One of my favorite illustrators and authors from my childhood is Sven Nordqvist, mostly known for his richly illustrated books about the peculiar old man Pettson and his egocentric and playful talking cat Findus. I was fascinated about the detailed illustrations and the feelgood story of the books.
Pettson and Findus live in a red house on the countryside, together with ten hens. It seems like only Pettson could speak with Findus, while his neighbours cannot hear the cat. Pettson always uses a strange hat and Findus has his own hat together with some striped pants. Every Pettson and Findus book is about the old man and the little cat and their adventures in different activities. The closest you can come to some antagonist in the book, is Pettsons bitter neighbour Gustavsson. He seems bitter and jealous of Pettson and Findus having such a great time and himself having a such boring life, but I don’t really know.
Even if Gustavsson is a bitter man, he is actually a good man in his heart. In the movie One Year With Pettson And Findus, a monstrous snowstorm breaks out and Pettson and Findus take protection in an iglo. When Gustavsson finds them, they are both unconscious and Gustavsson takes them out of the Iglo and saves them and calls for the doctor.
Pettson is an odd and quite monotonous man. He has a workshop where he invents different stuff – all from Santa machines, to automatic wood throwers. If Pettson has forgotten where he had put some things, Findus is always there to remind him where it is.
Pettson and Findus world is full of small creatures called muckles – mucklor in Swedish. They are different races of mouselike colorful small creatures that appears somewhere on almost every one of Sven Nordqvists illustrations. Findus can see and communicate with them, but however, Pettson can’t.
Don’t forget all the games. In the 90’s and 2000’th, PC games for kids were released. Almost all these games included mini games, different stories and off course collection of different awards. In the first game – Pettson and Findus in the Workshop, you get a golden feather when you have accomplished some of the different game. There are the mechanical inventions, where you have to use your brain and place the different parts of the invention on the right places, to solve a problem. That could be a problem like, helping the little man to reach his coffee. The little man stood on the floor, but couldn’t reach the cup of coffee on the very high table. Your mission is to place a little muckle on a spinning mill, leading a gear against a spine, with a supporting bow under the chair the old man stands on. After putting all the gears and wheels on the right place, you will have to activate the mechanism. A certain falls and shows a cat, frightening the little muckle. The muckle runs in panic on the spinning mill, which makes the gears and wheels run up the chair with the little man, so he finally can reach his coffee.
In the next game, Pettson And Findus in the Garden, you can control Findus walking and make him walk and discover the different places. The mission in the game – to find the mysterious gardener and make him take care of the plants. After playing all the games, you will gain access to a labyrinth of underground caves, full of things to discover. On every level, there is a problem to solve, with inventions by putting different gears and wheels on the right places. Will Findus find the gardener to help Pettson with his plant farm?
The third game – Pettson And Findus and the World of Muckles, is my favourite. There you will play other types of games and after completing them all, you will gain access to three different muckle world underneath Pettsons house.
