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dorothydalmati1 · 7 months ago

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Obscure Animation Subject #157: Bookworm Bunch

Alright, we we have here for tonight is not one, but multiple shows from a programming block by the name of Bookworm Bunch! This block aired on PBS for Saturday mornings from September 30, 2000 to September 5, 2004. It is the second preschool-oriented Saturday morning block, with the first being Nick Jr. on CBS which launched two years prior. The block served as a collaborative deal between PBS and Nelvana teamed up to create the first-ever animated weekend programming block for the network. Nelvana is a Canadian animation studio founded in 1971, which previously had a deal with CBS to have its own Saturday morning lineup in 1998 but Nick Jr took their place in 2000, so the studio decided to another block with another network, PBS. Some stations may air the block on Sunday mornings when there was less competition. Originally was gonna post this yesterday, but didn’t have the time to due to how long this entire post is.

The block was created to boost viewership of the preschool audience on weekends, specifically on Saturday mornings when that attention was shifted elsewhere. Prior, many PBS stations devoted their Saturday morning schedules to general audience programming, including crafting or do-it-yourself shows, meanwhile commercial networks had extensive lineups for Saturday morning cartoons. This block was created to compete with the big commercial networks.

The lineup consisted of six shows based on children’s books, those being Corduroy (by Don Freeman), Elliot Moose (by Andrea Beck), Timothy Goes to School (by Rosemary Wells), Seven Little Monsters (by Maurice Sendak), George Shrinks (by William Joyce) and Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse (by Betty and Michael Paraskevas). A seventh series, Junior Kroll and Company (by Betty Paraskevas), was in development, but was later scrapped.

During the block's first season, all the shows (with the exception of the first 15-minute Corduroy episode) were shown either 15 or 45 minutes past the hour, in an effort to discourage "channel-flipping" to other competing children's cartoons. Another 15-minute Corduroy episode then ended the block, making its total runtime three hours. This block proved to be a success, gaining high ratings at first, although as time went on the viewership declined.

A drastic revamp was made to its second season when it premiered on November 3, 2001. Elliot Moose and Corduroy were both dropped from the lineup entirely, thus shortening the block to two hours. The four remaining series (Timothy Goes to School, Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse, Seven Little Monsters, and George Shrinks) were instead seen on the hour and half-hour. This second season ended on February 23, 2002, but reruns continued until September 5, 2004 when it was discontinued all together.

In spite of this, new episodes of Seven Little Monsters and George Shrinks started airing separately from the block for their final seasons, and reruns continued separately for Timothy Goes to School on Discovery Kids until 2006 and Qubo until its shutdown, with Elliot Moose and Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse also airing on the latter. PBS also continued airing reruns for Seven Little Monsters until 2004, and George Shrinks until 2009. Alright, now let’s look at the 6 programs shall we?

The first show is Corduroy, which aired new episodes until February 24, 2001. It also aired on TVOKids in its origin country Canada. The series was developed by Betty Quan and directed by Eduardo Soriano, with the animation outsourced from China’s Sichuan Top Animation. Storyboard artists include Paul Dedi, Dave Mah, Ken Davis, Trent Larson, Sam To (later an MLP storyboard artist), Don Boone, John Delaney and Marvin Tabo Estropia, with the animation supervised by Greg Woods

Based on the book from 1968 (I remember seeing its cover on the opening for Blue's Clues), it follows an alive teddy bear Corduroy (whose personality is similar to a preschool child) and his best friend Lisa, a young schoolgirl of Jamaican heritage. They go on adventures through the town of New York, USA. 13 half-hours were produced for the series, but the episodes were split into 26 11-minute episodes when airing on the block. I haven’t seen it so not much to say here.

Elliot Moose, which was based on the 1998 book series, actually originally aired in Canada on TVOntario from September 6, 1999 to September 20, 2000, prior to debuting on Bookworm Bunch. The series had 26 half-hour episodes produced of 2 seasons, each episode containing four 5-minute segments, two in live-action and two animated. The live-action segments are directed by Steve Wright and Michael McNamara, while the animated segments are directed by Charles E. Bastien, infamously known as the sole director for PAW Patrol from its third season until the tenth season when his death occurred, his death from cancer is thanks to the toxic work environment of Guru Studio. Anyways, Elliot Moose features a young moose named Elliot who lives in a place called "the Big House". He goes on adventures with his friends Beaverton, Lionel, Socks, and Paisley. Again, I don’t have much to say about it because I haven’t seen, and is probably the most forgotten show of the bunch.

Anyway, moving on the third series which is Timothy Goes to School. This show is developed by Kate Barris and directed by Gary Hurst. It lasted until January 26, 2002, and was co-produced by Silver Lining, with animation provided by Animation Services (Hong Kong) Limited. Notably, this isn’t the only collaboration Nelvana had with Silver Lining, as they would later co-produce the more well-known Max & Ruby, which was also based on the books by Rosemary Wells, being done with flash animation and lasting from May 3, 2002 to April 9, 2020, wow nearly 18 years, with 7 seasons and 130 episodes of 334 segments. Timothy Goes to School though was animated traditionally with digital ink-and-paint, as with the other shows from Bookworm Bunch. It had 2 seasons of 26 episodes with each containing two 11-minute segments. It follows Timothy as he attends kindergarten at the fictional “Hilltop School”. I think I remember watching it, but I don’t remember what happens in every episode, so moving on. My step sister loves Max & Rudy so I may show this to her since it’s from the same creator.

The fourth show is what I consider to be my personal favorite of the bunch, Seven Little Monsters, which follows a family of 7 monsters (each named after a number) and their mother, sharing a lot in common visually with the other work of the original author, Where the Wild Things Are. Based on the 1977 book, it aired for three seasons of 40 episodes from September 30, 2000 to October 6, 2003, with season 3 featuring two 11-minute segments per episode. Animation was outsourced from Suzhou Hong Ying Animation Company Limited from China for the first two seasons and Philippine Animation Studio Inc. from the Philippines for the final season. Glenn Sylvester directed the first season, while Neil Affleck, known for his collaborations on The Simpsons and Family Guy, directed every episode of the second season and also directed episodes of the third season with Lynn Reist. Affleck and Reist later reunited to serve as the two episode directors of Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends. What I really like about this show is that it has a calming slice-of-life aesthetic, although the monsters are like their book compartments design-wise, they act far less naughty which makes sense as PBS is about teaching kids positive values. What I like about this show is that it has less emphasis on teaching educational values, but more about the family dynamic, which makes the relationships of the family feel realistic, which also having a relaxing slice-of-life tone that’s reminiscent of Arthur, with a bit of a goofy nature thrown in, mainly with how Three likes using different personas in each episode. The character designs do really give the series edge to it when compared to other PBS shows, feeling reminiscent of something you would see on Cartoon Network. And plus, the theme song preformed by Barenaked Ladies of Big Bang Theory fame is great. So overall, I’d say this is the show I recommend the most from this bunch.

George Shrinks is the fifth show of this bunch and, it isn’t anything special really. It is animated by Jade Animation and lasted from September 30, 2000 to January 23, 2003 for 3 seasons of 40 episodes. Doug Thoms directed every episode in the first season, and while he was kept for directing certain episodes of seasons 2 and 3, other directors usually took his place. Already the show differs from the original source material by having the title character not returning to his normal size at the conclusion, appearing to have already been small with no apparent explanation, and it teaches kids about having a positive outlook, which is fine but it doesn’t make me interested. If you think I’m missing out on something please let me know, because I know it has its own fans.

And now the most weird of the bunch, the final series, Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse. Animated by Hong Guang Animation, it lasted for two seasons of 26 episodes from September 30, 2000 to January 26, 2002, with each episode containing two 11-minute segments. It tells the stories of a young horse named Marvin who is part of a carnival. Interestingly Marvin used to be a movie celebrity but moved on from that life for a more humble existence. Some episodes include original songs to help illustrate the theme or accompany montages that carry the story forward. The show is based on the love of personal interests of the co-creator, Michael Paraskevas, for carnivals and his mother’s love for musical theatre. It’s like Bojack Horseman if in an alternative wholesome universe.

And so that’s bookworm bunch, a forgotten PBS relic that has some hidden gems, but for the most part it’s fine. Very ambitious to create a Saturday morning block targeted at preschoolers through since older children are usually home. But, there’s some great stuff to behold, like Seven Little Monsters, but otherwise an interesting experiment that unfortunately, flopped.

#pbs #pbs kids #nelvana #seven little monsters #corduroy #Elliot moose #timothy goes to school #george shrinks #marvin the tap dancing horse #programming block #obscure animation

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kirkwallguy · 2 months ago

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I looked into a few DA Youtubers who are confirmed to have been on the community council and rewatched their Veilguard reviews. They gave glowing reviews and only later disclosed on twitter that they got their copy for free. The few I'm talking about didn't disclose that in their review. Not disclosing that is illegal both in the US and Canada. Not to mention it's scummy in general. I do feel bad for them somewhat but then I remember how some of them were attacking fellow fans for having concerns with the game, and subsequently disliking the game upon its release. I fell down a rabbit hole on bluesky and found that there's a small group of these community council members who are irl friends with the devs and you'll find that its this group that still defends Veilguard to the death. It's highly inappropriate that this arrangement ever occurred between fans and the devs. Not to mention I don't think the council was even effective. That's not the fault of the council, mind you. From what is known behind the scenes of Veilguard the whole thing needed scrapped and thrown out. I believe in a Mark Darrah video he said it was written in only 3 months... and then Rook's dialogue was rewritten after the council's input. No amount of fan input can fix that.

i tbh think the issue was that they were given no media training / guidance by ea/bioware. knowing you need to disclose is something someone not used to these protocols would very easily forget in their excitement. if ea wanted to treat them like outsourcing marketing, they should have provided them with training and managers who helped oversea their posts. like i don't think this situation should have happened in the first place but throwing a bunch of excitable inexperienced influencers out into the world and expecting them to know what to do is naive.

bluesky scares me so i haven't seen that. if that's true then that's very weird - i tbh was more concerned by the potential dynamics of hardcore fans being told they're best friends with the developers which can lead to some nasty dynamics but if they were friends pre-council then that's weird for other reasons though. and like i said i do remember some council members being pretty nasty, i remember a few solavellans being really horrible to anyone unhappy about solas/solavellan being center-stage (and being borderline homophobic about it!)

but at the end of the day when i see a large company exploiting people i can't help but feel that all of the problems would have been avoided if they. well. didn't do that. like none of this would have happened if ea had fairly employed and paid people or provided the council with the appropriate tools to manage their positions.

(sidenote: veilguard being written in 3 months makes sense if that's true lol. all i heard about the rook rewrite was that they were even quippier pre-council which is crazh to me. how do you get quippier than rook lol they make puns about hand statues)

#ask #anonymous

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jonathanshaw4747 · 10 months ago

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Why Canadian Companies Prefer Digital Marketing Agencies over In-house Teams

In the ever-changing digital landscape of Canada, companies big and small have to make one very important decision: develop an in-house digital marketing team or hire the services of a dedicated agency. Far from being a routine operational issue, this choice has great implications for its competitive position, market relevance, and general growth trajectory. With the digital platform becoming increasingly complicated and the stakes of online visibility soaring high, a trend has definitely been witnessed across Canadian companies: that of choosing between the expertise and agility provided by digital marketing agencies over in-house teams.

Expertise and Specialization

This has been one of the major reasons for the tectonic shift in the approach of Canadian enterprises. Digital marketing is not a monolithic discipline but a constellation of specialized areas, each with its own particular demands in expertise. From SEO virtuosos to social media savants, content marketing maestros to PPC prodigies, agencies house a cadre of specialists under one roof. Such an assemblage of talent allows businesses to tap into a wellspring of knowledge that would be prohibitively expensive and logistically challenging to cultivate internally.

What is more, the digital marketing field keeps on changing 24/7, since that is when algorithms, best practices, and consumer behaviors change at the speed of light. This places agencies in a much better place to be updated due to their focus and the heterogeneity of their client base. They undertake heavy continuous learning and serious means of professional development investment to ensure that their strategies remain at the cutting edge of industry changes. This means a commitment to staying current translates into better marketing solutions for their clients-more effectively and innovatively.

Agency versus in-house: financial implications are huge and multi-dimensional. At face value, the retainers or project fees associated with agency services might appear huge. However, a close look will reveal that this is not true on the cost-efficiency level. By outsourcing an agency, a business may significantly reduce overheads like salaries, benefits, office space, and equipment, which are kept by full-time employees.

The next strong economic case lies in the fact that it can make that great sense of scalability and flexibility. It eases the opportunity to adjust marketing spend against seasonal demands, special campaign needs, or fluctuating economies without getting into the complexities of hiring or drastically reducing an internal team. That elasticity of resource allocation permits better budget efficiency and implores optimization of Marketing ROI.

Technology and Tools

The digital marketing arena is the haven for sophisticated tools and platforms-most of which come with heavy price tags, coupled with steep learning curves. Agencies, able to use economies of scale, invest in a wide array of premium software and technologies that would be financially unviable for most individual businesses to acquire. From advanced SEO tools to full-service social media management platforms, agencies arm their clients with the technological arsenal needed to drive marketing effectiveness.

Besides tools, agencies often have state-of-the-art analytics and reporting. These systems allow for the granular tracking of campaign performance, consumer behavior, and ROI. Insights gained from these advanced analytics become the powerhouse that drives businesses into making data-informed decisions and fine-tuning their marketing approaches with strategy precision.

Strategic Objectivity

One of the most overlooked benefits of hiring a digital marketing agency is the fresh perspective it brings to the challenges a brand faces. Sometimes a company's internal teams, despite being quite familiar with the brand, can suffer from tunnel vision or be stuck in paradigms. Agencies, drawing on diverse experience across industries and markets, have become a fertile source of new solutions and unconventional creative approaches, which for those within the organization can be virtually invisible.

This objectivity extends to performance appraisal as well. Large agencies are usually held to very tight KPIs through which they are accountable to deliver measurable results. The setup ensures a very transparent culture of business betterment, whereby the agencies fall under pressure to prove their strategies right and value-proposition-valid on a regular basis.

Time and Resource Management

For most Canadian businesses, more so for the SMEs, the job of dedicating or committing resources to build and maintain a fully-fledged in-house digital marketing team is surely going to distract them from their core business activities. By outsourcing such functions to an agency, this energy is freed for product development, customer service, and other mission-critical activities.

Furthermore, more often than not, agencies are in a much better position than in-house units to implement marketing initiatives. With the established processes, loads of already-vetted resources on standby, and a lot of previous work to its credit, an agency can consequently save time throughout the process from conceiving of the strategy to launching the campaign. This agility is paramount in the fast-paced digital landscape, where usually the early bird catches the worm.

Many of these digital marketing agencies boast of having an extensive industry network, including influencers, media, and technology partners that can open various doors of opportunity to collaboration. Beta programs and early access to new marketing channels/features fall into this category. To Canadian businesses, this is quite an invaluable asset that networks with potential new customers.

Moreover, most agencies have good relations with key platforms, such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, which provide them with the latest features, premium support, and, in some cases, almost privileged rates. More probably than not, such partnerships are passed on as tangible benefits to the clients to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their digital marketing initiatives.

As a sustenance of risks

The regulatory requirements associated with digital marketing, encompassing privacy, advertising standards, and the specific policies of these diverse digital platforms, make hazardous minefields for businesses. This adds further pressure on digital marketing agencies because they possess specialized knowledge and experience in ensuring that their clients work in conformance with these regulations. This becomes even more crucial in instances involving Canada, where there are regulations like CASL, which is anti-spam law dictating strict requirements on electronic messaging.

Additionally, the agencies adapt by nature through adaptation to market changes. Their diversified client bases and regular activities with businesses in various industries enable them to identify and respond to the change in consumer behavior, change in technology, or economic conditions very fast. Adapting to the situation at hand helps hedge against potential risks associated with sudden changes in the market which could render several marketing strategies irrelevant.

Performance and Results

What's arguably most convincing in the move towards agency partnerships is the attention to accountability and measurement of performance. Most of the agencies operate on performance-based models with clear KPIs and reporting structures that generate tangible means through which firms realize their marketing return on investment. In other words, therefore, the approach is results-based, with continuous optimization of marketing to align with business objectives.

As such, agencies can contribute to performing competitive benchmarking. With many years of experience across industries and data, they can paint a view for a business regarding its relative standing in digital marketing performance from its competition and industry benchmarks. Such a comparative perspective may also help them zero in on opportunities for performance improvement and areas of differentiation.

The Future of Digital Marketing Partnerships in Canada

The trend of Canadian businesses partnering with specialized marketing agencies is showing no signs of abatement in the evolving digital marketing landscape. The recipe combining experience, the advantage of being cost-effective, technological advances, and strategic value when working with an agency makes compelling economic sense. And, of course, in-house teams will always have their role; it's actually quite important for big organizations. The passed "advantages to this kind of approach are flexibility and comprehensive capabilities available to organizations of any size.".

The collaboration with a digital marketing agency is considered an investment in terms of growth strategy and competitiveness. Increasingly, this is a cost consideration that Canadian executives are factoring in as Canadian businesses strive to find their way through digital complexities—and as a result, a way to innovate the catalyst for success in the long term.

#Canadian businesses #Digital Marketing Partnerships in Canada #Digital Marketing in Canada #digital landscape of Canada #advanced SEO

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dataentryinc · 8 months ago

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ogenvs3000w24 · 1 year ago

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As an Environmental Entrepreneur

My ideal role as an environmental entrepreneur is to pursue a career in urban planning. In a time where new developments are constantly in the works and technology is improving at a rapid pace, environmental sustainability and preservation often gets overlooked. Growing up in Toronto, I always noticed the sheer quantity of construction going on at all times as well as the heavy traffic that occurred every single day. While traffic and construction are inevitable in urban areas, there are plenty of improvements that can be made to promote sustainability and advocating for the environment. I would like to aid in designing developments, such as homes, offices, parks, and malls to be sustainable and aesthetically pleasing. By using my skills to develop urban areas, I could benefit communities and cities to create a more eco-friendly environments and reduce the amount of pollution emitted by highly urbanized areas.

The role of urban planner can have a wide array of duties that would be taken on day to day. The job may entail research, engaging with communities, developing policies, architectural design, transportation planning, collaboration with stakeholders, outsourcing for specialists, and marketing and promotion of sustainable urban planning. Although many activities go into the everyday lives of urban planners, the overall goal is the create sustainable urbanization.

My ideal location for workers as an urban planner would be Toronto. It is an urban area in need of more sustainability, plus my family lives there and I'm family with the city. To become an urban planner in Ontario, I will need a bachelors degree in either urban and regional planning, architecture, geography, engineering, or a related discipline (job bank, 2023). I may also need a masters degree in one of those disciplines (job bank, 2023). I will then need to become a member in the Canadian Institute of Planners, and a certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (job bank, 2023). Some of the recommended skills include evaluation, critical thinking, management of financial resources, problem solving, reading, writing, and oral communication (job bank, 2023). Recommended personal attributed include collaboration, innovation, attention to detail, adaptability, leadership and independence (job bank, 2023). It is also recommended to be knowledgable in mathematics and water resources (job bank, 2023).

References

Canada, E. and S. D. (2023, November 21). Planner, urban and regional near Pictou (NS): Skills - job bank. Planner, Urban And Regional near Pictou (NS) | Skills - Job Bank. https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketreport/skills/22469/23051

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 1 year ago

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Currently frustrated at people conflating DreamWorks leadership making decisions that affect the lives of their staff and the perceived quality of some of their post-PUSS IN BOOTS 2 offerings. (Including the ones they didn't even oversee, like MEGAMIND TV Pilot Thing.)

It's also kinda unusual that "animation fans" are certain that the future outsourced DreamWorks Animation movies that'll be made at Sony Imageworks... Ya know, the main vendor for most of Sony Animation's movies? The SPIDER-VERSE movies, especially?? Will somehow look terrible in comparison to what were already partially-outsourced, sub-$100m productions? I thought you were outraged for the animators there that allegedly got exploited during the making of ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE? Now you're saying they're going to deliver subpar work on future DreamWorks movies??

No-no-no-no, the real issue here is animators in Canada being exploited and underpaid, animators on the American West Coast being put out of a job, and the bean counters trying to make animation into this assembly line thing when *gasp* you have to have the teams and resources, and you HAVE TO BE PATIENT AND PAY THEM.

I'm very upset about what's happening to animators and artists at the main DreamWorks campus in Glendale. I think it's super fucky how they've been treated lately... I was also upset when they laid off animators every time a movie of theirs flopped, pre-Comcast acquisition. Even HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, which went on to make a lot of money in 2014, lead to layoffs after its opening weekend gross turned out lower than expected... And I was especially upset when they shuttered Pacific Data Images, over a movie that didn't even lose money... DreamWorks has a sorry history of this kind of stuff, and yet... The artists there. The real deal... They're the ones who continue to make exemplary stuff.

Even if the movie in question isn't really to our liking, the hard work is always there.

But the YouTube Animation Opinion Industrial Complex and baby-brains online have to turn it into "This is why KUNG FU PANDA 4, TROLLS 3 and the high school sea monster girl movie suck! DreamWorks, why haven't you made PEAK In Boots again???"

Watch, when THE WILD ROBOT comes out... That'll be an "exception", somehow. No, you just liked that movie. That's what. Made under the same circumstances as the last two or so pictures, they were all in development around the same time.

For me, this whole ordeal stings because DreamWorks is turning 30 and they're one of the BIG American animation studios. The work was done in-house and at PDI for sooooo many years, and now that's just... Not going to be a thing anymore. I'm sure there will be future movies of theirs that I like/love, but it's sad that it's all down to outsourcing and an unwillingness to make these movies relatively fairly. It's capitalism, it's Hollywood, it's the biz... Eventually, it was gonna really clamp down hard on the animation industry again, like it usually does... And it always sucks to see.

Again, DreamWorks has been in similar jams. The post-RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, pre-COVID days were particularly rough with all the layoffs, all the movie cancellations (still not over the partially-finished LARRIKINS getting canned just like that), PDI being shut down after 35 years of work and pioneering... The craft of the storytellers will eventually shine on.

Disney Animation has done it plenty of times, all the way back to the 1941 Disney strike days and the animation unit being severely downsized following SLEEPING BEAUTY's 1959 release, Pixar sometimes cuts down, etc. Lots of companies tried to get in on the animation game in the '90s following the Disney Renaissance and Don Bluth's one-two punch of Spielberg-produced movies... Only to fail, and it resulted in studio shutdowns (such as Fox Animation after the disastrous showing of TITAN A.E.) and lots of layoffs. 2D being shown the door lead to layoffs and cutbacks, too. It just happens all too frequently in animation-land...

... But first and foremost, I hope the animators and crews are okay. And that they find work, security, etc.

As for the movies, which is secondary to me... Well, the writer's strike ended, so I'm sure the storytelling end of things could go more swimmingly. (I'd like to think a lot of KUNG FU PANDA 4's production was affected by that and the actors strike.) While still understanding that these things are all subjective. TROLLS 3 and RUBY GILLMAN were largely locked before the strikes began, but you still had internet weirdos calling them a comedown of sorts from THE LAST WISH. That's irrelevant.

The animators strike, I feel, is what we should want. How it changes things going forward, I do not know. I don't think DreamWorks in particular will re-staff the California campus, as the damage has been done and that Sony Imageworks making their movies is their future for now. Maybe I'm wrong. But this strike has been a long-time coming, especially with what's been going on post-COVID outbreak. Animation was one of the few things that could resume production during lockdowns and make Hollywood money while everything else was on hold, and yet this is how the industry treats the medium? Yeah, something's gotta give...

I'll take that conversation over "waaah KFP4 Trolls 3 Sea Monster Girl MID, what happened Dreamworks you used to be soooo awesome ?!??"

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ondemand-apps · 1 year ago

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Guide on Outsourcing Laravel Development Services in Canada 2024

Outsourcing Laravel development services in Canada in 2024 offers numerous benefits, including access to skilled developers, cost-efficiency, and high-quality standards. When choosing a partner, prioritize firms with a strong portfolio, proven expertise in Laravel, and positive client feedback. Evaluate their communication practices and ensure they provide clear project timelines and cost estimates. Leveraging Canada's diverse talent pool can enhance your project's success and innovation while maintaining a competitive edge in the market. Additionally, consider the legal and regulatory framework, ensuring the service provider adheres to data protection and intellectual property laws.

#Laravel Development #Outsourcing Laravel Development #Laravel Development Company Canada #laravel development services #Hire laravel Developer

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innovativeprosolution · 1 year ago

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dalt20 · 1 year ago

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Tooning In 15 Greg Bailey part 5 of 10

DL:Yes, please! So let's talk about your crowning achievement, Arthur for PBS and WGBH Boston.So what was the story behind the transition from book to world famous TV show?

GB:In what way do you mean?

DL:As how Arthur became a TV cartoon.

GB:Marc Brown had about 10 books out in the market based on Arthur. The character designs of the characters like Arthur and Binky and Buster were in the books but they looked extremely different in each book and on every page even. Anyway Mark lived in Hingston MA near Boston and Carol Greenwald worked at WGBH Boston. When Carol got the go ahead to produce a new kids show she liked the books and got in touch with Marc Brown. This was the first animated show that was going to be made for PBS so it had no precedent. Once Marc and WGBH had an understanding they had to find an animation company that could produce animation. So they scouted around North America including Canada as far as Toronto and Montreal at least. They had gone to Nelvana because they were a big well known company in Canada. Then they came to Cinar in Montreal. We were a smaller company but we allowed more input from the rights holders on our shows and we had developed a good track record on spinning books into successful animated shows. We were riding high on the success of The Busy World of Richard Scarry. I would say that the series was very true to the look and sensibility of the books even though the work was very painstaking.Anyway I took Marc and Carol on tour through the animation studio when I saw them getting off the elevator looking lost. I gave them a 25 cent tour showing them how we were putting together R, Scarry and Little Lulu and that kind of blew them away because I doubt they really saw such a large and functioning animation company by that time. Marc always claims that I was very nice to them and he liked my attitude. I was not scheduled to direct Arthur when they came in but I was doing Little Lulu and I was the supervisor of all the directors in Cinar at the time. So I was involved with meeting them for the meeting that day. We had another director lined up at the meeting to do the series Arthur. On the other hand Nelvana just kind of brushed them off and said to basically send the money and they would do the show the way they did every other show. I think for both Marc and Carol they felt like that was giving up any control or connection to the series. That was the Nelvana way of operating and I don't think things have really changed in that way since then.I think we just offered a more human touch and approach than the competition so it put them at ease. I mean it was their baby for both Carol and Marc. So it makes a lot of sense looking back.

DL:Yeah Nelvana after Rock and Rule was kinda like DiC during that time either as a outsourcer or rights holder to make animated series off of books, video games, movies,comics, etc like during this time they worked on Little Bear, Gargoyles, The Neverending Story cartoon, The Free Willy cartoon, The Magic School Bus, and a Ace Ventura cartoon. The only original property they made at this time was Stickin Around for YTV and FOX.

GB:Nelvana characters in their shows have possibly forever lacked some kind of personality or soul. Their shows always looked really modern and slick but the characters were very generic and you never felt like you knew them. Like they were not really your friends that you hang out with every day. I would say at least on R Scarry and Arthur that the shows looked like they were made by humans and they had fingerprints on them and the characters had some warmth or personality that you never saw in Nelvana. At best Nelvana had some nasty characters that would insult other characters and they were good at the bad boy characters but they were never anyone you would want to hang out with. They had a very different approach and I am not running them down. I always thought their shows looked so much better than ours technically but after one episode there was no need to watch a second episode. It was not going to be different or go to another level. Stickin’ Around is a good example of what I mean. I loved that show. I thought the technique was brilliant and the show looked great. The crew and director that pulled that off were amazing. The characters were unbearable though. They screamed everything they said so it was completely one emotion. The specific line of dialog could come out of any of the characters because they were the same personality. The emotion in each show was the same- Hyper. If you saw the first show you can be guaranteed the emotional journey on the second show will be exactly the same. If you think of a really great live-action series like Mad Men you can watch that series and watch the emotional roller coaster and twists in the understanding of the characters, develop from show to show and year to year. You don't know what will happen by the end of the episode when you are halfway through each show.

DL: I mean and Nelvana's animation started to get stiff during the 90s, as I think because of budget or was it from Canadian Content law?

GB:The studios in Canada got really big during the 90s and it was hard to find talent because animation artists needed to draw in the period just before Flash style animation. The budgets and the bigger talent pool were fairly adequate and that is why American producers were all coming to Canada to produce the shows in Canada. Nelvana may have been putting more money in the pockets of the producers instead of spending it on the shows. I had a great relationship with Nelson Shinn at Akom and with Hanho when we did R. Scarry and Arthur traditionally in Korea. The overseas work in the best studios made a big difference in the lack of stiffness. Nelson was doing The Simpsons and he was doing Arthur and those shows were really mopping up the competition in America in those days. Nelvana was trying to dump some lame shows in Akom and not paying for the higher level of show. Mostly the show just wasn't very interesting in the first place. Nelson liked The Simpsons and he liked Arthur, and because he was still just a big kid animator running a company like an art studio instead of a factory he would get good results on those shows. If the show wasn't as good he would let you know.

DL:So back to Arthur, so what did you think about the character designs Marc gave you to work off of?

GB:It was the other way around. We had the 10 books he had published. The characters never looked the same from picture to picture so we had to find a good average and establish some guidelines. A character in animation has to turn and exist in 3 dimensions but in illustration it can just be different in the side of the front view for example. so maybe in the front view the nose is higher or he has whites in his eyes and in profile the nose drops down and you don't have white in the eyes just because it looks better. Or maybe he has 5 hairs in 3/4 view and 3 in profile in illustration. But in animation the character turns or moves into the new position so things can't just pop off or on. It gets annoying if you see that a lot. So we would do a design and make a rotation of the character. Things like his glasses had to be drawn with a double line so we could add the brown color. In illustration it might have just been a brown line when the character is small.Anyway, we did the rotations of each main character and then sent them out every week or 2 when we had enough characters done. Marc would ask to change things in one view or another and that meant changing all the views in some cases if he tried doing something like lowering the glasses in side view. For us we couldn't have the glasses suddenly slip down when he turned each time. In animation, we are also looking at the character as a 3D figure so everything has to line up in all views. Marc was really great at doing new characters or guest characters because he was so comfortable with his style that he could whip off a really great rough design of someone like Arthur Garfunkle. We generally limited the characters to a finite number of animals. Cat, dogs, Aardvark, rats, bear, monkey, and rabbits. These were all from Marc's world. There are a few oddball ones that came out of the design department that stuck around like goats, alligators, and moose. We settled on kind of a nervous and broken line work so it looked more naive and hand drawn. A few things got standardized like everyone always has whites in the eyes. Prunella was an example that we left alone and she never had whites in her eyes unless she got shocked.It took a few months just to do the main pack design and in the end they looked kind of Frankensteinish with all the adjustments. I asked one of the really great designers we had to go over the whole main pack and rotations and action poses and expressions and make the drawing all consistent. His name was Anastasio. I haven't seen him since. I think it was a huge job to do in the short time it took him to do it. But we kept using those main packs for most of the years of production. WE got rid of Muffy's buck teeth after season 1 because Marc decided he didn't like them. and we tweaked Arthur a little because his ears and glasses were out of perspective in some views.

(update from Dom, the Anastasio guy who did the model sheets was Stephane Anastasio, who worked on the series from 1996-1997 as a character designer. He hasn’t worked in Animation before or since the series)

DL:So a question I had for a really long time, is why don't they have tails?

GB:Thank God for that. The characters in R. Scarry had tails that stuck out of little holes in their pants. The dog character's tails looked kind of phallic even. I think the reason is that although Arthur characters are animal-headed they are actually just kids. So they don't have paws or legs like animals or anything. Unless they are actually an animal like Pal or Nemo.

DL:Oh, that makes sense. Many people think that Arthur is just a human who sees everyone as animals. Because in the last episode, Arthur got into drawing animals and in the future he made an autobiographical book with everybody as animals in-universe.Right?

GB:But even in the last episode he still looks like an animal though when he shows his book of the first episode that he illustrated. Now you got me. Why is he studying animals?

DL:Yeah, I don't know. I mean, are they animals or not? Did you talk to Brown about the episode ending?

GB:Of course, we all read the script drafts and approved the character designs, and watched the various versions of the incomplete show. I remember from Marc's comments years ago that he said he wished he had not done the books as animals in the first place because he just wanted them to be kids. It was something he could not undo.I had a different interpretation of the last episode though from the others and I am entitled to my own opinion. I think that none of the time frame from episode 1 until before we dissolved to the Sugarfree Bowl in the last episode existed. The new hipster Arthur is just beginning a fictional book series starting on episode one and he is going to make up all those stories that make up the Arthur TV for the last 25 years. It's not Arthur retelling his past. It's not an autobiography. That doesn't really solve the animal question however. But the end of the last episode is actually the first episode of the series, in that understanding.

DL:Oh, I see, it makes a little sense.

GB:I will have to ask Peter why he didn't ask for the hipster characters at the end to be humans. I will let you know if he had a reason or if he thought they would be.

DL:Another question, why do most animals, like dog and cat characters like Binky and Jenna have human noses?

GB:Jenna has a cat nose. I think because cats often have a nose like a human's. Try to find the Jenna character in the original 10 Arthur books. She looks totally different and not like a cat at all. Binky too is pretty much adapted from the book where he has that big globular nose

He shows me the cover of the first Arthur book, which features a different design than the TV version.

DL:Ah yeah, I remember this is when Arthur was going for a more realistic funny animal style before Marc Brown anthropomorphized them over the years. Imagine if this is what you have to work with if Marc hadn't changed his style.It would've look like Richard Scarry.

GB:He did evolve this more before we started. You would need to look through Arthur's Eyes and Thanksgiving, Arthur's Birthday to see what we had to start with. He only had this super long nose for the first 2 books. They often had hairs drawn on the skin and of course, the clothing changed more often. I was trying to find the old Binky and Sue Ellen picture. I remember a lawyer at Cinar came and asked me which character was in a book. His kid was puzzled. I think it was Sue Ellen but she is very different looking and there was only one design in the books.The books were pretty popular especially amongst educators even before the show came out. They still look pretty good compared to most kids books out there.later on Marc adapted his book illustration more toward what we had in the series and then stuck with it. HIs heads are still a little larger and have nice round furry ears and he is cuter than the TV Arthur, but then again we had to age Arthur up to the 3rd grade for the series. I would say our TV character is more heads high than he is in the current books. He is less wide in the tv series.

DL: Another Question, why did you adapt Arthur's Eyes as the first episode instead of Arthur's Nose? Did you ever adapted Arthur's Nose?

GB: We never did Arthur's Nose. That would have required giving him a nose job or something. Although it would be funny I don't think as many kids would relate to it.

DL: Yeah, Imagine a "Word from Us Kids" segment on that!

GB:Haha! Maybe we could do one more show and do Arthur's Nose but have him change to that big nose like in the first book. All the other kids would be envious and want one like that too.

DL: Yeah, good idea! Lol! So, you were talking about the VAs of the Little Lulu show coming back on Arthur last time. And I wanted to ask how was the recording sessions were on Arthur?

GB: sure go ahead and ask. We primarily had a Montreal cast in the first 10 seasons so we would record in Montreal. Then as time went on we started recording more and more in Toronto but a lot of our main original cast was still in Montreal. Some people were young teens when we started and they had to move away to get on with their lives elsewhere so we would record them remotely in Vancouver or wherever. Some guest stars were recorded in Montreal like Mr. Rogers and Garfunkle and most of the time we had to go to record them where they wanted . It was great in the old days when everyone was together and we could record ensembles. This was really great if we had a big section of Arthur and DW because they would play off each other and we'd get a better performance. Some of the kid characters were adults since the beginning like Bruce Dinsmore who did Binky, Dad and Bailey. And others were old teens like Danny Brochu and Jodi Resther who did Buster and Francine. Then we also had kids like Melissa Altro doing Muffy and the boys that did Brain, Tibbles, Arthur and DW. Those buys kept changing as their voices changed. Initially I insisted we used Michael Caloz as DW even though he is a boy but we had him do the voice of Annie in Little Lulu and I thought he was brilliant. He was the best kid actor I can remember. His voice changed and he moved on in life but we always came back to replacing him with another boy to get that voice quality. I don't know if that answers your question.

DL:Why didn't they record the series in the US if it was an American co-production?

GB:A few reasons come to mind. WGBH was not involved with any production except the writing and the interstitials. Production was all produced or subcontractors were paid by Cinar and so expenses paid in Canada would entitle the production to a tax credit. Secondly, Cinar started as a post-production and recording studio. So we had the facilities and expertise right in-house. Canada at that point already had a reputation for recording animation voice-over. You remember I mentioned that I began working for DIC in Tokyo because I knew someone who owned a recording company in Toronto that recorded voice-over for DIC LA. Even now many animated shows are recorded and post prod is done in Canada for kids shows. If we recorded in the US we would have to send me and a voice director to that city for the recording so it would have been an expense and time spent. Most times the guest stars were recorded in the US.

DL:Ah. So what do you think about the writing on the series and that it was written by Americans, head written by Joe Fallon and Ken Scarabourgh?

GB:I think we had the most amazing writing for any kid's animated series. You also forgot to name Peter Hirsch who was head writer from the time Joe left until the end. We just had the most crazy, most talented and most willing to push the boundaries writers we could have dreamed of. Those guys and even the rest of the writing crew were really fantastic and I loved having the opportunity to work with them. The stories are really what made the series so fantastic and memorable.

DL:Yeah but I remember Joe Fallon left because of something at CINAR.

GB:No nothing to do with Cinar, he left because of a disagreement with Marc Brown. Joe is a fantastically creative and funny writer. His scripts would just be totally insane and you would laugh hard just reading his script. I mean a script isn’t like literature and if you laugh at the script it's rare. Joe would just wind himself up and let go and the story would go through all these crazy places and twists until it came to the end. He is quite brilliant

DL:Yeah and the crazy bus left with him. Seriously, why did that song go?

GB:Yeah that was his crazy bus song. Joe did the demo of that song after he wrote it into the script. Jeff Zahn the music arranger kept Joe's original vocals for the final song and I don't think Joe liked that because he was hoping it would be redone by a singer. Though I guess now he gets the royalties for performing it as well as composing. anyway the song got used a few times in other shows. I think once by Joe and once in another script after Joe left and Joe told us to stop using the song in more shows after he heard that. I don't really know any more of the nitty gritty about that issue. This all kind of heated up about the same time and the fight with Marc and Joe's leaving the show so it was all related in some way.

DL:Ah, so another question is what do you think of AKOM in South Korea and their work on Arthur?

GB:They were excellent. I loved AKOM. It was my favorite studio overseas of the Korean studios. They did such a great job on Arthur. Even sometimes when Simpsons was out of season we would get the animation crew from there on Arthur and the timing and movements were just great in general. Also, the backgrounds were beautiful. They were always on time and I only have praise for them. I miss working with them a lot. I don't even know if AKOM still exists now or if Nelson and his son are still alive.

DL:AKOM is still around but they only do Simpsons now.

GB:Good.

DL:But yeah after Rough Draft opened , they took away many of their clients like Warner, Disney and Universal. to the point of Arthur and Simpsons being their only source of work.

GB: I remember that. I think I was very loyal to them because I always had such great work from them. I first worked with them on Bunch of Munsch and I thought they were good then. So much animation went to China shortly after that point.

DL:Yeah! Your thoughts on the studio, Animation Services? ( I know, it really rolls off the tongue.)

GB:The question should be why did we change to Animation Services who were clearly a less experienced and less talented studio.This was entering the dark days at CINAR. The new owners had taken over and most of the studio had been shut down. The only series was Arthur. Michael Hirsch who was now the president of CINAR had an old dispute with AKOM. He disliked them because he had put a show in AKOM and wanted the best crew on the show but he was not going to pay for the top tier or animation teams. So this old grudge continued later when he controlled CINAR. WGBH also did not get along with Michael Hirsch from a long time ago grudge and they now wanted to cut the budget significantly. At the same time WGBH had it in their heads that we needed to start doing the series in Flash animation because they were doing some other show in Flash and they believed the hype that the show would always be on model and it would be so much cheaper to do. The Flash salesmen had done a good job on them and it stuck in their heads. So we dropped AKOM and started testing companies to do the show in Flash. We tested some good companies in Canada like Mercury and some overseas companies and some pretty inexperienced companies in Canada. We also tested Animation Services. Steven Ching's company. He found a company in Nanjing that could still do traditional animation. At least they still had the key animators but not assistant animators anymore. Anyway, he did the test for the show traditionally on his own decision saying he could do it cheaper than digital. Digital animation was not big yet in China. So out of all the tests we had, I felt that the one from Animation Services still looked the most like the same old Arthur series. The characters seemed to still inhale and breathe compared to digital animation. It wasn't at all as good as AKOM but out of the choices I thought it was going to be less trouble staying in traditional rather than switching to digital and having all those other problems like not having extreme angles and things we were familiar with in Arthur. I got everyone to agree and we managed to do 3 or 4 more seasons traditionally at Animation Services for considerably less money than AKOM. They did try very hard to please us and I know it was hard for them to find the crew that were still able to animate. It was a dying craft at that point in most places. I am glad to be finally able to explain that to someone because it really is the beginning of the end of Arthur. People talk about the drop in quality from one season to the next but this was the reason or how it began.

DL: Yeah, I didn't really like those seasons because the animation was often stiff at times.Why didn't you try Carbunkle Cartoons in Vancouver? They still did traditional and it was run by Bob Jacques who worked with John Kricfalusci.

GB:People complain even more about the seasons done in Flash.Like I said we were not looking to replace AKOM with another traditional animation company, we were testing companies to do it digitally in Flash or ToonBoom. Animation Services just ignored that and did it traditionally for the same price. What we were paying was never very high for Arthur and now we are looking at a drastic reduction in money to do the show. Everyone coming along kept saying it would be the last season anyway.

#animation #animation interview #tooning in.#greg bailey #90s cartoons #cinar #arthur #pbs #pbs kids #canadian cartoons #canada

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