Foreign Characters - The Little Mole and the Smurfs

The museum’s display cases contain memorabilia featuring the Little Mole, the Wolf and the Hare, the Smurfs, Maya the Bee and the Moomins. Alongside Polish bedtime programmes are characters from other film and literary traditions. The Little Mole was created by Zdeněk Miler and represents Czech animation in this group.

Pierre Culliford, known as Peyo, created the Smurfs. They began as comic characters rather than stars of a television series. Their debut came on 23 October 1958 in the Belgian magazine “Spirou”, in a Johan and Peewit adventure involving a magic flute.

Hanna-Barbera produced the Smurfs television series, which ran for nine seasons from 1981. Following its broadcast on the American network NBC, the series reached audiences in other countries. Twenty-three years separated the comic debut in 1958 from the television series in 1981. These familiar bedtime characters already had a history before they found their place in television schedules.