Hugo (franchise)
Hugo is a media franchise. The franchise was created by the Danish company Interactive Television Entertainment in 1990 for the purpose of interactive television for children. It is based on the fictional character of Hugo, a friendly, small Scandinavian folklore troll fighting against evil, often to save his family. Since its premiere in 1990, the Hugo game show has been aired in more than 40 countries, spawning dozens of video games for various platforms. Hugo spawned other merchandise, including dedicated magazines. As of 2012, the commercial parts of the franchise consist mostly of mobile games being published by the Danish company Hugo Games A/S, renamed 5th Planet Games A/S on November 30t 2018. An animated feature film is in development.
Content
The show is set in contemporary fantasy universe. The franchise's titular protagonist Hugo is a one-meter-tall troll living in "troll forest" located somewhere in Scandinavia. Hugo's family includes his beloved wife Hugolina and their kids Rit, Rat and Rut. The main antagonist is the evil Scylla, an ancient and cruel witch who has had a grudge against the trolls for centuries. Scylla often kidnaps Hugo's family because she needs their presence to restore and keep her youth and beauty. The later-added characters are mostly non-human cartoon-like creatures and anthropomorphic animals, including Hugo's friends and more of Hugo's enemies, including Scylla's minions.In 2001, a beaver minor enemy character received its own spin-off show, titled Stinky & Stomper. In the 2005 science fiction reboot Agent Hugo, Hugo became a futuristic James Bond-parody special agent as an employee of the organization R.I.S.K. to fight against high-tech enemies such as mad scientists and robots.
History
The idea for an interactive video game TV show was conceived in 1987 by Ivan Sølvason, founder of initially very small video game studio SilverRock Productions and former editor-in-chief of Oberoende Computer who was creator of the interactive TV program OsWALD made for Nordisk Film's TV2 Denmark in 1988, and Niels Krogh Mortensen, an animator. Sølvason's small company SilverRock Productions, which was later renamed as Interactive Television Entertainment ApS in 1992, developed the character of Hugo as well as the designated, custom-built computer hardware system that would convert telephone signals into remotely control the characters in the game and allow the interaction of the audience and the TV action without delay. Sølvason and Krogh Mortensen created the concept of "Hugo the TV troll" and the Hugo TV program targeted for the children audience between the ages of four to 14 was launched in September 1990.Hugo was invented by Krogh Mortensen while he was biking to his grandmother from Hellerup to Gladsaxe in the spring of 1990. The character Hugo was originally supposed to be called Max, but the producer of Eleva2ren, John Berger, insisted on the name Hugo, forcing ITE to change the name and logo about one week before the premiere. The new name caused trademark problems, because it was already registered in most European countries by Hugo Boss, while ITE A/S were first in Denmark and Portugal and could potentially stop Hugo Boss from launching any products in these markets. Eventually, both companies made a coexistence agreement with the help of the ITE in-house lawyer Nina Wium. ITE also fought hard against any attempt to abuse the Hugo's "good name and reputation", resulting in more than 170 lawsuits against Danish producers and advertisers.
The programs were licensed for more than 40 TV shows around the world, tailored to individual markets. Many of more than half billion viewers believed that the program is native to their countries, as Hugo spoke Danish only in Denmark. By 1994, Sweden's Datormagazin compared the European popularity of Hugo, with its branching off into merchandising, to that of the Ninja Turtles. On German-language kabel eins, there was also a spin-off show titled Hexana-Schloss. A more advanced show premiered in January 1999. Some Danish Hugo items were released exclusively for the fanclub Den Faktyrlige Bogklub, which was established in co-operation with the Danish publisher Carlsen Verlag in 1999. A "giant" Hugo theme park also has been considered at one point circa 2000.
At first, Niels Krogh Mortensen was doing all of the graphics and animation, using Deluxe Paint on an Amiga computer. His brother, Lars Krogh Mortensen, later assisted him. They were later joined by Torben B. Larsen, Jonas Fromm, Claus Friese, Anders Morgenthaler, Jakob Steffensen, Jonas Raagaard, Stephen Meldal Foged, Martin Ciborowski, Ulla Gram Larsen, and many other 2D and 3D artists; eventually, over 100 people were working on developing Hugo for ITE. Niels Krogh Mortensen worked on Hugo between 1990 and 1998. During this time he usually directed and managed the projects; he also created storyboards and drew graphics. The Krogh Mortensen brothers and Jakob Steffensen left ITE in 1997 and founded their own company, Krogh Mortensen Animation A/S. KMA was later contracted to animate several more Hugo games.
In 2002, Sølvason sold ITE to the venture capital company Olicom A/S; Olicom then invested $22 million into the company, reduced the staff of ITE by a third to 60 employees and attempted to expand more into the U.S., UK, and Asian markets. Olicom in turn sold ITE in 2006, by then staffed by only 35 employees, to NDS Group, where it became NDS Denmark.
Hugo copyrights were acquired by the Danish game publisher Krea Medie A/S, a part of the media company Kraemedie. New Hugo owner Henrik Kølle stated in October 2012 that Hugo Games A/S "is happy that the traditional Hugo countries, where Hugo was aired in the '90s, still love Hugo and seemingly can’t get enough of him. Angry Birds have shown us the way here, so now we are hard at work on, among other things, a film project, exciting licensing deals for toys and finally we hope to release another Hugo game in time for summer 2013." On 28 November 2012, Krea Medie was acquired by Egmont Group, but Hugo Games and the rights to Hugo were not part of the sale agreement with Egmont. A possible new Hugo live show was hinted in July 2014. Hugo Games is owned and managed by Henry Mallet, and was valued at DKK 56 million and generating an annual income of about DKK 10 million as estimated in September 2014 when the company was listed for investment as HUGO NewHold ApS.
Video game adaptations
ITE games
Niels Krogh Mortensen and his brother Lars directed more than 30 Hugo games that sold more than 10 million copies, including over three million in Germany alone. The games were released for multiple platforms, including personal computers, game consoles and mobile phones, not counting numerous small browser games. Most of the tiles are the platform games or minigame compilations, but there are also several educational games. Distributors and partners included Egmont Interactive, Electronic Arts and Namco.The first title in the long-running series of Hugo games was created in 1991 for the Commodore 64, followed by the games for the Amiga, PC, Game Boy and PlayStation. The first 3D platform game was published in 2000. In the early games Hugo attempts to free his family from the villainess Scylla in the same scenarios as the TV show. In the later games he usually foils her revenge plots and schemes to gain supreme powers. However, several of the games do not feature her at all. In some of them, Hugo's family members, friends or sometimes even enemies are featured as playable characters. In 2005, Hugo was rebranded as Agent Hugo for a new series of four 3D platform games.
Krea Medie games
In 2009, the new publisher, Krea Medie, released a complete reboot game Hugo – Magic in the Trollwoods with no connection with neither any of the Hugo show characters or the Agent Hugo series, featuring Hugo as a troll magician-in-training. It became the only game listed on the games' official website, all the previous content having been entirely removed.In 2010, however, Krea released a game-making program that featured an original version of Hugo and the other classic characters. In 2011, the company's new owner Henrik Kølle said he hopes that release of a new video game would be "one of many exciting steps towards the new Hugo rise as a global brand." Krea has seemingly abandoned an idea of the reboot and successfully returned to the original version of the franchise with Hugo Retro Mania, featuring the original version of Hugo and a classic scenario of rescuing his family captured by Scylla the witch. According to Krea's Henrik Kølle, "For the first time since acquiring Hugo, have developed a project tailored to Hugo". The task of developing new games was given to the specially created studio Hugo Games A/S. A 2015 game Ronaldo & Hugo: Superstar Skaters guest starred top footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Feature film adaptation projects
''Hugo and the Diamond Moon''
A canceled CGI-animated film titled Hugo and the Diamond Moon was planned in 1999 to be released at the end of 2002. Its budget was set at around 100 million DKK which at that time amounted to $12–20 million. It was written and expected to be directed by the Disney and Pixar veteran animator and musician Jørgen Klubien, and was storyboarded with over 8,000 sketches by Frank Madsen, Jørgen Klubien, Mike Cachuela and Mads Themberg. David Filskov, who did sound effects for Hugo for years, was on the film project as well. According to ITE's CEO, Jesper Helbrandt, they wanted to make a Hugo animated film for years. It was planned that the release of the film would be accompanied by a range of tie-in products, including toys and video games.In the film, Hugo and his grandfather were supposed to "travel to a diamond moon" and the storyboards showed Hugo battling Scylla in space. The plot premise was described by Helbrandt as following: "Afskyelia have obtained a way to threaten Hugo and his forest friends. Therefore Hugo has to do something, and when he discovers a moon behind the moon we know today, he will set forth. Afskyelia chases after him. But I promise you, that unfortunately for her, the story is to end happily." The movie's basic plot premise resembles the educational game Hugo in Space, which was released in 2003, one year after the planned release of the movie. In this game, she plans to extract the rare magical black diamonds from an asteroid's core and become the most powerful witch of all time.
''Hugo – The World's Worst Comeback''
A new CGI film by Einstein Film and Anima Vitae was officially announced when its teaser trailer was published on 20 February 2013. It was to be produced by Petteri Pasanen and Trine Heidegaard, directed by Philip Einstein Lipski and Mikko Pitkänen, and written by Tim John and Timo Turunen. Finnish film foundation SES gave 50,000 Euro for the project. It was also given development support from Creative Europe. The film was to start production in 2014 for a planned release in 2016.Its plot premise was as follows: "A former TV-game show star, Hugo, now a hotel janitor and a single dad, gets lured into a comeback. His daughter, first enthralled by a celeb-dad, soon finds herself abandoned and to get her dad back home enters Hugo’s new show. Meanwhile Hugo’s old archenemy, the mountain troll Fredo, steals Hugo’s place in the show. Hugo’s daughter ends up fighting the raging mountain troll disguised as her dad on live TV, forcing Hugo to his ultimate quest: how to get rid of fame and save his daughter." Scylla was also said to have a part in the movie.
Theatrical and television spin-offs
Theatrical shows
In 1996, a theatrical musical The Magical Kingdom of Hugo was played in Tel Aviv, Israel, telling a story of a group of kids who were sucked into the television screen and summoned directly to Hugo's world, Trollandia, by the witch Griselda. A recording of it was also commercially released on VHS in 1997, and a CD with the songs from the musical was released too.A Turkish interactive stage show adaptation for children ages 3–6 titled Hugo ve Tolga Abi Cadı Sila`ya Karşı was played in Istanbul in 2004-2005, directed by Recep Özgür Dereli. In it, Scylla played by Eda Özdemir and Don Croco make a new trap for Hugo and his family.
''Hugo Safari''
A children's animated documentary series Hugo Safari was produced in 1999–2000, directed by Elsa Søby. It consists of three seasons wherein each contains seven episodes. The series was aired in several countries and was also released in home media by ITE on the DVD. Krae later released some of the episodes for free on the Internet and others for purchase as an iPhone/iPad application.Other media
Magazines
The characters of Hugo were also a subject of dedicated periodical magazines, such as Hugo Magazin / Hugo News in Germany, A jugar con Hugo in Argentina, the weekly Haftalık Hugo in Turkey, and the monthly Świat Przygód z Hugo in Poland.Music
Hugo music includes:- Two Danish dance and hip hop albums released in 1990–1991, Hugo Rap! and Hugo Er En Skærmtrold.
- Charity album by various artists, DJ Hugo, released in Finland in 1993; it included Ace of Base, DJ Bobo's and Double You.
- Polish album Hugo i Przyjaciele Śpiewają Piosenki released in 2002. To promote Hugo video games, their Polish distributor Cenega Poland organized a concert tournee of Hugo together with Bartek Wrona of the boysband Just 5.
Books
There is an Israeli comic book series Hugo and a Polish series of children's booklets Troll Story. There is also a Turkish audio story book Hugo: Cadı Sila'ya Karşı and a Danish Christmas story audio book Hugo og det Fortryllede Agern.Merchandise
- In the native country of the franchise, Denmark, the ITE-licensed merchandise included food products, as well as various other merchandise like puzzles, watches, backpacks, sticker books and activity books. The latter included the picture book Hugo i de afskyelige labyrinter and a puzzle book Hugo i de fantastiske labyrinter.
- Hugo merchandise in Germany included clothing items, plush dolls, PVC figures, and posters.
- Hugo merchandise in Poland included various food products, activity book series Księga Labiryntów Hugo, and various CD-ROMs.
- Hugo merchandise in other countries included student kits in Israel and toys in Israel, vitamin drinks, tea, T-shirts, pins, candy and puzzles in Slovenia, a music cassette and sticker albums in Chile, the board game Hugo in Sweden, etc.
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