Pong Pagong | |
---|---|
Sesame, Batibot character | |
First appearance | 1983 |
Last appearance | 1994 |
Portrayed by | Deo Noveno |
Voiced by | Deo Noveno |
In-universe information | |
Species | Turtle |
Gender | Male |
Pong Pagong is a muppet-style character developed by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) for the Filipino children's show Sesame, a co-production between CTW and the Philippine Children's Television Foundation (PCTF) which debuted in 1983. Pong Pagong is an anthropomorphic turtle, similar to Big Bird of Sesame Street , standing over six feet tall and towering over human co-stars and aged to be around six years old. Together with its co-muppet, Kiko Matsing, the characters were custom made in New York for Sesame. [1] Both characters were inspired from a Filipino fable, "The Monkey and the Turtle", which was annotated to English by José Rizal in 1889. [2]
After the cancellation of Sesame in 1984 due to the cancellation by CTW of the co-production venture, both characters appeared in its 1985 replacement show, Batibot , under a license arrangement with CTW. Both characters were returned to CTW in 1994 [3] and never used again.