Ottifant
The Ottifant is the German comedian Otto Waalkes thought up, in comic drawn style elephant . The name Ottifant is a suitcase word from the trivialized first name of the comedian Otto → Otti and the animalistic reference to the figures, elephants . The Ottifanten became a trademark and a kind of mascot of Otto Waalkes and appear again and again in his stage shows and on numerous merchandise products.
history
The first Ottifanten were found on Otto Waalkes' record covers in 1973, as he gave his record company the name " Rüssl Räckords ". Later comic strips appeared in newspapers as well as various merchandising articles. In 1993 the 13-part cartoon series Otto's Ottifanten was created for the TV station RTL , in which Otto Waalkes spoke the voice of Baby Bruno; it was first broadcast on September 25, 1993 and later repeated on Super RTL .
In 2001 the movie Kommando Störtebeker based on it followed .
For the video game console MegaDrive by Sega video game was released in 1993 The Ottifanten . In 1998 the game Otto's Ottifanten - Baby Bruno's Nightmare was released for the Game Boy .
In Emden there is a museum built by Otto, the so-called Otto-Huus. On the upper floor of the Otto-Huus there is a museum in which memorabilia from the early days of his career are on display. Mainly fan articles are sold on the ground floor, such as Ottifanten. A prominent feature of this house is the larger than life sculpture of an Ottifanten, which is attached to the outer wall in such a way that it gives the impression that it is breaking through the wall. In the Transvaal district of Emden , near Otto's birthplace, there is also a sculpture depicting two kissing Ottifanten.
While the original design of the Ottifanten as four-legged friends is strongly based on elephants, the Ottifanten of the comics and television series are much more humanoid and appear as two-legged friends.
Main characters of the Ottifanten comics
Bommel family
Paul Bommel : Paul, the not necessarily recognized head of the family, works as an accountant in Kaluppke & Co., which produces screws. He is very eager for authority and while he has the best of intentions and tries to do his job with great ambition and effort, he is not very popular with his co-workers and his own boss. His clumsiness and slight naivety is usually an integral part of the stories about the Ottifanten. He always prefers to wear a bow tie , vest and hat . Even if allusions and jokes are often made, including by their own family, that he receives a very low salary, the Bommels still live in a comparatively handsome, large house that is actually hard to pay for a normal wage earner. He tries to get a raise on his job several times, but his boss always rejects his requests. Nevertheless, Paul is usually given responsibility for important tasks and projects in the company, which usually go wrong because of his clumsiness and naivety. His greatest wish is to become the head of the accounting department, but this has so far been denied him. He drives a blue, a bit old, small car that is repeatedly damaged by his father's instigated races or other accidents. In these cases, the otherwise calm-minded Paul also tends to have emotional outbursts. His voice actor was Wolfgang Draeger in the series and Bastian Pastewka in the film .
Renate Bommel : Paul's wife represents the calming pole of the Bommel family and is the most sensible and down-to-earth person in the family. She is a housewife, but in her free time she is very volunteer (in the film she works on an organizing committee to save the hospital) and artistically (in the series she plays at the theater or completes various courses at the adult education center). Renate loves her husband more than anything, despite his clumsiness and low income. In the episode Greif she reveals the cash out of shame to her old school friends, who had married well-to-do men several times, although not Paul's right job, but generally assists him with problems. Paul and Renate met and fell in love with each other in a car accident he had caused, where he accidentally hit them at a zebra crossing, which later became known as Happy Birthday . She was voiced by Monika Barth in the series and by Karin Eckhold in the film .
Bruno Bommel : The one-year-old son of Paul and Renate is usually the main character in the Ottifanten stories. His thoughts are transmitted in the form of voice-overs , otherwise Bruno makes the usual sounds for his age. He was voiced in the series and in the film by its inventor Otto Waalkes . He mostly spends his free time with improvised or simulated games as a police officer, director, treasure hunter or as a superhero (as his alter ego Captain Pamper ), either alone, with neighbors' children or with Grandpa Bommel. In many of these games he also depicts real events. Despite his age, he is a big fan of action and horror films (his favorite films are about the fictional gruesome gumbo ) and often tries, but mostly unsuccessfully, to borrow or borrow these films from the video store to penetrate the cinema. He is in love with Lisa, the girl next door, who regularly makes advances to her and is usually successful. His constant companion and best friend is his teddy bear Honk (whose name comes from a label on the teddy bear that reads Made in Hong Kong ).
Grandpa Bommel : He is Paul's father and mostly at the center of the Ottifanten stories. Despite his 90 years of age, he is still in very good physical condition. He mostly spends his free time to be out and about with his friends Otto, Karlchen and Jockel and to get going. Between him and his son Paul there are always arguments about his small blue car, as he repeatedly uses the car against his son's will, although he is no longer supposed to drive it because of his old age, and usually affects him in the process pulls. Grandpa Bommel, whose first name is not mentioned (his son Paul and his daughter-in-law Renate call him father , his mates simply call him Bommel ), had already lived in the old people's home before he escaped boredom and settled in his son's house. His greatest favorite pastime is telling stories from his life, mostly made up, in which he met many well-known personalities, traveled a lot around the world, was allegedly involved in major historical events and worked in several, sometimes curious, professions. He also has a box with everyday things, but he always invents an unusual story for them. His voice actor was in the series Günter Lüdke , in the film Ferdinand Dux .
Minor characters
Erna Hoppmann : Erna Hoppmann works as a cleaning lady at Kaluppke & Co. and is therefore a colleague of Paul Bommel. She wears a black coat and a black bow in her hair, always has a cigar in the corner of her mouth and lives an unhealthy and unsanitary lifestyle. She lives in a shabby apartment and is a fan of Master Proper , Howard Carpendale, and other well-built men. She also shows a vulgar predilection for sex . In the company, however, she attaches great importance to order and cleanliness by threatening anyone with violence who wants to step on her freshly wiped floor. She expresses these warnings with the worst fecal expressions up to and including death threats. Otherwise, she usually hurls her foes in the faces of her victims or even beats them up. Apart from work, she is usually a guest in the extremely unhygienic snack bar Chez Kalli , where she often has lunch with Paul Bommel or meets to play the fictional card game Eumelzocken . Little is known about her family: Her father dies in an episode of comics as a result of his unhealthy lifestyle when he is about to visit his daughter, who has never seen him before. Apparently she has five fathers because her mother slept with five men that night. Her mother is a seafarer, comes to visit in another comic episode and befriends Grandpa Bommel. In terms of character, she behaves like her daughter and looks almost exactly the same except for her height.
Fräulein ("Frollein") Lusch : She is the extremely lazy secretary of Paul Bommel, has considerable orthographic deficits that border on illiteracy (for example, a total of 567 spelling errors in a dictation she has written are still top marks and a professional " Continuing Education "turns out to be consuming Sesame Street to learn the letters of the alphabet) and has tons of green plants in her office. Their number varies from a small biotope to a jungle . She spoils some of them like a toddler ( her potted plant Bibi does not perish in the series episode Weeds and her cactus Bubi in several comics ) and leaves all work in the office behind. At the same time, she paints her fingernails, speaks on the phone with friends and uses every opportunity to leave the workplace. She doesn't get along very well with Paul Bommel. Not much is known about her privately. In the series episode The Beast of the Suburbs , she reveals that she also has tons of green plants at home and that it takes several hours to water them. She also tans under her tanning bed every evening .
Egon Kaluppke : He is the general director of Kaluppke & Co. and Paul Bommel's superior. He runs the company as an old school patriarch and is always to be found in a blue pinstripe suit and with a cigar in his mouth. Overall, he thinks little of Paul, which is why he repeatedly rejects his requests for a salary increase. On the other hand, he relies on him for important orders or praises him in front of his business partner, Mr. Borschleck. His first name varies: in the series episode Traumhochzeit he introduces himself to Paul, disguised as a woman, as Egon, in a comic strip he is called Hubert by his nephew, who is dueling with Paul for the position of department head.
Norbert Bosewinkel : The son of a neighboring family is the same age as Bruno, mentally retarded and wears diapers that urgently need to be changed. His trademarks are his stupid-sounding scraps of words, his tongue hanging out and the eating of sand . He also likes to hook up with the neighbor girl Lisa, which arouses Bruno's displeasure and which is why both are enemies, especially in the series. However, the two get along well in some comic episodes.
Mr. and Mrs. Bosewinkel : They are neighbors of the Bommels and the parents of Norbert. Like their son, the Bosewinkels are not exactly hygienic and intelligent. The family lives to the left of the Bommels in a house that had previously been empty for a long time, which Grandpa Bommel thought was a haunted house.
Lisa : She is a baby from another family in the neighborhood, also the same age as Bruno and his crush. She wears a red bow in her blonde hair. While she is the lovely girl next door in the series and lovingly reciprocates Bruno's flirts, in the comics she also becomes violent when he becomes too clingy. Her family lives to the right of the Bommels and appears in the series in the episodes Greif den Zaster and Traumhochzeit .
Otto : He's one of Grandpa Bommel's friends and, as the quartet's mouthpiece, always has a casual saying on his lips. Otto always wears a beige suit jacket and always has a cigar in his mouth.
Karlchen : He is also a friend of Grandpa Bommel and at the same time the driver and owner of the car that the four friends usually use. His character is polite, shy and tends to hold back in arguments.
Jockel Krawinkel : Jockel is also a friend of Grandpa Bommel, who lives in the old people's home. His trademark are his ambiguous sayings and his malicious laugh. He wears white whiskers and always has a cane with him. He mentions his last name in the series Dream Wedding .
Kalli : Kalli is the owner of the unsanitary snack bar Chez Kalli and a friend of Mrs. Hoppmann. Not much is known about him, except that he has forgotten when his birthday is and therefore celebrates it every week so as not to go wrong. He has a three-day beard , a dirty smock and smokes incessantly. His snack bar is on the outside of the wall that encloses the company premises.
Mr. Borschleck : He is a business partner of Kaluppke, director of the partner company Borschleck & Sohn, and appears from time to time in the series as well as in the comics. He is usually skeptical about Paul Bommel, as his clumsiness does not remain hidden from him either. He usually wears a black suit and a melon-like hat.
Other characters (from the comics)
Brock : Brock is a slightly older boy with a mohawk who lives a few streets away. He behaves in a tyrannical manner and teases both Bruno and other children in the neighborhood. He shows no respect for adults either. Despite his youth, he smokes and drinks. He comes from a broken home and is completely uneducated.
Eddie : Eddie is a brother of Renate who is behind bars for several criminal offenses. In one of the comic strips, he breaks out of prison and goes into hiding with the Bommels. He makes them believe that he has finished with his past, but continues to attract attention through criminal tricks.
Martin : Martin is a nephew of Paul and Renate who comes to visit every now and then. He is a staunch vegetarian, has worked in the rainforest, vigorously protests against any kind of pollution and meat consumption, and tries to dissuade the Bommels from their eating habits. Usually he wears glasses and dungarees or a self-knitted sweater.
Alfred : Alfred is a half-brother of Paul and has only appeared in a comic book so far. Unlike Paul, he is wealthy and can afford more. That's why Grandpa Bommel thinks more of him than of Paul.
Hotte : Hotte is the pimp of Ms. Hoppmann. He has only appeared once in a comic episode, otherwise he is only mentioned several times by Ms. Hoppmann in conversations with Paul Bommel. Both maintain a relationship, but are not true to each other.
Rupert Klöhn : He is a former school friend of Grandpa Bommel's, even if this is not to be suspected during visits, as neither of them get along well. He appeared in two comic strips, in one of which he had to undergo major heart surgery.
Ms. Budnikowski : She works in the postal department of Kaluppke & Co. , but is often employed to reinforce the accounting department. Their overly cheerful behavior drives both Paul Bommel and the other employees crazy. She goes on duet with all colleagues and knits for them often bizarre things.
Death : He is portrayed as a grim reaper : his body and face (except for his trunk) are hidden under a black cloak, and he is dragging a scythe around with him. He appears at the Bommels at regular intervals to finally take Grandpa Bommel, who is the only one to see him, with him. Grandpa Bommel, on the other hand, always uses all sorts of tricks to convince death to come back later. Death has a guest appearance in the movie Kommando Störtebeker , but it did not appear in the series.
Radio play cassettes
There are 20 radio play cassettes that have nothing in common with the television series:
|
|
Kickers Emden
Otto Waalkes allowed the then third division soccer club BSV Kickers Emden in 2005 to advertise with the Ottifanten and to use them for merchandising articles. At the end of the 1980s, Otto Waalkes himself was the club's main sponsor ; at the time, the players wore a logo with Ottifanten on their jerseys.
Postage stamps
On March 1, 2017, Deutsche Post AG issued a postage stamp with a face value of 70 cents showing an Ottifanten with a rainbow. The brand was also available as a set of 10 with self-adhesive brands.
exhibition
From April 26, 2018 to September 2, 2018, the Caricatura Museum for Komische Kunst in Frankfurt am Main showed Otto - The exhibition , which is primarily about Ottifanten.
Books
-
The Book of the Ottifanten. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-89136-214-5 .
- The Ottifanten paperback. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-453-03658-1 .
-
Otto's Ottifanten 2. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-89136-280-3 .
- The second paperback of the Ottifanten. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-04853-9 .
-
Otto's Ottifanten 3. Look me in the eye, little one! Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-306-0 .
- The third paperback of the Ottifanten. Look into my eyes, Small! Heyne Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-453-06388-0 .
-
Otto's Ottifanten 4. Grizzlies don't take anything! Semmel-Verlach, Kiel 1991, ISBN 3-89460-014-4 .
- The fourth paperback of the Ottifanten. Grizzlies can't take anything! Heyne Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-08269-9 .
-
Otto's Ottifanten 5. I'll have cartilage gratinée! Semmel-Verlach, Kiel 1992, ISBN 3-89460-031-4 .
- The fifth paperback of the Ottifanten. I'll have gratiné gratin! Heyne Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-08926-X .
-
Otto's Ottifanten 6. Mr. Sexy and Mr. Cool! Semmel-Verlach, Kiel 1992, ISBN 3-89460-072-1 .
- The sixth paperback of the Ottifanten. Mr. Sexy and Mr. Cool! Heyne Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-453-09297-X .
- Otto's Ottifanten - Large special color volume No. 1. Höhenflug Semmel-Verlach, Kiel 1992, ISBN 3-89460-024-1 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 7. Beach Babies! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 1994, ISBN 3-928950-55-X .
- Otto's Ottifanten 8. Always full pants! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 1995, ISBN 3-928950-67-3 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 9. Free! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 1996, ISBN 3-928950-81-9 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 10. Congratulations! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 1997, ISBN 3-928950-90-8 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 11. Freshly wiped! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 1998, ISBN 3-89719-036-2 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 12. Fit for Future! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 1999, ISBN 3-89719-067-2 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 13. Buy or Die! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 2000, ISBN 3-89719-072-9 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 14th Simsala Bear! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 2001, ISBN 3-89719-177-6 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 15th Vote Honk! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 2002, ISBN 3-89719-178-4 .
- Otto's Ottifanten 16th Bonzai! Achterbahn Verlag, Kiel 2003, ISBN 3-89982-211-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ OTTIFANTS. Animated series, accessed on October 26, 2012 .
- ↑ rm: Otto's Ottifanten - Baby Bruno's Nightmare - Cheats for Game Boy. Retrieved June 8, 2018 .
- ↑ The Ottifanten is now available as a 70-cent krone.at stamp from March 1, 2017
- ^ Otto - The exhibition
Web links
- Ully Arndt Studios - This is where the daily comic strips are produced
- Entry of the TV series on Animated Series.de
- The Ottifanten story. Hans "Riebe" Riebesehl reports on the first merchandising articles.