Fiep Westendorp
Fiep Westendorp (1916-2004) is one of the most famous illustrators from the Netherlands. Her works consists of more than 10.000 illustrations, almost 1.000 of which were made for the stories of Pim & Pom. She illustrated children’s books and rhymes written by Annie M.G. Schmidt and Mies Bouhuys amongst others, and made illustrations for magazines and newspapers. In 1997 Fiep Westendorp received the Oeuvre Penseel, a unique prize that was created in her honour. Her work is loved by both children and adults and still very much alive.
Mies Bouhuys
Mies Bouhuys (1927) became well-known as a children’s books author. Since 1958 her stories and rhymes about Pim & Pom appeared in Het Parool newspaper for ten years. Fiep Westendorp was responsible for the illustrations of the two cats. Pim and Pom were Mies Bouhuys’s own cats and gave her inspiration for her stories. She published many children’s books, including ‘Anne Frank was niet van gisteren’ and ‘De straat van de heksen’.
Pim & Pom
The adventures of Pim & Pom, written by Mies Bouhuys and illustrated by Fiep Westendorp, appeared on the children’s page of Het Parool newspaper every week for ten years. Over the years, several Pim & Pom short story collections were published.
In 2003, while busy archiving Fiep Westendorp’s illustrations, Gioia Smid found bags filled with drawings of Pim and Pom at Fiep’s home. This resulted in the publication of a new book: ‘Pim & Pom blijven vriendjes’ (2004). Around the same time the idea to create an animated series was born.
In 2008 the first animated series of ‘The Adventures of Pim & Pom’ was broadcast on Dutch television. The series has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Cinekid Kinderkast Jury Award (in 2010 and 2011) and the Cinekid Kinderkast Audience Award (in 2013). The series has also been sold abroad and can be watched on television in Scandinavia, Japan, China and other countries. In 2014 the feature film ‘Pim & Pom – The Big Adventure’ was released in cinemas in the Netherlands and Belgium. Pim and Pom have their own merchandise brand that includes an app, plush toys, tableware and books.
Since 2021 a new series aired on NPO Zappelin television network in the Netherlands; ‘The Adventures of Pim & Pom at the Museum’. Pim and Pom explore the world of art and take the viewers with them. Art collections of Dutch museums are the setting of this new series, in which Pim & Pom literally dive into a famous work of art in every episode. This is a co-production of Pim & Pom bv, Phanta Animation en AVROTROS.