Introduction

The TV show was first aired in the United Kingdom on channel five in 2004. It can now been found on Nick Jr. in the UK and US and on other TV channels across the world. Each series consists of 52 five minute episodes. Each episode is based around the day to day goings on in the world of Peppa Pig and friends. This is part of the reason it is so popular. It brings entertainment and excitement out of simple every day life events such as going swimming, going to the playground, visiting grandparents, going to playgroup, and playing on the computer.

Parents enjoy watching the show with their children as they can relate to the events captured in the episodes. One particular episode involves Peppa crashing Mummy’s computer, which I am sure many a parent can relate to! This enables parents to see day to day events like this through a child’s eyes in an amusing way.

Another appealing aspect of the show that makes it so well loved is its home made feel. It is like an intelligently made low budget indie film compared to a multi-million dollar Hollywood no brainer blockbuster! The animations are in 2D and are very simply done. This gives it a nice, family run feel.

So what about the characters? In Peppa’s immediate family is younger brother George, Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig. The closest family friends include Rebecca Rabbit and Mummy Rabbit, Suzy Sheep and Mummy Sheep. You might have noticed a common theme here – all the characters are animals! The animals simultaneously exhibit both human and animal traits. For example, Daddy Pig goes to work and drives a car, but also snorts and enjoys a good old roll about in the mud! Something else you may have noticed is that the first letter of each character is the same as the first letter of their first and last name. This letter even matches the first letter of the type of animal they are. Other examples include Danny Dog, Emily Elephant, and Pedro Pony.

Controversy

Peppa was recently shrouded in controversy! During the campaign for the 2010 general election in the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had booked the services of Peppa Pig to appear in one of their events. The event was to promote the Sure Start scheme, which brings together a range of children’s services. However, the owners of Peppa Pig, E1 entertainment, got cold feet and did not want Peppa to be seen as being associated with one political party over another and thus withdrew the rights for the Labour Party to use Peppa as publicity.

There was also controversy when complaints were received during one particular episode where Peppa was seen to be in a car not wearing a seatbelt. There was public outcry! As a result, all the offending scenes were re-produced.

Toys

The Peppa Pig toy industry was worth over £100 million in the UK alone in 2009. The great thing about Peppa Pig toys is that the children can recreate the scenes from the TV shows in their own home. The toys also compliment each other and over time a really impressive collection can be built up.

Possibly the most popular Peppa Pig toy is Princess Peppa Pig’s Palace. This topped the Christmas Toy list in 2009 and is set to have another good Christmas this year. The Palace is a toy that folds out to reveal a host of different rooms, complete with accessories, furniture and figures. Other Peppa Pig toys include the foldaway family house, playground playsets, the caravan playset, peppa pig space ship, peppa pig train, buggy, car and much much much more!

I hope you have found this article useful and now have a better understanding of this Peppa Pig phenomenon!