Miffy
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Nijntje_in_Madurodam.JPG
Miffy is a cartoon character in the form of a small girl rabbit drawn by Dick Bruna. Her original Dutch name is Nijntje (pr. nein-che) which stems from a toddler's pronunciation of the word "konijntje" meaning "little rabbit".
She was created in 1955, after Dick Bruna had been telling his one-year-old son Sierk stories about a little rabbit they had seen earlier in the dunes, while on holiday.
The first Miffy book was called 'Miffy at the Seaside'.
Miffy is drawn in a very minimalist style, requiring only a few lines and one or two primary colours. In a sense, it reminds one of Hergé's ligne claire.
The Miffy books contain sixteen pages of story. Each page has one illustration and four lines of verse.
The books are printed in small format. Dick Bruna feels it important that his audience feels that his books are there for them, not for their parents.
Miffy has been shown on TV since 2003.
Many think that Miffy is Japanese because the line style is also used in Hello Kitty and her friends.
External links
- Original Miffy website (http://www.miffy.com)
- Original Nijntje website (Dutch) (http://www.nijntje.nl)
http://www.noggin.com/shows/miffy.php Miffy was copyrighted in 1953.
http://www.sanrio.com/main/charactersection/kt.html Hello Kitty was copyrighted by Sanrio in 1974.