Mike Pearse - Dennis's Big Birthday Party

The Beano will be celebrating 75 years in print this month...so I decided to mark the occasion as only I know how.

While this issue doesn't exactly celebrate the Beano's birthday, it does for one of its top characters, Dennis the Menace - who turned 50 years old in 2001 at the time this storyline was printed.

BTW, for Mike Pearse fans, if you haven't already check out his guest comic strip for the Doctor Who Fanzine Fish Fingers and Custard - "Cyberman No.3"!

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

Mr Men Parody Concept Sketches

As a freelance artist, I'm always going after different roles / opportunists whenever I can - whether it's in relation to what I enjoy doing most (character design, storyboarding) or something to hopefully build up new skills (graphic design et al), I'm always keen to try anything once and to constantly keep on my toes.

Way back in late 2010, I applied an ad to design a series of characters for an article, which parodied the classic Mr Men and Little Miss series with other common human foibles. I was provided with a list of names and then worked my magic with them. I had no idea what happened soon after, but below are the masses of sketchy ideas I drew up along with some colour samples (while I was still building up my Photoshop skills at the time!) :

 

 

 

Broomstick Cottage

It could be said that Broomstick Cottage was the 'Simon's Cat' of the early 90's - meaning that the series had been created by no less than three people "as a hobby", and which, while barely televised in the UK, was released to VHS cassette with no links or merchandise attached. It's one of the UK's obscure little wonders that many folks still remember today.

The series was set in the titular cottage owned by the elderly Mr. Bobbin and his magic cat Sponge, who are often "assisted" by the bumbling Father and Son duo, Harry and Garry Dabble - from putting up a lamppost to building a new garden shed, the Dabbles made messes that could only be compared to the Chuckle Brothers. And at times, Sponge would either lend a paw with some magic or just play tricks on Harry and Garry. A very simple but amusing series, proving that in this case "less is more".

All 13 episodes were written by Barry Jackson, animated by Mike Mellor (with Barney Reyner at camera) and narrated by Keith Railton, who also lent his voice to another obscure stop-motion series, Edward and Friends...but that's another blog post for another time!


Now enjoy the entire single series from the Broomstick Cottage Playl -

OH, SPONGE!

Oh well...better click this link then, to watch the episodes themselves on YouTube...

Meanwhile, Toonhound recalls Broomstick Cottage!

Joshua Jones

When it came to keeping up with the times, the BBC weren't shy of doing so with their Children's Programmes either - shows like 'Mary, Mungo and Midge' (1969) 'Pigeon Street' (1981) and 'Bertha' (1986) truly stood out by slowly introducing its young audience to the likes of urban living, industry and characters of "mixed ethic groups", which are more apparent than ever these days.

So by the time 'Joshua Jones' came along in 1991, it gave us plenty of looks on life - the calm canals, the open countryside and the busy factories of Biggot Wharf downriver, all featuring different and memorable characters. Such as the retired Indian Admirable Baboo Karia, Joe Laski the Hungarian farmer and even the "Liverpudlian Lovers", Sharon and Spanner!

Joshua Jones was created by Bumper Films for SC4 Wales, the same folks who gave us Fireman Sam back in 1987, so it's no surprise why this has become another favourite of mine. With a mixture of characters, settings and dialects to choose from, every episode is a surprise with sub-plots used to splendid effect. It's also helped by the vocal talents provided by George Layton and Barbara Flynn.

In all, it's a great little series that introduces children to various cultures and lifestyles, blended with captivating storytelling. In case of Mr. Cashmore, some "grown up" stuff reg; business and office-work, from Daphne Peacock the Vet the importance of looking after animals and the wildlife, and even some river-knowledge from Joshua himself. So there's a little for everyone without being too direct.

All the same, given that the United Kingdom today has just about every person from across the globe within our British Waters, the Beeb are always, always careful when handling "foreign" characters in children's television. The days when overly-stereotypic imitations of the 1950's are considered a no-no by today's standards - which I agree, but to a point. Personally, I wouldn't mind as much so long as "foreign" characters are written as interesting ones, not just for Worldwide Marketing or thrown in for contemporary reasons...

LINKS OF INTEREST:

View Toonhound's Page on Joshua Jones

Read about the series writer, Bob Wilson

The Little Engine That Could (1991)

Long, long before the Rev. W. Awdry first came up with The Three Railway Engines and Casey Junior rolled in with Disney's Dumbo, this age-old story about self-confidence and optimism has been trundling along for decades. Various versions of "The Little Engine That Could" have been published and adapted many times in different forms of media - the strongest version written by one Watty Piper in 1930 - but the one adaptation that many folks remember came in the form of a 1991 animated film.

This version, believe or not, came from a Welsh Animation Co, Kalato Animation, co-financed by Universal Studios and SC4. Directed and produced by Dave Edwards and Mike Young, it is what I consider to be a firm example of what Traditional Animation can still accomplish despite exaggerated rumours that this art form has been "scrapped" following Disney's release of "Paperman". To add, this was also the same animation company that blessed us British with Superted and Hilltop Hospital.

I used to watch this over and over on my little VHS, and it still holds up today in terms of a good story (which, while faithful to the original text, expands nicely on the supporting characters), beautifully-crafted animation and a strong voice cast - all American, of course, which features Kath Soucie, Frank Welker, B.J Ward and Neil Ross among others.

While The Powers That Be may still see the future of CGI animation, there's no denying that even Pixar and Dreamworks had to begin with pencil and paper. In fact, in recent years, Traditional Animation is still being observed and respected as "smear / multiple effects" are applied to Computer Animation today. 

Even so, not even this 2011 CGI adaptation could compare with Dave and Mike's own Little Engine...that could and did!

LINKS OF INTEREST:
Read two different versions of The Little Engine Who Could online!
Mike Young's Wiki Page

Ox Tales - Fantazoo

This animated series has gone under various names in other countries - Boes, Fantazoo, Bus Bus, Ollie Ollie Oxen, Bof! - but for the English market, it's simply known as "Ox Tales". Based on the Dutch comic strip by Wil Raymakers and Thijs Wilms, it became an animated series in the early 80's courtesy of a Japanese-Dutch animation studio - which starred Ollie the Ox and his friend Jack Turtleson as they run the Funny Farm containing every animal possible in one setting. It also featured the voice of A.J. Henderson, who also did voice-over work for Arthur, David the Gnome and Sharky and George.

As "Ox Tales" is known in Italy.

The series was in association with Saban Entertainment, whose library also includes the Super Mario Bros Show, Samurai Pizza Cats and, most famous of all, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Amongst their collection of Animé shows, when translated for the English market, Ox Tales was redubbed with dreadful puns and often satiric humour (provided by the "Narrator", Towilla Toucan). Some English dubs worked, some didn't. Rather depends on the writer/s involved.

I have fond memories of this series, though, both in English as part of CITV's afternoon schedule and in Italian during the yearly family abroad. And it's very rare - from what I know anyway, having not watched much of this category myself - for an Animé series to be consistently fun, whereas most Japanese shows tend to go mad with monsters and laser guns and characters with depressing back-stories. Nope, none of that. Ox Tales just goes for laughs, thick and fast, just as Tex Avery would have done so way back in the Golden age.

It's another little winner that, with so many shows as such, deserves a proper DVD release at some point - even then, the animated series had scenes that didn't quite make the transfer when aired for the American market.

But for those who may not have seen the original Dutch comic strip, from which the humour was based heavily from, the gags there are more daring compared to what was made in the animated series...clearly, the Dutch don't have obligations to what was printed in their newspapers!

Even if the original comic's humour sometimes came too close to the bone, it still boasts of beautiful artwork and terrific visual gags from the artists involved, which have made it a success, a "cult" even, in the European market.

All in all, whether you've read the comic or seen the Animé, both are nevertheless tremendously funny, from the silly to the cringe-worthy to the truly weird =P

LINKS OF INTEREST:
Hey Blog Guy - a dormant but useful blog that focuses mostly on the Dutch-Japanese side of "Ox Tales"
Read the history of "Boes", translated from the original Italian website

View some of the original episodes in Italian...
...or if you've a few Euros to spare, try and buy some copies of "Fantazoo" from the ReNoir comic website!
Listen to the English theme song, arranged by Shuki Levy!