Little My Moves In

## Overview

The episode "Little My Moves In" is the first episode in the first season and the first one overall. It is based on comic strip #7, "Moomin Builds a House".

## Episode Description

**Sky:** When Mymble arrives unnanounced at Moominhouse with all of her unruly children, the Moomin family's renowned tolerance is tested to breaking point.

**YLE:** When Mymble arrives unannounced at Moominhouse with all of her unruly children, the Moomin family's renowned tolerance is tested to breaking point. It's hardest of all for Moomintroll, who has to deal with the force of nature that is Little My!

## Episode Summary

The episode begins with a dream sequence where, as Moomintroll opens his window, Snorkmaiden greets him on a pink cloud and he joins her. The two go for a joyride around the valley, passing over Moominmamma and Moominpappa as they dance. The two keep flying but a hole forms in their cloud, which Moomintroll looks through. When he looks up, Snorkmaiden has also turned to cloud and she dissipates. The rest of the cloud follows suit and as the last bit disappears, Moomintroll wakes up from his dream.

As he wakes up, he hits his head on a mobile above his bed, falling off and taking his lampshade and a picture frame with him. He takes off the lampshade and realizes that somebody is knocking at the door. He puts the lampshade away and tells the picture frame that he needs to stand up for himself, as it turns out to be a picture of him as a baby with his parents.

Moominpappa also wakes up, thinking that the knocking is bats, which in turn wakes Moominmamma up. She asks the time and he says it's only a quarter past winter. Moomintroll enters their room, saying that there's someone at the door. Moominpappa goes to answer it, though Moominmamma points out that he's still in his pajamas, which he takes off before going downstairs.

Mymble was waiting at the door with her many children, talking about how busy she is and how she thought she would go stay with the Moomins. They welcome her in and her children begin to tear up the house. Moominpappa asks Moomintroll to play with them, but he responds that he's a grown up Moomin now. The children hoist Moominpappa up on the chandelier while Moomintroll tries to sneak away from them only to end up in a room with yet more children. Pressed into the corner of the room, he asks the children if they'd like a nap, but the door slams open with a giant shadow slowly approaching. Moomintroll and the children look frightened, but the person who was making the shadow turned out to be another one of Mymble's children. She looks like her sisters though is notably a bit taller and wearing a red smock with a pink bow around her neck. Relieved, Moomintroll goes to greet her and calls her a "little one", and this prompts her to bite him, delighting her siblings. He asks why and she says it's for calling her little and that her name is Little My and that Little My is her name, not her personality.

He hurriedly leaves for his room and Little My says that he obviously wanted them to hunt him, which they do. They beat him to his room and hide under the bed and in his closet. He is dragged down the stairs while pretending to be furniture and tries to hide behind a painting of himself, but as soon as he thinks the children have left, more tackle him. He launches himself on to the couch, sobbing in a pillow. Moominmamma comforts him and says Mymble surely won't be staying for long because of how busy she is. She enters the room and says she'll be leaving by midsummer at the very latest. Moomintroll is upset and Moominmamma says they can all learn to get along, which Moominpappa disagrees with. Little My returns Moominpappa's hat, which he lost, but has filled it with pea soup. She also fills Moominmamma's handbag with pudding. Moomintroll wishes that midsummer could come sooner, and Moominpappa says that could be arranged.

The family opens the windows and sets the seasons clock to be at midsummer. They break ice in one of their ponds to swim and have fun in. They also have set up an artificial summer environment using fake grass and cardboard standees. At the end of the false summer path, Moominmamma and Moominpappa sit on lounge chairs in their swimming suits, eating ice cream and talking about how hot that day was. Moomintroll offers Mymble a cone and as she begins to take it, Little My appears and holds up a cup of hot cocoa for her, which she gladly takes.

The family's plan has failed and they decide to create a midsummer bonfire and light it, though Little My arrives and says she knows what the Moomins are up to. Moomintroll pleads her not to tell her mother and she agrees, saying "mum's the word". The family lights the bonfire with Mymble and her children and she says she must be going and that time went by so quickly. Their fire is quickly put out by a hemulen fireman saying it's too early in the year to light a bonfire, confusing Mymble. Though the family insists it's midsummer, the fireman isn't fooled and thanks Little My for telling him about it. Moomintroll is upset because of this but Little My points out that she said she wouldn't tell her mother and didn't say anything about hemulen firemen.

Moomintroll returns to his room to rest, though is greeted by Little My sitting in his bed. She rolls him out of the room, saying that it's hers now. Fed up, Moomintroll grabs a toolbox and leaves the house, telling his parents that he's leaving "to start anew". He arrives at the beach and begins building a house when Little My offers him some lemonade, which turns out to be paint because Moomintroll was imagining that it's summer. Little My laughs at him for it and also says that he should never build a house on sand. His house promptly sinks, leaving Little My in hysterics.

Moomintroll is at his wits end and finally tells Little My how he's feeling and realizes that she's not in his room because she's here. Excited, he puts her in a paint can to get a headstart on the way back to his room, though Little My doesn't give up and catches up to him quickly. They race to his room but find it to be filled with Little My's siblings. Both are upset and Little My tells Moomintroll about how at least he had his own room, unlike Little My. Moomintroll talks about building another house. Realizing that Moomintroll meant a house for her and her family, Little My agrees to help him and says that she'll find the building spot.

The two return to the beach and they begin to build a house on a large, smooth rock pointed out by Little My. The Mymble family is delighted and quickly takes to their new home, which turns out to be built on the shell of a giant turtle who swims away with them.

The Moomins return home to go to sleep, though Little My was waiting in Moomintroll's bed instead of going with her mother and siblings. She points out that the first day of spring is tomorrow, and says that someone special comes in the spring. Moomintroll realizes that she means Snufkin and the episode ends with him saying "Snufkin".

## Trivia & Mistakes

* The timeline of the episode seems to be very confusing, as it starts out a quarter past winter and ends on the first day of spring with no indication that more than a day had passed.
* When Moominpappa is hanging from the chandelier, the rope goes straight through the sheet covering it.
* The cloud at the beginning of the episode was inspired by how iconic the clouds were in previous iterations.
* The ending of the episode was not in the comic and was chosen to be a reminder that Moomins is a fantasy universe.

## References

1. Moominvalley Creators Comments: Little My Moves In
2. https://www.tuomaskorpi.com/Moominvalley-Concept-Art
3. https://www.tonyholmsten.com/moominvalley/