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    Ewe won, Shaun!  (25.11.08)

     Yes, indeed. "Shaun the Sheep" has become only the fourth British
     animated production to win a coveted International Emmy award
     And that really is something to bleat about...
    
    1984 - Wind in the Willows
    1991 - The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
    2003 - Robbie the Reindeer: Legend of the Lost Tribe
    2008 - Shaun the Sheep

     The Aardman/CBBC show was nominated in the "Children & Young
     People" category. And it turned out to be just one of seven big wins
     for Brit-produced series on the night.

     What a bumper haul! - What a brilliant win!

                                                          More: Shaun the Sheep

 

    A secret award    (24.11.08)

    Tony Collingwood has just collected a very important award at
    The Writer's Guild of Great Britain Awards 2008. It's this year's
    special award for "Outstanding Contribution to Children's Writing" .
    The ceremony took place at BAFTA in London on Sunday 23rd November.
    And in case you were in any doubt as to the importance of this award,
    last year's recipient was no lesser a mortal than J.K.Rowling.

    Tony is, of course, one half of that perennially successful production
    outfit Collingwood O'Hare, and he's been rewarded for his work on the
    likes of "Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!", "Eddy and the Bear", "Gordon Gnome"
    and, most recently, the top secret delights of "The Secret Show".
    Would you believe he has 6 BAFTA awards on his shelf for his
    work in children's television, both as a writer and as a director?
    Really, it's astonishing. And of course, he's up for yet
    another this year as well...

    But you know, The Hound reckons there's even more to Tony
    than meets the eye. Keep it to yourself, but he's actually a secret
    agent for U.Z.Z. Oh yes, he's none other than the alter ego
    of Victor Volt:

    

  
 
   Every DFC helps  (21.11.08)

    Listen up, folks. David Fickling's fabulous, subscription-only comic,
    The DFC is coming to Tesco. For one week only, you'll be able to
    purchase the latest issue of this top comic at your local Extra or Metro,
    direct from the shelf...

    

    The week in question is 26th November to 2nd December (issue 26).
    And there are two extra incentives attatched to this one-off promotion.
    Firstly, the Tesco edition will have a different cover to the subscriber
    version. And in addition, it will have a reduced cover-price of £1.99,
    making it more than a match for the likes of "The Beano", etc.

    Cartoonist Laura Howell will no doubt be celebrating this news more
    than most. That's because the issue in question features six pages
    of her new strip, "The Mighty M".

    As for the rest of us, well, hopefully this promo will bring a few more
    folks off the fence and into The DFC's subscription world. Better still,
    if the promo is a big enough success, it might even pave the way for
    the title to transform into a "normal" comic weekly, on sale in
    newsagents across the land...

    Best not get carried away, though. Just remember; The DFC is at
    Tesco. One week only. Have to buy.

                                                                         More: The DFC

 

    BAFTA time   (20.11.08)

    Oh, cripes. This news is late. It's very, very late in fact. But in my
    defence, I was away on business when these were announced and
    didn't get any reminders in my Inbox, and... and...

    Suffice it to say, the 2008 childrens BAFTA nominations were
    revealed at the end of last month. So if you missed 'em elsewhere,
    here - at last - are the nominees of note to this site:


     Best Animation:

     CHARLIE AND LOLA AUTUMN SPECIAL
       Claudia Lloyd, Kitty Taylor (Tiger Aspect/CBBC)

    ELIOT KID
       Samuel Kaminka, Didier Julia, Gilles Cazaux
     (Samka & Safari de Ville/CBBC)

    SKUNK FU!
       Paul Young, Jordan Gaucher, Aidan Harte (Cake Ent/CBBC)

    SHAUN THE SHEEP
       Julie Lockhart, Richard Goleszowski (Aardman Animations/CBBC)


     Pre-school Animation:

    CHARLIE AND LOLA
       Claudia Lloyd, Kitty Taylor (Tiger Aspect Prods/CBeebies)

    LITTLE PRINCESS
       Iain Harvey, Edward Foster (Illuminated Films/Five)

    PEPPA PIG
       Phil Davies, Mark Baker, Neville Astley
       (Astley Baker Davies/Rubber Duck/Nick Jr/Five)

    ROARY THE RACING CAR
       Owen Ballhatchet, Tim Harper
       (Chapman Entertainment/Nick Jr/Five)


     Short form:

     EDDIE RETRACTORHEAD
       Jean Flynn (Cosgrove Hall Films/Nickelodeon UK)

     MY SAY
       Mick Robertson, John Butterworth (WisedUp/CBBC)

     SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING
       Jane Laffey (Envy/Nickelodeon UK)

     STITCH UP SHOWDOWN
       Adam Shaw, Oliver Hyatt (Blue Zoo/Nickelodeon UK)


     In addition:

     BASIL'S SWAP SHOP gets a boom-booming nomination in the
     "Best Entertainment" category...

     CHAPMAN ENTERTAINMENT (Fifi, Roary) and DARRALL
     MACQUEEN (Bear Behaving Badly) are included in the nominations
     for "Independent Production Company"...

     And Tony Collingwood and Dave Ingham are included in the line-up
     for "Best Writer" award, for their work on THE SECRET SHOW and
     CHARLIE AND LOLA, respectively...


     Hmm. Interesting to see how Charlie and Lola has wound up on
     both the "Best Animation" and "Best Pre-School Animation" lists.
     And the commissioners at the BBC must be grinning ear to ear,
     having been involved in all four of the "Best animation" nominees.
     Mind you, with production avenues so limited nowadays, is it
     really a surprise...?

     As usual, you should check out the full list of nominations on
     BAFTA's web site. And you should keep your fingers crossed
     for your favourites on awards night, which this year is being held
     on Sunday, 30th November.
    
                                                                     More:  BAFTA
 

    Trusted awards   (20.11.08)

    The 2008 Cartoon Art Trust Awards were held at The Mall Galleries
    (London, SW1) last night. And amidst all the jolly fundraising,
    the following awards were presented:

   Young Cartoonist of the Year (under 18)
   Emilia Franklin

   Young Cartoonist of the Year (under 30)
   James Hood

   The Joke Award
   "Grizelda"

   The Strip Cartoon Award
   Stephen Collins

   The Pocket Award
   "Banx" Jeremy Banks (Finanacial Times)

   The Caricature Award
   Nicola Jennings (The Guardian)

   The Political Award
   Nicholas Garland (Daily Telegraph)

   The Pont Prize for Drawing the British Character
   Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor for "Alex" (Daily Telegraph)

   Lifetime Achievement Award
   Raymond Briggs

    The Young Cartoonist Award is always a very Big Thing for the
    aspiring winners, so Emilia Franklin and James Hood must be
    buzzing right now. You can see their winning entries on the
    Cartoon Museum web site (click on "Awards" on the top menu).

    As for that latter award - well -  Raymond Briggs always gets a
    big thumbs up from this site, of course. Past winners of this prize
    have included Ronald Searle, Gerald Scarfe, Fluck and Law, and
    "Trog", apparently...

    But enough with the bias - big congratulations
    to all the winners!

 

    Little red beginnings    (08.11.08)

    If you're a regular visitor to this cartoon haven, you'll know that The
    Hound has a particular softspot for Little Red Tractor. This not-so-little
    series from the Little Entertainment Company is something of an
    overlooked gem, perhaps held back in the poplularity stakes somewhat
    by the antics of a certain builder and postman. But Stan and the gang
    are star creations indeed, and that mad miller Stumpy - well - he's a
    cult hero in the making, for sure...

      

    This month, Revelation Films are releasing an intriguing curio for fans
    like myself to view and ponder. Little Red Tractor Stories Christmas Special
    features two episodes of the original 2D production, as narrated by the late
    Brian Glover. And what intriguing viewing it is. The production is little more
    than an animatic. Colin Reeder's artwork is panned and scanned, and
    occassionally, elements of the pictures are moved, or simple effects
    are added. They really don't come any simpler than this. It's decidedly
    antiquarian. But it's as earthy and as honest as the day is long, and
    completely fascinating. I mean, here we have Stan and Red, the Turvys,
    Walter and - yes - even Stumpy. All the familiar names, but in a wholly
    unfamiliar guise. We can see how Keith Littler and his team took these
    first character models and completely retooled them for their stop-motion
    toon.

    The development of the concept puts one in mind of that farm-fuelled
    soap "Emmerdale". Do you remember when it was previously billed as
    "Emmerdale Farm", when there was nowt but drystone walls and a
    round of family feuding to get excited about, before that plane crash
    wiped out half the cast and gave the producers a nice clean slate to
    go mad with? Well, there's something a little like that going on here,
    only, this particular cast survived their makeover intact, and indeed,
    flourished as a result of it. But better yet, it's great to see that the
    new Little Red Tractor hasn't strayed from the path at all. It may be
    slap-bang up to date with its scrambling quad bikes and mobile
    phones, but at their heart, the new stories are just as honest
    and as homespun as the originals...    
    
  
 
   Nine fine prints  (04.11.08)

    Remember that Curtis Jobling art show last month? - Well, it went
    down a storm. But if you couldn't get to Manchester and are cursing
    your bad luck then you'll be glad to hear that you can still snuggle up
    with your very own fabulously limited Frankenstein's Cat print
    - or nine of them, in fact - thanks to the Animation Art Gallery.
    You see, Curtis has created nine unique art prints, based upon
    episode titles of his top toon series and starring Nine, Lottie and
    the gang. So we have great spoof horror titles like "Plan Nine From
    Outer Oddsburg", and "The Very Lost Boys", etc.

    
   
    Pretty cool, eh?

    Well, if you're still dithering you should know that each print is
    restricted to just ninety-nine signed and numbered editions
    (naturally). So you might want to move quickly for these!

    Yes, yes, so these were plugged on Toonhound before
    but they're doubly-briliant, and thus deserving of a double plug.
    And - heck - this is The Hound's web site to do with as he pleases.
    Why, I might even plug them nine times, just to be appropriate
    and annoying...
    
                                                More: The Animation Art Gallery

 
 
   Why so quiet?  (02.09.08)

    Er. Well. It's like this... July and August were tough. As you might
    have noted, Toonhound went on something of a wild ride as the site
    was transferred to a new hosting package. The old pages were erased
    completely from their original server, before being put back online, and
    during the interim period - nigh on five days, I believe - there were
    missing pages, and dropped images on the site everywhichway
    you looked. In other words, that upgrade was pretty stressful...

    And it also got the me looking at the site again, in totality, and
    everywhere I looked I saw errors and glitches and ommissions.
    Missing information, like series credits and episode details. And
    dead links aplenty. It started with the comics section - a collection
    of pages so poorly handled, thus far. I thought I'd better spruce
    up what I had; dust them down, so that I'd be ready to finally start
    expanding the selection. But when I'd finished that not altogether
    small task, I realised how many of the TvToons pages were also
    in decline... and the number of series and films I still had to index...
    and... and...

    You can see how it all snowballed. Toonhound is very much a
    work in progress. And oftentimes over the last eight years, that
    work has transformed into a heavy, heavy millstone to bear. It eats
    up time like you wouldn't believe - and thank you for your patience
    thus far, because I'm finally getting to the crux of this posting - because
    I soon realised I'd have to make a bit of a sacrifice last month, in order
    to carry out some of those essential repairs. I'd have to skip a month
    of toon news.

    See, the thing about this news page is, each incoming story leapfrogs
    to the top of my "to do" list. The news demands my immediate attention,
    dragging me away from the index pages, the upgrades, the corrections
    elsewhere. And when I'm done with it, the needs of the Real World quickly
    lead me away for another day. After all, Toonhound is really nothing
    more than an old dawg's hobby site. It's not a career. Sure, it brings
    in a few casual pennies that are very gratefully received (especially in
    these crunchy times). And sure, I'm striving for it to eventually become a
    database of news and info that no cartoon convert can be without.
    But it's not a career job, and I can't work on it 24/7. I have a
    mortgage to pay, after all...

    So there you go. The news items slipped off the agenda. They had to.
    But they're back on now. And thank you for asking, but here in September,
    The Hound is feeling as if he's back on top of the site. There's still an
    awful lot of work to do here - a ridiculous amount - but the worst of
    the current backlog has, I think, been breached. Which means that
    a normal news service can now resume...
    
    Till next time!

              thehound@toonhound.com

 
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