Top of the World

Written by Ken Pontac
Iceland, July 14, 2004 Holy Christ! I’m in Iceland! The sun shines all the time here, and the hot water from the tap smells like a fart from a sourstomached old man who’s eaten too many pickled eggs. The signage is incomprehensible, people’s names are unpronounceable, and the money looks like panels from a comic book regaling tales of stern, bearded men wearing odd hats and holding ponderous tomes. ...

Written by Simon Ashdown
KidScreen June 2003 While children's fitness may just now be shaping up as the issue du jour in North America, Reykjavic, Iceland's LazyTown keyed into its importance 11 years ago. Founded by fitness guru and lecturer Magnus Scheving, the LazyTown concept launched in 1992 with a mandate to improve health of children. Since then, the multi-million dollar icelandic francise has grown to encompass books, board games, videos, CDs, a radio station, theatrical productions, and even...

Written by Inga Rún Sigurðardóttir
MBL - Fólk í fréttum 2002 Latibær has a new look and townspeople have got American names and looks. Inga Rún Sigurðardóttir talked with Ágúst Frey Ingason, Secretary General, about the expansion. Life and animation are around Latabæ these days, and perhaps Americans may not have to wait long for a chance to get acquainted with the Sports, Solla Stare, Gogga Mega and Glanna Crime, or Sportacus, Stephanie, Pixel and Robbie Rotten, as they are called in English. ...

ROBBIE ROTTEN IN LAZYTOWN (Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ)
The National Theatre in Iceland (1999)

A play by Magnús Scheving
Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ

The characters of Lazytown are household names with Icelandic children, who have got to know them through children books, videotapes and visits to schools and kindergartens by the protagonist, the Sports-Fairy or Sportacus, played by the author himself. "Lazytown" has in fact become an educational concept, emphasizing the importa...