Abadoned Ideas

Here are some abandoned ideas and concepts. They are not my final idea so I thought it was okay to put them up here.

The first are designs and story thumbnails for Bob: Super Villain. It's about a genius who was never appreciated through his childhood and had his inventions stolen from him and now wants to take over the world. However he won't resort to thievery so has to earn money working at the local supermarket.

This was just a cute little idea about an old, small spade being replaced with a big shiny new one. Character design sketches.

Example of an accent

I was looking for the type of Louisianna accent that I would want the characters to have, and I found this the trailer for "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"



Some Musical tastes for the area. Hopefully this gives you a idea.

Cotton Fields Credence Clearwater Revival



Johnny Be Good, Chuck Berry

Marketing Television Channels

When thinking about an audience and what channels to pitch to, I believe that there just isn't enough animation in prime time and I am sure that an animated documentary programme could prove a success. So I wanted channels with large family prime-time audiences such as the BBC, ITV, FOX and ABC.



The programme could also fit quite well on any of the children's cable channels, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel.

Production Companies that produce animated content include Frederator, Renegade Animations and Atomic Cartoons.

Environment Research

I was thinking about the environments and where this informational film should be located. I thought it was a fun idea to have the characters come from Louisiana as the swamps are interesting, the accents very iconic for the vocal performance and it gives the characters an interesting back story.
I thought that we could also use a lab and a house to live in.


For the background I wanted to evoke the simple designs elements from sixties television cartoons. Solid colour and simple geometrical shapes that the characters could react upon. Here are some examples from the Flintstones.

A modern equivalent would be Kim Possible.

Character Research

I decided that I wanted a wide variety of characters in my informational film. I first wanted a Professor of some kind, one whose is intelligent and knowledge but also is so easily excited and curious about everything. I was thinking of prof Ludwig Von Drake, Doc Hunnydew and the Doc from Back to the Future.









I wanted a dumb lovable kind of guy that could act as the everyman, and of course I thought of Goofy.



I wanted a computer assistant who is equally as capable and who has a nature to commenting on the Professor's actions and I thought of Al from Home Improvement.

I wanted to have a wife for the Professor. She is suffering but loves him dearly. I thought of Betty from the Flintstones.

Ideas of Marketing

I was thinking about the marketing of my film and what film festivals to take it too.

As well as creating a DVD and website I was hoping to post the film to Channel Frederator. As you have seen Channel Frederator showcases a wide variety of submitted films and is one of the most popular destinations on YouTube. If my film was showcased there it would surely increase it's viewing capacity.
I was also looking at different animation festivals. I didn't want to go too small like Prague or what would be the point, and I didn't want to go too large, like Annecy or Ottawa. The NickToons Network Animation festival is open to anyone over 18 and very conveniently starts submissions right after college ends. The shorts are judge by a panel of Hollywood Animation expects and the best get showcased on Nickelodeon.
Animex is the big British animation festival held in February of each year. This is my home grown choice of animation festival.
Spike and Mike's is the famous touring animation festival the people like Peter Lord, John Lassenter, Craig McCracken and Danny Antonucci had their starts. Hopefully it is a possibility.
Here is a copy of the rules of the NickToons Network Animation Festival.

Examples of the Informational Format

When I decided that my film was going to be an informational film a look at some examples of my personal favourite animated informational films of the past.

I really enjoy the old Disneyland television programme. I always find it amazing that it was a huge prime-time family audience hit with animation. I especially enjoy the animated informational episodes. The one below "Man and the Moon" explains about the history and folklore of the moon in very stylized animation directed by Ward Kimball.



Ward Kimball also directed this very entertaining short subject called "It's Tough to be a Bird"



I think Ludwig Von Drake is a very entertaining host and I was greatly inspired by this episode of the Disneyland Television Show called "the Truth about Mother Goose"



I am of course a big fan of the Goofy "How to" shorts such as "How to ride a horse" and "How to Swim"





One of my favourite sequences from Jurassic Park was the animated sequence with Mr. DNA. I found it very zippy and entertaining.



Even though not strictly informational films I find the team of Doc. Hunnydew and Beaker very entertaining. I also was intrigued by the Design of the Muppets.

Early Shorts research

Early in my research I decided to just look at a wide variety of different short subjects in order to spark ideas. I looked at Channel Frederator because it has a wide variety of different types of animations on it. These are a few of the episodes I watched:

Episode #146



Episode #137



Episode #120



Episode #45



Episode #36



Episode #20



I also looked at a couple of Oh! yeah and What A Cartoon's such as

My neighbour was a teenage robot



Larry and Steve



Hillbilly Blue

Nearly Pitch Time.

Only a few weeks left until the pitch. I'm really getting nervous. I hope it goes well. After that I can put some work up here. I don't want anyone to steal my ideas.

Nearly Pitching Time

It's nearly pitching time. Then I can put work up here afterwards, I don't want people to steal my idea. I don't know if it is going to be pick or not, only 10 can. Let's just see.