Japanese cartoons had a completely different feel to other cartoons altogether. They had a soft glow to them. Even stuff that wasn’t supposed to glow, glowed. Outdoor shots look like they were lit indoors under lights. They could be cute and adorable and make you wanna cuddle up to them OR they could be dark and ominous and sort of scary and unsettling. This is what I think I liked about them. Many of the cartoons felt like they didn’t talk down to you and seemed like they were for ‘Big Kids’ and that made you wanna watch them.  They were like a cute little robot animal pet, who’s eyes  glowed bright and who’s tail wagged but could at any minute, snap and grow in size, turning into a giant battling robot that could destroy a legion of enemies with an in-built series of giant missile shooting guns. Aside from the series set in Space, many had quaint settings that had a fairy tale like innocence to them or were set in a ‘simpler time’ before the robots came.

Astro Boy, Voltron, Robotech, The Mysetrious Cities of Gold, Samurai Pizza Cats and Belle & Sebastien were the ones that really stay in my mind vividly, although there were many more and they increased in numbers like a self-cloning robot army in the early to mid nineties.

There was certainly something a little strange about these cartoons. This was probably a mix of cultural differences and the vastly different visual style they and and the fact that many of them were re-packaged, anglosized incarnations of their former Japanese native product. The subject matter was often quite intense and the characters would usually find themselves in some real trouble mid-episode where close-ups would show them wincing in pain and tears welling in their eyes. There was a real sense of pain in most episodes. Characters could be destroyed, killed and the show would go on. Robotech and Voltron had characters that were killed in battle and would cease to be in future episodes. They really weren’t afraid to show life and death together.

When I think back, watching Astro Boy on TV is one of my earliest recollections of watching animation as a series and actually waiting for the next episode. The theme song is just as infectious and stirring today as it was when I was 4. Here’s the end credit sequence which actually showed children how animation is made. I still think it’s the best closing credit sequence for any cartoon series ever.

One of my favourites, even though obscure, was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was The Wizard of Oz story re-told in the Japanese style. The show was re-packaged by Cinar, a Canadian company at the time, but I still remember how the show made me feel; sad, anxious, scared, hopeful and cosy all in the same half hour. Here’s the Show’s title sequence vs. The original Japanese show’s title sequence. This shows you the real difference in the way the cartoons were packaged for different cultural audiences.

Here’s the original Japanese version, which makes the English one look gawdy and super 80s.

My favourite was probably Voltron and what a concept for kids. Robotic lions of different colours that team together to make one big robot that smashes the baddies. Genius. And we lapped it up. Explosions always looked better in Japanese cartoons. They were white hot and filled with shrapnel and mini explosions within the big ones. Many studios in Japan had and still do have animators who specialise in ‘shit blowing up’ shots. Here’s the opening title of the version we got from the U.S. I still think this music is as epic and stirring as anything.

And thanks to the wonders of youtube, I for the first time (and possibly you too) can watch the opening of the original Japanese version of Voltron Beast King Go Lion. I actually think the U.S version of the opening takes the sake.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold was also a sort of strangely eerie piece that blended sci-fi with History. I remember being sort of scared by the show and even it’s unusual but catchy theme song but the giant golden condor craft always got me and those friendly kids waving at you.

Some of them were just plain weird. Just bizarre. Such as Samurai Pizza Cats. This is one that emerged in the early 90s following closely behind the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ( It even took a shot at the Turtles in the theme song) It was hyperactive, colourful, completely ridiculous but just a ball of metal, feline fun to watch. Kids would come to school and sing the theme song and even talk about how weird it was… then go home and watch it again the next morning. It was a real pre-cursor to the Pokemon epileptic series of the late 90s.

As a young child I can’t remember knowing that there cartoons were ‘FROM JAPAN’. I just knew they were from somewhere different. Maybe space. I did one day look at some little figurines I had (in the same visual style I saw on Voltron etc) and on the bottom of them was ‘MADE IN HONG KONG’ so I think I then thought the cartoons were from this mysterious land of ‘Hong Kong’ which I thought could have been the coolest country in the world.

Next Post: Canadian Cartoons

If American cartoons were from the big city, then British cartoons were from just down the street. Perhaps it was Australia’s British roots that made them seem sort of familiar? I grew up in the hills of South Australia where it would often be cold in winter and these cartoons were like a cosy blanket. They were not sugary and bright or full of snap, crackle and pop. They were often darker looking in their tones even to the point of glum. They always looked a little underdone or rougher around the edges than other cartoons too and this made them feel very accessible but also meant that they could very quickly become a little depressing to watch. They were closer to a throw away newspaper comic strip than a slick superhero comic with a glossy cover. Whenever a British cartoon came on I wouldn’t switch it off but I would usually feel like I was slightly coming down off the American cartoon before it.  Maybe they provided the necessary mouthful of blandness between sugary meals?

The cartoons that spring to mind off the top of my head are Bananaman, Danger Mouse, The Ratties, Raggy Dolls, Henry’s Cat, Willo The Wisp, Superted, Jimbo, Count Duckula and Bangers & Mash.

These cartoons definitely fill with me with a comforting sense of nostalgia and do feel like part of the family, father than an exciting foreigner.  They were full of puddles, gumboots, umbrellas, cobbled lanes and average looking brick lane houses and bedrooms with smokey chimneys. They were occupied by bobby policeman, double-decker buses and woodland creatures living in little houses, nestled in tree trunks. They were like a cup of tea on a dreary cold day at your grandmothers’ house,  greasy, vinegary fish and chips eaten from newspaper on the windy docks of the town or baked beans and egg on toast.

Occasionally they’d leap out of this world into something a little more ‘out there’ in the case of Superted. Humour-wise they were a lot more subtle than the American cartoons. Dryer and usually peppered with historical references or jokes. Many of which probably went over our heads. Their theme songs were often more rambunctious and less smooth and tight than other cartoons too. Often their theme songs would be damn right irritating but this somehow added to their ‘ugly’ charm.

Here is one of the worst theme songs for The Ratties. Have a watch and cringe and see why I wanted to drown myself in my own bubble bath after I heard this one.

But then sometimes they would hit a really great little tune that was so loveable and warm to hear and made you excited to enter the world you were about to watch. This one was of my very favourites. The Raggy Dolls

The simple superhero theme song for Bananaman was also great in an understated way.

One style that the British did best I think was stop-motion. Some of the most memorable and well done series of the era were in this style. The Trap Door, Noddy, Morph, Wind in the Willows, Paddington, The Wombles and Fireman Sam . While many of the characters walked like they had clubfeet or some inner ear problem, they were charming and cute because of this.

Noddy was one of my favourites and when looking at it now was incredibly trippy.

I think what made many of these cartoons likeable was the fact they were unpolished and unpretentious, but they sort of knew it. They often looked as if they were drawn with a marker in about ten minutes, or animated  using cut outs with a popsicle stick in the case of Captain Pugwash a looseness that American cartoons would never have dared entered on a mainstream level.

Next post: Cartoons from Japan

American Cartoons

Still the most vivid and prominent in my mind.  They certainly left an aftertaste or ‘buzz’. This is probably half to do with the fact that they seemed to make up a bulk of what we watched but also cos they seemed to have a lasting flavour, whether good or bad and even when bad you still kind of wanted more.

Cartoons from the U.S felt like Saturday mornings. They were fun, colourful and sugary. They were fruit loops for the eyes and bubblegum for the ears. You knew when an American cartoon came on that they really knew what they were doing. They had everything down. The exhilirating and catchy theme songs that would echo in your head for the whole day, the tie-ins to toys, cereals and happy meals and the somewhat expected yet satisfying and comforting formula that the episodes would play out using. These were not organic cartoons but highly synthesised, chemically enhanced and highly produced works that left others in their wake. They were processed and pre-wrapped in colourful packaging and tasted like that really fake strawberry flavour and smelt like that even more fake grape flavour. They were genetically modified cartoons with super strength, super fun and super colours. When i say colourful I mean it; Gummi Bears, the Wuzzles, The Smurfs, The Care Bears, Rainbow Bright, The Popples, Pound Puppies, Muppet Babies and Poochie are just some that spring to mind. They were soooo cute and soooo colourful and happy that it sort of made you want to scream at the TV with happiness. It was an anxious, sugar high happiness that made you want to run around the block laughing. The cartoons were also really tight like a well drilled pop rock group. They were fast, dynamic, pulsating with energy and usually had an element of wit or slapstick humour so they never really depressed. You wanted to hug the TV when they came on and you felt like these cartoons were hugging you back and grabbing your hand and pulling you in to play in their world. Even writing this entry, I have a smile and I’m typing really fast just remembering the feeling.

Obviously in addition the load of new stuff we were shown many of the American classics like Scooby Doo, Top Cat, Yogi Bear and the Bugs Bunny Show. I could tell these cartoons weren’t new like many of the others as they didn’t contain fluoro pink or pastel purple in their palettes but they just had pizazz. They felt like a really funny uncle, who was a bit old but still had it. They were entertainers in that vaudevillian way and that was never lost on me as a child.

Then of course was the action! in American cartoons. They did this better than anyone. He-Man, She-Ra, Dinosaucers, COPS, Bravestarr, Thundercats, Transformers and of course Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all filled with this. It was like sugar mixed with steroids and it worked. It made you want those action figures so much that you felt you could tear down your bedroom wall if you didn’t get them.

I remember distinctly racing home on the afternoons to watch the Ninja Turtles with my brother and hearing that theme song was seriously akin to a hit of some sort of drug. it just made me feel so good. I would sing along to it, hold the action figure or trading cards in my hands while it was and not be able to wait until tomorrow’s episode. It was unlike any feeling I have ever felt since. A pure obsession and I had no idea this was so cleverly concocted like a synthetic flavour enhancer, so kids like me all around the world would be swept up in such an uncontainable fervor that they would be possessed to raid the toy stores for any bit of merchandise with a Ninja Turtle on it. It was Turtlemania and it cut through Australian culture like Leonardo’s katana blade through a foot soldier. It tasted like pizza (naturally), salty snack treats and ice cream all washed down with some invisible cola or some bizarre green ice cream/soda milkshake. This cartoon gave you acne even before you had hit puberty. It made boys into boy-men overnight.  Ninja Turtles in a way spelled the end of the ‘ultra cute’ cartoon on our TVs and suddenly killer, mutant amphibians were among the poochies and puppies and everything around it suddenly felt so uncool in comparison,

Then of course came the new wave of American more adult,  cheeky and witty cartoons; The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Beavis & Butthead and Eek the Cat. We knew by this stage that these cartoons were American and anything American in the early to mid-90s in Australia was considered ultra cool. NBA, sneakers, rap music, toys even candy or as we say ‘lollies’ like push-pops came in and were so popular. But what made these cartoons cool were that they didn’t seem ‘kiddie’ and ‘lame’ like the care bear cartoons of yesteryear seemed by that time. They were the new crop and felt like they were made for me as an 10 or 11 year old who would rather play with a Super Soaker 20 than a fluffy toy. These cartoons even parodies the cutesy cartoons of the 80s in them.

Next Post: Cartoons from the UK

Enjoy!

[Left to Right: Adam Elliot, James Calvert & Eddie White at the 1998 Atom Awards]

With the announcement of the nominees on Tuesday, Oscar season is well and truly under way. It was great to see some truly diverse animated feature films make it into the mix that challenge people’s view of what stories animation could tell. Australians have traditionally done well at the Oscars and we were really rooting for Adam Elliot’s Mary & Max to get a nod. With his festival successes and Oscar win, Adam really had a lot to do with putting Aussie animation on the map in the 90s and 00s.

When I was a teenager in high school just starting to make short films, I remember seeing Adam’s short ‘Uncle’ for the first time. It was such a unique, hilarious and emotional short and to top it off, made by a fellow Aussie.

Throughout this time when my fellow PRA pioneers James Calvert & Hugh Nguyen and I were making student films in our garage, we would always keep track of Adam’s latest films and awards and drew inspiration from his style of storytelling, not to mention his honest, low-fi and unpretentious way of making an animated film.

In 1998 at the ATOM awards in Melbourne, we met Adam in person. He was young(er), energetic, approachable and an inspiration to talk with (we were 16 at the time).

In 2004, when Adam won the Academy Award for Best Short Animation for his masterpiece Harvie Krumpet we were thrilled – thrilled that an Australian animator had taken the big prize.

Then in the following two years, two more Australians would follow making it to the nomination stage; Sejong Park with Birthday Boy and Anthony Lucas with The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

With Warwick Thornton’s inspired Samson & Delilah missing out on a nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film”, Australia’s Oscar hopes this year rest on Luke Doolan’s Miracle Fish in the Best Short Film category. Good luck mate!

For more info visit:

http://www.mercurycinema.org.au/screenings/FLICKERFEST_2010.html

The first episodes of our 1-minute interstitial series, “Itty Bitty Ditties” will be airing tomorrow on children’s channel ABC3 during “Studio 3″ around 7:00am. The series features Brian the Budgie as he travels the world on his Hog, Ernst in search of singing partners for nonsensical duets.

James created and directed the series, which features character design work from illustrator Chris Edser, who we’re huge fans of. The music was composed by longtime PRA collaborator Benjamin Speed with lyrics written by The Beards songwriter Tom Bettany. Tom’s bandmate Joel McMillan provides Brian the Budgie’s vocals.

You can catch the first of the episodes on ABC on the following dates:

• Thursday 21st January – 7:00am, as part of “Studio 3″
• Friday 19 Februabry – 6:53am
• Monday 22 Fenruary – 6:53am
• Tuesday 23 February – 6:53am

Hamish Downie: I noticed you have Nick Cave narrating The Cat Piano. On YouTube it seems that many people found it through him. How important is it to have a star? Couldn’t a Shakespearian actor done the job? If having a star is paramount, what was the process like finding the right star? How did you approach them? At what stage of development was the project?

Hugh Nguyen: We wanted Nick Cave to do the narration mainly because we felt his voice and body of work lent themselves really well to the dark story we wanted to tell. It’s film noir so there’s lots of depravity, told in beat poetry which was the language of a tortured and disenfranchised counter culture. Nick Cave was perfect. There’s no doubt that many of his fans discovered the film on YouTube from their interest in his work. One of the powerful aspects about the Internet is its referential power in helping people connect easily with their interests – Nick Cave fans will stumble on a short film he narrated online, and in doing so bring it to the attention to more of his fans. But this also applies to people interested in other aspects of the film. Early on when we made the film available on YouTube and Vimeo, traffic came from “furries” sites, and animation and design focused sites.

We approached Nick Cave through our Producer Jessica Brentnall, who was able to contact him through his agent in the UK. At that stage, we had locked down much of the style of the film and the final look of the characters, as well as developed the storyboards. We put together a pitch document to Nick with the poem, artwork, and the directors’ vision of the project and why we felt he was an ideal narrator for the film.

HD: A lot of the big films film the actors as they record their voices. Did you do this? How important is this?

HN: We didn’t in this case but wish we had! It’s useful reference for the actors to use when putting the performance into the characters but not essential. It is used a lot more in feature animation than television animation. In can be useful when recording dialogue, where vocal performance has to match the animation, however as our film was narrated (the Poet never “speaks”), it wasn’t as necessary.

HD: Do the actors need a storyboard when they record their voices? Or is the script enough?

HN: All voice actors are different, but I think it helps to make as much of that stuff available to them should they find it useful. A storyboard and animatic were ready by the time Nick Cave recorded the narration but I think a few colour drawings of the character were enough to gauge the style.

HD: Why did you decide to go through a funding body? What are the advantages over self-financing? How did you find the right funding body?

HN: Initially, The Cat Piano was a self-financed passion project between the two directors of the film. This has advantages in giving you complete freedom but at the expense of key resources like time and personnel. As a self-financed project, the team were working on it in their spare time after hours and on weekends, which slowed down the film when their work schedules got busier. From reading an early blog post on the production of The Cat Piano, the film was initially anticipated to be finished by early December 2007. It wasn’t completed until over 12 months later!

Eventually, there was growing interest in our studio’s work and we felt that The Cat Piano was exactly what we needed in showing the world the style of animation we wanted to make, and so we sought funding to finish the film earlier.

We actually had 2 investors on the project: the Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival (BAFF) and the South Australian Film Corporation.  BAFF is an interesting festival in that it invests cash into a slate of film projects. However, this meant that the film had to be completed in time to premiere at the festival. The timing of BAFF was also good in that it allowed us to have the film ready for many of the festivals we entered the film into. BAFF and SAFC had both previously invested in two of our previous short films, and so they were the perfect partners to have on board.

How much of The Cat Piano used CAD? Why did you decide on 2D hand-drawn animation rather than 3D? I read that Hayao Miyazaki believes that there should only be about 10% computer graphics on any of his works. What are your thoughts on this?

The interesting thing about animation is in spite of all the technological innovation that has occurred, good animation hasn’t necessarily become less labour intensive! Computers can now be used to wide range of animation styles. We hope that through our work, people see that “CGI” and “CAD” doesn’t have to be “3D”. We had animators drawing frame-by-frame animation using Wacom tablets directly into Photoshop. So although everything was “computer aided”, we used wholly traditional techniques. Computers are just tools like pencils and brushes. Good animation will always come from the wielder of the tools. The use of the tools should be used to the extent that they are required to achieve the look the director is going for. Sometimes that’s 10%, other times in 100%.

If you were making a short as a showcase for funding a larger project, such as a TV Series, how important do you think the quality of the animation is? Should the story hold all the weight, or should the animation be as polished as the intended TV Series?

We used to pitch TV series concepts a few years ago and developed pitch documents and pilots with the same level of polish as the intended series. The feedback we consistently got was that our visuals were fantastic but the development of the story and characters weren’t as strong. We just didn’t have the experience that TV producing veterans had of developing a series and putting it together into a “Bible” (we have currently optioned one of our TV series concepts to someone who does!).

If you look at the short animated clips that were used to pitch Family Guy, King of the Hill, they didn’t match the quality of animation that their first episodes had. The Tracy Ullman shorts that evolved into The Simpsons weren’t as polished as the first half-hour episodes either.

What’s important is to show how the ingredients – the characters, situations, story and humour will all work together to make something worth committing the money to make and market 26 x 22 minutes of animation. The “Family Guy” pilot does this quite well, but by then MacFarlane had made and pitched a couple of Larry pilots which would have helped him to nail the visual style and formula.