Teen Crumpets

***Teen Crumpets*** is the English title for seasons three and four of the French animated comedy series *The Crumpets*, based on the *Petit Dernier* books by Didier Lévy and Frédéric Benaglia. It was directed by Raoul Magrangeas and produced by 4.21 Productions. These seasons retain the original title *Les Crumpets* in French-speaking regions. Mediatoon Distribution categorizes the seasons as a separate show.

*Teen Crumpets* gave the show a new direction from its original premise. The main protagonists are not Lil' One and Granny anymore but rather the teenagers Caprice and Pfff Crumpet, Cassandra McBrisk, Marylin, Cordless, and newcomer Larry.

Like its predecessor, *Teen Crumpets* contains 52 episodes running 13 minutes each. It originally aired in 2015 on Canal+ Family (season 3) and 2017-2018 on Télétoon+ (season 4) in France.

## History

The idea of *Teen Crumpets* arose from viewer feedback on *The Crumpets*. The viewers were found to like the show's teens and tweens, and these characters became the focus of the show's next episodes. The completion of season three was given a celebration date of December 11, 2015.

On April 13, 2016, the show's Facebook page revealed that the show would have its fourth season. According to IMDB, the last two episodes of season four in numerical order (a Christmas/New Year special) first aired on December 24, 2017, before that season's first episode ("L'impffossible choix") debuted on January 8, 2018. The final episode ("Rendez-vous dans 15 ans") debuted on January 16, 2018.

At Italy's Cartoon on the Bay 2018 Pulcinella Awards in April 2018, *Teen Crumpets* won the "TV Series – Teens 12+" category. This is the first award win for the show. At Georgia's 2018 International Animated Film Festival TOFUZI in October, the episode "Music Hall Therapy" was the jury prize winner of the event's TV Series category.

While announcing their Pulcinella Award win in April 2018, the Pff Crumpet Facebook page mentioned having their fingers crossed for season five. This leaves the possibility of more episodes for the show.

In September 2019, the Pff Crumpet Facebook page announced a 26 minute special that would premiere in 2020. The announcement was accompanied by a picture of the cast from *Teen Crumpets*. No updates were given until it was mentioned in the *Hors Série Animation 2021 Ecran total* magazine in December 2020, and in February 2021 when TV guides began listing the special, "Les Crumpets, tu fais genre !", which aired on March 8.

A fifth season is shown on the French entertainment website AlloCiné. It is labeled "coming soon" but no episodes are named or scheduled as of March 2021.

## Premise

*Teen Crumpets* centers on singer Marylin and guitarist Pfff Crumpet and their biggest girl fans Caprice Crumpet (Pfff's sister) and Cassandra McBrisk, all who reside or visit the Crumpet House. The boys are enthusiastic about performing songs written by Marylin and thus dislike disturbances. Each of the girls, meanwhile, is romantically attracted to each of the boys. The girls encounter various issues usually pertaining to teenagers, as well as exploring activities that wind up bothering the boy band.

The four teenagers are frequently accompanied by the Crumpets' intelligent adoptive cousin Cordless who loves gaming and invents gadgets (and later became the keyboardist), and a quirky outcast redhead named Larry whom the cast keeps forgetting his name. Other recurring characters include the misbehaving young twins Bother and Blister Crumpet, the athletic bully Triceps Crumpet who would become the drummer, and the Crumpets' supportive Pa, who has more in common with the teenagers than meets the eye.

*Teen Crumpets* has a bigger emphasis on musical sequences than the previous seasons. They are usually sung by Marylin.

## Production

Season three was supported by Île-de-France in partnership with the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) and in association with Redcastle Mediaconsulting and Cofinova 12. Season four was supported by Pôle Image Magelis and the Département de la Charente in partnership with the CNC and in association with Cofinova 13. The show was also co-produced by Atlantiz Park and dubbed in French by Calumet Productions.

## Episodes

See List of Episodes. Only French titles are given.

French TV episode summaries are provided courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

Episodes 51 and 52 of *Teen Crumpets* is a two-part Christmas special. They debuted on December 24, 2017, which marked the premiere of season 4. (The other episodes began airing on January 8, 2018)

The only episode dubbed in English and can be watched online is the tenth episode "Baby Sister" (French title) on the C21Media website. The trailer for *Teen Crumpets* only included clips from season 3, as season 4 was in production when *Teen Crumpets* was added to the Mediatoon catalog in early 2017.

## English dub

In November 2015, 4.21 Productions established a Kickstarter fundraiser for an English dub of season 3 (the only *Teen Crumpets* season at the time). Although the fundraiser fell short of funds by its deadline, an English dub of the season 3 episode "Baby Sister" can be viewed on the C21Media website, not to mention few episodes that could be viewed on Malaysia Airlines flights in early 2018. The show and a clip of "Baby Sister" is included in the sample works of dubbing company The Kitchen of Miami, Florida, indicating that they had dubbed *Teen Crumpets* to English.

An entire English dub of *Teen Crumpets*, which is available on the Mediatoon Distribution catalog, has yet to be released.

## Paper toys

Paper toy cutouts for Marylin and Larry were released on the Pff Crumpet Facebook profile in November 2015.

## Reception

Reviews on *Teen Crumpets* are nonexistent if not scarce. On the French site Senscritique, the entire show had a user score of 4.4 as of December 2020, due to highly mixed ratings. Specifically, on the Chinese video site Youku as of March 2020, *Teen Crumpets* had a user score of 7.0, which is slightly higher than its predecessor's 6.9 score at the same time.

## References

1. ↑ http://newsletters.worldscreen.com/tvkids/tvkidsweekly\_4th\_db.htm
2. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=865043556927523
3. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=938249289606949
4. ↑ http://www.animationmagazine.net/events/cartoons-on-the-bay-2018-pulcinella-award-winners/
5. ↑ http://www.adf.ge/en/siaxleebi.php?cc=90/
6. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/pff.crumpet
7. ↑ [1]
8. ↑ https://lecliff.com/2017/12/23/les-crumpets-saison-4-en-diffusion/
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190503050948/https://www.thekitchen.tv/english-dubbing
10. ↑ https://www.senscritique.com/serie/Les\_Crumpets/11611192
11. ↑ http://list.youku.com/show/id\_zef32c3a1b02d4525bf01.html
12. ↑ http://list.youku.com/show/id\_z192c83151aa74dcc994c.html
13. ↑ https://tv-programme.com/la-trois/vendredi-23-fevrier-2018/
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

## External links

* Mediatoon site
* C21Media site