Musti (character)

Musti is a cartoon character, created by Flemish Belgian graphic artist Ray Goossens.

Musti is a 4-year-old kitten, living with his mother and father in a little house in a rural village, surrounded by a large garden with animals and trees. Musti was first created in 1969, though rumors stated that he was created in 1945. The character has been featured in animated TV series since then.

Television series
In 1969, Musti was developed into an animated series. In every episode, a specific story is told in a couple of minutes. The subjects are always linked to the world of small children, combining anthropomorphic animals and realistic situations. This series was first broadcast on Flemish television, with Rachel Frederix as narrator. In the Netherlands, Musti appeared on television in 1980. The narrators were Arnold Gelderman and Marijke Merckens. In the 1990s a second series was made, with a white background, with Musti's original pronunciation, Muh-sti, now changed to Moo-sti. In total, 156 episodes have been made, airing in two dozen countries.

In 2007, a new television series was created. Instead of flat 2D images with a white background, the new series is entirely rendered in 3D. The narrator is Kristel Van Craen. It aired in Belgium, the Netherlands, Israel, Norway, Japan, Poland, South Korea, China, Croatia, Portugal and the United States on BabyFirst TV. Al-Jazeera aired the series throughout the Arabic world.

Books
The Flemish publisher Standaard Uitgeverij carries an extensive portfolio of Musti children's books, targeting children aged 3–6.

Dupuis printed a number of Musti children's comics in French, based on the character's appearances in the magazine Bonne Soirée.

Books based on the 3D series were published into different languages such as French, Arabic, Indonesian, Polish, Mandarin, Romanian, Russian, Dutch and Greek. Despite the TV series not being dubbed into Indonesian and Greek. And also, They were never published into English.

Software
Educational software programs have been developed with Musti as the lead character developed by Stefan Bracke. They are currently only available in Dutch.

International airings

 * Bulgaria: Super 7
 * China: Youku
 * Flanders: BRT
 * France: ORTF in the early 70's, then France 5 Teletoon
 * Germany: KiKA
 * Hungary: Duna TV
 * India: YouTube
 * Israel: Arutz HaYeladim, Luli TV and Hop!
 * Italy: Rai YoYo and Rai 2
 * Japan: NHK, WOWOW
 * Netherlands: Kindernet and NPO 1
 * Norway: NRK Super
 * Poland: TVP1
 * Qatar: Baraem
 * Portugal: Canal Panda and RTP2
 * Romania: Boom Hop!
 * Russia: Karusel and YouTube
 * South Korea: Daekyo Kids TV and KBS
 * Sweden: SVT and STVB
 * Turkey: TRT
 * Ukraine: Pixel TV
 * United States: BabyFirst
 * Venezuela: Vme Kids
 * Wallonia: Club RTL