The Fixies

The Fixies (Russian: Фиксики, romanized: Fixiki) is a Russian animated children's television series based on The Little Warranty People [ru] by Eduard Uspensky. The series premiered on 13 December 2010 as a segment on the television show Good Night, Little Ones! on Russia-1 and Bibigon. The series was created by Alexander Tatarsky and is produced by Aeroplane Productions.
The Fixies centers around the adventures of little people called fixies (a portmanteau of "fix" and "pixie") who live inside various devices and keep them in order with their technical knowledge. Each episode focuses on a particular everyday device and involves the fixies explaining what it is, how it works, and how to safely use it.
One of the protagonists is Tom Thomas, who managed to make friends with fixies named Simka and Nolik. To learn more about different things, they are helped by older fixies—their parents Papus and Masiya, as well as Grandpus. At the same time, Tom Thomas is obliged to keep the fixies' existence a secret from everyone else and to protect them from his dog Chewsocka.
In the second season, new characters were introduced—four classmates of Simka and Nolik: Fire, Digit, Toola and Verda, as well as Professor Eugenius and his secretary Elisa, whose laboratory houses a school of young fixies.
Simka and Nolik attend school at a miniature classroom located in Professor Eugenius' laboratory alongside four classmates:
The Fixies was conceived in 2005 by producer Georgy Vasilyev, who wanted to create a successful international animation brand. In the same year, Vasilyev began to discuss the idea with Alexander Tatarsky, who proposed a cartoon series about household appliances based on Eduard Uspensky's The Little Warranty People, about creatures of the same name living in machines and repairing them.
The idea was approved, as the subject of the study of household appliances is relevant for most countries. Shortly before that, Aeroplane Studios contacted Uspensky to acquire the rights to the film adaptation of The Little Warranty People. However, the concept of the Little Warranty People seemed somewhat outdated to the company, since at the time of The Little Warranty People's publication, electrical appliances were larger and the Little Warranty People themselves were about the size of a mouse, so they would not be able to fit inside certain modern devices.
It was decided that the name would be changed to a short, easy-to-remember name that would be well-suited for various products that are not directly related to the cartoon. Since the project was conceived as an international one, the series' name was taken from the English language. The company convened people of different professions from Russia who spoke English and/or originated from different English-speaking countries. During the discussion, the name The Fixies was approved, with "fixie" being a portmanteau of "fix" and "pixie". Thus, the noun fixie referred to a small magical creature who is involved in repairing technology.
Also in 2005, an animation studio itself was created with the same name as the production company. Even before the characters were created, a logo was registered which was a hand with its thumb, index and middle fingers extended upwards, suggesting a gesture similar to the Schwurhand or the Serbian three-finger salute. In the show, the symbol appears on the fixies' clothes, tools and vehicles, and the gesture is used by fixies alongside the interjection "Tadeesh!" as a greeting and to celebrate a job well done.
After the appearance of the name, logo, and concept, active development began on the cartoon. The artist Yuri Pronin was responsible for the concept art. During the development, the character designs changed significantly. Fixies had the traits of people and the features of robots, but the producer was not satisfied with the sketches.
In 2007, Tatarsky died at the age of 56 and the project had to be developed without him. In 2008, Aeroplane Studios mentioned The Fixies in an interview with Animation Magazine. In 2008, the project was planned as a full-length cartoon featuring 12 fixies and a dog. The fixies resembled small people. Trailer and animation tests were created. However, due to the economic crisis of 2008, the concept of a full-length cartoon was scrapped, and Aeroplane Studios began working on the animated series.
Later, Pronin finalized the fixies' appearances, having given them the following attributes; large hands (due to the fact that fixies are constantly working), glowing hair (due to the fact that fixies constantly work in the dark) and the idea to have the fixies be able to transform into screws. The artist decided to first draw a screw, then draw a fixie whose appearance is derived from that screw. The cartoons primarily used CGI animation with Flash animation being used for explanatory segments.
On 26 December 2010, The Fixies was broadcast as part of the television show Good Night, Little Ones! on the former children's channel Bibigon at 8:30 PM and up to the end of the broadcast, then in the same program on Russia-1 at 8:50 PM. The Fixies quickly became popular, and the producers planned to create 156 episodes.
However, in 2011, Uspensky said that he was dissatisfied with how The Little Warranty People was adapted for television. He and Aeroplane Studios came to an agreement whereby the mention of The Little Warranty People would be removed from the show's credits. In the same year, Uspensky released a continuation of The Little Warranty People.
In 2014, Aeroplane Productions and Nickelodeon signed a license agreement under which the series would begin airing on Nickelodeon's Russian offshoot for a period of two years starting in January 2015.
The series has also been broadcast on Carousel and Dietski. It also aired on Russia-K between July and December 2014 and has aired on Moult since June 2014. It also aired on Tloum HD in the summer of 2016, and on O! since 8 February 2017.
On 28 October 2017, Aeroplane Productions and Petersburg Animation Studio released a full-length animated film called The Fixies: Top Secret [ru], which has been shown in many countries around the world. Even before the release of Top Secret, it was announced that work was underway on a continuation.
On 29 March 2019, a teaser of the second full-length cartoon called Fixies Vs. Crabots [ru] was released, which tells about the confrontation between fixes and crab-like robots called Crabots. The film premiered on 21 December 2019.