The Crumpets

> "*The Crumpets! The Crumpets!*"
> ― Opening line
>
>

***The Crumpets*** (French: *Les Crumpets*) is a French animated comedy show based on the *Petit Dernier* picture books, directed by Raoul Magrangeas, and produced by 4.21 Productions. The show centers on the family of 145 known as the Crumpets and their lives, dealings with neighbors, and social topics.

*The Crumpets* premiered December 21, 2013 on Canal+ Family in France. The first two seasons comprising 52 episodes originally aired in 2013-2014.

In December 2015, season three debuted, and this season and the fourth one (released December 2017) are together known as *Teen Crumpets* outside of French-speaking territories. A 26 minute special based on *Teen Crumpets* had premiered March 8, 2021, three years after the last episode.

As of 2023, it is rerun in France on Canal+ Kids. The English version of seasons one and two came out on Amazon Prime Video UK in September 2020.

## History

The first *Petit Dernier* book was written by Didier Lévy and illustrated by Frédéric Benaglia and was published in February 2006. The next books include the subsequent one, *Petite Pousse* (2007), and the most recent one, *Mon imagier de la maison* (2015); Benaglia wrote and illustrated eight of the book installments.

In 2008, Éric Magrangeas (aka Raoul) discovered the books and came up with the idea of adapting them. In 2009, his and Pascal Gayrard's company 4.21 Productions went into an agreement with the publisher Éditions Sarbacane to produce an animated adaptation of the books. 4.21 Productions found Canal+ as the broadcaster and Mediatoon Distribution as the distributor, in addition to their funding to the project. Canal+ required an older target audience for the show than the books' preschool audience.

Seasons one and two were co-produced by Studio Brocéliande and Studio O'Bahamas and dubbed in French by Calumet Productions. It was supported by PROCIREP (Société des Producteurs), the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, and ANGOA. Several episodes were animated by Dragon Cartoon in China.

Note that most websites (including this wiki) say that there are four seasons. Seasons one and two were likely produced back-to-back, and they were broadcast in the span of less than one year, because the show premiered in December 2013 and the second to last episode of season two, "Supernawak", aired in August 2014 per IMDB. Season three, which marks the premiere of *Teen Crumpets*, did not arrive until December 2015, and it took two more years for season four to follow.

## Premise

The show focuses on the lives of the Crumpet family in their eccentric home. The star is Lil' One, an infant who is the youngest member and desires to earn all of Ma's love to himself. Thinking that Pa and his siblings are his foes in this regard, Li'l One finds nefarious ways to have his mother's love redirected to him. His best friend is Granny, a gambler who is obsessed with money.

Other subjects in the show include:

* Crumpet siblings in the limelight, namely Caprice, Pfff, King, Bother and Blister, Ditzy, Ohoh, Triceps, and Fynartz
* Pa's greenhouse and his singing
* Ma's new machines malfunctioning or not performing as expected
* Granny's money schemes
* Bother and Blister's mischief
* Caprice's quest to be the girlfriend of Marylin
* Pfff's obsession with the TV Weather Girl
* T-Bone the dog going through weird or harmful situations
* Grownboy, his exotic animals, and his friend Steve
* Ms. McBrisk's revenge on the Crumpets for disturbing her
* McBrisk's search for a romantic partner
* Cassandra McBrisk's obsessive love on Pfff
* Uncle Hurry and Aunt Harried visiting the Crumpets and fleecing or threatening them
* Cordless' crush on McBrisk and failures to establish a relationship

In *Teen Crumpets*, most of these subjects were discontinued.

## English dub

An English dub for seasons 1 and 2 was produced by Gilles Motais for Distribimage Inc., directed by Darren Dunstan (the voice actor of Steve) and adapted by David Cox. It was recorded in studios in the United Kingdom and New York, United States. Several voice actors, such as Marc Thompson, Rebecca Soler and Erica Schroeder, worked on anime dubs for 4Kids Entertainment and other companies. They, along with Kate Bristol and Billy Bob Thompson, have been cast for the English dubs of other contemporary foreign animated productions such as *Robocar Poli*, *World of Winx* and *Pokémon*.

This dub gave virtually all characters British accents. There are British English words and phrases such as "telly", "nappy" and "holiday" (as in "vacation"). The pound is occasionally mentioned as currency, although visible references to the euro are intact. One reference to the soap opera *EastEnders* (parodied as *EastVenders*) is also present.

For the English dub of *Teen Crumpets* (seasons 3 and 4), The Kitchen dubbing studio used (North) American accents and possibly a different voice cast.

## Music

Jacques Davidovici is the composer for the show. His past work includes the cartoons *Insektors*, *Gazoon* and *Frankenstein's Cat* (another show worked by Raoul and 4.21 Productions). The theme song is used for the opening intro of all seasons. The theme song, without any sound effects or voices, is included in the mobile game.

## Availability

*Note: French-speaking African nations that received this show are missing on this list.*

According to the Mediatoon catalog, there are also Albanian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Serbian, and Croatian versions of the show. NET d.o.o. dubbed the first two seasons to Croatian in 2017 and 2018, the show is known as *Krafnići* in that language. China-based Parfait Cultural Communication also dubbed the show.

There are two episode packs "Sauvez Mamie" and "Ados à dos" on the French version of iTunes containing the first seventeen episodes. All these episodes are also available on the official French YouTube channel. Canal VOD has all the 52 episodes for rent or purchase.

In 2015, the official English YouTube channel for this show was launched. It uploaded the first 20 episodes between November 2015 and February 2017.

According to a C21Media article, SVT of Sweden had acquired rights for this show, but it's unknown if the show ever aired there.

The December 2015 Kickstarter fundraiser for the English dub of *Teen Crumpets* promised to give backers 26 or all 52 episodes of *The Crumpets* depending on how much they contributed. The Kickstarter description also shared the 34th episode "The Mix-Up" as an unlisted YouTube video.

As of 2022, there is no DVD or Blu-Ray release for the show.

## Games

Bulkypix released an app consisting of minigames in June 2014. It has since been pulled out of nearly all app markets and doesn't launch properly anymore.

There were also few web games, such as a click-based one from the Télétoon+ website featuring characters that were discarded during the show's development. The Télétoon+ website had additional games involving Ma's machines and Caprice's room, and a quiz where players discover if they're jealous as Li'l One. These three games don't appear to work anymore, even when accessed on the Internet Archive, and they're removed from the *Crumpets* minisite along with other features at one point. In 2019, the Télétoon+ website was greatly truncated, and the *Crumpets* minisite now only features episodes.

There was also a picture puzzle game on the TV5Monde website.

## Paper toys

Free paper cutout sheets for roughly half of the main characters are available for download on the OUFtivi and TV5Monde websites. These characters are Granny, Ma, Bother and Blister, Ohoh, King, Grownboy, Ms. McBrisk, and Cassandra.

The December 2015 Kickstarter fundraiser for the English dub of *Teen Crumpets* included paper cutouts for all characters as a reward for backers. The image of the paper toys contains Pa and Triceps as completed paper toys along with diagrams for characters including Li'l One, Pa, and Pfff. Unfortunately, the failure of the fundraiser probably means these cutouts were never released to the public.

## Reception

Reviews on *The Crumpets* are sparse with very few in-depth ones available. While the show found viewers that enjoyed it, there were complaints on "one-dimensional" and "mean spirited" characters, macabre content, and vulgarities that would make it inappropriate to children. One reviewer from Lithuania enjoyed the show's original style and light atmosphere but pointed that its targeted age group is vague.

Benaglia was satisfied with the show's graphic rendition but was unhappy with the "remoteness" on the show's original characters, thus not giving it connectivity with the books.

The entire show has a user score of 4.5 (despite an average rating of about 5.3) on the French site SensCritique. *The Crumpets* had a user score of 6.9 on Youku as of March 2020, lower than the score of 7.0 for *Teen Crumpets*.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/LaGuildeDesScenaristes/posts/655752817809330
2. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=868636006568278
3. ↑ http://palimpsestes.fr/IUT/pmo/pmo\_13/environnement/Environnement-\_PMO1-\_Groupe\_F.pdf
4. ↑ De Petit Dernier aux Crumpets : rencontre avec l'auteur-illustrateur Fredéric Benaglia - enfants (bayam.tv)
5. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/248653308737/photos/a.419834193737/10152126755123738/?type=3&theater
6. ↑ https://www.programme-television.org/news-tv/Les-Crumpets-C8-une-famille-formidable-4518335
7. ↑ https://bayam.tv/fr/blog/actualites/cest-la-rentree-quels-sont-les-nouveaux-dessins-animes-a-regarder-dans-bayam/
8. ↑ http://www.epgrupo.com.br/crumpets-estreia-em-novembro-canal-gloob/
9. ↑ http://www.tvmap.com.br/Vivo-TV/08-abr-2016/1.30hs
10. ↑ https://innovation-village.com/kwese-tv-introduces-kwese-family-family-oriented-channel/
11. ↑ http://newsletters.worldscreen.com/tvkids/tvkidsweekly\_4th\_db.htm
12. ↑ http://iabc.cicaf.com/project/1257
13. ↑ http://www.megamai.com/project/1257
14. ↑ https://business.facebook.com/MalyatkoTV/?\_\_tn\_\_=kC-R&eid=ARC\_oe382T\_\_Wg\_8N8BK8fUYW0YlASxfDG-Gfc8r7WX5ToqBKEHDg3DL7pphTCriNUWrZ996sgs-sOhA
15. ↑ https://www.cableman.ru/channel/news/komediinyi-multserial-krampety-na-telekanale-multilandiya-30-aprelya
16. ↑ http://www.net-zg.hr/?l=en
17. ↑ https://iventures.digital/speaker/louis-chen-beijing-chn/
18. ↑ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/35740477/the-crumpets-the-animated-series/?ref=kicktraq
19. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150623194734/http://www.teletoonplus.fr/cid17497-mini-site-les-crumpets.html
20. ↑ http://www.teletoonplus.fr/#/heros/les-crumpets?\_k=vv7vsa
21. ↑ https://www.canalplus.com/teletoonplus/crumpets
22. ↑ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/35740477/the-crumpets-the-animated-series/?ref=kicktraq
23. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/cyberfox/art/Nutshell-Reviews-2-665421311
24. ↑ http://www.infoanimation.com.br/2014/09/primeira-mao-gloob-adquire-o-desenho.html
25. ↑ https://www.senscritique.com/serie/Les\_Crumpets/11611192
26. ↑ https://www.nepo.lt/animacija-the-crumpets/
27. ↑ De Petit Dernier aux Crumpets : rencontre avec l'auteur-illustrateur Fredéric Benaglia - enfants (bayam.tv)
28. ↑ https://www.senscritique.com/serie/Les\_Crumpets/11611192
29. ↑ http://list.youku.com/show/id\_z192c83151aa74dcc994c.html