''Upin & Ipin'' ( Jawi: اوڤين دان ايڤين) is a Malaysian

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

produced by Les' Copaque Production. The series features the life and adventures of the eponymous bald twin brothers in a fictional

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Originally a

side project In popular music, a side project is a project undertaken by one or more people already known for their involvement in another band. It can also be an artist or a band temporarily switching to a different style. Usually these projects emphasize ...

for the blockbuster animated film '' Geng: The Adventure Begins'', ''Upin & Ipin'' was introduced on TV9 in Malaysia and MNCTV in Indonesia on 13 September 2007 as a six episode

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Hari Raya Aidilfitri , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , date ...

special, to teach children the significance of the Islamic holy month of

and

Shawwal Shawwal ( ar, شَوَّال, ') is the tenth month of the lunar based Islamic calendar. ''Shawwāl'' stems from the verb ''shāla'' () which means to 'lift or carry', generally to take or move things from one place to another, Fasting during S ...

. A second season, also centered on Ramadan, aired in 2008. Its third season, ''Upin Ipin and Friends,'' debuted internationally on

Disney Channel Asia Disney Channel was a pan-Asian pay television kids channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia; part of The Walt Disney Company Asia-Pacific. It began broadcasting in Taiwan on 29 March 1995, until its main launch on Ja ...

the following year, and began to focus more on the everyday lives of The Twins and their friends. As of 2023, ''Upin & Ipin'' is the longest-running Malaysian animated series, currently in its 16th year of production, and is currently in its 16th season.

Premise

Upin and Ipin are five-year-old Malaysian twins who reside with their elder sister Ros and grandmother Uda (whom they call Opah) in a village house in Kampung Durian Runtuh. They lost their parents in their infancy. Upin and Ipin study in the village's Tadika Mesra (kindergarten) with a group of classmates, including the adorable and right-thinking Mei Mei, the poetic joker Jarjit Singh, the clumsy and short-tempered Ehsan, the easygoing and sarcastic Fizi, and the entrepreneurial and meticulous Mail. The headman of Kampung Durian Runtuh is Isnin bin Khamis, better known as Tok Dalang Ranggi, the

Wayang , also known as ( jv, ꦮꦪꦁ, translit=wayang), is a traditional form of puppet theatre play originating from the Indonesian island of Java. refers to the entire dramatic show. Sometimes the leather puppet itself is referred to as . Perfor ...

Kulit champion. Tok Dalang keeps a cluster of rambutan trees for commercial purposes, and a rooster named "Rembo". Among the village's other notable residents are Muthu, owner of the village's only food stall who lives with his animal whisperer son Rajoo and pet steer Sapy; Salleh (Sally), a transgender-apparent who owns a mobile library; and Ah Tong, a strident-voiced vegetable farmer. Additionally, a new character was introduced in later seasons: an Indonesian girl named Susanti who moved to Kampung Durian Runtuh with her family.

Broadcast history

Classic Season (Season 1-2)

Season 1 (2007)

The first season of ''Upin & Ipin'' was aired on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 7.30 pm, in conjunction with

and Eid-ul-fitri, which tells of the twins Upin and Ipin on their first fasting months. The first four shorts debuted early in the holy weeks, followed by re-airings from 22 September to 11 October, finally ending with two final episodes premiering on Hari Raya itself. This series bore away the Best Animation award in the 2007 New York International Film Festival.

Season 2 (2008)

The second series, under its full title ''Upin & Ipin: Setahun Kemudian'', went on air in conjunction with Ramadan again, with 12 new episodes, the first six of which were aired and repeated on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 7.00 pm throughout Ramadan while the other six premiered for Hari Raya from 1 till 6 of Shawal. This season was sponsored by

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

United States via its Colgate Kayu Sugi toothpaste. Tadika Mesra opened on the first episode. Cikgu Jasmin started being a teacher in the first episode of "tadika".

New Season (Season 3-Present)

Season 3 (2009)

Under the new full title ''Upin & Ipin dan Kawan-Kawan'', a third season of the series premiered on TV2 on 2 February 2009, with each episode lasting up to seven minutes. As a year-long production season, it had frequent in-season breaks and failed by repeats, and also experienced some record changes. In this season, the series left the Saturday midnight prime time slot on TV2 and the third season was instead broadcast daily on the Canadian channel

Showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

. From 14 May, the TV series received pre sponsorship from TM, which placed its co-brand on the show to this date. In the year-end school break season, it became apparent that new episodes are strangely debuted on school holidays, with new episodes premiering on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 5.30 am (repeats for the rest of the week) throughout the six-week holiday season. This is also the first season of ''Upin & Ipin'' for the international market, airing on

& Singapore beginning 15 November 2009 with dubs in English (the official dub, as the credits and episode titles are in Indonesian),

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and other languages.

Season 4 (2010)

Season four of ''Upin & Ipin dan Kawan-kawan'' debuted on TV2 on 15 March 2010 with the episode "Juara Kampung (Part 1)", with a brand new opening sequence and

color pencil A colored pencil (American English), coloured pencil (Commonwealth English), pencil crayon, or coloured/colouring lead ( Canadian English, Newfoundland English) is an art medium constructed of a narrow, pigmented core encased in a wooden cylindr ...

and exercise book-themed

title card In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

. The main focus on this season is as a tribute to sports, as it was developed in a year full of sport events. Season 4 was co-recorded by TM.

Season 5 (2011)

Season 5 first aired on TV2 on 12 March 2011 with the episode "Belajar Lagi". As with previous seasons it opens with a new sequence, now based on a papercraft theme. This season airs every Saturday at 7:30 pm to 9:30 am.

Season 6 (2012)

Season 6 aired every Sunday at 6 pm on TV9. This also features a retirement of a character. Cikgu Jasmin started being a teacher for 3 years. Cikgu Jasmin retires and leaves the show to continue her studies in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. She was replaced by Cikgu Melati.

Season 7 (2013)

Upin and Ipin will start their fun story with the Chinese New Year story featuring Chinese girl, Mei Mei (美美) as the seventh season's premier. The episodes air on Saturday evenings at 6:30 pm. The first episode was scheduled to air on 2 March 2013, but due to technical problems the first episode have been pushed to 9 March 2013.

Season 8 (2014)

Season 8 started airing on 30 May 2014. The episodes air on the days when new episodes appear in three separate parts on a seven-minute slot at 5:30 pm during the school holidays. Starting from this season onwards it is produced in high-definition resolution where the HD versions of each episode in this season will appear on the DVD collection once it is released. TV9 airs the episodes in

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

format. The character designs are also remodelled and improved to make them more lively. A new voice actress for Ros has been introduced. Season 8 also introduced a crossover with the ''

Ultra Series ''Ultraman'', also known as the , is the collective name for all media produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman (character), Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad monsters. Debuting with ''Ultra Q'' and then ''Ultraman (1966 ...

'' Franchise in Episode 9, which is co-produced by

Tsuburaya Productions is a Japanese special effects studio founded in 1963 by special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya and was run by his family, until October 2007, when the family sold the company to advertising agency TYO Inc. The studio is best known for producing t ...

Season 9 (2015)

Season 10 (2016)

Season 12 (2018)

Started on 13 May 2018 for Malaysia channel, Upin Ipin will started air all their episode including its movement on

Astro Prima Astro Prima is a Malaysian pay television channel owned by Astro, launched on 29 September 2003. It broadcasts Malay dramas, documentaries and classic movies. Primawara Slot * ''Jihad Iskandar'' * ''Perempuan Dalam Pusungan'' * ''Mira Sofea ...

and will no longer air on TV9. It will be air on Monday to Friday at 7.00 am until 5.30 pm while Saturday and Sunday will be on 9.00 pm to 9.30 pm.

Home video

* ''Upin & Ipin'' DVD and

VCD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...

volumes 1–6 were distributed in Malaysia by Music Valley. * Volume 7 – 11 were distributed by

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

. * Volume 12 and above are distributed by Music Valley.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Reception and cultural impact

The ''Upin & Ipin'' franchise has wielded its influence in countries of the Malay archipelago, notably in Malaysia and Indonesia which share linguistic and cultural similarities. Its first season landed its first award, for Best Animation in KLIFF 2007. While season two was on air on Ramadan 2008, it was reportedly watched by 1.5 million viewers on TV9, making it the second most-watched animated series on all of Malaysian television, right behind ''

Doraemon ''Doraemon'' ( ja, ドラえもん ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko F. Fujio. The manga was first serialized in December 1969, with List of Doraemon chapters, its 1,345 individual chapters compiled into 45 ' ...

'' (1.6 mil), yet ahead of ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

'' (800,000). The popularity of ''Upin & Ipin'' could have attributed to the commercial success of Malaysia's first CGI-animated feature film, '' Geng: The Adventure Begins'' (2009), which featured the twin characters Upin and Ipin, propelling it into the RM 6.31 million mark throughout its seven-week run in Malaysian cinemas as one of the highest-grossing Malay-language films in history. As the third season reaches its conclusion in late 2009, TV9 reports that ''Upin & Ipin'' was viewed by 1.6 million, making it the second most-viewed programme on the channel, just behind the free TV premiere of ''Geng'' which was watched by 2.45 million (scoring TVR 12.8). Indonesia has been the most obvious export market for ''Upin & Ipin''. In 2009, MNCTV which airs the series in the country reported a TVR of 10.5. Upin & Ipin has also been praised by the Indonesian press; for instance, Fadil Abidin for ''

Analisa ''Analisa'' (''Analysis'') is a broadsheet newspaper published daily in Medan, the capital of the North Sumatra province in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the I ...

'' who remarked on the vastness of moral content and Islamic values, such as respect for those of different ethnic or religious backgrounds, in a communal setting consisting not only of Malays, Chinese and Indian Malaysians, but also Indonesians. In March 2010, as the Balinese Hindu community prepare for

Nyepi Nyepi is a Balinese "Day of Silence" that is commemorated every ''Isakawarsa'' (Saka new year) according to the Balinese calendar (in 2023, it falls on March 22). It is a Balinese celebration mainly celebrated in Bali, Indonesia. Nyepi, a publi ...

, images of

ogoh-ogoh Ogoh-ogoh are statues built for the Ngrupuk parade, which takes place on the eve of Nyepi day in Bali, Indonesia. Ogoh-ogoh normally take the form of mythological beings, mostly demons. As with many creative endeavours based on Balinese Hinduis ...

(demonic

effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

used for the famed ''ngrupuk'' ritual on the eve of Nyepi) which largely resemble Upin & Ipin were exposed on Indonesian media. The effigy reportedly cost 4 million

rupiah The rupiah (symbol: Rp; currency code: IDR) is the official currency of Indonesia. It is issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. The name "rupiah" is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, (). Sometimes, Indonesians also informally use the ...

. The ''

'' crossover special was received positively on it airing in 2014. As a response, the crossover character in the special, was officially recognized as a canon character by

, later making its live debut in the web series ''

Ultra Galaxy Fight is a Japanese online miniseries produced by Tsuburaya Productions, based on the low-budget series ''Ultra Fight'' while being marketed for worldwide audiences through YouTube in both Japanese and English versions for viewers overseas. It was orig ...

'' in 2019. In India it started to air in Hindi on hungama in May 2018.

Comics

Since December 2009, ''Upin & Ipin'' have been adapted into a monthly comic magazine series, aptly titled ''Majalah Komik Upin & Ipin'' to be circulated all over Malaysia, published by Nyla Sdn Bhd. Targeted at young readers, the magazine features screenshot comics of the ''Upin & Ipin'' TV series and the ''Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula'' film, voice actor and production crew profiles, and learning and activity sections.

Awards

* 2007 Kuala Lumpur International Filem Festival ** Animasi Terbaik * 2009 Shout! Awards ** Best On-Screen Chemistry * NEF-Awani ICT Awards 2010 ** NEF-Awani Tun Dr Mahathir Award ** Best Brands in Animation * Anugerah Bintang Popular Berita Harian 2012 ** The Most Popular Local Animated Character *

UNICEF Malaysia UNICEF Malaysia is one of over 190 national offices of the United Nations Children’s Fund. Since its establishment in 1954, UNICEF Malaysia has been on the ground to uphold the rights of children in Malaysia, including their right to an educa ...

's National Ambassadors 2013

Sponsorship

Colgate (toothpaste) Colgate is an American brand principally used for oral hygiene products such as toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes and dental floss. Manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive, Colgate's oral hygiene products were first sold by the company in 1873, ...

* S-26 Procal Gold *

Telekom Malaysia Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) is a Malaysian telecommunications company founded in 1984. Beginning as the national telecommunications company for fixed line, radio and television broadcasting services, it has evolved to become the country's larg ...

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...

(

Only) * Suruhanjaya Pembasmian Rasuah Malaysia *

Hong Leong Bank Hong Leong Bank Berhad (; ) is a major public listed banking group in Malaysia. History Early beginnings Hong Leong Bank began its operations in 1905 in Kuching, Sarawak, under the name of ''Kwong Lee Mortgage & Remittance Company''. The c ...

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

(

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Only) * Upin Ipin Toothpaste (

Only) * SGM Eksplor (

Only) * Walls Ice Cream (

Only)

References

External links

Upin & Ipin website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Upin and Ipin 8TV (Malaysian TV network) original programming 2007 Malaysian television series debuts 2000s animated television series 2000s Malaysian television series 2010s Malaysian television series Animated television series about brothers Animated television series about orphans Animated television series about twins Astro Ceria original programming Astro Prima original programming Malaysian children's animated comedy television series TV9 (Malaysia) original programming Works about twin brothers