Miffy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Miffy(nijntje) |
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Miffy
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| First appearance | 21 June 1955 |
| Created by | Dick Bruna |
| Voiced by | Eva Poppink (Miffy the Movie) |
| Information | |
| Species | Rabbit |
| Gender | Female |
Miffy, known as nijntje in Dutch, is a famous fictional rabbit. She stars in a series of picture books created by the Dutch artist Dick Bruna. The name nijntje is a shorter version of konijntje, which means "little rabbit" in Dutch.
The very first Miffy book was published in 1955. Since then, more than thirty other books have been released. Over 100 million copies of Miffy books have been sold worldwide. Miffy has also appeared in four different TV shows and on many items like clothes and toys. A movie called Miffy the Movie came out in 2013, with Eva Poppink as Miffy's voice.
Four television series have been made about Miffy. These include Dick Bruna's Miffy Storybook Classics (1984), Miffy: Colors, Numbers, and Shapes (1996), Miffy and Friends (2003), and Miffy's Adventures Big and Small (2015).
Contents
How Miffy Was Created and Designed
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Dick Bruna created Miffy in 1955. He was on holiday at Egmond aan Zee and told his one-year-old son, Sierk, stories about a little rabbit they had seen. Bruna decided Miffy should be a girl because he wanted to draw her wearing a dress instead of trousers.
At first, Miffy looked like a toy animal with floppy ears. But by 1963, her design changed to how she looks today. She became a simple, stylish rabbit. Miffy is drawn with clean, black lines. Bruna used only black, white, and the main colors: red, yellow, and blue. He also used green, orange, brown, and grey. These bright, simple colors make Miffy easy to recognize and very popular with young children.
Miffy's Books and Stories
Almost 32 Miffy books have been published, along with many more about her friends. Dick Bruna created a total of 124 picture books for children. Each Miffy book has twelve pages of story. Every page has one picture and four lines of a poem. The stories are about things children can understand, like going to the hospital or starting school. They always have a happy ending. Some books, like Miffy's Dream, don't have any words at all.
The books are printed in a small size. Bruna felt it was important that children felt the books were for them, not just for their parents. Most Miffy books are suggested for children aged four to eight years old.
Miffy's books have been translated into over 50 languages. More than 85 million copies have been sold around the world. They are even translated into different dialects, like Zeelandic. Dick Bruna won many awards for his books. He received the Golden Brush in 1990 for Boris Bear and the Silver Brush in 1996 for Miffy In The Tent. In 1997, he won the Silver Slate for Dear Grandma Bunny, a book where Miffy's grandmother gets sick and passes away.
Miffy's family members in the books include her parents, her Grandma and Grandpa, and her Auntie Alice. 'Uncle Bob', a family friend, appears in Miffy Goes Flying. Miffy gets a new brother or sister in Miffy And The New Baby. She also has many friends: Boris and Barbara Bear (who are a couple), Poppy Pig and her niece Grunty, Snuffy the dog, and other bunnies like Aggie and Melanie.
Miffy on Television
Miffy's first TV show, Dick Bruna's Miffy Storybook Classics: The Original Series, started in 1984. Each episode was about five minutes long and used traditional animation. The show was shown in many countries, including the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the USA. Episodes from this series were later included as bonus features on Miffy and Friends DVDs.
From 2003 to 2007, Miffy and Friends was shown on children's TV channels like Treehouse in Canada and Noggin in the USA. This show introduced new characters, such as Melanie's family and a cousin of Boris and Barbara named Umik. The series used stop-motion animation and had a female narrator telling the stories. Miffy's Adventures Big and Small began on October 2, 2015, and has six seasons. It airs on the Nick Jr. Channel in the USA.
A fifth Miffy TV series was announced in October 2023. It is set to premiere in 2025 in France. This new series will introduce Miffy's younger brother, Bun.
Miffy and Hello Kitty
Miffy is sometimes thought to be a Japanese character. This is because Sanrio's Hello Kitty, created in 1974, has a similar drawing style. Miffy is very popular in Japan, and many Miffy products are sold there. Dick Bruna once said he didn't like Hello Kitty, believing it was a copy of Miffy. In 1999, Miffy was the ninth most popular character in Japan, with millions of dollars in merchandise sales.
In 2010, the company representing Bruna, Mercis BV, sued Sanrio. They claimed that Cathy, a rabbit character who was a friend of Hello Kitty, copied Miffy's design. A Dutch court agreed with Mercis BV in November 2010. They ordered Sanrio to stop selling Cathy products in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. In June 2011, after a big earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Sanrio and Mercis decided to settle their disagreement outside of court. Sanrio agreed to stop making Cathy merchandise. Instead of continuing their legal fight, both companies decided to donate the money they would have spent on legal fees to help the earthquake victims.
Miffy's Impact and Legacy
In the early 1990s, an image of Miffy holding a wrench appeared on flyers. These flyers were used by people protesting road building in the UK. This unofficial use of Miffy spread, and she became a symbol for groups involved in environmental protests.
In Dick Bruna's hometown, Utrecht, a square was named after Miffy. It's called the Nijntjepleintje, which means "Little Miffy Square." In 2006, the Centraal Museum opened a special exhibit called the dick bruna huis (Dick Bruna house). This exhibit is all about Bruna's work.
Miffy celebrated her 50th birthday in 2005. This event was celebrated in cities around the world, including at the Manchester Art Gallery in England. Miffy also works as a "celebrity character spokesperson" for UNICEF, helping to promote their work.
A new type of insect, a booklouse from Peru, was named Trichadenotecnum miffy in 2008. This was because a part of its body, called the epiproct, looks like a small rabbit.
Dick Bruna announced his retirement in July 2014. He did not sell the rights to the Miffy character. Dick Bruna passed away on February 16, 2017, at the age of 89.
In 2021, Miffy teamed up with Converse to create a special clothing collection for men in the Netherlands. This celebrated Miffy's creator, Dick Bruna. In December 2022, Tommy Hilfiger announced a new collection featuring Miffy. This partnership celebrated the Lunar New Year of the Rabbit.
See also
In Spanish: Miffy para niños
- Musti
- Hello Kitty, another animal character without a mouth
