A Close Encounter with Aliens is the sixteenth episode of the anime series Moomin.
Synopsis[]
One day a flying saucer lands in Moominmamma's vegetable garden. It is apparently unmanned and she and Moomin salvage a strange box-like apparatus which looks rather home-made, but which has many remarkable properties. The Inspector is on the war-path trying to nab extra-terrestrials and when the Moomins find one, a runaway child, they have to hide him, quickly deciding that he has probably not come to invade Moominvalley. Their task isn't made any easier by the fact that the box-like apparatus has now made the Inspector iridescent, this fascinating the child so that he follows the Inspector everywhere.
Plot[]
The episode opens with a brief shot of space, the narrator wondering if life ever existed beyond Earth and what aliens possibly could look like. This then cuts back to Earth with Sniff strolling through moominvalley, when he is suddenly found and chased down by a large flying saucer. Sniff panics and runs away frantically, not stopping until he ends up at the police station, where he tells this to The Police Inspector. The inspector concludes that this proves aliens are coming to invade moominvalley. At moominhouse, Moominpappa reads through one of his books about aliens, it states that they are civilized, peaceful, and happy where they belonged. However, Sniff insists that they were attacking him.
As they were discussing this, Moominmamma and Moomin both go out to handle the family garden. On checking it though, they quickly find a huge flying saucer stuck in the ground. Moominmamma and Moomin investigate the craft, thinking that whatever's in there might be hurt. They pull out a strange box-like apparatus, just before the ship suddenly comes alive and disappears into thin air.
Inside, they try out the strange box. For a brief moment, Moominpappa is turned invisible by the thing, but quickly returns to normal after a second try. Thinking it's dangerous, the parents agree to hide it somewhere where the children can't get to it.
Not long after this is decided, Snorkmaiden shows up and tells them all that she found a strange creature out in the woods. The whole family rushes to see, but on the way the Police Inspector finds them, asking a few questions. He questions them about the flying saucer and where it ended up, which Moominmamma explained how it just disappeared again without a trace. After answering him, the police inspector lets them all go. The family reaches the forest and find Little My with what appears to be an alien sitting on the ground. She explains that she couldn't get it to talk to her, so they all decide to take it back to moominhouse.
Unfortunately, Stinky sees this happening, and tells the inspector about it. Scared that he will take the alien away, they bring out the box-like machine to try and turn him invisible. Instead, the machine blasts the inspector and turns him glowing pink. The inspector then leaves from there. The alien suddenly reveals he can talk to them, but only because the machine can translate what he is saying to them. The alien quickly tries following the inspector, as him glowing reminds him of the people back home. The inspector though remembers why he went to moominhouse, albeit not connecting the dots that the little guy was the alien in question. They manage to get the alien back to them, but as soon as the inspector leaves, the alien rushes after him again. It wasn't until he finally stopped glowing due to using the machine again, did he decide not to chase him.
Moominpappa tells Moominmamma about it, but he quickly finds that the machine shrunk her down. What's worse, when looking for the machine, they found that Stinky ran off with it! The whole family quickly gives chase. Stinky nearly makes it over the bridge, but Sniff stops him halfway. Even after Stinky promises five gold sovereigns to him, Sniff demands the machine and snatches it from him. They both get into a scuffle until stinky and the machine fall into the water.
The family considers that Moominmamma might never return to normal size again, but later that evening, a HUGE flying saucer suddenly appears. The little alien says that it's his parents, very happy to see them again. On reaching them, Moominpappa asks if they can get moominmamma back to normal size, to which they manage to with ease. With that fixed, the aliens return home.
Characters[]
The following are all the characters seen in this episode (in order of appearance):
- Sniff
- The Police Inspector
- Moominpappa
- Moomin
- Moominmamma
- Snorkmaiden
- Little My
- The Martian
- Stinky
Trivia[]
- In the Japanese version, the language the aliens speak is actually the language the series is dubbed to in reverse.
- In the English version, the aliens speak in gibberish.
Gallery[]
