Comet in Moominland (film)

Comet in Moominland (Japanese: ムーミン谷の彗星 meaning Mūmindani no Suisei) is an anime film by Telecable Benelux B.V.. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish. It was the first full-length Moomin film. It was released in Japan first theatrically in August 8, 1992 as a triple-feature with two unrelated shorter films and later released on video with 10 minutes of extra footage. It was never released for English (except the USA English), but has been dubbed to several European languages. It was the seventh most watched film in Finland in the season 1992/1993 with 166,738 viewers.

As the original novel introduces many recurring characters who appear in later Moomin novels, the film similarly works as a prequel to the 1990 anime series Moomin. International version of the film features a new musical score composed by Pierre Kartner whereas the original, Japanese release of the film mainly recycles Sumio Shiratori's score from the anime series. Japanese version, however, has new opening and ending songs "Shiawase no morugaane" and "Kono uchuu he, tsutae tai", both sung by Emiko Shiratori.

Plot
Before the film, Moomin's father had finished building Moomin House. During one rainy evening, the Muskrat suddendly appears on the front door for stay because his riverbank home's been destroyed by Moominpappa's bridge, built earlier that day. The next day, the rain's turned everything black and according to Muskrat, it is soot from outer space. He believes that a threat is coming from space and nothing can be done. Moominpappa gets an idea about the astronomical observatory in the Lonely Mountains, where a telescope can see far into space. The next morning, on their way, the trio meets Snufkin for the first time and he's heard about a comet which could crush to earth at any time, and joins the group. After that, they climb the steep mountains towards the observatory, while Moomin finds a golden anklet. Snufkin knows that the anklet belongs to the Snorkmaiden.

They arrive at the observatory, where they find out the comet will be colliding in two days. On the way back to home, Moomin saves the Snorkmaiden from a giant carnivorous plant, and they immediately fall in love with each other. Both snorks join the group while they try to reach Moominvalley before the comet. Two days later, Moomin and friends meet Hemulen and when hurricane strikes them, they all fly to the Moominhouse with Snufkin's tent. Back home, they all decide to move to an cave Sniff found for shelter. Sniff is lost during the move when he sees a kitten and begins to follow it with a piece of cake. When there are only minutes left to the expected moment of the comet impact, Moomin and Snufkin find Sniff, who is paralysed from fear and they carry him into the cave in the last minute. The comet almost crashes the earth, but suddenly changes its course and turns away.

Next morning, the sea returns and that cast celabrate on the beach, while Moomin gives Snorkmaiden an pearl he'd himself found at the same time.

Differences with the releases and from the novel
In Japan, it was shown with the short films: "Little Twins Whose Summer Flew" And: "Flower Witch Marie Belle: The Phoenix's Key", while in the rest of the countries it was shown in, it was its own separate movie, often seen as a series-wise finale. In international releases, was the majority of the score replaced by a new one by Pierre Kartner, since that majority was recycled from the series. Along with that, wrote and performed Kartner three new songs to replace the opening and ending ones from the Japanese version; the first one playing after the opening scenes, the sea exploration of Moomin and My and Sniff's simontainous discovery and implicit shared showing of the cave, the second one playing over Sniff's checking out and exploration of the crater, interruptely ended by Sniff's first sighting (albeit with glossing garnet eyes, due to illusion) of the monster, living in it and the last one playing over Moomin's pearl gifting and much of the credits; in many of these versions, loud seawaves are faded from the ending song, while it ends and in other versions, the song either is played in its entirety or, in the Polish version, plays the ending song of the series, after the movie's ending song ends.

As for from the novel, the differences are quite numerous:

- The first parts are heavily simplified; the going to the beach is simply an urgency in the movie, while in the novel, they end up there after attempting to go to an dangerous place and the seashell search they make for Moominmama, rather than from their own volition. With that, that search is unified with Moomin and My, while Sniff searches shells, rather than the beach itself, like in the movie, and complains to Moomin about swimming, instead of searching them. Sniff's discovery of the cave is just a finding, with amazement (including about finding it on his own) and shout for sharing it to Moomin and My, which he does, off-screen, but discussed in the next scene.

- The hanging restbed is already hung up in the movie, while in the novel, it was being set up in the beginning.

- Muskrat simply knocks on the door, after his home gets destroyed, albeit that in the same way as the novel (his dialogue is even word for word), while in the novel, Papa only finds him, while the other are sleeping.

- The slapstick scene before Muskrat drinks with them is removed.

- Muskrat is no longer a book reader, the philosophy happens to be from his head.

- The foreshadowing of the Hattifnatts is distilled to a simple sighting of them sailing down the river, in the montage of them traversing to the Lonely Mountains.

- My, Moomin and Sniff go the trip mainly through walking and subsequently, the only boat use is to the mountains to the observatory itself.

- Only the third Hemulen is in the movie.

- Moominpapa and mama simply suggest the observatory to Moomin and his company, rather than plan to wander there themselves in the back balcony.

- The perperation for the first trip isn't seen and both that and the trip begin in the same day, while the trip itself, for obvious reasons, happen later in the day.