Vicky the Viking
Encyclopedia
Vicky the Viking, known as in Germany
and Austria
and in Japan
, is an Austrian-German-Japanese cartoon series which tells the adventures of Vicky, a young Viking
boy who uses his wits to help his Viking fellows. It premiered on the German TV channel ZDF
on January 31, 1974.
to beat his father in a stone-ferrying contest, fitting their longship
with kite
s to make it glide through the air, and using a small sawfish
to cut an escape hole through a wooden door.
(1963) written by the Swedish author Runer Jonsson
, who won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
(German Children’s Book Award) for it in 1965. The Japan
ese animation studio Zuiyo Enterprise Company (later renamed to Nippon Animation
) adapted the original version (1972–1974) and developed from it an 85-minute long movie (original title: Chiisana Baikingu Bikke) as well as the series with 78 episodes, each 25 minutes long. The series' Japanese roots are clearly visible in its styling and character design - this led to the series being a first unwitting brush with Japanese animation for those who would become anime fans later in life.
Responsible for the German
dubbing
was Eberhard Storeck, who spoke one of the characters (Snorre) himself. The music in German version was composed by Christian Bruhn and Karel Svoboda
. The text of the title song (Hey, hey, Wickie! Hey, Wickie, hey! ...) was written by Andrea Wagner. The English
dubbing was largely poor, with characters talking endlessly to fit the lip movements of the characters, not pausing for breath or using verbal punctuation. In the years that followed, this became something of a standard for some voice actors who dubbed Japanese-produced series.
The series was produced for the German TV network ZDF
and Austria
n TV network ORF
. In the United Kingdom
, it was shown on ITV
and also on ABC TV in Australia
.
(aka "Wickie und die starken Männer"). It was produced by Christian Becker
of Rat Pack Filmproduktion
for a 2009 release.
Vicky is portrayed by Jonas Hämmerle. Günther Kaufmann
portrays Sven, the antagonist of the Vikings. The Vikings of Flake are portrayed by Jörg Moukkadam (Faxe), Mike Maas (Gorm), Christian Koch (Snorre), Nic Romm
(Tjure), Patrick Reichel (Ulme) and Olaf Krätke (Urobe).
The movie premiered on September 9, 2009, in Munich. On its opening weekend, it grossed approximately $5,595,895. On October 3, during a show of Wetten, dass..?
, Herbig was presented with the Goldene Leinwand
award for the film's viewership of three million within its first 18 weeks. The film sold nearly 5 million tickets in Germany alone, for a total gross revenue of approximately $40,582,384.
Following the success of the first movie, a sequel, Wickie auf Großer Fahrt, has been completed and slated for cinematic release on September 29, 2011.
WICKIE Film Homepage
(Japanese):
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, is an Austrian-German-Japanese cartoon series which tells the adventures of Vicky, a young Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
boy who uses his wits to help his Viking fellows. It premiered on the German TV channel ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
on January 31, 1974.
Plot overview
The series' main character is Vicky, son of Halvar, chief of the Viking village of Flake. Unlike his village fellows - including most of the other boys of his age - Vicky is blessed with a sharp and imaginative mind which helps his fellow Vikings out of many tight situations, including rival Viking lord Sven the Terrible. Certain results of his intellectual approach shown in the series and the film adaptation include building a makeshift catapultCatapult
A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...
to beat his father in a stone-ferrying contest, fitting their longship
Longship
Longships were sea vessels made and used by the Vikings from the Nordic countries for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age. The longship’s design evolved over many years, beginning in the Stone Age with the invention of the umiak and continuing up to the 9th century with...
with kite
Kite
A kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...
s to make it glide through the air, and using a small sawfish
Sawfish
Sawfish, also known as the Carpenter Shark, are a family of rays, characterized by a long, toothy nose extension snout. Several species can grow to approximately . The family as a whole is largely unknown and little studied...
to cut an escape hole through a wooden door.
Characters
- Vicky, the series' title character, a boy of about 10 years of age. He is very timid and has a special fear of wolves, but his brains eventually help him solve any problem with which he is confronted.
- Halvar, Vicky's father and chief of Flake. A rather braggish character who prefers to solve problems with brawns, but who has since learned to listen to and value Vicky's ideas.
- Tjure and Snorre, two Vikings in Halvar's crew who constantly quarrel about something despite (or maybe because of) the fact that they really care deeply about each other.
- Urobe, the oldest Viking in Halvar's crew. While he is rather old and not as imaginative as Vicky, he is quite knowledgeable in sagas and legend lore, and he is respected as a fair judge and mediator.
- Faxe is the biggest and strongest, but also the slowest, of Flake's Vikings who enjoys a close big-brother relationship with Vicky.
- Gorm, a rather over-excited fellow among the Flake Vikings who occupies the position of the lookout on Halvar's ship.
- Ulme, a rather neat person who considers himself a poetic soul and even carries a harp to play on joyous occasions.
- Ylva, Vicky's mother, who is far more supportive of her son's intelligence than his father is.
- Ylvie, a young girl in Flake who is Vicky's neighbour and most ardent supporter. In the German movie adaptation this adoration is portrayed as a childhood crush.
- Gilby, the strongest boy in Flake and Vicky's prime rival in his age, though intellectually he is clearly Vicky's inferior.
- Sven the Terrible, a vicious Viking pirate who does not hesitate robbing even his fellow Vikings of their hard-earned plunder.
- Pokka, Sven's devious second-in-command.
Script and realization
The script was developed from children's book Vicke VikingVicke Viking
-Plot overview:The books' main character is Vicke , son of Halvar, chief of the Viking village of Flake. Unlike his village fellows - including most of the other boys of his age - Vickie is blessed with a sharp and imaginative mind which helps him and his fellow Vikings out of many tight...
(1963) written by the Swedish author Runer Jonsson
Runer Jonsson
Runer Jonsson was a Swedish journalist and writer. He was editor of Nybro Tidning and wrote the Vicke Viking series of children's books, adapted to animation as Vicky the Viking....
, who won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
The Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's literature. It is Germany's only state-funded literary award. In the past, authors from many countries...
(German Children’s Book Award) for it in 1965. The Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese animation studio Zuiyo Enterprise Company (later renamed to Nippon Animation
Nippon Animation
is a Japanese animation studio. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with chief offices in the Ginza district of Chūō and production facilities in Tama City....
) adapted the original version (1972–1974) and developed from it an 85-minute long movie (original title: Chiisana Baikingu Bikke) as well as the series with 78 episodes, each 25 minutes long. The series' Japanese roots are clearly visible in its styling and character design - this led to the series being a first unwitting brush with Japanese animation for those who would become anime fans later in life.
Responsible for the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
was Eberhard Storeck, who spoke one of the characters (Snorre) himself. The music in German version was composed by Christian Bruhn and Karel Svoboda
Karel Svoboda
Karel Svoboda was a Czech composer of popular music. He wrote music for many TV series in the 1970s.- Works :...
. The text of the title song (Hey, hey, Wickie! Hey, Wickie, hey! ...) was written by Andrea Wagner. The English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
dubbing was largely poor, with characters talking endlessly to fit the lip movements of the characters, not pausing for breath or using verbal punctuation. In the years that followed, this became something of a standard for some voice actors who dubbed Japanese-produced series.
The series was produced for the German TV network ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n TV network ORF
ORF (broadcaster)
Österreichischer Rundfunk, ORF, is the Austrian national public service broadcaster.Funded from a combination of a television licence fees and revenue from limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media...
. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, it was shown on ITV
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
and also on ABC TV in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Film adaptations
German director Michael "Bully" Herbig filmed a live action adaptation of the series called Wickie The Mighty VikingVicky the Viking (film)
Vicky the Viking is a 2009 live action comedy based on the book Vicke Viking and adaptation of the animated series called "Wickie The Mighty Viking"...
(aka "Wickie und die starken Männer"). It was produced by Christian Becker
Christian Becker
Christian Becker is a German film producer. He ist co-owner of Rat Pack Filmproduktion together with German major studio Constantin Film.-Biography:...
of Rat Pack Filmproduktion
Rat Pack Filmproduktion
- History :Rat Pack Filmprouduktion GmbH was founded by Christian Becker with Anita Schneider, Jürgen Egger, Alexander Rümelin, Catarina Raacke and Constantin Film in January, 2001 in Munich, Germany.- List of films by Rat Pack Film Production :...
for a 2009 release.
Vicky is portrayed by Jonas Hämmerle. Günther Kaufmann
Günther Kaufmann
Günther Kaufmann is a German film actor best known for his association with director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder directed Kaufmann in a total of 14 films, casting him in a variety of leading and minor roles...
portrays Sven, the antagonist of the Vikings. The Vikings of Flake are portrayed by Jörg Moukkadam (Faxe), Mike Maas (Gorm), Christian Koch (Snorre), Nic Romm
Nic Romm
-Life and work:After Nic Romm finished the gymnasium in Jülich, a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, he visited the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. There he studied acting from 1997 to 2001...
(Tjure), Patrick Reichel (Ulme) and Olaf Krätke (Urobe).
The movie premiered on September 9, 2009, in Munich. On its opening weekend, it grossed approximately $5,595,895. On October 3, during a show of Wetten, dass..?
Wetten, dass..?
Wetten, dass..? is a long-running German-language entertainment television show. It is the most successful Saturday television show in Europe...
, Herbig was presented with the Goldene Leinwand
Goldene Leinwand
The Goldene Leinwand is an award created in 1964 by the HDF and the journal Filmecho/Filmwoche....
award for the film's viewership of three million within its first 18 weeks. The film sold nearly 5 million tickets in Germany alone, for a total gross revenue of approximately $40,582,384.
Following the success of the first movie, a sequel, Wickie auf Großer Fahrt, has been completed and slated for cinematic release on September 29, 2011.
WICKIE Film Homepage
Trivia
- Eiichiro OdaEiichiro Odais a Japanese manga artist, best known as the creator of One Piece.-Early life:As a child, Oda was inspired by Akira Toriyama's works and aspired to become a manga artist. He recalls that his interest in pirates was probably sparked by the popular TV animation series titled Vicky the Viking...
, author of One PieceOne Pieceis a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997; the individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997, and the 64th volume released as...
stated in "One Piece Blue" that Vicky the Viking was a major influence to his admiring of pirates and Vikings.
Primary literature (German)
- Runer Jonsson: Wickie und die starken Männer. München: Herold 1964.
- Runer Jonsson: Wickie und die Blauschwerter. München: Herold. 1966.
- Runer Jonsson: Wickie und die großen Drachen. München: Herold. 1967.
- Runer Jonsson: Wickie und die Rothäute. Ravensburg: Ravensburger Buchvlg. 1984. ISBN 3-473-38776-2
- Runer Jonsson: Wickie und das hölzerne Pferd. Ravensburg: Ravensburger Buchvlg. 1984. ISBN 3-473-38791-6
- Runer Jonsson: Wickie und die Stadt der Tyrannen. Ravensburg: Ravensburger Buchvlg. 1984. ISBN 3-473-38822-X
Secondary literature (German)
- Ina Kurth/Joachim Schmaeck: Wickie und der dänische Zoll. Arbeiten mit Anteilen und Prozenten. Appelhülsen/Mülheim: Verlag "Die Schulpraxis". 1990. ISBN 3-927279-64-1
- Susanne Pauser/Wolfgang Ritschl: Wickie, Slime und Paiper. Wien: Böhlau. 1999. ISBN 3-205-98989-9
- Wickie und die starken Männer, Kinderkochbuch. Frechen: Schwager & Steinlein. 2001. ISBN 3-89600-450-6
- Wickie und die starken Männer - Pop-Up Masken Spielbuch. Frechen: Schwager & Steinlein. 2003. ISBN 3-89600-554-5
- Wickie und die starken Männer - Geschichtenbuch. Fränkisch-Crumbach: Verlag EDITION XXL. 2003. ISBN 3-89736-417-4
- Wickie - Stanzpappe Buch Fränkisch-Crumbach: Verlag EDITION XXL. 2004. ISBN 3-89736-652-5
External links
(German):(Japanese):