The Magic Reindeer – Chacters

The puppets are made in the spirit of classic Czech puppet school. They have full joint skeletons, wigs from natural hair and costumes tailored from original materials like leather, linen and wool.

Each puppet deserves five professionals and ca. 100 hours of handicraft work before they are ready for the shootings. As Katariina Lillqvist has worked over 14 years with the best Czech puppet animation teams, it is guaranteed that the characters/puppets are of the best quality.  

Details of the individual characters

THE SHAMANS are mostly male , there is only one exception - episode number seven. Their costumes vary from region to region, but they are all made from leather, decorated with feathers and bones. In Lapland they wear long hair and beard , in arctic areas they are mostly using special fur hats. They are notably bigger than the other characters, resembling the old ways of shaman illustrations found in drums and caves.

THE ANIMALS are able to do the most elegant transformations: for example, the swan comes out from the big white cloud and the bear appears from the huge and holy stone. Apart from these special animals, we have also more common animals through the whole series – the forests are full of birds and squirrels, lakes and seashores are filled with fish and seals and whales. Of course not to forget the reindeers!

THE TREES are also active creatures. We even see characters who are half maidens, half trees- they are called “ kufitar maids “ – this happens in the Lapland mythology.

THE CHILDREN are present in every single episode – they are native Sámi kids with dark hair and traditional costumes , or small Inuits with leather parka coats and fur hats, or young Nenetchs with beautiful white reindeer skirts. They usually get well along with the super natural phenomena’s and trolls.

THE MAAHIS FOLK (“ maahiset “) are band of trolls or fairies. They are living under the earth or it seems that there is another world right under our feet! They are smaller than humans and more beautiful. In darkness they are glowing in golden light. They are very gentle and nice creatures and they like to invite humans as guests. Unfortunately, they have different time system in their kingdom : when a poor human thinks that he has spent one day there, as soon as he returns home he realises that the whole century has gone !

PEIKKOS and STAALOS are the evil trolls, but fortunately they are quite stupid. They live in caves and inside the old, rotten trees. Theses giants have a big, round head, huge running noses and flat feet. Staalos are the biggest of them, and sometimes they can transform even into trees.