Pat & Mat

Pat and Mat
Pat (left) and Mat (right)
Also known as	'A je to!, Pat a Mat'
Genre	Animated television series Comedy-Slapstick
Created by	Lubomír Beneš Vladimír Jiránek
Written by	Lubomír Beneš Vladimír Jiránek Jiří Kubíček Vendulka Čvančarová Marek Beneš others
Directed by	Lubomír Beneš Marek Beneš others
Theme music composer	Petr Skoumal
Composer(s)	Luboš Fišer (ep. 1) Petr Skoumal (ep. 2-91) Zdeněk Zdeněk (ep. 92-117)
Country of origin	Czechoslovakia Czech Republic Slovakia
No. of series	9
No. of episodes	117
Production
Running time	6 - 9 min.
Production company(s)	Krátký Film Praha aiF Studio Patmat film s.r.o. others
Release
Original network	ČST (1979-1992) ČT (1992-present) STV (1993-2011) ČT :D (2013-present)
Picture format	4:3 (ep. 1-49, 51-78) 16:9 (ep. 50, 79-117)
Audio format	Mono
Original release	1976 (pilot) 1979 - present (series)
External links
Official website

Pat & Mat (Czech & Slovak : A je to!, Pat a Mat) is a Czechoslovak stop-motion animated series created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek for Czechoslovak Television (later Ceska televize). The pilot first appeared in 1976, while the first episode Tapety began in 1979. The main characters of the series are two handymen, Pat and Mat, who are inventive but extremely clumsy. As of 2018, 117 episodes of the show have been produced, and it has been syndicated in a large number of countries due to its lack of dialogue.

The show

Each episode typically features the two characters facing mostly self-made problems, and trying to solve them using a range of possible and impossible tools and construction gadgets. Their solutions appear to work, before everything suddenly goes wrong, leading to even more problems than before. However, Pat and Mat invariably find a solution in the end, usually via a surprising or innovative method. They then shake hands, before making their trademark hand gesture with a bent hand and closed fist.

According to the authors, it is manual ineptitude that inspires the stories. Alongside the humour, another motif of the show is the importance of an optimistic approach towards life. The two characters always get into problematic situations, but they never give up until they solve the problem in imaginative ways.^[1]

The show is also memorable for its soundtrack, composed by Petr Skoumal, of which the main parts are the theme song and a harmonica tune.

History

The two characters first appeared in a 1976 short film entitled Kuťáci (Fitters). Later, the characters appeared in more shorts, making their own series on Slovak TV entitled ... A je to! (... And that's it!), where they got their final look. The two handymen got their names Pat and Mat in 1989, and this became the name of the show.

While creating the two characters, the authors had in mind especially entertainment for adults, but the show became popular with all audiences. However, in former Czechoslovakia, the first 29 episodes of the series could be produced as children's television only, in a short film format of 7–9 minutes.

As a result of its lack of dialogue, the show was syndicated around the world, being broadcast in countries including Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia), Sweden, Syria, Iraq, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Norway, Spain, Iran, Hungary, Jordan, South Africa, and South Korea. In the Netherlands, the characters are given dubbed dialogue, voiced by Kees Prins and Siem van Leeuwen. In Australia the show aired as part of a weekly, half-hour collection of animated shorts on the SBS show Kaleidoscope.

In 1990, after the collapse of the communist regime, Lubomír Beneš founded his own AIF Studio in Prague (production) and Zürich (marketing, sales, financing), where he and his team produced 14 more episodes, and released all 49 of them to the international market.

In 1998, three years after Beneš's death, his studio went into bankruptcy, leading to a copyright dispute over the characters and the 50th episode, which was therefore never released. Beneš's son Marek founded his own studio, Patmat Film. Production of episodes was resumed in 2002 by Ateliéry Bonton Zlín, resulting in 28 episodes being produced by three studios (Ateliéry Bonton, Anima and Patmat) in just three years. Many crew members were veterans who had worked on the original TV series.

The characters were revived once again in 2011 by Beneš for a new series, Pat a Mat na venkově (Pat & Mat in the Country). The pilot, Postele (Beds), produced in 2009, premiered at the 50th Zlín Film Festival in 2010.^[2] 12 more episodes followed between 2011 and 2015, produced by Patmat Film and filmed in 16:9. Beneš directed and wrote all 13 episodes. The episodes were released on DVD in 2013 and received their TV premiere on the Dutch channel VPRO on 9 June 2013.

To celebrate the show's 40th anniversary, seven new episodes were shown in cinemas in 2016 in several countries, including the Netherlands.^[3] Gusto Entertainment announced in December 2015 that a full-length feature film would be released in cinemas in 2016.

In 2018, 26 episodes were produced by Patmat Film, filmed in 16:9. Beneš wrote and directed all 26 episodes. 13 from this are summer episodes and the other 13 episodes are winter episodes. 13 new episodes are in planing.

Awards

Several Pat & Mat episodes have received prizes and awards at international animation festivals.

The 38th episode The Cyclists, directed by Lubomír Beneš and animated by Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, participated in the "Annecy '93" (Annecy, France) animation festival competition, and was invited to a number of other world festivals. The episode was also included in the selection "The Best of Annecy '93" by Cinémathèque Québécoise (Montreal), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), Museum of Modern Art (New York City) and presented by these institutions in their autumn 1993 show.

The 44th episode The Billiards, animated by František Váša, was selected for the "Annecy '95" competition, and invited to many other international film festivals. The episode was awarded two prizes at the World Animation Celebration in Agoura, California in March 1997:

• 1st prize - best animation for a daytime TV series
• 2nd prize - best stop motion professional animation.

The 50th episode Playing Cards (original name Karty) written, animated and directed by František Váša, was selected for the "Annecy '99" TV competition.

Controversies

Czechoslovakia

Episodes made from 1979 to 1985 have Mat (left) wearing a grey shirt.

In socialist Czechoslovakia, the authors had to explain their "subversive" characters and stories to the Communist regime's watch-dogs in Prague, and were once asked whether they had chosen the shirt colours, red and yellow, to make fun of the Soviet-Chinese tensions. However, their explanations were "unsatisfactory", and so the "ideological impurity" remained and further production of Pat & Mat was banned. To get around the ban, their Czechoslovak Television colleagues in Bratislava assigned them production means so the show could continue in the same studio in Prague where Lubomír Beneš and his crew worked, under the cover of the Slovak studio, an arrangement which lasted for 28 episodes from 1979–1985. Mat's shirt was changed from red to a neutral grey until 1989, at which point the Communist regime collapsed and it was safe to make Mat's shirt red again.

Names

The names "Pat" and "Mat" are Czech and Slovak words meaning "stalemate" and "checkmate" respectively. This word are Persian and terms: pāt (Pat) and māt (Mat). The Polish language is very similar to Czech and therefore has a similar name to Czech: Pat i Mat (Pat and Mat) Czech: Pat a Mat. At the beginning, in the first two seasons the charackters didn't have a name and the series was called just like the season. In Russia is this equal, the names are Pat i Mat (say: Pet i Muet).

List of episodes

Feature films

50th episode

The 50th episode The Cards (Czech: Karty) completed in 1998 by some members of the original AIF Studio and originally prepared with Lubomir Beneš, was to be the beginning of a new format of the show. It was directed, animated and written by František Váša, and unlike earlier episodes it was filmed in widescreen format (16:9) and slightly longer (lasting 11 minutes), with dialogue, changing facial expressions, a new soundtrack and new opening and closing sequences. The characters were voiced by Czech actor David Nykl.^[6]

Beneš and Jiránek's original plan was to make further episodes of the new series, and possibly also half-hour episodes and a feature film.^[7] However, these projects were never realised due to a breakdown of relations between the creators of the episode and the management team from the Prague AIF Studio after Lubomir Beneš's death. Eventually the Prague AIF Studio declared bankruptcy, and as a result the 50th episode has never been released or distributed. The only trace from the episode was a screenshot posted on the AIF Studio Pat & Mat website.^[8] The former management set up a new studio called Animation People and posted more screenshots on their website, which were taken down in September 2010. The studio later uploaded a small clip of the episode onto the website.^[9] The episode was eventually uploaded to YouTube, taken from a Korean VHS.^[10]

Broadcast

Titles in other languages

Original

• Czech Republic, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia: Kuťáci, A je to!, Pat a Mat
  followers: Pat a Mat se vracejí

Other languages (in alphabetic order)

* In the Dutch version the characters talk, whereas in the original and all other countries there is no dialogue. Pat is voiced by Kees Prins and Mat by Simon van Leeuwen.

Home media

After being released on VHS for ten years, the first 35 episodes were released on DVD in the early 2000s, with the 28 new episodes featuring in the last release in 2005. Shorts from the AIF era were initially unavailable because of copyright issues,^[11] but appeared on DVD for the first time in 2007.^[12]

English Dub

In 1999, AIF Asia located in South Korea dubbed Pat & Mat episodes in English for educational purposes. The dub, covering episodes 1 to 49, was originally released on 10 VHS tapes, and re-released in 2003 for 10 DVD discs.

Related products

At least two books with the series' characters have been published:

• Michl, Jiří (1994). Pat & Mat : …a je to!. Czech Republic: Egmont.
• Sýkora, Pavel; Jiránek, Vladimír; Beneš, Lubomír (2010). Pat a Mat dokážou všechno [Pat and Mat can do anything] (3rd ed.). Albatros. ISBN 9788000025933.

On 1 August 2007 a Czech computer development company, Centauri Production, announced via their website that they had secured the rights to create a Pat & Mat video game. The game was released in the Czech Republic on 1 October 2009, and other EU countries in 2010. The game is available in English and Czech, and is also available for purchase via Steam^[13] and Desura.^[14]

There is a wide range of Pat & Mat merchandise available, including games, dolls, key rings, office material, posters and T-shirts. In Dutch supermarkets Pat & Mat food is also available.^[15]

References

External links

• Pat & Mat on IMDb
• Official website of Lubomír Beneš' AIF Studio
• Official website of Lubomír Beneš' followers
• Pat & Mat fansite
• Official website of the Pat & Mat video game