I wrote way more than I intended to about Moominvalley... minor spoilers
I've only watched the 1990 anime before this one, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I haven't read any of the children's books, or seen any other adaptations, so there's that.
This one makes a lot of changes from the anime, and I think they're mostly positive. Some of them are smaller, and some of them pretty much change the entire show. Pros and cons list, go!
Pros: 1. All of the mistranslations, mediocre voice acting and headscratching dialogue has been sorted out. This isn't hard, but God, has anyone else noticed just how awful this is in the anime?
We'll suddenly cut to characters speaking in 100 mile per hour proto-English for no reason, and it just ruins every line. All of that is fixed here, which makes it waaaay more watchable.
2. Much better pacing. This show definitely understands that it's taking from several stories at a time, and changes the structure to suit it. The anime kinda just jammed them all together, which never felt right.
3. Does a good job of explaining some kind of confusing plot lines. In the anime, it feels like a lot of the events are just implied from the books, and are sort of explained in non-sequiturs. Like, this girl is sad, so sheeee's invisible, obviously. This fisherman is sad for emotional reasons and stuff. This show dives a lot deeper into it, and you know... tries to explain it.
4. The characterization is great. I really like how the show finally commits to giving everyone in the valley a consistent personality. My personal favorite was playing up the absurdity of Moominpapa, but everyone else is well-done too.
Moomin(troll) is sorta rebellious and teenage-ish, but tries to be a nice kid. Snufkin is mysterious, but has to learn to stop pushing his friends away with persistent independence. Moominmama is hilariously maternal, Little My sort of matures as the show goes on and it's rare to see anyone get legit angry. The fisherman arc is a billion times better as well.
I think this is my favorite improvement.
5. The style of humor changes a whole lot. I think this comes from Steve Box, who also worked on Wallace and Gromit, because it feels a lot like that. The anime is more cute and subtle, while this version has a lot more slick one-liners and clever writing. It gives the show real energy, but I'm still mixed on it.
Like, it's usually well-written, but it definitely clashes with the mysterious, out-in-the-forest atmosphere of the whole thing. I like it, but I can see why some wouldn't.
6. The theme song is incredible, Stinky, Snork and the alien episode are gone (wahoo!) and there's plenty of Snufkin if that's your thing.
Cons:
1. I don't like the character animation. It's just boring. No one looks like a magical far-away hippo thing, they look like dollar store piggy banks. Really, really takes you out of the atmosphere at times. The anime is hand-drawn, it captures the setting and is just all-around nicer.
2. Don't like some of the voice acting. It's not all bad, but I think Snufkin and Snorkmaiden are particularly obnoxious. Moominpapa is over-the-top, even for his character, and Sniff can definitely get annoying. Speaking of which...
3. Too much Sniff. No one likes him, c'mon. I think his inclusion is what really pushes the humor out of any kind of subtlety. He's fine as someone who shows up every once and a while, but not as a main character.
4. When the new style of humor doesn't work, it really doesn't work. When that happens, you're basically devoting a huge amount of the episode to bad jokes, while also sacrificing that mysterious atmosphere. It doesn't happen very often, but yeah.
Wow, that sure went on, didn't it? Anyways, if you can get past the animation and different style of humor, I think the show is a pretty big improvement on the anime. Is it as loyal to the books? Maybe not. It is a lot more Wallace and Gromit-y, but that air of mystery is still there, the characters are improved and what is different is mostly for the best.
I've only watched the 1990 anime before this one, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I haven't read any of the children's books, or seen any other adaptations, so there's that.
This one makes a lot of changes from the anime, and I think they're mostly positive. Some of them are smaller, and some of them pretty much change the entire show. Pros and cons list, go!
Pros: 1. All of the mistranslations, mediocre voice acting and headscratching dialogue has been sorted out. This isn't hard, but God, has anyone else noticed just how awful this is in the anime?
We'll suddenly cut to characters speaking in 100 mile per hour proto-English for no reason, and it just ruins every line. All of that is fixed here, which makes it waaaay more watchable.
2. Much better pacing. This show definitely understands that it's taking from several stories at a time, and changes the structure to suit it. The anime kinda just jammed them all together, which never felt right.
3. Does a good job of explaining some kind of confusing plot lines. In the anime, it feels like a lot of the events are just implied from the books, and are sort of explained in non-sequiturs. Like, this girl is sad, so sheeee's invisible, obviously. This fisherman is sad for emotional reasons and stuff. This show dives a lot deeper into it, and you know... tries to explain it.
4. The characterization is great. I really like how the show finally commits to giving everyone in the valley a consistent personality. My personal favorite was playing up the absurdity of Moominpapa, but everyone else is well-done too.
Moomin(troll) is sorta rebellious and teenage-ish, but tries to be a nice kid. Snufkin is mysterious, but has to learn to stop pushing his friends away with persistent independence. Moominmama is hilariously maternal, Little My sort of matures as the show goes on and it's rare to see anyone get legit angry. The fisherman arc is a billion times better as well.
I think this is my favorite improvement.
5. The style of humor changes a whole lot. I think this comes from Steve Box, who also worked on Wallace and Gromit, because it feels a lot like that. The anime is more cute and subtle, while this version has a lot more slick one-liners and clever writing. It gives the show real energy, but I'm still mixed on it.
Like, it's usually well-written, but it definitely clashes with the mysterious, out-in-the-forest atmosphere of the whole thing. I like it, but I can see why some wouldn't.
6. The theme song is incredible, Stinky, Snork and the alien episode are gone (wahoo!) and there's plenty of Snufkin if that's your thing.
Cons:
1. I don't like the character animation. It's just boring. No one looks like a magical far-away hippo thing, they look like dollar store piggy banks. Really, really takes you out of the atmosphere at times. The anime is hand-drawn, it captures the setting and is just all-around nicer.
2. Don't like some of the voice acting. It's not all bad, but I think Snufkin and Snorkmaiden are particularly obnoxious. Moominpapa is over-the-top, even for his character, and Sniff can definitely get annoying. Speaking of which...
3. Too much Sniff. No one likes him, c'mon. I think his inclusion is what really pushes the humor out of any kind of subtlety. He's fine as someone who shows up every once and a while, but not as a main character.
4. When the new style of humor doesn't work, it really doesn't work. When that happens, you're basically devoting a huge amount of the episode to bad jokes, while also sacrificing that mysterious atmosphere. It doesn't happen very often, but yeah.
Wow, that sure went on, didn't it? Anyways, if you can get past the animation and different style of humor, I think the show is a pretty big improvement on the anime. Is it as loyal to the books? Maybe not. It is a lot more Wallace and Gromit-y, but that air of mystery is still there, the characters are improved and what is different is mostly for the best.