English Pingu (partially lost English dub of children's stop-motion series; 2000-2002)
The cover of the first volume
Status: Partially Lost
Pingu is one of the most popular stop-motion series of the 90s and 2000s. The show is famous for its use of 'Penguinese', a grammelot fictional language spoken by the characters that gives the series much of its unique charm. Despite this, it was used as the basis for a series of English-language training tapes released throughout 2000 via direct-to-video and again in 2002, only in South Korea. Only the first season was dubbed, and the result is infamous for its ironically poor grammar and voice acting.
Format
The dub was released exclusively on 6 VHS volumes, each containing 4-5 redubbed episodes. The voice actors make very little effort to actually perform their characters, instead opting for clear but very stilted and grammatically incorrect English, while matching subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen to emphasize the lesson. Unfortunately the subtitles only compound the awkwardness of the translation, often misspelling words and sometimes not even matching what's being said. At the end of every episode, there is a Listen & Repeat segment where a narrator repeats all the lines said in the episode.
Episode list
| Volume | Original Episode Title | Title in The Dub | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hello Pingu | I am Pingu | Found |
| 1 | Pingu Looks After the Egg | Pingu sits on eggs | Found |
| 1 | Pingu Delivers the Mail | Little Postman | Found |
| 1 | Pingu Goes Fishing | Go Fishing | Found |
| 1 | The New Arrival | Birth of Pinga | Found |
| 2 | Jealousy | Jealousy | Found |
| 2 | Pingu Plays Fish Tennis | Play volleyball | Found |
| 2 | Hide and Seek | Snowball Fighting | Found |
| 2 | Barrel of Fun | Sledding | Found |
| 2 | Skiing | Go Skiing | Found |
| 3 | Lost Baby | Unknown | Lost |
| 3 | Ice Hockey | Unknown | Lost |
| 3 | Building Igloos | Unknown | Lost |
| 3 | Sledging | Unknown | Lost |
| 4 | Pingu Runs Away | I Hate Mom | Found |
| 4 | Music Lessons | Playing Accordion | Found |
| 4 | Pingu's Ice Cave | Adventure | Found |
| 4 | Pingu and Pinga Stay Up | I Can't Sleep | Found |
| 5 | Little Accidents | Bathroom | Found |
| 5 | School Time | At School | Found |
| 5 | Grandpa is ill | Sick Grandpa | Found |
| 5 | Pingu's Dream | Scary Dream | Found |
| 6 | Pingu's Circus | Circus | Found |
| 6 | Pingu and the Barrel Organ | Barrel Organ | Found |
| 6 | Noise | So Much Noise | Found |
| 6 | Pingu and Pinga at Home | Home Alone | Found |
Availability
Nearly all of the volumes are available online via Youtube, albeit in low quality[1]. The only volume that is lost is Volume 3, which contains the rest of the episodes from Season 1 and has yet to surface online in any form as of now. On September 2nd, 2022, an image of the physical third tape was discovered on the internet.