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.

Pedro and Frankensheep

Despite running this blog for a few months I’ve never actually posted anything about Pedro and Frankensheep here, which is a series that me and my bro worked on all last year. You can watch one episode on YouTube, or watch all of them at the CBBC website.

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

Harry and Toto Clips

Here’s a series of clips from Harry and Toto as seen on YouTube

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!

Harry and Toto on Cbeebies

Created by Paul Shuttleworth at Handle and Spout Productions, Harry and Toto is a series for Cbeebies based on Aesop’s fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. Sing-a-long now at the Cbeebies website

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.

Westi

I saw this on Channel 4’s three minute wonder about a year ago and again at the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol in November 2007. It’s a great little piece about bullying and confidence. Written by 13 year old Ben Westerman from Doncaster, this is a film about himself and his feelings about his self-image.

Made for RAW CUTS, a joint initiative between Channel 4’s 4Talent and the NSPCC.

Directed by Madevi Dailly

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.