''The Mézga Family'' (in Hungarian ''Mézga család'') is a fictional family from three animated TV series made by Pannónia Film Studio in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
between 1969 and 1978.
Scripts for the series were written by
József Romhányi
József Romhányi (8 March 1921 – 7 May 1983) was a Hungarian people, Hungarian writer, poet, translator, and artist.
Originally he wanted to be a musician and learned viola in the ''Székesfővárosi Felsőbb Zenei Iskola'' musical school ...
and József Nepp. Nepp also served as the film director. The series proved to be very popular, reaching cult status and televised, among others, in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
,
The Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and both German states. The series still regularly appear on television. Each consists of 13 episodes.
The Family
The family consists of Géza, the father, a comical and inept figure, his wife Paula who actually dominates family affairs,
pubertal
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy. ...
daughter Kriszta and 12-year-old son Aladár, a
child prodigy
A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to young people who are extraor ...
. The cat Maffia and a dog, Blöki accompany the family. Dr. Máris, their cynical neighbour, is regularly and involuntarily involved in disasters surrounding the family.
The name "Mézga" means glue, mucilage or tree gum in Hungarian and was renamed as ''rodina Smolíkova'' in Czech, which is a surname (derived from "smůla", i.e. "tree gum" or "bad luck") used also in fairy tales, ''La famiglia Mezil'' in Italian, ''Familie Metzger'' in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, which means butcher, ''Семејството Смола'' in Macedonian, ''Семейство Мейзга'' in
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
, ''Família Mézga/Mesga'' in Portuguese, and ''Miazgovci'' in Slovak. In Dutch, however, they were quite generically named ''De familie Sanders''; which has no further meaning.
The Series
The Mézga family
The first series was shot in 1968/1969 under the name ''Üzenet a jövőből – A Mézga család különös kalandjai'' ''(A message from the future – The fantastic adventures of the Mézga family).'' The family makes contact with MZ/X, their descendant from the 30th century, with whom child prodigy Aladár made a contact. MZ/X sends them, through time, various hypermodern gadgets which invariably result in a disaster. (An example is when MZ/X sends them something that makes the fruits in the Mézga's fruit garden grow to exceptional size. The family is happy with the enormous fruits until they realize that they forgot to kill the insects and other parasites, and they are chased away by gigantic locusts and worms. In another episode a house cleaning robot destroys the furniture because he doesn't understand commands in 20th century Hungarian language.) Episodes usually end with Paula's catch phrase "Why didn't I marry Pisti Hufnágel?", implying that she often regrets she chose Géza over another suitor. In the third series she finally accepts that Hufnágel is not what she imagined him to be.
The series were named ''Odkaz budoucnosti aneb Podivuhodná dobrodružství rodiny Smolíkovy'' in Czech, ''Messaggi dal futuro'' in Italian, ''Heißer Draht ins Jenseits – Phantastische Abenteuer der Familie Mézga'' in German, ''Невероятните приключения на Семейство Мейзга: Послания от Бъдещето'' in Bulgarian and ''Miazgovci I'' in Slovak.
The Adventures of Aladár Mézga
The next series was shot in 1972 under the title ''Mézga Aladár különös kalandjai'' (The Adventures of Aladár Mézga). Every night Aladár visits a different inhabited planet using an inflatable interstellar spaceship named ''Gulliverkli''. The name of his ship is a pun on (and a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsGulliver'' and '' verkli''. This space vehicle, both absurd and futuristic, was presumably built by Aladár, based on parts, supplies, and support provided by MZ/X, however the point is not tackled during the series, leaving the watcher to guess). In this series, Blöki can talk, as Aladár has taught him to speak, so he would make a suitable assistant for space travel. The series satirised various human and societal vices; for this reason, two episodes were not allowed to be shown in communist Czechoslovakia.
The series were named ''Podivuhodná dobrodružství Vladimíra Smolíka'' in Czech, ''L’astronave'' in Italian, ''Adolars phantastische Abenteuer'' in
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, ''Archibald, der Weltraumtrotter'' in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, ''Семейство Мейзга: Невероятните приключения на Аладар'' in Bulgarian, ''Miazgovci II'' in Slovak.
The Mézga Family on Holiday
The third series was shot in 1978 under the name ''Vakáción a Mézga család''. Pisti Hufnágel, a character mentioned a few times in the first series, the first love of Paula and her ideal, invites the family to spend holidays in Australia. A spare ticket is given to the neighbour, Dr. Ottokár Máris. It turns out that Hufnágel is a swindler and the Mézgas are left abandoned and penniless. Their effort to get home flings them into the most strange places, including the
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...
, and into bizarre situations. Pisti Hufnágel secretly follows them and always turns their hopes into catastrophe. Only when they finally arrive home and find out their flat has been completely ransacked by Hufnágel does Paula lose her faith in her ideal.
Unlike the first two series, which consisted of one-story episodes, this series is a single story arc.
The series were named ''Podivuhodné prázdniny rodiny Smolíkovy'' in Czech, ''Le vacanze della famiglia Mezil'' in Italian, ''Die Abenteuer der Familie Metzger'' in German, ''Семейство Мейзга във ваканция'' in Bulgarian, ''Miazgovci na cestách'' in Slovak, ''De familie Sanders is anders'' in Dutch, and ''La Familia Mezga'' in Spanish.
The Mézga Family and the Computer
During 2005, the Ex-Ist studio prepared a new series under the title ''A Mézga család és a (sz)ámítógép'' where the family gets acquainted with
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s and the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. However, the show was later canceled due to a lack of funding, as the economic situation in Hungary grew worse.Info at index.hu /ref> Only two fully-animated episodes were made from the original 13-episode order.