Christopher's Animation Blog: DD3000: Series Pitch

This post discusses three ideas which I was asked to pitch for an animated series.

Travelling Ted

Travelling Ted is a bear who lives in a classroom but gets to go travelling to new places every half term and school holiday with different children from the classroom. Sometimes Ted will visit new countries and have adventures with new people from each country - such as repairing Big Ben, skiing in Switzerland, playing football in Brazil or climbing the Eiffel Tower - or simply have adventures by the seaside, at the funfair, visiting the dentist or visiting relatives. Each episode starts and ends in the classroom, where Ted dreams about all of his adventures.

Key points:
*The series is aimed at young, pre-school children for broadcast on Cbeebies or Channel 5's 'Milkshake!' block, produced in 2D animation.
*The inspiration for the series was a TV series that took place in a new country with each new episode, since there are currently 197 recognised countries in the world.
*It is never specified where in the world Ted's classroom is, so wherever in the world children are watching the show, they can always feel like it is their classroom.
*There are opportunities for new locations in every single episode along with new characters, both male and female to appeal to both demographics.
*Educational for young children, teaching about different cultures, peoples and emotions / how to cope in new situations (e.g. meeting new people) / discusses core educational values. Teaches new lessons to children on topics such as teamwork, bravery, sharing, friendship etc.

Character design:
*The design for Travelling Ted himself is based on a toy bear I had as a child. I personally like the design since I researched other teddy bears and what people thought of on hearing the words 'teddy bear', although these seemed far too generic and not recognisable enough for young children. For example, Winnie the Pooh is more recognisable since he is more yellow and other bears are gold. Similarly Bagpuss has a distinctive pink colour which separates him from other famous cats.

Ted prototypes

Spyder

A top secret organisation of spiders is working underground to try and establish a more positive relationship with humans. The punch-line is, of course, humans are more terrified of spiders than they really should be! "Spyder" is the name of the organisation's top agent - a bumbling Clouseau-type character who makes mistakes but somehow always manages to get the job done.

Key points:
*The show would be a comedy aimed at children who would watch CBBC, produced in 2D animation.
*The inspiration for this concept was a model project from last year where I produced a model spider. The series was created around this model spider as a character.
*Even though they are poisonous, spiders from the United Kingdom have never been known to kill humans, contrary to popular belief. This became the main inspiration for the concept that spiders would want to be friends with humans. The series would have to emphasise the spiders in the episodes are British - any spiders capable of killing all originate from Brazil or various nations in Africa. Research for the spy theme includes typical motifs of the spy genre, looking into James Bond movies and retro animated series such as Danger Mouse.
*Villains in the series include insects which are more dangerous than spiders in real life: ants, bees, wasps, mosquitoes, flies, hornets, locusts, kissing bugs and foreign spiders.

Secret Adventures of Cats

A series of very short episodes for the Internet or as interstitals on television. Each episode is inspired by real life adventures of cats which are taken and retold in 2D animation, inspired by the look of the popular Felix adverts. Such adventures include cats who have survived incredibly high falls, saving humans from house fires, found their way home from 100 miles away, how cats use their senses and their relationships with other animals, including dogs.

Key points:
*Inspiration for this concept came about from a personal love of cats, plus various documentaries which also tell unbelievable stories about cats, e.g. "Secret Life of Cats" (ITV, 2014) and documentaries attaching cameras to cat's collars and observing where they go.
*The look is mainly inspired by the popular Felix adverts. The style is inspired by the similarly-animated "Pixar Studio Stories", telling short, funny stories that occured during the making of Pixar's films.