On animation: a personal history- Part 2
On Animation
21 May 2019
There were few programmes I watched with a keener anticipation than these. These were almost inevitably made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate’s production company, Smallfilms.
Charm from the barn
Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate made short animated films for British children’s TV in a disused cow shed frame by frame. With modest budgets they made their own models and sets. Postgate narrated in gentle avuncular tones and the music by Vernon Elliot was lyrical, sweetly eccentric with a touch of wistfulness to it.
Slow minutes of magic.
Ivor the engine
Railway tales set in a Wales as described by Dylan Thomas and discovered by Oliver Postgate.
Bagpuss
Each of the 13 episodes opened with a spell to suspend disbelief:
Old Fat Furry Catpuss
Wake up and look at this thing that I bring
Wake up, be bright, be golden and light
Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing
The scene would change from sepia to colour and into the story I’d happily tumble.
Pogles Wood
Pogles Wood has fairy tale-like qualities and the reputation for producing one of the scariest kids’ stories involving a witch. Only broadcast once.
Much as Monty Python took absurdity seriously Smallfilms took whimsy seriously. There’s no flighty cartoonish nonsense and each of Smallfilms stories is logically consistent which is strangely important when you’re little.
When asked if the Clangers adventures were quite surreal sometimes, Postgate replied: "They're surreal but logical. … Everything that happened was strictly logical, according to the laws of physics which happened to apply in that part of the world."
Despite being knitted and prone to exclamatory hooting, The Clangers were treated with great respect by their creators and at the time I thought that seemed important too.
So from all that accumulated “You’ll get square eyes.” time, what did I come away with?
Here’s my swag.
Most conceits will be admitted as long as they are internally consistent.
I obviously took away a lasting affection for the delights of understatement and whimsy. Whimsy, I learned, is best served seriously. The more seriously you take your whimsy, the more playful it becomes.
Whimsy, I learned, is best served seriously.
I took from all the above that animation need not be about reproducing reality with absolute fidelity. We will forgive the strings or their plodding gait, they do not matter.
Interesting musical voices. (More on that in On Music) . A narrator. (More on that in On Voices.)
All that animation I grew up watching showed me that animation can imbue almost any creature of the imagination with anima, the animating principle.
So here I am trying to animate dust bunnies. Why ever not?
Next up, mindless violence.
On Animation Part 3 - The secret behind Tom and Jerry.
On Animation Part 1 - The early years. Too much time in front of the telly
