Muddled Up Muddle Earth

A long while ago, I brought up the subject of adapting books / comic book characters to media - whether for the small screen or the big screen, almost always the Producers in charge will decide, for reasons many of us will never know, to take the original content in a completely different direction resulting in varied reviews.

This is one of them.

The original 'Muddle Earth' book cover

Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell are a fantastic writing / drawing duo, who have brought to our bookshelves a great collection of children's books - these include The Edge Chronicles, The Blobheads, Far Flung Adventures and Barnaby Grimes. Another popular title of theirs is Muddle Earth; first published in 2003, it is an unabashed parody of the famous Lord Of The Rings series and, like so, is split into three sections to read.

For anyone who has read Paul and Chris's books, you can be guaranteed of sparkling imagination, humour and adventure each and every time. Chris Riddell's illustrations add more to the fantastical creatures they manage to conjure up. So popular was their novel that it soon earned itself a sequel - Muddle Earth Too! - published in 2011.

So when news came that the BBC were to produce an animated series of the book in 2010, I was readily excited for a number of reasons;

• Several years previous in 2006, Muddle Earth was one of two stories brought to life as part of the BBC's attempts to revive Jackanory for a new generation. Only the first section of the book, 'Englebert the Enormous', was adapted starring John Sessions as the storyteller.

• This would have been the BBC's first in-house production during the Credit Crunch, with music performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

• David Jason (Count Duckula, Toad of Toad Hall, one half of 'Victor and Hugo') would be part of the voice cast, playing the bumbling wizard Randalf.

With all of this in mind, you'd think it would have been a success, wouldn't you?

...dream on.

When the series did premier - I was furious, absolutely beside myself. The entire Tolkeinesque story of Joe, a boy summoned to Muddle Earth by Randalf the Wizard to become a "warrior hero", was dashed completely for an episodic adventure-of-the-week format - which saw instead Randalf, his assistant Newt and the ogre Norbert the Not-Very-Big trying to protect Muddle Earth against the Evil Dr. Cuddles.

I just didn't see why the original Muddle Earth, which was so carefully planned, laid out and developed throughout, was thrown out of the window completely. Besides the fact that Chris and Paul put a lot of effort into their works, it's been too, too long since we've seen an animated series with an on-going storyline that would have made excellent viewing compared to what CBBC were airing at the time. Heck, it would have happily made up three seasons worth of episodes per section.

But what was worse was the animation. Co-produced by Manchester-based Hullabaloo Studios, the quality of the final output was what one would have expected from a low-budget computer game.
To add insult to injury, London-based studio Freakish Kid produced a Muddle Earth sample reel when going after the animation contract...and comparing their work to what was made for the series, I kept thinking; "The BBC rejected these guys for this!!?"

The additional CGI made no difference either; the 2D animation was as plain as a pikestaff, and did no justice to Chris Riddell's superb character designs whatsoever. In fact, their attempts to to cover up the lacklustre quality with "epic zoom-ins" almost gave me seizure.

I'm aware, of course, that the writers and voice cast did their best in spite of the decisions made, but I just couldn't stomach the visuals beyond the first season. The BBC's one chance to revive interest in home-grown animation, and look what happens...

Still, what comes around goes around, I suppose. BBC's Muddle Earth only lasted two seasons - with, excluding their "official" website, little to show for it, not even a DVD release - and Hullaballo Studios unfortunately closed down soon after, which saw Factory TransMedia take up residence in their place.

Muddle Earth - 2006 version

It's still a great shame because I would have happily had Jackanory 2006 pick up where they left off - the CGI animation might not be of Dreamworks quality, but at least the rest of the story would have been told more faithfully. AND...it's on DVD, along with The Magician Of Samarkand. That shows you, doesn't it?

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell's website!

Toonhound's Muddle Earth Page

Gia Predassi - who created the animation for Jackanory's Muddle Earth!

Compositor Reel of 'Muddle Earth' and 'Magician of Samarkand'

Buy 'Muddle Earth' and 'Muddle Earth Too!' from Watersones

The Foxbusters (1999)

The subject for this blog post has a first-and-last theme to it. It was one of the first books written by the famous Dick King-Smith (Babe, the Water Horse) which set the bar for a lifetime career as a children's writer, and one of Cosgrove Hall's last "great" shows before turning their focus to the pre-school market for the remainder of its lifespan.

The original book, first published in 1978, tells the story of the chickens of Foxearth Farm, a special breed by the fact that they could fly - in particular, three of the more gifted hens (Ransom, Sims and Jeffries) help rage war against their age-old enemy the foxes, in what has been described as "Dambusters for kids"!

Many of Dick's stories were based on his years as a farmer himself, which comes as no surprise here. This particular book has a slightly dark but comedic tone, in which blood is spilt, feathers ruffled and containing "fowl language" throughout (all hen-related puns, of course!). And where the balance between predator and prey is thrown off completely with logical, clever storytelling.
 
How this came to animation was an interesting one. Before the turn of the millennium, David Freedman and Alan Gilbey (The Mr Hell Show) developed the book for Cosgrove Hall Films. A "pilot" had been made in 1997 to promote the series, which was intended to be based during WW2 (in fact, some of the original animation from there was reused in the final title sequence). However, such is the way, further changes were made until few elements of the book remained saved for character and location names, although by then only the titular characters themselves could fly.

Still, it seemed to have been worth it. Along with co-writer Joel Jessup, the show ran for two seasons and picked up several BAFTA awards along the way. Thanks to its sparkling comedy, perfectly British through 'n' through, it sits very nicely alongside Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and Victor and Hugo for insane plots and even madder characters.

Credit also due to the voice actors involved, with old favourites Jimmy Hibbert and Rob Rackstraw supporting the leading ladies - Jane Horricks as "Jolly Jeffries", Joanne Lumley as "Serious Sims" but most surprising of all, Whoopi Goldberg as "Ransome the Ringleader". How I'd love to hear the story behind that casting...!!

Sadly, only the first season has been made available to DVD in the UK. And as always it's a shame on account that the episodes become madder and funnier in the season that followed. Still, perhaps there's hope yet if only the rights to the series weren't quite so "scrambled"...!

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Download the Fox Busters audiobook - read by Nigel Planer

More of the Foxbusters Animated Series from Toonhound

Buy the Foxbusters on DVD from Play.com!

They're the Baddies! Victor and Hugo...

Of all the shows Cosgrove Hall had produced over the years, it comes as a surprise when only a handful are still remembered to this day (thanks to DVD releases). Danger Mouse, Jamie & the Magic Torch, the Wind in the Willows, and even Terry Pratchet's Truckers.

But then there are shows from CH that somehow fall by the wayside, either by lack of interest from the public or lack of advertising from the TV Boffins - shows like Creepy Crawlies, Fantomcat, Albie and even Vampires, Pirates and Aliens. Anyone seen a (British) DVD featuring this lot?

But the most semi-obscure show from CH has to be these guys:

Victor and Hugo: Bunglers in Crime was another of Cosgrove Hall's wonderfully odd-ball shows, featuring two French criminal brothers always hatching "a meticulous plan" to steal valuable items - but hardly ever succeed due to their constant bumbling.

But there is more to this series than one would think:

  - The series combines the writing / voice-acting talents of Brian Trueman, Jimmy Hibbert and David Jason alone (with others such as Edward Kelsey popping up time to time). This would be the last time that Brian and David would provide their voices for a Cosgrove Hall series, as well as being the company's cel-painted show before going from Cosgrove Hall Productions to Cosgrove Hall Films.

 - David Jason's voice for Hugo (the short "brain of a brussel sprout") is based from that of Bluebottle from the famous radio programme The Goon Show! To add to that, often Hugo is constantly pestering Victor with the phrase "What is it that it is...?", another Bluebottle trademark ;-)

 - Often in animated shows starring anthropomorphic animals, everyone bar themselves is human. Whereas in THIS cartoon, it's vice-versa - the brothers themselves the only human characters!

But that's not all...

A crossover well deserving - drawn by Andrew Morrice!

 - Victor and Hugo weren't always Victor and Hugo to begin with. Originally, they started out as Gaston and Pierre from Count Duckula before being redeveloped slightly as humans. And as a result, with thanks to Brian and Jimmy's hilarious scripting, other characters from Danger Mouse and Count Duckula cross-over into V&H either in reference or as supporting characters!!

So with all the perfect chemicals for a winning show, what has happened to the "Bunglers in Crime"?


Well, the sad fact was that V&H were unfortunately created at the time when Children's ITV was undergoing an anti-cartoon phase in 1991-1992, causing Thames TV to lose their franchise. So according to various sources, the episodes were never shown more than once - at least for British airwaves. Last I heard, they seemed to have gained new life Down Under in Aus...

And apart from one episode on a Cosgrove Hall-themed DVD, the rest of the two seasons that were made are only available on lesser-spotted VHS cassettes and books (both hardback and audio!!).

However, for those who do remember, let us hope that one day we shall see all of Victor and Hugo's bungles on DVD, in this day and age where even the most obscure of shows have managed to find new life for today's generation as such...and pray even harder that we Brits will get it first and not Australia...!! =P


For now, though, here's a handful of eppies to watch by - now updated with a fancy new Playlist!

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Victor and Hugo on Wiki

Toonhound's V&H Page

A more in-depth history of Victor and Hugo from Cosgrove Hall Ate My Brain!
More episodes from Dailymotion - including crossovers with Danger Mouse and Count Duckula!