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Alfie Atkins

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Alfie Atkins
Cutout of Alfie at Stockholm Arlanda Airport
AuthorGunilla Bergström
Original title
Alfons Åberg
IllustratorGunilla Bergström
Cover artistGunilla Bergström
CountrySweden
LanguageSwedish
GenreChildren
PublisherRabén & Sjögren, Julia MacRae Books
Published1972- 2012

Alfie Atkins (Swedish: Alfons Åberg) is a fictional character created by the author Gunilla Bergström from Sweden in 1972. Alfie Atkins appears in books and animated cartoons. Alfie plays the role of a normal child, living with his father. During his younger years he had an imaginary friend named Malcolm (Mållgan in Swedish; Moggie in English TV version), that only Alfie could see. Later, he gets real friends such as Milla and Victor (Viktor). He also has a housecat named Puzzle (Pussel).

In the books, Alfie experiences many ordinary everyday events that kids can easily recognize. In his longing to grow up and be a big boy, Alfie often competes with his father on who can manage these events in the best way. Alfie's father is a nice and positive man. Women appear less frequently in the stories: Alfie has an aunt named Fifi (Fiffi) and a grandmother, but no mother is present.

The first book about Alfie, Goodnight, Alfie Atkins (Godnatt, Alfons Åberg), came out in 1972. There are 24 books in the Alfie series, along with seven other Alfie books for smaller children. The books have been translated into 29 different languages. The books are written and illustrated by Gunilla Bergström.

Alfie Atkins is named Alfons Åberg in Swedish and Danish, Willi Wiberg in German, Albert Åberg in Norwegian, Albert Albertson in Polish, Einar Áskell in Icelandic, Mikko Mallikas or Alfons Jokinen in Finnish, Ifan Bifan in Welsh, Eliyahu in Hebrew, Frančkov Fonzek in Slovenian and Alphonse Aubert in French.

The publishing company of the books is Rabén & Sjögren and Julia MacRae Books.

The last book was published in 2012, nine years before Gunilla Bergström died at the age of 79.[1]

Books

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Film

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Starting in the late 1970s, a cartoon series was produced, containing adaptations of the books. The main director was Per Åhlin, the musical score was composed by Georg Riedel and the narration was provided by Björn Gustafson. The show was a co-production between Åhlin's company PennFilm, the Swedish Film Institute and the Nordic television channels SVT, NRK, DR and YLE. Between 1979 and 1982, thirteen episodes of approximately 10 minutes each were produced. In 1994, three additional shorts were produced.

Animated feature and subsequent cartoon series (2010s)

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In 2013, Norwegian director Torill Kove brought Alfie Atkins to cinemas with the feature presentation Hocus Pocus Alfie Atkins. It is based on the book of the same title with additions made for the sake of runtime[2] The film was followed by a new Alfie Atkins TV series of 13 episodes.

References

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  1. ^ Brodej, Gunilla (26 August 2021). "Alfons Åbergs "mamma" Gunilla Bergström är död" (in Swedish). Expressen. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  2. ^ "Hokus pokus Albert Åberg". IMDb.
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