation process as they were the ones who got to see the whole film first, thus Miler was able to decide whether the message of the movie was able to get to children or not.
Inclusion on US Space Shuttle flight
On May 16, 2011 a plush toy of Krtek was present on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour where it accompanied the U.S. astronaut Andrew Feustel, whose wife is of Czech ancestry, on the STS-134 mission.
US toy market plans
In May 2012 Bloomberg announced that Apple Inc. is planning to help Krtek enter the $21 billion U.S. toy market for the first time. Exporting the six-decade-old “Little Mole” through new media is a first step toward establishing the most popular Czech animated icon in America to spur sales of books, movies and toys. Coloring books about the Mole have been very popular with young children.
Mascot
In January 2015 the Czech Athletics Federation announced that Krtek would be the mascot for the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, and would subsequently be used to promote the Federation's Athletics for Children programme.
Little Mole on trip around the world
Little Mole (aka Krtecek in Czech language), for certain, is a favourite Czech cartoon character. It was selected as a mascot for Our trip around the world project by travellers Pavel Zrzavy and Martina Libricka. Little Mole set out on his world trip together with his new friends on 8 February 2015. He was discovering the world for 527 days. During these days he traveled over 22 countries, visited hundreds of places and got to know many interesting cultures. Travellers decided to take Little Mole with them as a symbol reminding them home.They also wanted Little Mole to continue inspiring children and adults who like him.
Music
Music plays an important role in the cartoons, since the characters almost never utter more than emotional sounds, the most common of which is "Hello!" ("Ahoj" in Czech). The original series' music uses acoustic and electric musical instruments, rather than synthesized ones.
Composers: