Peppa Pig

Taking place in a world where almost all characters are animals, Peppa Pig revolves around the titular character and her family and friends. Each episode is approximately five minutes long. 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, visits with their grandparents, cousins, and friends, 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 Rabbit and Mole families are the exceptions to the rule of human-like habitation, as 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 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 when George starts crying) or "Look out!" when a character is doing something unsafe (such as Peppa riding her bicycle without looking where she is going).

In the United Kingdom, the first series of 52 five-minute episodes began on Channel 5 on 31 May 2004. The second series of 52 episodes began on Channel 5 on 4 September 2006, with Cecily Bloom replacing Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa, among other cast changes. The third series started telecasting on Channel 5's preschool-targeted block Milkshake! on 4 May 2009 with Harley Bird replacing Cecily Bloom and Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa.

In the United States, the series first aired as part of Cartoon Network's Tickle-U preschool programming block from 22 August 2005 to 2007.[5] For these airings, the show was redubbed with American actors.[6] However, there were no other official releases of this dub, and every US airing since 2008 uses the original British soundtrack.[7] In 2008, Peppa Pig moved to the Noggin channel in the US. It was aired as part of Noggin Presents, a series of interstitial shorts aired in between full shows. Since February 2011, the series airs as a half-hour show on the Nick Jr. US channel, and on the separate Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon as of November 2013. For each episode, 5 segments are put together (though for the special containing "Golden Boots" and the episode containing "Around the World", only 3 segments are used) to make the run time 25 minutes.[7] As of June 2021, there were 9 seasons (and 1 standalone special) of Peppa Pig in the US.[8]

Peppa Pig is animated using CelAction.[9]

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 cars 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.[29] Similar changes were also made to add cycle helmets to early episodes with characters riding bicycles.[30]

Peppa was used to promote the pre-2010 Labour government's Sure Start programme, which had the aim of "giving children the best possible start in life".[31] In April 2010, during the UK General Election campaign, E1 Entertainment said that Peppa would not attend the launch of the Labour Party's families manifesto "in the interests of avoiding any controversy or misunderstanding".

In 2012, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation received a complaint that the Series 1 episode "Mister Skinnylegs" was not appropriate for Australian audiences, as it encouraged befriending spiders; deadly venomous spiders are prevalent in Australia. The complaint was upheld, and the episode was restricted from airing on the ABC network.[32]

In late May 2014, the ABC'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".[33] On 28 May 2014, Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull tweeted: "Contrary to media rumours, Peppa's is one snout we are happy to have in the ABC trough".[34]

In 2015 Norman Lamb, a former UK health minister, 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".[35]

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.[36] The media company responsible for Peppa Pig offered no comment when contacted about the article by the BBC.[37]

In November 2021, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking at a Confederation of British Industry conference lost his place in his speech for about 20 seconds and diverted into a lengthy tangent about Peppa Pig,[38] describing the character's shape as a "Picasso-like hairdryer".[39]

Peppa Pig is popular with mainstream China, and has been featured by official news media such as People's Daily,[44] and even endorsed by People's Liberation Army[45] and Chinese weapons manufacturer Norinco.[46] However, social media posts featuring concerned parents complaining against Peppa Pig have also gone viral.[47] In May 2018, digitally manipulated contents featuring adult content with Peppa Pig were blocked on the video app TikTok, also known as Douyin in China, due to concerns about exposure of adult content to children.[48] According to some media estimates, some 30,000 clips referenced under "#PeppaPig" were removed by the site.[49] The ban was in response to the 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 "person of society") subculture, which used Peppa Pig as a criminal "mobster" icon, with members of the subculture creating memes and tattoos using imagery from the cartoon, containing adult humor. Original Peppa Pig cartoons remain accessible on all online platforms, including TikTok (Douyin).

Despite the controversy regarding its memes, 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.[50] 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.[51][52] 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.[51] The film opened on 6 February 2019, and made US$14 million in the first three days.[53]

Awards

• British Academy Children's Awards
  • 2012, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation[54]
  • 2011, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation[55]
  • 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[56]
• 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[57]
  • 2013, Nomination for Best Writing[57]
  • 2013, Nomination for Best Multiplatform (Peppa Pig's Holiday game)[57]
  • 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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Peppa Pig.

• Official website
• Peppa Pig at IMDb