User:Pamzeis/sandbox/1

Peppa Pig is a British preschool animated television series created by Neville Astley and Mark Baker. Produced by Hasbro Entertainment and Karrot Animation and formerly produced by Astley Baker Davies, the show follows Peppa, an anthropomorphic female piglet, and her family, as well as her peers portrayed as other animals. The show first aired on 31 May 2004. The seventh season began broadcasting on 5 March 2021. Peppa Pig has been broadcast in over 180 countries.

Peppa herself has been voiced by several different performers through the years. Lily Snowden-Fine provided her voice in season one and Cecily Bloom in season two, then Harley Bird, five years old when she started, acquired the role for thirteen years until stepping down after season six. The role was taken over by Amelie Bea Smith. John Sparkes, Morwenna Banks, Richard Ridings, Oliver May and Alice May also provide voices.

On 31 December 2019, Hasbro acquired Entertainment One, including the Peppa Pig franchise, for a US$3.8 billion deal, making the franchise one of Hasbro's main brands. On 16 March 2021, it was announced that the series was renewed until 2027, with the original creators and studio (Astley Baker Davies) replaced by Karrot Animation (producers of Sarah & Duck).

On 17 November 2022, Hasbro announced that they would be selling Entertainment One's assets. However, the Peppa Pig franchise would remain with Hasbro, through its Entertainment division; due to this, eOne would leave production, making another production change to the show.

Premise
Peppa Pig revolves around a cheeky anthropomorphic female piglet named Peppa. Episodes tend to feature everyday activities such as attending playgroup, going swimming, visits with their grandparents, cousins, and friends, going to the playground or riding their bikes. They also focus on relationships with her family, including her little brother, George, and friends, who are each different species of animal. The narrator of the series reinforces the action and humour, saying things like "Oh, dear" when something unfortunate happens (such as when George starts crying) or "Look out!" when a character is doing something unsafe (such as Peppa riding her bicycle without looking where she is going).

Development
In 1994, Neville Astley and Mark Baker established the animation studio Astley Baker; it produced the television series The Big Knights (1999–2000), which aired on the BBC. The show struggled to find a regular audience and time slot, being shown in "graveyard slots", according to the producer Phil Davies. It was cancelled after one series.

Following the success of the animated children's series Bob the Builder (1999–2011) and Teletubbies (1997–2001), distributors and broadcasters were searching for "the next big thing". At a Channel 4 party, Astley and Baker reconnected with Davies, who they met at Middlesex University. The trio met up at a pub in 1999 to explore ideas for a new production. Astley and Baker noted the lack of stories about families in children's media. They also observed that children enjoyed humour that ridiculed their parents, rather than themselves. However, television executives believed that children did not enjoy watching adults. The creators subsequently spoke with the animator Alison Snowden, whose daughter, Lily Snowden-Fine, often asked "Where's the mommy and daddy?" when reading stories; these conversations offered them reassurance.

The creators chose to have a female protagonist to fill a perceived gap in the market and because The Big Knights predominantly featured male characters. Davies disliked the children's animation at the time, stating they had poor production values and stories that "didn't even seem to have a beginning, middle or end. A lot of it was completely incomprehensible and all the girls were either princesses or ballerinas." Consequently, they chose to make Peppa a four-year-old and tell the entire series from her point of view. The team introduced snorting sounds for kids to mimic, which led to the ideas of pigs, mud, and houses on hills. The animal characters helped avoid potential issues related to race, class, and background. Peppa's name, which Baker described as "sort of hot and spicy", was chosen to represent her "smart and slightly peppery" personality.

Around £1.3 million in funding was required for Peppa Pig first series. Astley and Baker chose not to pitch the show to the BBC due to their previous negative experiences. Astley and Baker found the process unpleasant: "Everyone sits there a bit glum-faced and you think, 'Oh, it's awful, isn't it?' ... Then they explain to you why it won't work." Initially, investors did not want to fund Peppa Pig. They believed it lacked merchandising potential, as it was not based on a well-known book and the characters' two-dimensional design made toy adaptation challenging. To counter this, Davies developed 3D models of the characters. After meeting with the show's team, Nick Jr. agreed to provide 12 per cent of the necessary investment, which gave the creators access to the Cartoon Forum. In 2001, a distributor offered to provide 50 per cent of the funding; Channel 5 later agreed to provide 12 per cent to air the show on its children's TV block, Milkshake! The team contributed the remaining £325,000 with their savings and loans from friends and family.

Writing
The writers tried to include a three-act structure within each five-minute episode—in act one, a plot is established; in act two, a seemingly difficult situation is created; and in act three, it is resolved.

Production and airing
In the United Kingdom, the first series of 52 five-minute episodes began on Channel 5 on 31 May 2004. The second series of 52 episodes began on Channel 5 on 4 September 2006, with Cecily Bloom replacing Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa, among other cast changes. The third series started telecasting on Channel 5's preschool-targeted block Milkshake! on 4 May 2009 with Harley Bird replacing Cecily Bloom and Lily Snowden-Fine as Peppa.

In the United States, the series first aired as part of Cartoon Network's Tickle-U preschool programming block from 22 August 2005 to 2007. For these airings, the show was redubbed with American actors. However, there were no other official releases of this dub, and every US airing since 2008 uses the original British soundtrack. In 2008, Peppa Pig moved to the Noggin channel in the US. It was aired as part of Noggin Presents, a series of interstitial shorts aired in between full shows. Since February 2011, the series airs as a half-hour show on the Nick Jr. US channel, and on the separate Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon as of November 2013. For each episode, 5 segments are put together (though for the special containing "Golden Boots" and the episode containing "Around the World", only 3 segments are used) to make the run time 25 minutes. As of June 2021, there were 9 seasons (and 1 standalone special) of Peppa Pig in the US.

Peppa Pig is animated using CelAction.

Books
There is a series of books based on Peppa Pig, one of which, Peppa Meets the Queen, was written to coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Films
A 15-minute film called Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots was released on 14 February 2015 alongside several episodes of the TV series. As of December 2015, it had grossed £2,326,328.

A second film, branded a "cinema experience", was released on 16 March 2017, and was shown in cinemas on 7 April 2017. It features nine exclusive new episodes, four of which share the same theme, Peppa's holiday in Australia. Between the episodes are segments with a live-action host named Daisy (played by Emma Grace Arends) and Peppa and George as hand-made puppets, based on the Peppa Pig Live stage show.

Peppa Pig World
Peppa Pig World, a themed area based on the series, opened on 9 April 2011 at Paultons Park, New Forest, Hampshire, England, with attractions such as nine rides, an indoor play zone, a muddy puddles water splash park, children-sized play areas and themed buildings.

Peppa Pig World of Play
On 17 October 2017, Merlin Entertainments announced a partnership with Entertainment One to become the exclusive licensor for theme park attractions based on the show worldwide except in the United Kingdom and in China, which will be a non-exclusive partnership.

The deal began with the announcement of Peppa Pig World of Play on 5 June 2018, which are indoor play areas with unique twists. The first venue to open would be in Shanghai for a Late-2018 opening, and opened in Late-October. Additional venues in Beijing, as well as two US venues in Dallas-Fort Worth and Michigan were also announced around this time for a 2019 opening. The Dallas-Fort Worth venue opened in February 2019. while the Michigan venue opened later on in the year. Another Peppa Pig World of Play venue opened in Chicago in 2021.

In September 2021, a Peppa Pig World of Play venue was announced to open in the Netherlands.

Peppa Pig Land
Peppa Pig Land is located at two different parks - Gardaland in Italy, and Heide-Park in Germany, both of which opened in 2018.

Peppa Pig Theme Park
Peppa Pig Theme Park is a separately ticketed park located within the Legoland Florida Resort; it opened on 24 February 2022.

A second Peppa Pig Theme Park will open in North Richland Hills, Texas in 2024.

A third Peppa Pig Theme Park simply titled "Peppa Pig Park" will open in Guenzburg, Germany in 2024, within the Legoland Deutschland Resort.

Lego Duplo Peppa Pig (Themed Area)
On 23 January 2024, A themed-play area dedicated to the Lego Duplo Peppa Pig subtheme will be added to Legoland Billund Resort in 2024.

Peppa Pig Resort
On 23 June 2021, Merlin announced a dedicated Peppa Pig-themed resort located in Sichuan, China, opening in 2024. It will contain a theme park, a hotel and a Sea Life aquarium. Construction began in July 2021.

Merchandise
Peppa Pig, the Entertainment One (eOne) brand, grossed over £200 million in UK merchandise sales in 2010, doubling the 2009 figure of £100 million. According to NPD figures for 2010, Peppa Pig had become the number one pre-school property in the total toy market, moving up four places from its 2009 position. Peppa Pig was stated to have over 1,000 licensees worldwide, and 80 in the US, up from 63 licensees in 2010.

Episode DVDs and a variety of licensed Peppa Pig products including video games and other toys such as playsets, playing cards, vehicles, and stuffed toys are sold. The range was expanded to include household items such as bathroom products, stationery, bed-linen, food, drink, clothing, and jewellery. A music album titled My First Album was released in July 2019.

Lego Duplo Peppa Pig
On 23 January 2024, as part of the three-way partnership between The Lego Group, Hasbro and Merlin Entertainments, a dedicated Peppa Pig Lego Duplo theme would be released in 2024 as part of the series' 20th Anniversary.

Video games
There have been several video games based on the property. In 2008, Pinnacle Software signed a deal with Contender Entertainment Group to publish licensed video games based on the property with Asylum Entertainment as developer. The first title, Peppa Pig: The Game, was released for the Nintendo DS handheld game system in November 2008. Following Pinnacle's insolvency in December that year, a successor company - P2 Games, was founded in February 2009, and released a version for the Wii console a year later on 27 November 2009, with distribution by Ubisoft. It is a children's video game that contains 11 games and activities.

A second game, Peppa Pig: Fun and Games was released on 22 October 2010 for the Wii and Nintendo DS. Asylum Entertainment and P2 Games remained as developer and publisher for the title.

A third game, Peppa Pig: Theme Park Fun was released on 25 March 2011 for the Nintendo DS. It was also published by P2 Games, with Strawdog Studios serving as developer.

A fourth game, My Friend Peppa Pig was developed by Petoons Studio and published by Outright Games. It released on 22 October 2021 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows, exactly 11 years after Peppa Pig: Fun and Games.

A fifth game, Peppa Pig: World Adventures, was also developed by Petoons Studio and published by Outright Games. It was released on 17 March 2023 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch and Windows. The London section of the game is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II, who had died on September 8, 2022.

Criticism and analysis
The characters of this show did not wear seat belts in cars in the first two series. After receiving several complaints, Astley Baker Davies announced that all future animation would include characters wearing seat belts, and that the relevant scenes in the first two series would be reanimated to include them. Similar changes were also made to add cycle helmets to early episodes with characters riding bicycles.

Peppa was used to promote the pre-2010 Labour government's Sure Start programme, which had the aim of "giving children the best possible start in life". In April 2010, during the UK General Election campaign, E1 Entertainment said that Peppa would not attend the launch of the Labour Party's families manifesto "in the interests of avoiding any controversy or misunderstanding".

In 2012, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation received a complaint that the Series 1 episode "Mister Skinnylegs" was not appropriate for Australian audiences, as it encouraged befriending spiders; deadly venomous spiders are prevalent in Australia. The complaint was upheld, and the episode was restricted from airing on the ABC network.

In late May 2014, the ABC's Mark Scott expressed fears about the future of Peppa on Australian television, given Australian federal budget cuts to ABC funding that were said to affect its ability to pay for, and broadcast, overseas media products such as Peppa Pig. Australian media noted the character's appeal to Australian toddlers and echoed concerns about the future of her Australian distribution rights. Australian Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce made reference to the character as a menu item at a Thai restaurant, while conservative columnist Piers Akerman thought that Peppa "pushes a weird feminist line". On 28 May 2014, Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull tweeted: "Contrary to media rumours, Peppa's is one snout we are happy to have in the ABC trough".

In 2015 Norman Lamb, a former UK health minister, said that programmes such as Peppa Pig should include gay characters, because having arbitrary boundaries as to what relationships are acceptable in children's television was "not equitable".

The British Medical Journal carried a light-hearted article in its Christmas 2017 edition, which suggested that although the programme includes numerous "positive public health messages, encouraging healthy eating, exercise, and road safety", it ran the risk of "contributing to unrealistic expectations of primary care" by depicting general practitioner Doctor Brown Bear as making out-of-hours home visits as soon as contacted about apparently trivial illnesses, and dispensing medicines rather too freely. The media company responsible for Peppa Pig offered no comment when contacted about the article by the BBC.

In November 2021, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking at a Confederation of British Industry conference lost his place in his speech for about 20 seconds and diverted into a lengthy tangent about Peppa Pig, describing the character's shape as a "Picasso-like hairdryer".

"Peppa Pig effect"
Since 2019, it has been observed that children in the US, where Peppa Pig had become an extremely popular programme, had been acquiring some Anglo-English, rather than American pronunciation and vocabulary. For example, tomato and zebra are pronounced in the English, rather than American way; words such as satnav (instead of GPS), petrol (instead of gas), mummy (instead of mommy) and "biscuit" (instead of "cookie") are used; and comments such as "how clever", "Oh dear", and "can I have a go?" picked up. This phenomenon was not an issue for many parents; it trended with the hashtag "#PeppaEffect". Linguistics experts find those conclusions to be "likely exaggerated". A written statement by Entertainment One Ltd. when asked of this phenomenon went on saying: "Young Peppa fans see her as a friend… and, as we do with friends that we admire, pick up some of their characteristics... imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Popularity in China
Peppa Pig is popular with mainland China, and has been featured by official news media such as People's Daily, and even endorsed by People's Liberation Army and Chinese weapons manufacturer Norinco. However, social media posts featuring concerned parents complaining against Peppa Pig have also gone viral. In May 2018, digitally manipulated contents featuring adult content with Peppa Pig were blocked on the video app TikTok, also known as Douyin in China, due to concerns about exposure of adult content to children. According to some media estimates, some 30,000 clips referenced under "#PeppaPig" were removed by the site. The ban was in response to the prevalence of adult content featuring Peppa Pig created by shehuiren (literally "person of society") subculture, which used Peppa Pig as a criminal "mobster" icon, with members of the subculture creating memes and tattoos using imagery from the cartoon, containing adult humor. Original Peppa Pig cartoons remain accessible on all online platforms, including TikTok (Douyin).

Despite the controversy regarding its memes, the series and character remain popular within mainland Chinese culture, as two Peppa Pig theme parks are set to open in Beijing and Shanghai in 2019. In early 2019, to celebrate the Year of the Pig, the 81-minute animation/live-action film Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year was released in China. Before the film's release, a five-minute live-action promotional trailer went viral on social media in China, garnering a billion views and being re-posted by numerous state media outlets. The film opened on 6 February 2019, and made US$14 million in the first three days.

Awards and nominations
Awards
 * British Academy Children's Awards
 * 2012, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation
 * 2011, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation
 * 2011, Winner for Best Performer (Harley Bird)
 * 2005, Winner for Best Pre-School Animation series
 * Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2005, Winner of the Grand Prize, The Crystal for Best TV Production
 * Bradford Animation Film Festival 2005, Winner of Best Children's Animation Series
 * Cartoons on the Bay Festival 2005, Winner of Pulcinella Award for Best European Programme of the Year
 * Cartoons on the Bay Festival 2005, Winner of Pulcinella Award for Best Pre-School Series
 * Cartoons on the Bay Festival 2005, Children's audience award for Best Pre-School series

Nominations
 * British Academy Children's Awards
 * 2013, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
 * 2013, Nomination for Best Writing
 * 2013, Nomination for Best Multiplatform (Peppa Pig's Holiday game)
 * 2010, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
 * 2010, Nomination for Best Writing
 * 2009, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
 * 2009, Nomination for Best Writing
 * 2008, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
 * 2007, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation
 * 2004, Nomination for Best Pre-School Animation