The Flumps

I used to love The Flumps. Ecky thump, they’re from Yorkshire just like me Grandma. Grandfather Flump still reminds me of me own Granpa too. This has that same folksy feel that all the best stuff from the seventies has. My favourite character was always white hatted Pootle though, just because he (or was it she?) was the naughtiest.

French Retro

Here’s some  kids series from the back and beyond. Do you remember a “Super Lunar Bird” called Wattoo Wattoo. Me and my siblings loved this alien bird. I can’t find an English version, so here is an original French version episode with an anti-smoking theme. It’s interesting, not least because you don’t often see smoking on children’s TV amymore.

So there you are… give up smoking by replacing cigarettes with explosives. D’accord!

Also, a film that a friend recommended from her own childhood, Barbapapa. Also a French production !

Morph and Chaz

Morph was one of those constants of my childhood. I really liked him and Tony Hart of course. Morph is a great comic character – he feels like an underdog, but somehow he always wins through in the end. Morph was of course the invention of Peter Lord of Aardman Animations. I remember seeing Peter Lord driving around Bristol in his old stylee Volvo. How unpretentious! I wonder if he’d approve of the F reg Subura Justy that I still have?

There are quite a few Aardman snippets to watch at their YouTube channel including this one:

Dot and the Kangaroo

Remembered this film the other day while chatting with brother Greg. Sort of a hippy Aussie film about Dot who gets lost in the bush and discovers that animals can speak too! She connects with a kindly kangaroo who’s lost her joey. This is parts one and two – there are more on YouTube. It mixes live action and 2D animation. The weirdest thing about this film was that the sounds of the bush really stuck in my head, and years later when I found myself visiting the Atherton Table Lands in Queensland Australia I realised that I recognised the sounds of the bush from Dot and the Kangaroo.

Part One – Dot gets lost

Part Two – Dot meets the kangaroo

Also the Bunyip Dance – the scary Aborigine style bit

I Met the Walrus

Here’s an interview conducted by a 14 year old kid (or is that a young man at that age – discuss!) back in that famous year of 1969 with John Lennon. This short was nominated for an Oscar in 2008.

There’s also a high quality version of the film at the YouTube screening room

Feed the Kitty

Yesterday I went on a Masterclass with Frank Gladstone at Aardman. He’s worked for Disney and Dreamworks and the like and one of the things he showed us was this cartoon, which is beautifully drawn, structured and has the most excellent timing. The dog’s name is also fantastic… Mark Anthony. Who calls their dog Mark Anthony? Brilliant!

Ivor the Engine

Like many other small boys I had an inexplicable fixation with steam trains. Combine this with the wonderful imaginative talents of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin and you get Ivor the Engine. It’s beautiful, folksy, wistful, nostalgic for an era of community, and with dragons too (as any good Welsh story should have.)

Paul Bunyan

Here’s a great 1958 Disney production about the North American folk hero Paul Bunyan. We recorded this on VHS when I was a kid in the late 70s / early 80s and watched it on what must have been a daily basis.

The most badly disguised superhero in the universe

So… He-Man!

Adam turns into He-Man and looks exactly the same except without his pink shirt, but now sporting a tan.

Teela and Evil Lynn are quite clearly designed to inspire certain feelings in their pubescent audience.

It sounds like beast man has some serious sinus issues.

Yes… it’s easy to pick holes in He-Man, but at the end of the day I loved it as a young boy.

Parts one to three of the first episode below.

Bananaman

Sometimes when you go back and looks at childhood favourites again you get a little disappointed. But not with Bananaman. It’s short, silly, with lots of visual gags and voiced by the Goodies with just the right amount of nonsense.