Bamse
Bamse – Världens starkaste björn () is a Swedish cartoon created by Rune Andréasson. The highly popular children's cartoon first emerged as a series of television short films as well as a weekly half-page Sunday strip in 1966, before being published periodically in its own comic magazine since 1973. Andréasson did all the artwork himself until 1975 and wrote all the comics until 1990. Francisco Tora did all the illustrations from 1976 until he was joined by Bo Michanek in 1983. Several new writers and illustrators were hired in the early 1990s, including Claes Reimerthi, Olof Siverbo, Johan Wanloo  and Tony Cronstam. Andréasson continued to do the magazine cover illustrations until 1992. The series somewhat changed direction when Bamse had children, specifically triplets, in 1982. He had a fourth child in 1986, and his friend Lille Skutt had one at the same time; this saw the series focus more on family, while also discussing other values such as gender equality. In 1989, the character Skalman noticed that Bamse's fourth child Brumma had some intellectual disability, later defined as Asperger's syndrome, which again brought up the subject of equality. The children did develop in real time within the  magazine, but seem to have been fixed in age since around 1990. They are now around nine years old, in a narratively advantageous eternal state as third-graders. Both the early Sunday strips and the early magazines have since been reprinted as glossy hardbound volumes. In 1998, the theme park 'Bamses Värld' ("Bamse's World") started as an attraction at the Kolmården Zoo, with theater performances, restaurants and houses from the comic. Moral values and criticism. The magazine has educational goals. On special "school" pages, the characters educate the reader about animals, cultures, the Universe, and other subjects. They often  deal with superstition, and Skalman's sceptical views ("I only believe in what I know") wins over those of his more naive friends. On the other hand, beings like trolls, tomtar and dragons exist on a very real plane in most of the stories. As the series has evolved, the values expressed have become more general and less ideological. A fact sheet written and published by Andreasson in 1983 following a trip to the People's Republic of China became very controversial as it seemed to praise Mao Zedong's dictatorial rule as a "liberation" and claimed that "nobody's  starving anymore" in China under Communist single-party rule. It was later edited heavily when the adventure was reprinted in 2004. Bamse and his friends are very clear about their views. They are strongly opposed to racism, bullying and violence. Bamse is not only the strongest bear in the world, but also the kindest, often repeating his slogan "Nobody gets better from being beaten". Bamse's own world seems to have strong implications of anarchism or libertarian socialism, combining private ownership with communitarian solidarity (from most of the characters), though a single policeman, Pontus Kask (named for his classic-style  policeman's helmet, or "kask" in Swedish) and a small prison exists. The original villain, a black wolf simply called Vargen ("The Wolf"), became a friend of Bamse after consistently being treated kindly. The only villain that is depicted as unredeemable is Krösus Sork ("Croesus Vole"), a crude capitalist who will do practically anything for money. Films and other media. Six animated black-and-white short films were produced for television in 1966. In 1972, seven more animated shorts were shown in colour. Another two shorts were released in 1981, and a direct-to-video movie became available in 1991 . The later colour films have aired frequently on TV in Sweden, and have been released on VHS and DVD. The black and white films had been unavailable to the general public for a long time, but were released on DVD by late 2006. The colour movies were low-budget productions with actor Olof Thunberg narrating and voicing all characters, but are considered to be classics. The musical theme, composed by Sten Carlberg, is easily recognised by most Swedes. In 1993, a Game Boy game (in Swedish) was released, loosely based on the Bamse characters. The game was little more than  a sprite replacement of Beam Software's "Baby T-Rex" and received generally poor reviews. The "Bamse version" has not been officially released outside Sweden. In October 2006, forty years after Bamse was created, Ola Andréasson, the son of creator Rune Andréasson announced that an animated feature film would be made, featuring better animation, a full voice cast, and a budget of SEK 25 million. An estimated release date of 2012 for the film was proposed. It was finally released in 2014 as "Bamse and the Thief City". The film was followed by "Bamse and the Witch's Daughter" in  2016. Translations. In the 1960s, there were a few translations of the series "Bamses skola" ("Bamse's school"), where the characters were given English names: In this translation, the "dunderhonung" was given the name "magic honey". However, in the 1980s, Andréasson referred to it in English as "thunder-honey", which is the literal translation also used in the Netherlands and Belgium ("donderhoning"). In the cancelled movie Bamse and the Time-Travel Machine from 2009, the names were translated differently: