Hugo is a media franchise created in Denmark in 1990 for the purpose of interactive television for children. The Hugo "live one-player multi platform interactive game show" has aired in more than 40 countries around the world[1] and spawned numerous video games and many other merchandise.
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The show
The features a video game that was played by the audience via telephone connection. A player would call the show's production, then be prompted by a human host to control a cartoon character on the TV screen in several scenarios by pressing the number keys on the phone, assorted to the character controls.
In the classic games, Hugo, a friendly small troll, fights against the evil witch called Scylla. The setting was gradually with more characters and more diverse environment and gameplay. Eventually, in the science-fiction re-boot of franchise named Agent Hugo, Hugo became a James Bond-style agent fighting against high-tech enemies, such as robots.
The programs are licenced and often vary widely in content. For example, in Germany in 1996-1997 there was a spin-off show called Hexana[2] (also known as Hexana-Schloss, or "Hexana's Castle"[3]). In Vietnam, Vui cùng Hugo became one of the highest rated shows, reaching 20,000 phone call per episode.[4] A complete list of countries (including the TV stations involved and the dates of airing) is located here.
Characters
Video games
There are over 30 games sold in over 10 million copies,[5] for multiple personal computer, game console and mobile phone platforms. In some of them also the family members, friends or even enemies of Hugo are playable characters. Most of the tiles are the platform games or minigame compilations, but there are also some quiz-type educational games. In 2005 Hugo was rebranded into Agent Hugo for a new series of games. There was also an educational program called Hugo Safari.
In other media and merchandise
In 1997 a musical titled The Magical Kingdom of Hugo was played in Tel Aviv, Israel.[6] It tells a story of a group of kids which were sucked into the television screen and directly to the Hugo's world by the witch Griselda (Israeli name for Scylla).
An animated CGI film called Hugo the Movie or Hugo and the Diamond Moon was planned in 1999 to be released in 2002, but later cancelled.[7] A sample for the storyboard for the film can be seen at the website of Frank Madsen's studio.[8]
Hugo was also used for magazines (Hugo Magazin in Germany and Świat przygód z Hugo in Poland), food products and other merchandise (children's books, comic books, coloring books, stickers, etc.). These are or were various for the different countries.
References
External links
- HugoNet
- ITE (developer of Hugo, now part of NDS Denmark)
- (German) www.Hugo-Troll.de
- (Polish) Magazyn Hugo
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