Harry and Toto is a pre-school series created by Paul Shuttleworth at Handle and Spout productions. It's based on Aesop's fable about the Tortoise and the Hare and has been airing on Cbeebies since early June 2008. I was lucky enough to write several episodes for the show. It was great fun to work on and that seems to have been the feeling of everyone who worked on it... I met several of them at the launch party including Liz who wrote the music and Bob Golding who did all the male voices. Here's a clip...
At the recent Showcomotion Conference we were asked to present in a programme called "Get Shorty" with a few other folks, one of whom was Jason Krogh of zinc Roe Design in Canada.
Jason has presided over a number of great projects, including the Zimmer Twins, an online 'make your own film' site for kids. (And for adults like me too.)
Tate recently commissioned The Brothers McLeod to make five short films for their fantastic Tate Kids website. Each episode is part animation, part live action, featuring the two headed Orthus who disagrees with himself about the merits of each artwork he sees. Watch the first film here at the Tate Kids site, or watch the taster from our YouTube channel below.
Two more of our Art Sparks films for the Tate Kids website are now ready to watch. If you missed the first one it's available at the Tate Kids site, or on YouTube.
The new series of Noddy entitled Noddy in Toyland is now airing on Five. One of my episodes "Domino Town" has already aired, but the next one "Hide and Seek Whiz" is on tomorrow morning at 7.45am (only in UK, channel FIVE). The show was put together by Chorion Silver Lining and animated by Brown Bag Films in Ireland.
Hoozah! The Tate Kids website has won the Webby in the youth category. It's a great achievement and it's been a pleasure for us to be a part of it all. We created 5 x 5 minute films for the website featuring a two headed creature called Orthus. He disagrees with himself about the merits of five separate artworks by Francis Bacon, Sophie Calle, Umberto Boccioni, Anish Kapoor and Cornelia Parker.
We're going to Annecy this year because our short film Codswallop is in competition there. But last week we also found out that we are doing a double whammy because children's TV series Harry and Toto created by Paul Shuttleworth and made by Handle and Spout and GS Animation, is screening an episode in the category "TV Series Official Selection". The episode is Up and Down written by Myles. You can watch another episode of Harry and Toto on YouTube to get a flavour of the series.
Once upon a time we worked with our sister and father under the banner Spark and Zoom. Well, Dad is still at the helm of the successful print and media company and they've just relaunched their website... take a look at what they're up to and some of the children's activity packs we made over the years.
ITV is to launch a dedicated preschool strand hosted by animated ‘acorn-like’ creatures to differentiate it from the main CITV brand, which will now target older kids.
Mini CITV will target under fives from 9.25am to 3pm on term-time weekdays, while CITV shows aimed at five-to 10-year-olds will run at weekends or during school holidays.
ITV will introduce new logos for both strands plus interstitials for Mini CITV featuring the Minis characters, which live alongside live-action children playing and solving problems.
They were designed in-house and animated by The Brothers McLeod.
The move to separate the age groups follows research which suggested viewers found the CITV brand confusing.
ITV controller of digital channels Emma Tennant said: “Parents tended to think of it as an afterschool brand because that’s what it was when they were younger.”
For the last three weeks I've been blogging once a week for the BAFTA website as part of their Children's Blog 2009. There are three fellow bloggers - all from the animation category of the competition - Ben Lock (Chop Socky Chooks), Lucinda Whiteley (Horrid Henry) and Philip Hunt (Lost and Found).
I've been trying to tell my blog from the point of view of Orthus, our two headed character who features in the Art Sparks films for which we've been nominated (with Sharna Jackson - Hooray! - our producer from the Tate).
Another BAFTA night and sadly no golden face statue to bring home, but like a cup of steaming hot mulled wine, we're not bitter! In fact we had a splendid evening hobnobbing with colleagues, introducing ourselves to some new folks and even gathering the courage to introduce ourselves to Richard 'the hamster' Hammond and the delightful Catherine Tate.
There were a few celebrities present including a couple of Harry Potter actors... Lucius Malfoy (hello to Jason Isaacs), and Mrs Harry Potter (aka Ginny Weasley aka Bonnie Wright). But best celebrity of the evening has to go to Bernard Cribbins who was there to receive a lifetime achievement award. He was certainly a feature of our own childhoods - Greg used to listen to an audiobook of Swallows and Amazons which he read, and one of my favourite audio stories was Bertie's Escapade in the Marshall Cavendish Storyteller series. Both tapes died from being listened to too much.
Congratulations for the evening must go to Philip Hunt and Sue Goffe at studio aka for winning for Lost and Found. It's an amazing piece of work and they are deserved winners in the animation category. Congratulations!
The new series of Noddy entitled Noddy in Toyland is now airing on Five. One of my episodes "Domino Town" has already aired, but the next one "Hide and Seek Whiz" is on tomorrow morning at 7.45am (only in UK, channel FIVE). The show was put together by 
For the last three weeks I've been blogging once a week for the BAFTA website as part of their Children's Blog 2009. There are three fellow bloggers - all from the animation category of the competition - Ben Lock (Chop Socky Chooks), Lucinda Whiteley (Horrid Henry) and Philip Hunt (Lost and Found).
Another BAFTA night and sadly no golden face statue to bring home, but like a cup of steaming hot mulled wine, we're not bitter! In fact we had a splendid evening hobnobbing with colleagues, introducing ourselves to some new folks and even gathering the courage to introduce ourselves to Richard 'the hamster' 
