A little background on who exactly Pippi is for my younger "followers" ...
According to Wiki, Pippi Longstocking is a fictional character from a series of children's books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Published between 1945-2000, the series has been translated into 50 different languages. Pippi was awesome. She lived with her monkey and a horse in this funky looking house in a small Swedish village. The coolest part was she didn't have any parents or adults looking after her. I found this incredibly impressive as a little kid.
I know I must have been pretty small when I was lovin' Pippi because I remember watching it while sitting on the groovy orange rug in our living room of my family's first house in Oakdale, New York. We only lived there until about 1977.
I absolutely loved Pippi with her shocking red pigtails and mismatched tights.She had the cutest, smartest pet monkey (Mr. Nilsson) who would sit right on her shoulder. I don't remember much about her aside from the fact that she got into lots of wild adventures with her little friends -- a brother and sister team from next door. I vaguely remember her having superior strength. I think I recall her in a boat or flying in a hot air balloon or something. She was very spunky and fun -- someone you'd want as your best friend if you were like 8 or 9.
I've spent over an hour trying to find various episodes or snippets on YouTube, but many are in foreign languages or are dubbed with silly songs -- I hate that about YouTube. You think you've found something and it's just some idiot playing his music to a photo or a video with crappy music dubbed over exactly what you were searching for.
I loved Pippi! I use to dress up and pretend that I was here on some sort of adventure. I would put wire in my pig tails to get them to stand up straight. I was also a huge fan of Annie.
ReplyDeleteI loved Annie too! What was it about these crazy red haired girls who sang. We all wanted to be them :)
ReplyDeleteAHHHHHHH! I flippin' loved Pippi Longstocking! I totally forgot about her until now. So funny!
ReplyDeleteI loved Pippi as well! I watched a newer movie version in my third grade class all the time. Oh and I listen to the Annie soundtrack all the time in my car. I was obsessed with the movie when I was seven! I definitely wanted to be Annie.
ReplyDeleteAs best I can recall I had a teacher who read to us from the book(s)? She was poor AND happy and she provided great inspiration for me. Thanks for a great trip down memory lane, ally. these trips always make me a little sad. i have no idea why. i love pippi longstockings! i always thought in my mind she was cousins with wendy of hamburger fame.
ReplyDeleteooooh I loved Pipi and even dressed up like her for Halloween one year! She was a cool tomboy wayyyy before Punky did it
ReplyDelete@Mass- I forgot about her too until today!
ReplyDelete@Quixotic- There are remakes from the '80s, but I was too old for those.
@Jen, thanks! I totally thought Wendy was her when I was small too!
@Yes, totally pre-Punky!
It's funny cause just a couple weeks ago I had this conversation with a Finnish friend of mine about Pippi Longstocking. She's only ever watched the Swedish version, but she also grew up on the books. It's really funny cause over there it's a character that everyone knows. Pretty much the complete opposite of here.
ReplyDeleteI loved Pippi! I dressed like her for Halloween many times. I adored the movie as well.
ReplyDeleteGosh - I'd almost forgotten about Pippi, I used to love her!
ReplyDeleteKitty x
I remember we did this in school when we were being taught to enjoy reading. Ah good old Pippi!
ReplyDeleteKate xx
I loved the cartoon show too.
ReplyDeletePiPi was one of my idols growing up. Between her, Punky Brewster, and Cyndi Lauper I'm surprised I know how to put a matching outfit together at all. (Not that I usually do)
ReplyDeleteI wanted a pet monkey so bad when I was little that one April Fool's day my dad convinced me to sit out side with a $1 bill and wait for the Monkey Man but if the icecream man showed up first, I had to buy an ice pop b/c that meant the monkey man was out of monkeys for the day.
That was the most disapointing Mickey Head Icecream bar I ever ate.
I LOVED the cartoon when I was an early teen. It was newer but was the same deal :)
ReplyDeleteI also loved Annie. Immensely.
Being Swedish and all, I grew up with Pippi, Herr Nilsson (Mr. Nilsson), Tommy & Annika (the neighbours), Lilla Gubben (the horse), her pirate captain turned 'negro-king' dad and all the rest. Loved her antics and back in Sweden there is even a theme park where you can visit the exact house you posted in the picture. This brought back some cool memories! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletePeter
I was a pretty good writer all through grade school, and one time I won a book for one of my stories. The book was by Astrid Lindbren. I wish that I still had the book.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in elementary school (5th grade in 1982, to be exact), someone on our local board of education had the bright idea to encourage "perfect" attendance by offering a movie once a quarter. If you had no absences, you were able to watch a movie while the other suckers had to go to study hall. This was a big deal, but sadly, the one quarter I missed a day of school, "Pippi Longstocking" was the movie of choice. I had read all of Astrid Lindgren's books, while most of the hillbilly kids I went to school with had never heard of Sweden, much less the character. Oh, you can imagine the depression as I could hear the film playing in the adjacent classroom. Now I've regained some of my lost childhood with this post. :-)
ReplyDeleteI was just re-reading my post and realized that the autocorrect spelled "Astrid Lindgren" wrong. I decided to try and find the Pippi Longstocking movies online. I think that my son would enjoy watching them.
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