Upin & Ipin (Jawi: اوڤين دان ايڤين) is a Malaysian children's animated television series created by Burhanuddin Md Radzi and his wife, Ainon Ariff and is produced by Les' Copaque Production, based in Shah Alam, Selangor.
The series follows Upin and Ipin, five-year-old twin brothers who were characterised by their abundance of energy, imagination and curiosity about the world.
Both twins, who had lost their parents while they are still a baby, lived with their older sister, Ros and grandmother, whom they called Opah, at the fictional Kampung Durian Runtuh.
The headman of Kampung Durian Runtuh is 72-year-old Isnin bin Khamis, better known as Tok Dalang Ranggi, the Wayang Kulit champion.
Among the village's other notable residents are Muthu, owner of the village's only food stall who lives with his animal whisperer son Rajoo and family pet cattle Sapy; Salleh (Sally), a feminine-apparent who owns a mobile library, a radio announcer, and also an online seller and Ah Tong, a strident-voiced vegetable farmer.
Upin & Ipin originally created as a supporting characters for Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula, produced by Les' Copaque Production, co-founded in 2005 by Burhanuddin Md Radzi and his wife, Ainon Ariff.
[9] After returned to Malaysia, Burhanuddin and his team conducted a research process and said: "We found that the Asian continent is looking for animation that is adapted to our culture and will benefit children".
However, due to time constraints and dateline, Les' Copaque decided to make Upin and Ipin as an orphans.
[14] In 2009, Nizam, Safwan, and Anas Abdul Aziz leaving Les' Copaque and set up their own animation studio Animonsta Studios, but the production of Upin & Ipin continued with Usamah Zaid Yasin serving as its director until 2013 when the latter left the company to established WAU Animation.
Since its debut in 2007, Upin & Ipin has wielded its influence in countries of the Malay archipelago,[20] notably in Malaysia and Indonesia which share linguistic and cultural similarities.
Upin & Ipin has received consistently high viewership on TV9 in Malaysia, becoming the most watched children's program across all channels on broadcast television in 2007 and 2008.
[32] While season two was on air on Ramadan 2008, it was reportedly watched by 1.5 million viewers on TV9,[33] making it the second most-watched animated series on all of Malaysian television, right behind Doraemon (1.6 mil), yet ahead of SpongeBob SquarePants (800,000).
[34] The popularity of Upin & Ipin could have attributed to the commercial success of Malaysia's first CGI-animated feature film, Geng: The Adventure Begins (2009), which featured the twin characters Upin and Ipin, propelling it into the RM 6.31 million mark throughout its seven-week run in Malaysian cinemas as one of the highest-grossing Malay-language films in history.
A live stage show based on the series, titled Upin & Ipin the Musical took place from 14 April to 6 May 2012 at the Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur.
[59][60][61] Geng: The Adventure Begins, an accompanying film to the Upin & Ipin series, was released on 12 February 2009 to popular success.
But, the film was cancelled and replaced with Laksamana Upin & Ipin,[63] which later abandoned due to unexpected financial and schedule situation which occurred in 2011.
[66][67] In March 2011, Les' Copaque planned to build a theme park based on the Upin & Ipin series at a cost of RM200 million in Perak.
[70][71][72] In 2023, the company announced that the construction of Upin & Ipin theme park likely to start by the late 2023 with a RM700 million budget and expected to opened either by 2026 and 2027.
[74] Targeted at young readers, the magazine features screenshot comics of the Upin & Ipin TV series and the Geng: Pengembaraan Bermula film, voice actor and production crew profiles, and learning and activity sections.
[79][80] Modelled after Candy Crush Saga, the Upin & Ipin KipiBlocks allows users need to arrange three of the same animated characters by moving only one block, and complete as many as possible in the set time.
[90] A restaurant chain, utilising the series' concept, known as Kedai Makan Upin & Ipin is established with its first branch opened at Section 7, Shah Alam in July 2012 and specializing on Malaysian cuisine.
[91][92] In September 2023, Les' Copaque in collaboration with TMG Ventures to launched a family restaurant chain featuring Upin & Ipin characters.
[98][99] A limited edition gold coin featuring designs of Upin & Ipin were released by Malaysian jewellery company, Habib Jewels in collaboration with Les' Copaque in August 2020.
In the series, Upin and Ipin with their friends learning Quran with their religious teacher, Ustaz Sheikh Abdulkarim Omar al-Makki.
Another spinoff series, Upin & Ipin: The Helping Heroes, began premiered on Les' Copaque YouTube channel on 22 May 2020.