English Pingu (partially lost English dub of children's stop-motion series; 2000-2002)
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. The first season was the only one to get this treatment, this dub has since become infamous due to its 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 little effort to perform their characters, instead opting for clear but stilted and grammatically incorrect English, while matching subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen to emphasize the lesson. Which only compound the awkwardness of the translation, often misspelling words and sometimes not 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.
Availability
Nearly all of the volumes were available online from Youtube user 레전드킹 VCR.[1] The only volume that is currently 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. In October 2022, the youtube links were blocked by Mattel. However, they were uploaded to the internet archive a couple weeks before the Youtube playlist was taken down.[2]
Episode list
| Volume | Original Episode Title | Title in The Dub | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hello Pingu | I am Pingu | Found |
| Pingu Looks After the Egg | Pingu sits on eggs | ||
| Pingu Delivers the Mail | Little Postman | ||
| Pingu Goes Fishing | Go Fishing | ||
| The New Arrival | Birth of Pinga | ||
| 2 | Jealousy | Jealousy | Found |
| Pingu Plays Fish Tennis | Play volleyball | ||
| Hide and Seek | Snowball Fighting | ||
| Barrel of Fun | Sledding | ||
| Skiing | Go Skiing | ||
| 3 | Lost Baby | Pinga Gets Lost | Lost |
| Ice Hockey | Playing Hockey | ||
| Building Igloos | Igloo | ||
| Sledging | Sled Race | ||
| 4 | Pingu Runs Away | I Hate Mom | Found |
| Music Lessons | Playing Accordion | ||
| Pingu's Ice Cave | Adventure | ||
| Pingu and Pinga Stay Up | I Can't Sleep | ||
| 5 | Little Accidents | Bathroom | Found |
| School Time | At School | ||
| Grandpa is ill | Sick Grandpa | ||
| Pingu's Dream | Scary Dream | ||
| 6 | Pingu's Circus | Circus | Found |
| Pingu and the Barrel Organ | Barrel Organ | ||
| Noise | So Much Noise | ||
| Pingu and Pinga at Home | Home Alone |
Gallery
Screenshot of the Volume 3 VHS, which is currently the only one that's still lost.
