Abu Dhabi: Noman the camel, Gargur (Grover) and Melsoon the bird are back to teach Emirati youth abut their culture, tradition and language.
The relaunched Arabic version of Sesame Street, Iftah Ya Simsim’s iconic muppets are being brought to life on 10 local and regional television channels.
“English is the primary language of communication in the modern world and the children of the Arab region need to understand their roots,” Noura Al Kaabi, CEO of Twofour54, which produces the show, said. The magic of Iftah Ya Simsim lies in the perception of the muppets. Children who visited the studio opted to speak in Arabic rather than English when the muppets were around, Noura said.
“Maybe the children felt the muppets won’t judge them if they make a mistake,” Noura told Gulf News.
Being a fan of the original series, Noura points the differences in the main character Noman, who is the equivalent of Sesame Street’s Big Bird.
“If you compare the older Iftah Ya Simsim with the new one, you can see there are tiny differences in Noman’s face because of the advances in muppet technology,” she said.
Noura also remembers learning new words though Iftah Ya Simsim.
However, the reason behind Iftah Ya Simsim’s uniqueness is the fact that it has high quality content put together by a local production company, Blink Studios, Nathalie Habib, executive producer at Blink Studios and one of the head writers of the show, said.
“It was never just about being part of the legacy, but also being part of something that would be the future of the industry… Iftah Ya Simsim represents a quality that makes a difference, we have visual and contextual engagement working together to create this high standard,” she said.
When it came to the filming and producing segments, 200 people worked together in the studio.
Dr Cairo Arafat, managing director of Bidaya Media, said incoporating colour and sound that appealed to children was a challenge.
Another reason why Sesame Street was chosen to be recreated was due to the fact that values across cultures are similar.
“We looked at the values the show was portraying to ensure that they are similar to the Gulf region. This includes things such as how to treat your elders,” Noura explained.
Main muppets such as Elmo and the Cookie Monster can always be found in the international version, but Iftah Ya Simsim’s muppets wear customary Arab attire.
“We have a passion and commitment to the local culture, so we try and create local muppets to emphasise the differences in every culture and have people connect to these unique personalities,” Steve Youngwood, COO of Sesame Workshop, NYC said.
Iftah Ya Simsim first premiered in 1979 and was produced in Kuwait. The show was cut short due to the Gulf War in 1990 and the studio was burned down, Youngwood said.
Heidi Pullyard is a trainee at Gulf News.