Krtek

Another illustrated character I remember loving when I was little is Krtek, or Mole, who was the creation of Czech animator Zdeněk Miler. The Mole first appeared in a 1956 animation about how flax is processed. He returned in 1963 and has appeared in around 50 animated stories since then. Although the first story of Mole was narrated, Miler decided that he wanted Mole to be understood by everyone. He settled on using recordings of short non-figurative exclamations made by his daughters to express the Mole's feelings. I'm glad he did...

I recently came across one of my favourite Mole animated stories on YouTube, The Mole and the Swallow, which was made in 2000.

This is a fridge magnet which I picked up when working in Prague last year. Aaw, isn’t he adorable...