Zayats in Moominvalley

**Zayats in Moominvalley** (*Yatorobic: Заѣц ень Мумин-валѥъ*) is a 2010 Yatorobic animated movie produced by Cinematix based on a story written by Finnish-Yatorobic Armi Parnela.

Featuring characters from the Finnish Moomin books by Tove Jansson, Zayats in Moominvalley is the last ever time Vanille Daxtryemva voices Zayats, months before her official final voice-acting project: the Yatorobic dub of *Toy Story 3*, and subsequently retiring from voice acting altogether.

## Plot

The film begins with an introduction to the Moomin characters in the art style of the original Moomintroll books, before revealing that this was actually part of a bedtime storybook being read to Zayats by Leonidas. After finishing the introduction, Leonidas asks Zayats if he wants him to read one more story, but Zayats refuses, telling him that it's okay. Realizing that Zayats might look too tired for another story, Leonidas agrees and kisses him goodnight before leaving as Zayats is fast asleep.

By the time Zayats wakes up, there's a dramatic change in art style, going from the style of the Cartoon Network seasons 4-9 to the style presented in the opening scene—which is kept for the rest of the movie—in only six colors: Black, White, Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. Zayats slowly wakes up in an unfamiliar environment: a teal bedroom with a bunkbed, a window, a wooden cradle and a table with a chair. Realizing he is on the top of a green bunkbed, Zayats goes down the ladder before being surprised by a little ginger girl in red who laughs at his reaction. As the girl—Little My—guides Zayats to the kitchen, enticing him with pancakes, he slowly realizes that he's in Moominhouse.

Zayats follows Little My to the dining room, where they're greeted by a trio of what Zayats first thinks are hippos, to which Little My scolds and corrects him that they're not hippos, but Moomin. This is where Zayats realizes where he is: Moominvalley. Before sitting down to eat Moominmamma's pancakes, Zayats quickly and briefly goes out for confirmation. Once he's out the door, it's realized that Zayats is indeed in Moominvalley.

Before Zayats can make another move, Little My yells at him to get back inside, as his pancake was getting cold. Zayats quickly goes back in and sits down to breakfast. Zayats is thrilled to know that he's in Moominvalley, and is full of questions to ask them. The rest is thinking of a nickname for Zayats, as he had never told them his name. Moominpappa ultimately stands up on his chair and declares their new name for Zayats: **Puni**, a mix of the Finnish words ***pu**pu* (bunny) and *ka**ni*** (rabbit). Everyone agrees to start calling their new friend that, and Zayats himself—now Puni for the rest of the film—takes a liking to this new name, saying it sounds cute.

As everyone finishes their breakfast, Puni overhears a harmonica playing in the distance. Moomintroll then remembers that spring has arrived in Moominvalley, and the harmonica song is Snufkin's spring tune. Moomintroll runs off, with Puni following behind. On the bridge close to Moominhouse sits a man in green, playing the tune on his harmonica. Puni introduces himself to the man—Snufkin—and Moomintroll is quick to welcome him back to the valley. Moominmamma explains to Puni that every winter, Snufkin goes South and doesn't come back until spring.

Moomintroll and Puni invite Snufkin over to Moominhouse for pancakes. Moominmamma prepares a tower of twelve pancakes: two for everyone. Puni gobbles down both his pancakes while staring inquisitively at Moomin and Snufkin, the latter being hesitant to answer any question Puni asks him, rather looking blankly at his plate. Moomintroll tells Snufkin that he doesn't have to eat the pancakes. Snufkin gives one of his pancakes to Puni.

After being done with their pancakes, Puni, Moomintroll, Little My and Snufkin run outside to play, not before being adviced by Moominmamma to be home before dusk. While an instrumental rendition of the International opening theme to the 90's series (which is sung in the American and European versions) plays in the background, Puni plays Hide and Seek with the trio, sequentially finding Little My, Moomin and Snufkin.

Moments after, the friends overhear a lovely singing voice in the distance, and Puni in particular is interested in hearing where the voice comes from. This brings Puni, Little My, Moomintroll and Snufkin to a flowerfield where they find a sweet Moomin with curly blond bangs and a flower on her hand. This turns out to be Snorkmaiden, who welcomes the bunch with a tender look on her face. Snorkmaiden runs up to Moomintroll and hugs him while longing at him lovingly. Puni asks Snorkmaiden about the flower in Snorkmaiden's hand. Upon closer inspection, they realize that Snorkmaiden has a very rare 4-colored flower on her hand, it has red, yellow, blue and even green petals, something that no other flower could possibly have. Snufkin grabs the flower as everyone heads off to bring the flower over to Mr. Hemulen, as was his suggestion. Moomintroll explains to Puni that Mr. Hemulen used to collect stamps, but is now a botanist.

They then pass by a mancave, which is Sniff's. Moomintroll goes down the cave, opens the door and asks Sniff to join them, but he's too busy making food for his new business: **À la Sniff**, a brand of homemade food, but Sniff's cooking is so bad that it leaves a putrid smell floating through. The stench wilters the four-color flower and the group decides not to go visit Mr. Hemulen. Realizing it's getting dark, Puni suggests the five go back to Moominhouse. Moomintroll, not wanting to worry Moominmamma, agrees.

The sun begins to set in Moominvalley, and Sniff heads back to his mancave after an unsuccessful attempt to sell some of his cuisine to Mrs. Fillyjonk for a few gold coins. On the way home, Sniff mocks Fillyjonk's voice: "*Oh no, poison is not allowed in my household*" and brushes his poor cooking skills off as some sort of joke. Sniff attempts to open the door to his house before realizing it's completely frozen. Sniff slowly turns around and lets out a scream so loud it echoes through the valley all the way to Moominhouse.

Back at Moominhouse, Puni is in Moomintroll's room, overhearing Sniff's scream. Little My simply brushes it off as him being "delusional". Moomintroll is on the fence with her words however, as he looks out his window to see everything shriveled up. Puni wonders who could've devastated the nature like that, only for Snufkin to turn around and answer: **The Groke.**

At the first floor, Puni goes out the door to see the extent of the freeze, before being pushed back in by a petrified Sniff, who had run fast away from the Groke, confirming that the Groke indeed had returned to the valley. Moominmamma attempts to calm him down and offers him some tea.

Puni patrols the outskirts of Moominhouse while everyone else is sitting at the dining room, where Moominmamma is confused as to how the Groke could have come back, knowing she had traded Moomin's heart-shaped shell for her to leave them alone. Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden overhear her and the latter is furious at the former. Moomintroll confesses to her that the day after she traded the shell, Thingumy and Bob were helping him look all over the shore for an identical shell, luckily finding out he had been sitting on it the entire time. Nevertheless, Snorkmaiden is upset at both Moomintroll and Moominmamma for giving away something she had told the former to cherish for the rest of his life. Moominmamma explains that it was all she could do to get her away from them for good, ignoring the fact that the Groke had returned.

Puni takes Moominmamma's words into account and states that the Groke might not be as bad as she's said to be. This shocks everyone in Moominhouse, knowing the Groke's reputation in the valley. Puni backs up his claims by stating that the reason she comes around warm objects is that all she wants is friendship and warmth. Knowing it won't be easy for Puni to understand the severity of the cause, Sniff decides to tell him why they fear the Groke in song form. The attempt to scare Puni is for naught, as all it succeeds in doing is engaging him into the song. When the song ends, Puni applauds Sniff and tells him to consider a career in music. Both Sniff and Moominpappa realize the record potential: Sniff imagines the money he could earn from record sales, and Moominpappa imagines how much his poetry could benefit the Moomin family as Sniff's producer, briefly shifting away from the top priority at the moment: the Groke's return.

As all the lights go out in Moominhouse, Puni hatches up a plan to get the Groke off Moominvalley for good. Without explaining why, Puni orders Moominmamma to make him all clothes required for such cold temperatures: a puffer, a hat, and three scarves, soon after calling for a fourth one. By the time Moominmamma's done, Puni is layered with clothes to keep himself warm. He then opens the door and goes out before asking the others to keep an eye on him. As he is just across the small bridge where Snufkin sits down to fish, he yells out at the top of his lungs: "*Hey Groke! You want friendship and warmth? I'll show you friendship and warmth!*" before running in the Groke's direction. Everyone in Moominhouse is incredibly concerned, but Puni nonetheless continues his run through the frozen valley, and Moomintroll is shocked to see Puni's intentions: hugging the Groke.

Seeing Puni's heroic hug as an act of friendship and warmth, the Groke begins to cry in happiness, finally experiencing friendship for the first time. The Moomins however seize the Groke's moment to pull Puni away from her. Using all their strength, the Moomins, Little My, Snufkin and Sniff all manage to separate Puni from the Groke. The Groke smiles at her first friend and leaves. Moomintroll realizes that's what the Groke wanted after all, and that her coldness was just getting in her way. Puni briefly slips off as he's freezing cold as a consequence, and asks the Moomins to take him back to Moominhouse.

Back in Moominhouse, Puni is sitting by the fireplace to get some warmth of his own. Little My is cross at Puni for thinking it was a good idea to hug the Groke, but Moomintroll reaffirms her that he had done what he had to do, with Snufkin adding that thanks to Puni and his warm heart, the Groke is less than likely to come back to the valley. Sniff is relieved to hear Snufkin's claim, saying "*Thank goodness. Name one thing scarier than the Groke, I'll wait.*" There's a knock on the door that freaks Sniff out, and Moominmamma is quick to answer: it's Mrs. Fillyjonk, inquiring about Sniff's cooking, stating that his cooking is remarkable, which quickly lifts Sniff's spirits: His soup is a powerful vermin repellent, his unusually hard cookies are wonderful centerpieces for her table, and his "yogurt" really helps reduce the size of her pores. However, Sniff's hopes of becoming a master chef shatter into dust after Fillyjonk's answer to his question on how they taste: "*I'm not planning on **dying** anytime soon, Mr. Sniff.*" After these words, Mrs. Fillyjonk shuts the door before Sniff faints in disappointment, declaring the discontinuation of the À la Sniff food brand out loud. Realizing it's nighttime already, Moominmamma sends the children to bed. Puni, who is now all warm, goes to the bunk bed he first woke up in, climbs up to the top bunk, and quickly falls asleep.

Afterwards, Puni—now Zayats again—wakes up in the real world, returning to the art style present earlier. Zayats realizes it was all a long-winded dream, gets out of bed, grabs his guitar and heads off. At the park, Zayats finds Leonidas sitting in a brick wall. The two share a brief conversation where Leonidas assures Zayats he'll be back to finish their story that night. Zayats then briefly mentions the dream he had earlier. Puni then grabs his guitar and begins to play and sing a song. Leonidas, aware that he had brought his guitar, picks up and begins to play his accordion.

The film ends with the two singing along as the credits roll with a slideshow of the covers of all eight Moomin books.

## Voice Cast

Nearly all of the film's dubs feature the casts of the 1990's Moomin series.

Unlike most international dubs, neither the Japanese or English dubs were the first to premiere. Instead, a Finnish dub and Swedish dub of the film premiered simultaneously on August 9, Tove Jansson's birthday. Later that same month, a German dub was released. The Japanese and English dubs both came out simultaneously on June 27, 2011, the tenth anniversary of Tove's death in 2001.

## Trivia

* All of the Moominvalley backgrounds were done using nothing but watercolors.