Moominvalley World Premiere – The Full and Fascinating Photo Story

31.1.2019 (Last updated: 1.2.2019 )

Moominvalley, the long-awaited new Moomin animation series, made its memorable world premiere in Tove Jansson's hometown Helsinki, Finland, on the 25th of January. The British and Finnish voice casts, the production team behind the series and international media together with almost 500 guests welcomed the series with festivities, speeches and great joy - in a very Moominous style.

Moominvalley world premiere in photos

From Moomin mugs to warm hugs, here we go!

This excited many of the arriving guests most: Arabia’s wonderful Moomin mugs were used for all the toasts!

And this made it even more legendary: the welcome drinks were made based on Moominmamma’s recipe, the secret ingredient being raspberry.

And now, to an event like this – what else would you even consider to bake than Moominmamma’s delicious pancake?

Media from all around the world wanted to write a story about all the Moominous glory.

Including Braydon Bent, a wonderfully witty young reporter who certainly pleased the Sky Kids’ headquarter: he was the first to interview Jennifer Saunders on the red carpet.

“I love everything about Moomins. I’m a big Moomin fan: my youngest daughter is a huge Tove Jansson fan and she turned me on to the Moomins”, Jennifer Saunders explained to Yle.

Giving her rich and playful voice to Mymble, Jennifer Saunders is a three-time BAFTA winner, a renowned comedian and actress best known for creating and starring in the hugely popular British television sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

Edvin Endre, the new Snufkin in the Moominvalley TV series, is a Swedish actor known especially for his roles in Vikings and Eddie the Eagle – and for being a life-long Moomin fan and recently, to the great delight of Moomin fans, for advocating for a Moomin emoji.

Taron Egerton, a highly popular British actor best known for the Kingsman movies and much hyped for his leading role in the upcoming Elton John biopic “Rocketman”, has given his voice to the beloved Moomintroll.

“Moomintroll is an especially interesting character for an actor to interpret because he evolves and grows during the series”, he told Moomin.com. During his stay in Helsinki he charmed his fans with taking photo of a little Moomintroll by the bay of Helsinki.

Rosamund Pike is best known for her roles in Pride and Prejudice, Die Another Day and the box office hit movie Gone Girl, which for she earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She told us at Moomin.com that when she heard about the production she became so excited that she “would have taken on any roll just to be part of it.”

“Moominmamma represents the ideal mother for me”, she added.

Rosamund Pike even made a tribute to Tove Jansson and the Moomins with her playful nails:

“I did this in honour of the Moomins. I’m very proud of my role as Moominmamma, and I think it’s important we remember that adults can play too”, Rosamund Pike explains to Moomin.com. The nails were made by Lee Moore – a Moomin fan herself as well.

Steve Box, the Oscar®-winning director of the series, and Marika Makaroff, the executive producer, were feeling happy and emotional as the fruit of years of intensive labour was presented in front of a larger audience for the first time.

The Emmy-winning writing duo Nick Ostler and Mark Huckerby, also children’s book authors themselves, have studied Tove Jansson’s books in-depth and created the fascinating and adventurous script for the series.

Sky’s Braydon Bent even found Tarja Halonen, the former President of the Republic of Finland for an interview.

“Tove gave the inhabitants of Moominvalley the values of tolerance, love, respect, friendship, and bravery – which are needed in today’s world more than ever. We’re very excited to have a wonderful cast and team who share these values bringing Moomin to life in a new way for fans young and old”, said Tove Jansson’s niece and the Creative Director of Moomin Characters Sophia Jansson.

As the excitement began to grow the premiere audience got to enjoy the first performance from the upcoming Moominvalley soundtrack. The Finnish duo Roosberg charmed the audience with their enchanting and touching song “The Author”.

Last moments before the world premiere of Moominvalley were full of suspense and excitement.

Finally, an episode full of adventure, humour and warmth was shown to the premiere audience who reacted with joy, laughter and excitement.

The production team and the voice cast were in awe after the audience gave them an immense and happy standing ovation.

The Moominous premiere ended in warm hugs.

This is what it was like:

Official trailer released

Airing on Sky One, Sky Kids and NOW TV in Easter 2019 and on public broadcaster YLE in Finland in February 2019 (with many more deals under negotiation worldwide), Moominvalley is a brand new TV adaptation of the Finnish writer-illustrator Tove Jansson’s classic and much-loved body of work. Directed to a family primetime audience, the drama fantasy series is full of life and laughter for lifelong Moomin fans, and complete newcomers alike.

Extra sneak peek: Moomin.com’s in-depth interviews with Moominvalley stars

During the Moominvalley world premiere festivities Moomin.com got an exclusive chance to interview the UK voice cast and the production team of the series, including Rosamund Pike (Moominmamma), Taron Egerton (Moomintroll), Edvin Endre (Snufkin), Jennifer Saunders (Mymble), the Oscar®-winning director Steve Box, the Emmy-winning writing duo Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler, and the Oscar®-nominated production designer Sarah Hauldren.

In the video interviews to be published during the coming months, we will dive deep into the reasons why the voice actors wanted to be a part of Moominvalley, what they think about the series and what they would want to change about the world if they could make it more like the Moominvalley. The production team reveals how they went about to create the magical new interpretation of the beloved Moomin stories by Tove Jansson.