Peppa Pig is a British preschool animated television series directed and produced by Astley Baker Davies. The show revolves around Peppa, an anthropomorphic female pig, and her family and peers. The show originally aired on 31 May 2004. There have been seven seasons as of 2021. The seventh season began airing on 5 March 2021. Peppa Pig has been broadcast in over 180 countries.
On 31 December 2019, Hasbro acquired Entertainment One, including the Peppa Pig franchise, for a US$3.8 billion deal.
On 31 January 2020, Harley Bird announced that she would be stepping down from the role of Peppa Pig.
On 16 March 2021, it was announced that the series was renewed until 2027. However, the original creators and studio (Astley Baker Davies) are going to leave production, and will be replaced by Karrot Entertainment (known for producing Sarah & Duck).
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 Rabbit and Mole families are also the sole 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 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).
Production and airing
The first series of 52 five-minute episodes started on Channel 5 on 31 May 2004, and had its American premiere as part of Cartoon Network’s Tickle-U preschool television programming block on 22 August 2005, redubbed with American actors. The original British dub was first seen in the US on the Noggin channel from 2007 to 2009, and currently airs on the Nick Jr. channel (after it replaced the Noggin channel), as well as the separate Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon. 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 4 September 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 4 May 2009 with Harley Bird replacing Cecily Bloom and Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa.
In the United States, reruns are also broadcast on the Nick Jr. on Nick block as of November 15, 2013.
Peppa Pig is animated using CelAction.
Characters
Episodes and DVD releases
| Series | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 52 | 31 May 2004 | 30 November 2004 | ||
| 2 | 52 | 4 September 2006 | 20 June 2007 | ||
| Christmas special | 2 | 25 December 2007 | |||
| 3 | 52 | 4 May 2009 | 17 December 2010 | ||
| 4 | 52 | 23 May 2011 | 28 December 2012 | ||
| Specials | 3 | 14 February 2015 | 6 March 2016 | ||
| 5 | 52 | 24 October 2016 | 21 September 2018 | ||
| Film | 7 April 2017 | ||||
| 6 | 52 | 5 February 2019 | 7 October 2020 | ||
| 7 | TBA | 5 March 2021 | TBA | ||
Books
There is 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 was released on 14 February 2015 alongside several episodes of the TV series. As of December 2015, it had grossed £2,326,328.
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 hand-made puppets, based on the Peppa Pig Live stage show.
Peppa Pig World
Peppa Pig at a personal appearance in the UK
Peppa Pig World, a themed area based on the series opened on 9 April 2011 at Paultons Park, New Forest, Hampshire, UK consisting with attractions such as seven rides, an indoor play zone, a muddy puddles water splash park, kid-sized 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.
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, 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.
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. Similar changes were also made to early episodes with characters riding bicycles to add cycle helmets, which were not included in the original versions.
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.
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.
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”. 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”.
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”.
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. The media company responsible for Peppa Pig offered no comment when contacted about the article by the BBC.
Peppa in China
Peppa Pig is popular with mainstream China, and has been featured by official news media such as People’s Daily, and even endorsed by People’s Liberation Army and Chinese weapons manufacturer Norinco. However, social media posts featuring concerned parents complaining against Peppa Pig have also gone viral. 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. According to some media estimates, some 30,000 clips referenced under “#PeppaPig” were removed by the site. 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. Original Peppa Pig cartoons remain accessible on all online platforms, including TikTok (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. 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. 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. The film opened on 6 February 2019, and made US$14 million in the first three days.
Awards and nominations
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Awards
- British Academy Children’s Awards
- 2012, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation
- 2011, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation
- 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
- 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
- 2013, Nomination for Best Writing
- 2013, Nomination for Best Multiplatform (Peppa Pig’s Holiday game)
- 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
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | SCO | IRL | ||
| My First Album |
|
79 | 26 | 91 |
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 |
|