Hip-Hip and Hurra (Hip-Hip i Hurra) is a Polish children’s cartoon series. It’s your standard comedic/educational program, with talking animals for main characters and various life lessons at the end of every episode. It also features some humor that adults may actually enjoy.
The show aired from 2011 to 2014, consisting of two seasons and 26 episodes of about 13 minutes each. It tells the story of an animal-run detective agency; the show parodies detective procedurals. The main detective is a pink hippopotamus named Hip-Hip, and he’s assisted by his friend Hurra, a purple weasel. Other featured characters are Róża (Rose), a giraffe whom Hip-Hip is in love with; Ciotka Kura (Aunt Hen), Hip-Hip’s sensible landlord; and Mrówka Misia (Misia the Ant), who lives in Hip-Hip’s front pocket and works as a spy, though not very effectively.
Most of the episodes involve the main characters’ solving, or attempting to solve, a crime, though there is usually an unrelated subplot and, of course, a moral or some sort of educational lesson at the end. Most of the episodes involve some sort of information or lesson about the natural world and the environment. There’s also some minor social commentary: a few characters are stereotypes of people from various other European countries; one character is an egotistic TV presenter, and another runs a bank. The main point, though, is to teach children about the environment while providing enough legitimate humor that their parents can stand to watch the show.
Creator: Elżbieta Wąsik
Voice actors: Grzegorz Kwiecień, Krzysztof Szczerbiński, Marcin Graj, Elżbieta Gaertner, Barbara Kałużna, Joanna Pach, Grzegorz Drojewski, Janusz Wituch, Beata Jewiarz, Jarosław Boberek, Anna Sroka, Alik Matuszewski
Production company: Studio Miniatur Filmowych
TV channel: Kino Polska
The show’s first episode, from 2011:
