Fantorangen

Fantorangen is a Norwegian television character known from Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), where he has his own program on the children's channel NRK Super. He is a plushie created and operated by Berit Nermoen, who also writes the scripts. The puppet was created in 2007 by visual artist Tiina Suhonen, in co-operation with costume department in NRK. With his slightly mischievous personality, he has become one of NRK's most popular characters for children. As a result of the success there has been made music videos, books and licensed products with Fantorangen and he acts with Berit Nermoen at various festivals and other cultural events.[1]

Fantorangen performs live

History

Fantorangen was originally called Orangufanten, and was a mixture of an orangutan and an elephant. Orangufanten was created by Endre Skandfer at Qvisten Animation for a vignette for Nrk's BarneTV. Later he was redesigned and renamed fantorangen for the launch of the TV channel NRK Super. Fantorangen was given his present form in 2007, by Stig Saxegaard at Qvisten Animation, for a new set of animated vignettes. NRK later made a puppet of him. The leading puppetmaker was visual artist Tiina Suhonen.

In December 2007 he debuted with his own program for the youngest children (2–18 years) in conjunction with the launch of the new channel NRK Super.[2] The program ran seven days a week for 30 minutes, and Fantorangen typically made two or three appearances.

The character Fantorangen featured in an episode of Lilyhammer in which it was stolen from the prop store at the TV studios and used to entertain children and the twins at their birthday party.

Setting

Initially Fantorangen lived in a submarine in the ocean. He told stories about growing up in the jungle, and his experiences with friends in the sea. At that time, his favorite food was introduced as sjøbanan ("sea-banana").

The big change came with the new program in 2010 that led to significant changes in setting. Gone was the submarine, and in its place there was a kind of Caribbean pirate atmosphere of jungle and pirate ship. This was, however, limited in duration, and in 2011 was replaced by a simpler set design based on a nest in which Fantorangen lives.

References
  1. "Fantorangen mer pop enn drømmehagen". NRK.no. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  2. "2åringer skal underholdes". Dagbladet. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
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