Animation Nation Part 3

EP 3: VISIONS OF CHILDHOOD
Monday 14 November 9pm-10pm; 12.40am-1.40am; Monday 21 November 3.25am-4.25am (Sun night)
Magical worlds created by animators have had a huge influence on generations of children. Includes clips from programmes like Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss, The Wombles and Wallace and Gromit.













"its a lovely feeling to have total control over what happens however extraordinary you choose it to be." Oliver Postgate

"That is what children do, bring their toys to life, always have done and thats the origin of puppetry and further down the line where animation comes from" Brian Sibley, animation historian

Arthur Melvin Cooper, one of the first british animators, made Dreams of Toyland, realising animation was most suitable to a child audience. It was revolutionary at the time and took a good while longer for Oliver Postgate to make the saga of Noggin the Nog for TV. He made 6 episodes for BBC with Peter Firmin, Nick Park loved these pieces as a child and claimed "the charm got you past the technique" that was limited at the time. "What these programmes wanted to do is be distinctive in their own right, they werent' borrowing from the bigger tradition of disney." (Paul Wells). Posgate and Firmin also created tales about fairytale folk with the pogles, a traditional English couple, continuing in the whimsy of British animtion.

Camberwick Green was made by Gordan Murray. As more episodes were commissioned the world grew, into trumpton and then a wharf and a stately home. It was one of the first animations to cash in on merchandising. Another to do this was the Magic Roundabout, this animation was particularly popular due to it being scheduled just before the new, meaning adults happened upon it. A flood of animations followed after this one, the Clangers and in particular the Wombles by Barry Leith (this earned 17 million in merchandising.) Also in 1974 the wombles were one of the best selling acts in the music charts.

Paddington and Bagpuss kept the tradition of animating solely for children. Others like Dangermouse seeped in, but this was more sophisticated with themes of spy, this appealed to an American audience.

1n 1982 channel 4 invested 100,000 for Raymond Briggs' The Snowman. John Coates used rendering to transfer the drawings of the book to animation. It showed hope an audience would embrace an animation despite not having dialog or comedy.

The Brothers Quay used more adult imagery using old puppets to create mysteries of Crocodiles, a dark and surreal piece.

"What we try to transmit in all these films is a different kind of narrative, Even whn people go to ballet they don't ask the dancers to speak. Your forced to interpret gestures, movements, rhythm, music." The Brothers Quay

Paul Berrys The sandman also Followed these themes. It was sinister and really played on the fear for children. The story of a mother an adaptation of Hans Anderson on the other hand was much more for adults animated by Ruth Lingford it spoke about death in childhood.

The secret adventures of Tom Thumb by the bolex brothers was a mainstream christmas animation in 1993. Instead of the audience sitting down as a family like they would the snowman this wa a much more dark piece about the main character, a fetus. What was interesting was the use of pixelation, the animating of real people.

At this time Bob the Builder and Postman Pat were some of the most recognised animations but it seemed that the format could not simultaneously appeal to adults and children. Then emerged Wallace and Gromit, it united the bizarre of Bagpuss and the Clangers whith the whimsy and utterly British asoect of Camerwick Green. Wallice and Gromit are now destined for Hollywood, with a feature commissioned, big budgets and length of process seem to theaten the end result.