The Moomins/YMMV


 * Adaptation Displacement: 90's anime in Scandinavia and Japan. Late 70's-80's series in the rest of Europe.
 * Ear Worm: The theme tune to the animated adaption. They were the Moomins, ba-papa-da-ba-da-bada-ba-ba...
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Almost everyone outside the main character. The first one that pops in mind is Snufkin, but Little My is almost as popular.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Snufkin and Moomin.
 * Memetic Mutation: EVERYONE in Scandinavia and Poland are afraid of the Groke. No exceptions. The show was IMMENSELY popular, and everyone of the generation that watched the 90's animated series remembers that freaking thing. It was one of the ONLY times in Scandinavia that a show was pulled off the air (for a time) because parents called and complained about it being too scary. That almost never happens here.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The Groke was this to any child who ever watched the show.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: Too-Ticky and the Groke. You wouldn't know they were female simply by looking at them.
 * Not to mention Thingumy and Bob. You might presume they're female like their real life counterparts but the English names are rather confusing, especially "Bob". And the original names, Tofslan & Vifslan, give even less of a hint of their genders. The original Swedish novel never mentions their genders. But it does it so skillfully that you won't notice until you start wondering what their genders are.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic??: There's a book that uses the characters to illustrate concepts from existentialist philosophy. It works surprisingly well.
 * What Do You Mean It's for Kids?? / What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids??: Uniquely, the Moomins fit both tropes. The later books in the series aren't really children's books (something which Tove Jansson herself acknowledged), touching on a lot of themes that kids won't understand. The newspaper comic, while less dark, contains a lot of satire directed primarily at adults: The Moomins' bohemian lifestyle is often mocked, with the characters played for fools in a lot of subtle ways, but other, more "normal" lifestyles are frequently held up for examination and found to be even more foolish. At the same time, earlier books and works which are primarily directed at children, contain some pretty dark undertones and subtle adult humor. The '90s animated series and its spin-offs are more clearly aimed at children (though even there the undertones aren't completely gone), which is the main reason why so many older Moomin fans don't like it.
 * The Woobie: The Groke especially gets this treatment in the last books.