Pat & Mat

Pat & Mat (Czech and Slovak: Pat a Mat) is a Czechoslovak slapstick stop-motion animated series created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek. The characters first appeared in the theatrically released short Kuťáci (Tinkers) in 1976, while the first made-for-TV episode Tapety (Wallpaper) was produced for ČST Bratislava three years later. The main characters of the series are two handymen, Pat and Mat, who are inventive, but extremely clumsy. As of 2021, 129 episodes of the show have been released, and it has been syndicated in a large number of countries due to its lack of dialogue (except in the Dutch version, which is dubbed).

Names
The original name of the series was Kuťáci (The Tinkers), but when production of episodes started for ČST Bratislava, a Slovak name was required, and the crew eventually settled for ... a je to! (... and it's done!). The characters themselves were nameless until 1989, when they were given the names Pat and Mat. Pat and Mat are shortened forms of Czech expressions Patlal and Matlal, which can roughly be translated as Clumsy and Awkward. The authors intentionally gave the characters short and universal names suitable for a worldwide audience.

Premise
According to the authors, it is manual ineptitude that inspires the stories. Alongside the humour, another motif of the show is the importance of an optimistic approach towards life. The two characters always get into problematic situations, but they never give up until they solve the problem in imaginative ways.

History
The characters were revived once again in 2009 by Beneš for a new series, Pat a Mat na venkově (Pat & Mat in the Country). The pilot, Postele (Beds), premiered at the 50th Zlín Film Festival in 2010. 12 more episodes followed between 2011 and 2015, produced by Patmat Film and filmed in 16:9. Beneš directed and wrote all 13 episodes. Eight of the episodes were released on DVD in 2013 and received their TV premiere on the Dutch channel VPRO on 9 June of the same year, with the rest following soon.

To celebrate the show's 40th anniversary, Gusto Entertainment produced full-length feature film released in cinemas in 2016. The film, Pat a Mat ve filmu (Pat & Mat in a Movie), featured ten of the 2009-2015 episodes with linking segments and was shown in cinemas in several countries, including the Netherlands.

From 2018 until 2020, 39 new episodes divided into three 13-part series were made in Patmat film, co-produced by Czech Television and Netherlands-based JUST Productions, again directed by Beneš. The animation for more than half of these episodes was produced in a Chinese studio to speed up work.

On November 11, 2021, Czech Television announced that production of Pat a Mat na venkově series continues. New episodes are expected to be released at the end of 2024.

Unreleased 50th episode
The studio initially planned to make further episodes of the new series, with the possibility of half-hour episodes and a feature film in the future. Due to these circumstances, Playing Cards has never been released or distributed in the Czech Republic and most of the world, even though it entered competition at Annecy in 1999.

Although the episode was pulled from distribution, a screenshot from it was posted on aiF Studio's website. The former Prague management later set up a new studio at the same location, Animation People, and posted more screenshots on their website, which were eventually replaced with a short, silent clip of the episode.

Czechoslovakia
Although the authors wanted to continue shooting after the initial short, their studio Krátký film did not allow them to do so. The reason given was that Kuťáci were just ordinary entertainment not appropriate for the cultural policy of the time. However, as the Slovak Television in Bratislava showed interest in further episodes, twenty-eight episodes were produced for them instead, with great success.

Fox Kids airings
In 2003 Fox Kids Europe bought the rights from Ateliéry Bonton Zlín to air episodes 2–26 on the Fox Kids network in several countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, Latin America and Brazil. The show had its intro and outro changed, and almost all scenes in which the characters use knives or which contain slapstick violence deemed too "intense" were cut. Later airings put the original intro back in, but replaced the outro with a narration warning against imitating the behavior of the series' characters.

Home media
Shorts from the AIF era were initially unavailable due to copyright issues, but appeared on DVD for the first time in 2007.

Related products
At least two books with the series' characters have been published:



A Czech computer development company, Centauri Production released the Pat & Mat mini video game. It was released in Czech language in the Czech Republic on 1 October 2009, and in other EU countries in English in 2010. The English version from Steam was taken down in July 2020.

There is a wide range of Pat & Mat merchandise available, including games, dolls, key rings, office material, posters and T-shirts.