ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.12 - MARCH 2001

Ahoy! An Intelligent Children's Show At Last!
(continued from page 1)

Captain Bilge spies Cat on deck as he vies for a fishbone.

The Two Word Production
When Yoho Ahoy is in full production there are about 15 people working. There are set builders, three animators, an editor, a musician and a small pool of writers who work with Mark Slater. Both Slater and Hill serve as directors. It takes about two months to make each episode: three weeks to shoot, two weeks to edit and about a week to do sound.

While COG is well aware of the parameters of the BBC (i.e. no violence), Roberts notes that they have a great deal of freedom. "All scripts and storyboards have to be submitted to BBC before shooting but it's rare for comments to be made other than, 'Okay.' This is not due to any slackness at BBC, it's just that we are on the same wavelength."

A cynic might say that the lack of dialogue is an easy way to sell to an international market. Of course, that's true, but the little pirates also communicate a wide array of emotions through the tone of their voice in speaking those two words, and also through very expressive body language. One can't help but feel the COG group have slightly higher ambitions. Says Roberts: "'There is no art,' someone said, 'Without the resistance of the medium.' Mole and Mark don't like to make things easy for themselves. Maybe if you up the resistance of the medium you up the quality of the art?"

Grog the cook with shipmate Jones awaits the approach of some rats. On board the ship, Booty the princes serves tea to Plank while Flamingo looks on.

To hear such words come from the mouths and minds of television animators, brings warmth to my small, blackened heart. If only more TV folks could follow the lead of this innovative, intelligent crew. So watch Yoho Ahoy and pray that this merry trio of troublemakers makes more great television for me and the boy.

And by the way, Grog lost his hands in a fondue accident before the series began.

Chris Robinson is Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the founder and director of SAFO, the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival. He is a board member of ASIFA International and Editor of the ASIFA Magazine. Robinson has curated film programs and served on festival juries throughout the world. He writes a monthly column (The Animation Pimp) for Animation World Network and has written numerous articles on animation. His iconoclastic tendencies have led him to be called the "John Woo of diplomacy" and most recently, "the enfant terrible of animation" by Take One magazine. He is currently working on a documentary with Otto Alder on Estonian animation; a biography of writer, Richard Meltzer; and a book on animation entitled, Unsung Heroes of Animation. Apparently he's a Canadian.

 
1 | 2