20 years of Peppa Pig, the ‘a little bossy’ pig that children continue to grow up with

Although the character of Peppa Pig continues to be 4 years old, the British children’s series that tells the story of this little pig’s family (“adorable, but a little bossy”, as defined on its website) and its interaction with a world full of animals celebrated its 20th anniversary last Friday.

Peppa Pig has been two decades since its first broadcast in 2004, in which it has been changing and dealing with the diversity of families, such as in one of its episodes where it talks about a teacher living alone and having a band with her sisters or that Suzy Sheep lives alone with her mother.

It is also shown how Mandy Mouse a little mouse in a wheelchair, plays with her mother and father in the park, or how Penny Polar Bear has two mothers, a fact that was highlighted by the international media and by LGBT rights organizations such as Stonewall.

His fame even reached the political sphere, with an event involving former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021, who, during one of his speeches, in which he lost his notes, ended up talking about the ‘Peppa Pig’ theme park, located in the south of England.

Or with the elimination in Australia of one of its episodes, ‘La Señora Patas Flacas’, in which the father of Peppa Pig He tells him that he should not be afraid of spiders, since there are several poisonous species in the oceanic country.

A perennial childhood

Although it turns 20 this year, Peppa Pig has not grown up in the series and continues to be a curious four-year-old, in the process of discovering the world around her.

According to the Peppa Pig theme park website, the idea for the character arose from the animators’ intention to create a protagonist of a series who was a girl, but “different from the existing representations of princesses and ballerinas.”

In fact, as its creators revealed in an interview with the British media ‘The Guardian’, some of its anecdotes were based on the little girl who voiced the protagonist of the series.

‘Peppa Pig’, created by Mark Baker and Neville Astley, produced by Phil Davies, It has accumulated more than three hundred episodes under its belt – 378, according to IMDb, until its seventh season – and has won three BAFTA awards for best preschool animation, in 2005, 2011 and 2012.

Anniversary celebrations

Although its park in the United Kingdom does not plan to organize any special event for the anniversary, as confirmed to EFE, in Spain the children’s show ‘The Adventures of Peppa Pig!’ He has visited several cities in the country for this reason.

Even so, the anniversary is celebrated with the broadcast of a special episode, divided into three parts, in which two new characters are introduced (Mrs. Leopard, voiced in English by the singer Katy Perry, and Mr. Raccoon, with that of actor Orlando Bloom).

In addition, the United Kingdom postal company Royal Mail presented special stamps and envelopes for the Peppa Pig anniversary, along with other stationery objects with illustrations from the series.

Likewise, the British toy store Hamleys wanted to remember the 20th anniversary in its window of the London store on Regent Street with products inspired by the famous family of pigs, whose series is broadcast in 180 countries and has been dubbed into 40 languages.