Rony Oren

British viewers may recall seeing one or two of the following programmes below at some point of the '90s, at a time when Channel 4 used to show animation at reasonable hours. They all have one thing in common - they were created by one person.

Rony Oren is pretty big in his part of the world. Once he opened shop with FrameByFrame Productions, went on to animate and produce thousands of stop-motion productions in his lifetime, from adverts / commercials to kids shows and short films - as well as writing and drawing children's books of his own. He's pretty much the Nick Park of Israeli!

What makes Rony's animation work noticeable is how rubbery and bouncy his technique is. Something that's quite reminiscent of Pingu or Morph or Mio Mao.

Although all of his works have been broadcast worldwide, three of his shows have been showcased vastly in the UK - all which I recall watching, whether it was 6am or 12am.


Foxy Fables was one of his earliest works in 1987. Co-written and voiced by Andy Seacombe and Teddy Kempner, the series adapted a number of Aesop and Uncle Remus fables often ending with a moral - while still delivering hilarious dialogue all the way.


Andy and Teddy would collaborate again for Rony's next series, Tales of a Wise King - again, each episode sharing a moral from adapted stories of mythology, fantasy and magic, all teaching viewers about using your brains.


The last of Rony's series I recall Channel 4 showing was Grabbit the Rabbit - and as with the two above, this also adapts stories from Jean de la Fontaine and Joel Chandler Harris, although by this time Rony's style seem to have more spit and polish involved.


Rony is still animating and writing to this day - so anyone interested in how to create their own claymation characters should keep an eye out for his useful selection of books to add to your library!

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Rony Oren's Official Website

Claytoons - Rony Oren's Animation Studio

Rony Oren on YouTube!

Plonsters

As you may know, if you've been following this Blog of mine long enough, I've always been an admirer of anything obscure, original or just downright nutty - so this stop-motion series from Germany fits all three roles nicely...

Plonsters was created by Bettina Matthaei and produced by Anima Studio für Film & Grafik GmbH in the late 1980's. Having been aired in Australia and Norway, it eventually made its way to British airwaves, which I happened to catch sight of as part of Channel Five's Milkshake! block during some channel surfing one morning.
The series follows the adventures of three plasticine creatures known as Plif (green), Plops (blue) and Plummy (orange). With each episode lasting no less than 5 minutes, showcasing simple yet fun storylines for youngsters to follow, it really does prove what one can do with some plasticine and a little imagination...

In fact, going by the gibberish language from the Plonsters, the series seems to have the same universal appeal as with Morph and Pingu in a way - but you be the judge.

Check out the Plonsters YouTube Channel for all avaliable episodes!

Also check out Bettina Matthaei's own web site  (It's in German - however you can translate it by using Google Translate!)

La Linea

Regarding a previous post on Italian Cartoons, here's one that everyone is sure to have seen at some point - whether as a filler in-between shows or part of the Great Space Coaster...

Osvaldo Cavandoli's La Linea is a perfect demonstration of what one can do in an animated world. Drawing cartoons since 1943, till his death in 2007, "Cava" became famous when he created La Linea (alias "The Line", alias "Mr. Line"), which was originally part of a advertising campaign for Lagostina, a popular brand of cookware. After just six/eight adverts, the character became popular enough to be given a series of his own - lasting just over 300 episodes!

Everything about this series just works, especially for International Broadcasting - each short lasts between 2 - 5 minutes, perfect for a quick laugh. The art style original, literally made of a simple white line, easy to identify and animate. And the "voices" are provided by Italian Clown Carlo Bonomi (famed for also voicing Stripy and Pingu, both Italian-related to boot!), which is really just a mock version of Milanese, but to many it's just gibberish.

And just another example of how much the old masters of the Golden Age Era have inspired other artists. The entire premise of La Linea is influenced by Chuck Jones's Duck Amuck, where "Mr. Line" is at the constant mercy of the artist and his pencil. The real beauty comes from his reactions and Carlo's hilarious improvised deliveries :D

Artist and Creation interact

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of the original shorts scattered across online to watch, but if one is lucky enough, they're bound to either nab the entire DVD box set (available only in Germany) or the rarer CD featuring the Soundtrack of the series by Franco Godi and Corrado Tringali respectively.

Below are a few personal favourites I'd like to share, including one of the very first Lagostina adverts featuring La Line. Be warned: once you've seen a couple, you may be tempted to watch more...!

LA LINEA PLAYLIST

BBC - Small People's TV - 1998

The first time I saw this Children In Need promo back in 1998, it made my heart sing. This was what truly made up the Children's BBC at the time: long before Digital TV, long before Sam and Mark, long before everything became outsourced and "American-imported".

THIS, my friends, was a perfect history of British Children's TV from the BBC, by the BBC. With as much of the "gang" included as possible - stop-motion, live-action and traditionally animated =)

I'd have loved to know who was responsible for the animation throughout here. Could be from their respective studios (who were probably still in business) at the time, but at a hunch I'd call on Cosgrove Hall for the stop-motion segments.

The little chap here, BTW, was played by one Scott Chisholm; in what would be his acting debut just aged 5, he would later expand his career in various other shows such as Casualty, The Giblet Boys and Things To Do Before You're Thirty.


But enough chatter. Here's the video below to enjoy and reminisce...thank lord that 83% of the shows included have already made their way to DVD... le sigh.



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