Pat and Mat

The show

The show features the two characters facing mostly self-made problems, trying to solve them using any possible and impossible tools and construction gadgets. This leads to even more problems and yet, eventually, the two manage to get a working result with a mostly surprising solution.

According to the authors, it is the manual ineptitude that inspires the stories. The humour is not the only feature of the show. Another feature is having an optimistic approach towards life. The two characters always get into problematic situations, but they never give up until they solve the problem in imaginative ways.

The show is also memorable for its soundtrack, composed by Petr Skoumal, of which the main parts consist of the theme song and a harmonica tune.

History

The two characters first appeared in a 1976 short film entitled Kuťáci (Fitters). Later, the characters appeared in more shorts, making their own series on Slovak TV entitled ... A je to! (... And that's it!), where they got their final look. The two handymen got their names Pat and Mat in 1989, and this became the name of the show.

While creating the two characters, the authors had in mind especially entertainment for adults, but the show became popular with all audiences. However, in former Czechoslovakia, the first 29 episodes of the series could have been produced as children's TV programme only, in the short's format of 7–9 minutes.

Thanks to its distinct lack of spoken dialogue, the show became popular throughout the world, being aired in nations that include Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia), Sweden, Syria, Iraq, Poland, former Yugoslavia, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Norway, Spain, Iran, Hungary, Jordan, South Africa, and South Korea. In the Netherlands, the characters are given dubbed dialogue (with the voices of Kees Prins and Siem van Leeuwen). In Australia it aired as part of a weekly, half-hour collection of animated shorts on the SBS channel's show Kaleidoscope.

In 1990, shortly after the Communist regime collapsed and Czechoslovakia became more open to the world (and later the Czech and Slovak republics), Lubomír Beneš founded his own AIF Studio in Prague (production) and Zürich (marketing, sales, financing), where he and his team produced 14 more episodes, and introduced all 49 of them to the international market.

Three years after Beneš's death in 1995, his studio went into bankruptcy, igniting some copyright issues over the characters and the 50th episode, which therefore was never released. In the meantime, Beneš's son Marek founded his own studio, Patmat film. Production of episodes was resumed in 2002 by Ateliéry Bonton Zlín, resulting in 28 episodes produced by three studios (Ateliéry Bonton, Anima and Patmat) in just three years. Many crew members were veterans who worked on the original TV series.

The characters were revived once again in 2011 by Beneš for a new series, Pat a Mat na venkově (Pat & Mat in the Country). The pilot, Postele (The Beds), produced in 2009, premiered at the 50th Zlín Film Festival in 2010. Twelve more episodes followed from 2011 to 2015, produced at Patmat film and filmed in 16:9. Beneš directed and wrote all 13 episodes. The episodes were released on DVD in 2013 and received their TV premiere on the Dutch channel VPRO on 9 June 2013. New episodes are currently in production.

Typical elements of the series

In the series are repeated several elements that together make up the style of the series.

Typical handshake

When they finish their work they shake their hands like normal people and then they make their original gesture with bent hand and closed fist.

Surprising change for a worse end rather than good one

And when everything seems to work perfectly suddenly everything that can go wrong does.

Optimistic approach to problems

They have always good idea how to solve problems.

The will to solve problems make the situation worse

When everything seems to work perfectly suddenly everything that can go wrong does. The majority of their problem solving efforts end up worsening the situation even further.

Cinema

To celebrate the show's 40th anniversary, in some countries including the Netherlands, seven new episodes were shown in cinema in 2016. Gusto Entertainment announced in December 2015 that there will be a full-length feature film that will be released in cinemas in 2016.

Festivals, awards, prizes

Several Pat & Mat episodes have received prizes and awards at world animation festivals during the years.

From the latest ones directed by Lubomír Beneš, the 38th episode The Cyclists, animated by Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, participated at the "Annecy '93" (Annecy, France) animation festival competition, and has been invited to a number of other world festivals.

The Cyclists has also been included in the selection "The Best of Annecy '93" by Cinémathèque Québécoise (Montreal), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), Museum of Modern Art (New York City) and presented by these institutions in their autumn 1993 show.

The 44th episode The Billiards, animated by František Váša, has been selected for the "Annecy '95" competition, and invited to almost all other world film festivals.

The Billiards got two prizes at the World Animation Celebration in Agoura (CA), March 1997:

The 50th episode Playing Cards (original name Karty) written, animated and directed by František Váša, has been selected for the "Annecy '99" TV competition.

Czechoslovakia

In socialist Czechoslovakia, the authors had to explain their "subversive" characters and stories to the Prague watch-dogs of the regime, with one of the questions being whether they chose the shirt colours, red and yellow, to make fun of the Soviet-Chinese tensions. However, their explanations were "unsatisfactory", and so the "ideologic impurity" remained and further production on Pat & Mat was banned. To skirt the prohibition, the Slovak colleagues from Czechoslovak TV in Bratislava gave Pat & Mat the necessary support and assigned them production means so the show could continue in the same Czech studio in Prague where Lubomír Beneš and his crew worked, under their Slovak cover (28 episodes, 1979–1985). Additionally, Mat's shirt was changed from red to a neutral grey until 1989, during which the Communist regime dissolved and it was safe to colour Mat's shirt red again.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, the children programmers of German-language Swiss TV banned some of the episodes from broadcasting because they contained high amounts of slapstick violence, which they deemed "too dangerous", while the French- and Italian-language channels aired the offending episodes anyway.

Home media

After appearing on VHS for a decade, the first 35 episodes were released on DVD in the early 2000s, with the 28 new episodes ending the releases in 2005. Shorts from the AIF era were initially unavailable because of copyright issues, which continued until 2007, when the remaining aired episodes appeared on DVD for the first time.

List of show title in other languages

* In the Dutch version the characters talk, whereas in the original and all other countries there is no dialogue. Pat is voiced by Kees Prins and Mat by Simon van Leeuwen.

List of episodes

The 50th episode The Cards (original name Karty) completed in 1998 by some people of the original AIF Studio and originally prepared with Lubomir Beneš, was to be the beginning of a new format of the show. It was directed, animated and written by František Váša, different from earlier episodes and filmed in widescreen format (16:9), slightly longer (lasting 11 minutes), had a dialogue, a new soundtrack and new opening and closing sequences. The characters were voiced by Czech actor David Nykl.

The original plan, of Beneš and Jiránek, was to make further episodes of the new series, possibly also half-hours, and a feature film. Its implementation, however, did not come into effect due to embezzlement of funds and trust by two members of the former Czech management. And, as made without any knowledge of Lubomír Beneš' heirs, it was the only episode filmed that was not distributed or released as the Zurich management member and worldwide distributor refused to do so, while terminating any contacts to the Prague former colleagues.

Lubomír Beneš died in 1995, and the two of the Czech management of the then quickly dissipating Prague AIF Studio didn't have access to the rights to the characters any longer, as both Marek Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek left their studio in grave disagreement with them. The Prague management planned to get the rights from Lubomir Beneš's heirs, but they had to sort the embezzlement part first. One of them even promised to do so in a meeting with the angry team, yet soon after they completed the episode they decided to declare bankruptcy. Due to these circumstances, this episode has never been released or distributed.

The only trace from this episode was a screenshot posted on the AIF Studio Pat & Mat (original) website. However, the former management set up their studio called Animation People [2] and posted more screenshots on their website. The screenshots disappeared in the middle of September 2010 when the studio modified their website. However, the same studio later uploaded a small clip of the episode on the website. The episode was eventually uploaded to YouTube, sourced from a Korean VHS.

Related products

At least two books with the series' characters have been published:

On 1 August 2007 a Czech computer development company, Centauri Production, announced via their website that they had secured the rights to create a Pat & Mat video game. The game was released in the Czech Republic on 1 October 2009, and other EU countries in 2010. The game is available in English and Czech, and is also available for purchase via Steam and Desura.

There is a wide range of Pat & Mat merchandise available, including games, dolls, key rings, office material, posters and T-shirts. In Dutch supermarkets Pat & Mat food is also available.