Noddy is a character created by English children's author Enid Blyton. He is depicted as a wooden toy with a childlike view of the world. He resides in the fictional setting of Toyland, where he works as a taxi driver. Noddy is known for driving a yellow car with red fenders, and is depicted with a variety of supporting toy characters, including Big Ears, a brownie who is Noddy's best friend and Mr. Plod, the local policeman.
Noddy first appeared in a book series published between 1949 and 1963, illustrated by the Dutch artist Harmsen van der Beek from 1949 until his death in 1953, after which the work was continued by Mary Brooks, Robert Lee, Robert Tyndall and Peter Wienk. Television shows based on the character have run on British television since 1955.
History Noddy was conceived by Enid Blyton in response to a request from David White, of the publisher Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd., to create a series of picture books which featured strong, central characters to rival the work of Walt Disney. Sheila Hodgetts had already had success with her series of Toby Twirl books. White was seeking an artist to collaborate with Blyton. While reviewing sample drawings submitted by an agent, he encountered a sheet illustrated by Dutch artist Harmsen van der Beek depicting what he later described as "fantastically lively little people" alongside small houses surrounded by bluebells that were "as proportionately big as trees." White was convinced that Harmsen was the perfect artist to work with Blyton that he arranged a meeting to be held immediately to help visualise her new character.
An interpreter was employed for Harmsen. White explained that they wanted to use Harmsen's distinctive toys, figures, houses and shops as the setting for a new series written by Blyton. After Blyton described the unnamed central character, whom she imagined emerging from Toyland, Harmsen sketched a small wooden toy wearing a long, bell-topped hat. Blyton said the drawing closely resembled the character she had envisioned. The meeting resulted in the development of several characters and the basic concept for the series. Four days after the meeting, Blyton sent the text of the first two Noddy books to her publisher, to be forwarded to van der Beek.
Noddy first appeared in the Sunday Graphic between 5 June and 31 July 1949, the same year as Blyton's first daily Noddy strip for the London Evening Standard. The second book, Hurrah for Little Noddy was the first to appear, followed by the first book Noddy Goes to Toyland, serialised from 7 August to 25 September 1949. In November that year Noddy Goes to Toyland, the first of at least two dozen books in the series, was published.
The Noddy books became one of Blyton's most successful and best-known series, and were hugely popular in the 1950s. Children were instantly attracted to van der Beek's illustrations and seemed to identify themselves with Noddy. An extensive range of sub-series, spin-offs and strip books was produced throughout the decade, including Noddy's Library, Noddy's Garage of Books, Noddy's Castle of Books, Noddy's Toy Station of Books and Noddy's Shop of Books. Until his death in 1953, Harmsen insisted on illustrating everything himself, the workload began to weigh him down. Harmsen confessed to David White that, at times, when he was working through into the early hours to meet a deadline, "Little Noddies" would appear from everywhere and crawl all over his desk.
The first television adaptation of Noddy called The Adventures of Noddy was first broadcast in 1955, which was narrated by Enid Blyton. The programme would also broadcast in German on ARD in 1963.
Kellogg's would acquire the rights to use Noddy on advertisements in 1955.
Noddy continued to be successful in the 1960s; by 1962, 26 million copies of Noddy had been sold. In 1963, Noddy was featured in the animated short film Noddy Goes to Toyland, it was produced by Arthur Humberstone for Enid Blyton. Blyton concluded several of her long-running series in 1963. Blyton published her last book in the Noddy series, Noddy and the Aeroplane, in February 1964.
By the early 1960s, some 146 different companies were involved in merchandising Noddy alone. Bestime released the Little Noddy Car Game in 1953 and the Little Noddy Leap Frog Game in 1955, and in 1956 American manufacturer Parker Brothers released Little Noddy's Taxi Game, a board game which features Noddy driving about town, picking up various characters. Bestime released its Plywood Noddy Jigsaws series in 1957 and a Noddy jigsaw series featuring cards appeared from 1963, with illustrations by Robert Lee. Arrow Games became the chief producer of Noddy jigsaws in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1975, another television adaptation simply titled Noddy was broadcast. It was produced and directed by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall under their company Stop Frame Productions and was narrated by Richard Briers. It broadcast on ITV from 1975 to 1976.
On 25 October 1982, Rupert Weekly, a comic magazine based on the character Rupert Bear was published by Marvel UK featuring Noddy.
In 1990s, Noddy began regaining popularity since his heyday of 1950s and 1960s, as in 1992, a Noddy television series produced by BBC Worldwide and Cosgrove Hall called Noddy's Toyland Adventures was broadcast on the Children's BBC, as well as a Noddy Magazine published by the BBC.
In January 1996, Trocadero PLC (later known as "Chorion Limited") acquired Darrell Waters Ltd., the holding company for the estate of children's author Enid Blyton for £14.6 million. They soon formed a new subsidiary - Enid Blyton Ltd. to handle all intellectual properties, character brands, and media in Blyton's works, including Noddy.
In 1997, Enid Blyton Ltd. decided to sell the Noddy archive in 1997. The first Noddy sale was held in October 1997c the second in November 1998 and the third in Sotheby's in London in April 2000.
In 1998, producer Rick Siggelkow brought Noddy into the North American market in a television series called The Noddy Shop, but with all of the live-action scenes filmed in Canada. Much like how Siggelkow introduced Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends to American audiences through Shining Time Station, the series incorporated footage from Noddy's Toyland Adventures re-dubbed with American accents. In its first season on PBS, the show was seen by an average of 2.5 million viewers per episode, higher than Sesame Streets average during the same year. Actor Jack Nicholson and Friends star Lisa Kudrow had their picture taken with Noddy at the Aids Paediatric event in New York, USA in June 1999.
By 1999, 200 million Noddy books had been sold in 27 languages. Noddy is known as "Oui Oui" in France, "Doddi" in Iceland, "Purzelknirps" in Germany and "Hilitos" in Spain.
A Noddy television series called Make Way for Noddy was first announced to be in production in October 2000, with 100 11-minute episodes and a feature-length Christmas special announced to be in production for a 2001 delivery. In January 2001, SD Entertainment were announced to be producers on the series and they announced it would be their first project. In May 2002, UK's Channel Five announced that it had commissioned 100 episodes of the series, airing in September of that year. The range of newly developed TV shows at Chorion began to expand internationally, with Noddy becoming the most recognised children's character in France in 2003 and sold to the Chinese market in 2004, and airing in the US on PBS Kids in 2005.
In 2005, a set of 100 new, two-minute TV interstitials were created by Chorion for Make way for Noddy. These interstitials, entitled Say it with Noddy, feature Noddy learning words in a variety of foreign languages. They also introduced Noddy's new friend Whizz from Robot Village, who presses a button on his chest to play recordings of native speakers saying the new foreign-language words can Noddy was to learn. The interstitials were featured on commercial breaks on UK's Five and featured as segments for the American airing of the show on PBS and now-defunct Universal Kids (formerly known as "Sprout").
Noddy, Big Ears, Mr. Plod, and several other characters from British children's literature appeared at the Children's Party at the Palace on 25 June 2006 in honour of the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. During the pantomime-style play called The Queen's Handbag, Noddy and Big Ears were portrayed by performers in mascot-style costumes, while Mr. Plod was played by actor Martin Clunes.Stars and children to gather at Buckingham Palace for the party of lifetime (published 11 June 2006; Retrieved 13 July 2006)
Blyton's granddaughter, Sophie Smallwood, wrote a new Noddy book to celebrate the character's 60th birthday, 46 years after the final book was published; Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle (2009) was illustrated by Robert Tyndall.
For the 60th anniversary, a CGI-animated series, called Noddy in Toyland, by Chorion and produced by Brown Bag Films in Ireland, was broadcast starting on 20 April 2009. This series incorporates Whizz from "Say it with Noddy" as a full-time character. Sly and Gobbo's cousins, Sneaky and Stealth, are introduced and sometimes work along with them. The full series is available digitally on iTunes (now as "Apple TV").
Other celebrations for the 60th anniversary included a museum exhibit of Noddy art in London in late 2008 and a stage show. The Noddy books were announced to be published China. Actress Sienna Miller and her fashion designer sister, Savannah, owners of the label Twenty8Twelve, unveiled a fashion collection inspired by Noddy and Big Ears at London Fashion Week in February 2009.
The 2009 biographical film Enid, which portrays the life of Enid Blyton, includes several references to the Noddy series. In one scene, Blyton is depicted typing the opening lines of the first Noddy book, Noddy Goes to Toyland. She is later shown reading the book to her second husband, Kenneth Darrell Waters. In the film's third act, a Noddy figurine appears on her desk, and in the final scene, both a poster for Noddy Goes to Toyland and the figurine are shown on a desk in a library setting.
After financial difficulties, Chorion sold its assets. On 7 March 2012, DreamWorks Classics (formerly Classic Media, now a subsidiary of DreamWorks Animation) purchased the Noddy and Olivia properties. Hachette UK purchased the rest of Enid Blyton's works with the exception of Noddy on 26 March 2012.
In 2016, a CGI-animated series, named Noddy, Toyland Detective was produced by French producer/distributor Gaumont Animation, in association with DreamWorks Animation Television, and in partnership with France Télévisions. It premiered on Channel Five's preschool block Milkshake! on 18 April 2016.
On 1 January 2024, the illustrations for the first seven Noddy books by Harmsen van der Beek entered the public domain.
Character biography
The first book explains Noddy's origins. He is made by a woodcarver in a toy shop but runs away after the man begins to make a wooden lion, which scares Noddy. As he wanders through the woods naked, penniless, and homeless, he meets Big Ears, a friendly brownie. Big Ears decides that Noddy is a toy and takes him to live in Toyland. He generously provides Noddy with a set of clothing and a house. While Noddy is quite happy to be a toy, the citizens of Toyland are not sure that he actually is one. They put Noddy on trial and examine whether he is a toy or an ornament. Eventually, Noddy is declared a toy, but still has to convince the court that he is a good toy. The judge accepts that Noddy is good after a doll tells the court that he saved her little girl from a lion, and he is allowed to stay in Toyland. Noddy gets his car in the second book. It is given to him after he helps solve a local mystery.