The Crumpets

The French animated series “The Crumpets” was launched late 2013 and is based on the preschool picture books “Petit Dernier” by Didier Lévy and Frédéric Benaglia. It follows the daily adventures of a huge family with 142 children. All the members of the Crumpet family have large white, crumpet-sized heads and a huge pink nose. Each of the Crumpet children have their own distinct personality, but the show centers only around a smaller number of them.

The oldest member of the family is Granny, who lives with the family. She has a gambling addiction and is obsessed with money. The youngest one is Li’l One, who despises his father but worships his mother. Ma Crumpet is an inventor, and Pa Crumpet works as a gardener. They love each other very much and find it difficult at times to take care of such a large family. The main characters of the show include their tall and sleepy son Pfff, their gothic bipolar daughter Caprice, the strong Triceps, the head-losing thinker Ditzy, the eccentric artist Fynartz, the pranksters Bother and Blister, the nervous and scared Ohoh and King, who walks around in a lion costume.

The first batch of 52 episodes centred on the whole family, while the second batch of 52, released in 2017 and 2018, put more emphasis on the older children of the Crumpets. It turned out the teenagers were among the more popular family members with the audience, so “Teen Crumpets” was sure to be a hit.

Altough the series is being broadcast as children’s programming, and is an adaptation from a preschool book with colorful visuals and adorable characters, the show contains a good amount of inappropriate material to young children, such as sexual themes, suicidal behaviour, animal harm, and rare gruesome violence. Many of these elements were softened in season three before they’re somewhat elevated back for season four.

In the original French version, the series is known as “Les Crumpets”.