87-505: Cosgrove Hall Films was a British animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall , headquartered in Chorlton-cum-Hardy , Manchester . Cosgrove Hall was a major producer of children's television and animated programmes/films, which are still seen in over eighty countries. The company was wound down by its then owner, ITV plc , on 26 October 2009. It was mainly known for its series Danger Mouse , The Wind in
174-411: A stop motion technique to two- and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts , puppets , or clay figures . A cartoon in the animation sense is an animated film, usually short, featuring an exaggerated visual style. The style takes inspiration from comic strips , often featuring anthropomorphic animals , superheroes , or the adventures of human protagonists. Especially with animals that form
261-524: A century, when the moon is in the 8th house of Aquarius", requires blood, the source of sustenance for any vampire, but Nanny accidentally substitutes ketchup. Consequently, the newest version is not a blood-sucking vampire, but a vegetarian one. He is more interested in juicy carrots than hunting for victims. Igor is appalled. Even worse, his "new" master is obsessed with pursuing wealth and fame as an entertainer. The stories often revolve around Duckula's adventures in search of riches and fame, assisted by
348-490: A consistent way to whatever style is employed on a particular film. Since the early 1980s, teams of about 500 to 600 people, of whom 50 to 70 are animators, typically have created feature-length animated films. It is relatively easy for two or three artists to match their styles; synchronizing those of dozens of artists is more difficult. This problem is usually solved by having a separate group of visual development artists develop an overall look and palette for each film before
435-422: A dedicated Disneyana Fan Club (since 1984). Disneyland opened in 1955 and features many attractions that were based on Disney's cartoon characters. Its enormous success spawned several other Disney theme parks and resorts . Disney's earnings from the theme parks have relatively often been higher than those from their movies. As with any other form of media, animation has instituted awards for excellence in
522-426: A natural predator/prey relationship (e.g. cats and mice, coyotes and birds), the action often centers on violent pratfalls such as falls, collisions, and explosions that would be lethal in real life. A cartoon can also be a still humorous drawing, often with the same elements as animated cartoons but with still versions. The illusion of animation—as in motion pictures in general—has traditionally been attributed to
609-451: A new life on the small screen and by the end of the 1950s, the production of new animated cartoons started to shift from theatrical releases to TV series. Hanna-Barbera Productions was especially prolific and had huge hit series, such as The Flintstones (1960–1966) (the first prime time animated series), Scooby-Doo (since 1969) and Belgian co-production The Smurfs (1981–1989). The constraints of American television programming and
696-530: A number of television series, including Pip Ahoy! , which was aimed at preschool children, and HeroGliffix , which was aimed at older children. Light Chaser Animation Studios Animation Animation is a filmmaking technique by which still images are manipulated to create moving images . In traditional animation , images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets ( cels ) to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, specifically within
783-538: A secret rite that can be performed once a century, when the moon is in the Eighth House of Aquarius... The latest reincarnation did not run according to plan.... Several episodes explore the theme that each resurrection creates a new incarnation with little to no memory of its past life, the immediate past incarnation referred to as the current's "father". Thus, every incarnation is free to develop its own personality and pursue its own personal interests. The vampire
870-520: A separate background, computer animation is usually based on programming paths between key frames to maneuver digitally created figures throughout a digitally created environment. Analog mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phenakistiscope , zoetrope , flip book , praxinoscope , and film. Television and video are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally . For display on computers, technology such as
957-585: A spin-off from Danger Mouse . In 1984, Nickelodeon acquired the US broadcast rights to Danger Mouse , which became a hit for the channel. After a few years, the Nickelodeon management came to Cosgrove Hall wishing to co-produce a new series. After being shown a number of ideas, the then head of Nickelodeon, Gerry Laybourne , spotted a picture of Count Duckula in Brian Cosgrove's office, and said, "That's
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#17327872313181044-488: A tracer. Danger Mouse was one of the studio's earliest international successes. The studio made 161 episodes between 1981 and 1992. In each one, Danger Mouse, the world's greatest secret agent, and his well-meaning but useless sidekick, Penfold, outwit the evil Baron Silas Greenback and various scoundrels. In 1983, the studio made a 75-minute film, The Wind in the Willows , based on Kenneth Grahame 's classic story of
1131-450: A true powerhouse of animation production, with its own recognizable and influential anime style of effective limited animation . Animation became very popular on television since the 1950s, when television sets started to become common in most developed countries. Cartoons were mainly programmed for children, on convenient time slots, and especially US youth spent many hours watching Saturday-morning cartoons . Many classic cartoons found
1218-531: A very long history in automata . Electronic automata were popularized by Disney as animatronics . The word animation stems from the Latin animātiōn , stem of animātiō , meaning 'bestowing of life'. The earlier meaning of the English word is 'liveliness' and has been in use much longer than the meaning of 'moving image medium'. Long before modern animation began, audiences around the world were captivated by
1305-409: A wide variety of styles, relatively often including stop motion and cutout animation techniques. Soviet Soyuzmultfilm animation studio, founded in 1936, produced 20 films (including shorts) per year on average and reached 1,582 titles in 2018. China, Czechoslovakia / Czech Republic, Italy, France, and Belgium were other countries that more than occasionally released feature films, while Japan became
1392-527: Is a British children's animated comedy horror television series created by British studio Cosgrove Hall Productions and produced by Thames Television as a spin-off of Danger Mouse , a series in which an early version of the Count Duckula character was a recurring villain. Count Duckula aired from 6 September 1988 to 16 February 1993 across four series; in all, 65 episodes were made, each about 22 minutes long. The series aired on Nickelodeon in
1479-676: Is a technique combining hand-drawn characters into live action shots or live-action actors into animated shots. One of the earlier uses was in Koko the Clown when Koko was drawn over live-action footage. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created a series of Alice Comedies (1923–1927), in which a live-action girl enters an animated world. Other examples include Allegro Non Troppo (Italy, 1976), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (US, 1988), Volere volare (Italy 1991), Space Jam (US, 1996) and Osmosis Jones (US, 2001). Count Duckula Count Duckula
1566-406: Is able to pose as a "dreadful dynasty, the counts of Duckula". The preceding generations included knights, sorcerers, scientists, artists, Egyptologists and even professional gamblers, all of whom are also secretly "vicious vampire ducks". As the title sequence puts it, "the latest reincarnation did not run according to plan". The successful conclusion of the ritual, which was to be performed "once
1653-413: Is pointless for a studio to pay the salaries of dozens of animators to spend weeks creating a visually dazzling five-minute scene if that scene fails to effectively advance the plot of the film. Thus, animation studios starting with Disney began the practice in the 1930s of maintaining story departments where storyboard artists develop every single scene through storyboards , then handing the film over to
1740-449: Is that once a film is in the production phase, the marginal cost of one more shot is higher for animated films than live-action films. It is relatively easy for a director to ask for one more take during principal photography of a live-action film, but every take on an animated film must be manually rendered by animators (although the task of rendering slightly different takes has been made less tedious by modern computer animation). It
1827-404: Is the best known and most extreme example. Since first being licensed for a children's writing tablet in 1929, their Mickey Mouse mascot has been depicted on an enormous amount of products , as have many other Disney characters. This may have influenced some pejorative use of Mickey's name , but licensed Disney products sell well, and the so-called Disneyana has many avid collectors, and even
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#17327872313181914-529: Is the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films that regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement, having a smooth animation. Fully animated films can be made in a variety of styles, from more realistically animated works like those produced by the Walt Disney studio ( The Little Mermaid , Beauty and the Beast , Aladdin , The Lion King ) to the more 'cartoon' styles of
2001-432: Is the process that was used for most animated films of the 20th century. The individual frames of a traditionally animated film are photographs of drawings, first drawn on paper. To create the illusion of movement, each drawing differs slightly from the one before it. The animators' drawings are traced or photocopied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels , which are filled in with paints in assigned colors or tones on
2088-546: The Dracula legend; its title character is the world's only vegetarian vampire . He aspires to be rich and famous. Originally he was a villain/henchman recurring in the Danger Mouse series, but got his own spin-off series in 1988 that rapidly became one of Cosgrove Hall's most successful programmes, and a Cosgrove Hall staple to spin-off characters from each successive cartoon. Both shows also aired on Nickelodeon in
2175-763: The Internet ( web cartoons ). Rotoscoping is a technique patented by Max Fleischer in 1917 where animators trace live-action movement, frame by frame. The source film can be directly copied from actors' outlines into animated drawings, as in The Lord of the Rings (US, 1978), or used in a stylized and expressive manner, as in Waking Life (US, 2001) and A Scanner Darkly (US, 2006). Some other examples are Fire and Ice (US, 1983), Heavy Metal (1981), and Aku no Hana (Japan, 2013). Live-action/animation
2262-525: The Warner Bros. animation studio . Many of the Disney animated features are examples of full animation, as are non-Disney works, The Secret of NIMH (US, 1982), The Iron Giant (US, 1999), and Nocturna (Spain, 2007). Fully animated films are often animated on "twos", sometimes on "ones", which means that 12 to 24 drawings are required for a single second of film. Limited animation involves
2349-556: The animated GIF and Flash animation were developed. In addition to short films , feature films , television series , animated GIFs, and other media dedicated to the display of moving images, animation is also prevalent in video games , motion graphics , user interfaces , and visual effects . The physical movement of image parts through simple mechanics—for instance, moving images in magic lantern shows—can also be considered animation. The mechanical manipulation of three-dimensional puppets and objects to emulate living beings has
2436-408: The entertainment industry . Many animations are either tradtional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation , in particular claymation , has continued to exist alongside these other forms. Animation is contrasted with live-action film , although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced films that are a hybrid of
2523-462: The flip book (1868), the praxinoscope (1877) and film . When cinematography eventually broke through in the 1890s, the wonder of the realistic details in the new medium was seen as its biggest accomplishment. It took years before animation found its way to the cinemas. The successful short The Haunted Hotel (1907) by J. Stuart Blackton popularized stop motion and reportedly inspired Émile Cohl to create Fantasmagorie (1908), regarded as
2610-439: The persistence of vision and later to the phi phenomenon and beta movement , but the exact neurological causes are still uncertain. The illusion of motion caused by a rapid succession of images that minimally differ from each other, with unnoticeable interruptions, is a stroboscopic effect . While animators traditionally used to draw each part of the movements and changes of figures on transparent cels that could be moved over
2697-538: The 1960s, and European producers looking for affordable cel animators relatively often started co-productions with Japanese studios, resulting in hit series such as Barbapapa (The Netherlands/Japan/France 1973–1977), Wickie und die starken Männer/小さなバイキング ビッケ (Vicky the Viking) (Austria/Germany/Japan 1974), Maya the Honey Bee (Japan/Germany 1975) and The Jungle Book (Italy/Japan 1989). Computer animation
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2784-412: The 1972 series Rainbow . The producer of Rainbow , Thames Television , an ITV franchisee, created a new subsidiary animation studio called Cosgrove Hall Productions in the following year, 1976. Thames hired and commissioned Cosgrove and Hall as lead animators to create new animated programmes, for this new studio, based on their earlier work with Rainbow . Another bit of Thames commissioned work
2871-682: The BBC website. In 2006, they animated the missing first and fourth episodes of the Doctor Who serial The Invasion for a DVD release. ITV started reducing its children's department in 2006 and towards the end of 2008 it began winding down the operations of Cosgrove Hall. All except six staff were made redundant by ITV, and Cosgrove Hall moved 'in house' to the Granada Television Studios in Manchester, ending over 30 years of
2958-511: The BBC. The latter two series were based on classic characters from the 1950s. In the mid 2000s, Cosgrove Hall worked on a new version of Postman Pat . The studio also animated Ghosts of Albion , the BBC 's first fully animated webcast. Website visitors could learn about the production and help to develop the story. Cosgrove Hall produced Scream of the Shalka , a Doctor Who animated story for
3045-522: The Beast was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture , in 1991. Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) also received Best Picture nominations, after the academy expanded the number of nominees from five to ten. The creation of non-trivial animation works (i.e., longer than a few seconds) has developed as a form of filmmaking , with certain unique aspects. Traits common to both live-action and animated feature films are labor intensity and high production costs. The most important difference
3132-712: The Friendly Ghost (1945), Warner Bros. Cartoon Studios ' Looney Tunes ' Porky Pig (1935), Daffy Duck (1937), Elmer Fudd (1937–1940), Bugs Bunny (1938–1940), Tweety (1942), Sylvester the Cat (1945), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (1949), MGM cartoon studio 's Tom and Jerry (1940) and Droopy , Universal Cartoon Studios ' Woody Woodpecker (1940), Terrytoons / 20th Century Fox 's Mighty Mouse (1942), and United Artists ' Pink Panther (1963). In 1917, Italian-Argentine director Quirino Cristiani made
3219-594: The Tramp (1955) failed at the box office. For decades afterward, Disney would be the only American studio to regularly produce animated features, until Ralph Bakshi became the first to also release more than a handful features. Sullivan-Bluth Studios began to regularly produce animated features starting with An American Tail in 1986. Although relatively few titles became as successful as Disney's features, other countries developed their own animation industries that produced both short and feature theatrical animations in
3306-877: The U.S. during the late 1980s, and were popular in the ratings for the channel. In 1989, the studio produced a full-length feature based on Roald Dahl's The BFG . Truckers , the first book in The Bromeliad , was the studio's first collaboration with the best-selling author Terry Pratchett . The 1992 series follows the efforts of a group of nomes, whose spaceship crash-landed on Earth 15,000 years ago, to return home. However, Cosgrove Hall Productions' days became numbered as on 31 December 1992, their financial backer and owner, Thames Television lost its ITV franchise and began divesting/closing its subsidiaries. The studio downgraded its operations following Thames' loss of ITV franchise, and eventually closed doors in 1993. On 15 November 1993, Anglia Television and HBO announced
3393-476: The US. Successful producer John Randolph Bray and animator Earl Hurd , patented the cel animation process that dominated the animation industry for the rest of the century. Felix the Cat , who debuted in 1919, became the first fully realized anthropomorphic animal character in the history of American animation. In 1928, Steamboat Willie , featuring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse , popularized film-with-synchronized-sound and put Walt Disney 's studio at
3480-578: The United States, who billed it as its original programming. All have been released on DVD in the UK, while only the first series has been released in North America. A new version of the original villainous Count Duckula appeared in the 2015 reboot series of Danger Mouse , but being a vegetarian like the good Duckula. Count Duckula was created by British studio Cosgrove Hall Productions as
3567-411: The Willows and Count Duckula . Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall first met while both were students at Manchester College of Art and Design , which is now part of Manchester Metropolitan University . They later became co-workers at Granada Television , where they produced television graphics. Hall left his job in 1969 and founded his own production company, Stop Frame Productions. Cosgrove joined
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3654-832: The Willows . In 2001, in the twilight years of VHS, the episodes "The Ghost of Castle McDuckula" and "Venice a Duck, Not a Duck!" were featured on two Cult Kids collection tapes, with episodes of Rainbow , Chorlton and the Wheelies , Button Moon , Jamie and the Magic Torch and The Sooty Show . Between 1988 and 1991 Marvel Comics distributed 15 issues of Count Duckula comics. Count Duckula appeared in North American comics under Star Comics (an imprint of Marvel Comics ) and introduced an additional difference between this incarnation of Duckula which separated him from his predecessors. Due to ketchup being used in
3741-469: The animation begins. Character designers on the visual development team draw model sheets to show how each character should look like with different facial expressions, posed in different positions, and viewed from different angles. On traditionally animated projects, maquettes were often sculpted to further help the animators see how characters would look from different angles. Unlike live-action films, animated films were traditionally developed beyond
3828-521: The animators only after the production team is satisfied that all the scenes make sense as a whole. While live-action films are now also storyboarded, they enjoy more latitude to depart from storyboards (i.e., real-time improvisation). Another problem unique to animation is the requirement to maintain a film's consistency from start to finish, even as films have grown longer and teams have grown larger. Animators, like all artists, necessarily have individual styles, but must subordinate their individuality in
3915-469: The book. In Germany, a separate adaptation was produced under license as Graf Duckula , with script by Peter Mennigen and artwork by Miroslava Pollmer and Rüdiger Pareike . In the early 1990s at least two episodes were released in audiobook format on cassette tape with accompanying illustrated hardcover book featuring artwork from the original television episodes. They featured the original cast in new performances as they were edited considerably from
4002-504: The castle's ability to teleport around the world. Another regularly occurring theme is the repeated attempt by Igor to turn Duckula into a proper vampire. Some episodes feature Duckula's nemesis Doctor Von Goosewing (based on Dr. Abraham Van Helsing , the nemesis of Dracula ), a vampire hunter who blindly refuses to believe the current incarnation of Duckula is harmless. There is also an array of bizarre, often supernatural foes, from zombies to mechanical werewolves. Another feature of
4089-513: The classic stereotype of vampires not appearing in film, Duckula did not appear in the photo which was taken. Duckula also gained a romantic interest in the Star Comics run; Vanna Von Goosewing, who turned out to be the niece of his long time adversary Dr. Von Goosewing. The attraction was mutual, and the two continued their relationship through the majority of the series after their introduction, though Vanna didn't always appear in every issue of
4176-547: The company shortly after its establishment. Their first projects, for Stop Frame, included public service films and television commercials for such companies as the TVTimes . From 1971 to 1972, the company released the animated series, The Magic Ball , which they created in a renovated shed located in the yard of Cosgrove's father-in-law. Hall directed two animated productions for Stop Frame, Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo , which
4263-714: The demand for an enormous quantity resulted in cheaper and quicker limited animation methods and much more formulaic scripts. Quality dwindled until more daring animation surfaced in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s with hit series, the first cartoon of The Simpsons (1987), which later developed into its own show (in 1989) and SpongeBob SquarePants (since 1999) as part of a "renaissance" of American animation. While US animated series also spawned successes internationally, many other countries produced their own child-oriented programming, relatively often preferring stop motion and puppetry over cel animation. Japanese anime TV series became very successful internationally since
4350-422: The drawings and simulate camera movement and effects. The final animated piece is output to one of several delivery media, including traditional 35 mm film and newer media with digital video . The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animators ' work has remained essentially the same over the past 90 years. Some animation producers have used the term "tradigital" (a play on
4437-868: The field. Many are part of general or regional film award programs, like the China's Golden Rooster Award for Best Animation (since 1981). Awards programs dedicated to animation, with many categories, include ASIFA-Hollywood 's Annie Awards , the Emile Awards in Europe and the Anima Mundi awards in Brazil. Apart from Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film (since 1932) and Best Animated Feature (since 2002), animated movies have been nominated and rewarded in other categories, relatively often for Best Original Song and Best Original Score . Beauty and
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#17327872313184524-458: The first feature-length film El Apóstol (now lost ), which became a critical and commercial success. It was followed by Cristiani's Sin dejar rastros in 1918, but one day after its premiere, the film was confiscated by the government. After working on it for three years, Lotte Reiniger released the German feature-length silhouette animation Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed in 1926,
4611-406: The forefront of the animation industry. Although Disney Animation's actual output relative to total global animation output, has always been very small; the studio has overwhelmingly dominated the "aesthetic norms" of animation ever since. The enormous success of Mickey Mouse is seen as the start of the golden age of American animation that would last until the 1960s. The United States dominated
4698-611: The humour it can provide. Some animated characters in commercials have survived for decades, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop in advertisements for Kellogg's cereals. Tex Avery was the producer of the first Raid " Kills Bugs Dead " commercials in 1966, which were very successful for the company. Apart from their success in movie theaters and television series, many cartoon characters would also prove lucrative when licensed for all kinds of merchandise and for other media. Animation has traditionally been very closely related to comic books . While many comic book characters found their way to
4785-435: The late 1980s, in a style similar to traditional cel animation. The so-called 3D style, more often associated with computer animation, became the dominant technique following the success of Pixar's Toy Story (1995), the first computer-animated feature in this style. Most of the cel animation studios switched to producing mostly computer-animated films around the 1990s, as it proved cheaper and more profitable. Not only
4872-421: The magic of moving characters. For centuries, master artists and craftsmen have brought puppets, automatons , shadow puppets , and fantastical lanterns to life, inspiring the imagination through physically manipulated wonders. In 1833, the stroboscopic disc (better known as the phenakistiscope ) introduced the principle of modern animation, which would also be applied in the zoetrope (introduced in 1866),
4959-824: The oldest extant animated feature. In 1937, Walt Disney Studios premiered their first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , still one of the highest-grossing traditional animation features as of May 2020 . The Fleischer studios followed this example in 1939 with Gulliver's Travels with some success. Partly due to foreign markets being cut off by the Second World War, Disney's next features Pinocchio , Fantasia (both 1940), Fleischer Studios' second animated feature Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941–1942) and Disney's feature films Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady and
5046-510: The oldest known example of a complete traditional (hand-drawn) animation on standard cinematographic film. Other great artistic and very influential short films were created by Ladislas Starevich with his puppet animations since 1910 and by Winsor McCay with detailed hand-drawn animation in films such as Little Nemo (1911) and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). During the 1910s, the production of animated " cartoons " became an industry in
5133-464: The one I want". As the series went into production, one of the writers suggested he become a vegetarian , which added an even sillier concept to the series. Castle Duckula, home for many centuries to a dreadful dynasty of vicious vampire ducks – The Counts of Duckula. Legend has it that these 'fowl' beings can be destroyed by a stake through the heart or exposure to sunlight. This does not suffice however, for they may be brought back to life by means of
5220-446: The original television scripts for a shorter duration, removal of visual gags and the addition of new narration and character exposition where necessary. The "Restoration Comedy" episode was packaged with a small plastic Count Duckula figure in some territories. Alternative Software released a computer game based on Count Duckula called "No Sax Please, We're Egyptian!". In the game, Igor, Nanny and Count Duckula have decided to search
5307-753: The pyramid, to retrieve the mystic sax before the Count's castle automatically returns to Transylvania, leaving the player stranded in Egypt. The title of the game was a parody on the title of a British comedy play No Sex Please, We're British ! . The game was available for various 8-bit computers such as the ZX Spectrum , Commodore 64 , & Amstrad CPC , and was also released as a "Kid's Pack" with other TV shows that Alternative Software turned into games, including Postman Pat , Sooty and Sweep , Popeye 2 , The Wombles , and SuperTed . Alternative Software
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#17327872313185394-499: The re-opening of Cosgrove Hall Productions, albeit as Cosgrove Hall Films . The studio would be 75% owned by Anglia and HBO's joint-venture Anglia Television Entertainment, while Cosgrove and Hall would hold the remaining 25%, with Anglia/HBO's distribution arm ITEL holding international distribution to projects produced by the studio. Cosgrove Hall Films' first two projects were new episodes of both Avenger Penguins and Noddy's Toyland Adventures (both of which began airing prior to
5481-410: The resurrection ceremony, this version of Duckula has ketchup , rather than blood, flowing through his veins. This was discovered when Duckula was given a blood test in order to get a passport into a fictional country which produced a salad which Duckula was obsessed with getting to eat. In the same issue, Duckula, Nanny, and Igor were photographed as a means of formal ID for said country; however, due to
5568-404: The same name . It won a BAFTA award and an international Emmy award. Subsequently, the studio made a 52-episode TV series based on the characters between 1984 and 1990. All the music and songs for the feature and series were written by Keith Hopwood , late of Herman's Hermits and Malcolm Rowe. The Stone Roses guitarist John Squire worked on this series. Count Duckula was a spoof on
5655-768: The screen (which is often the case in Japan, where many manga are adapted into anime ), original animated characters also commonly appear in comic books and magazines. Somewhat similarly, characters and plots for video games (an interactive form of animation that became its own medium) have been derived from films and vice versa. Some of the original content produced for the screen can be used and marketed in other media. Stories and images can easily be adapted into children's books and other printed media. Songs and music have appeared on records and as streaming media. While very many animation companies commercially exploit their creations outside moving image media, The Walt Disney Company
5742-421: The show is a cuckoo clock whose bat-like Borscht Belt comedian styled characters come out and make jokes about the current situation (or corny jokes in general). The clock is also a vital part of the castle's traveling mechanism, and it even has the ability to turn back time. A series of annuals and monthly comics further detailing the adventures of Count Duckula and associated characters were released throughout
5829-458: The side opposite the line drawings. The completed character cels are photographed one-by-one against a painted background by a rostrum camera onto motion picture film. The traditional cel animation process became obsolete by the beginning of the 21st century. In modern traditionally animated films, animators' drawings and the backgrounds are either scanned into or drawn directly into a computer system. Various software programs are used to color
5916-532: The studio in Chorlton, with many ex staff moving to Chapman Entertainment . ITV said Cosgrove Hall currently had no work but believed “It is on the verge of a commission that will lead to the next recruitment drive.” However the UK was going thought its deepest recession and ITV was not interested in investing in Cosgrove Hall. A financial review decided that the company was no longer viable. The company
6003-575: The sudden shutdown and reopening). Nearer the end of the 1990's, ownership was placed under ITEL itself, with then-Anglia owners United News & Media purchasing HBO's stake in November 1999. In 1997, Cosgrove Hall Films produced two series for Channel 4 based on Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music , two novels from Pratchett's Discworld series. One of the studio's specialities was producing programmes for young children, such as Noddy's Toyland Adventures , Bill and Ben , and Andy Pandy for
6090-425: The synopsis stage through the storyboard format; the storyboard artists would then receive credit for writing the film. In the early 1960s, animation studios began hiring professional screenwriters to write screenplays (while also continuing to use story departments) and screenplays had become commonplace for animated films by the late 1980s. Traditional animation (also called cel animation or hand-drawn animation)
6177-668: The time that the series originally aired and for a short time afterwards. In a move mirroring Duckula's adaptation from Danger Mouse , the characters of Gaston and Pierre were reinvented and given a spinoff series as the now-human Victor & Hugo: Bunglers in Crime . The Count Duckula discs are in Region 0, PAL format. The first series was released on Region 1 DVD on 4 October 2005. Series 2, 3, and 4 have, as of 2024, not been released in North America. A Spanish format for Latin America
6264-411: The time, the episodes contained were somewhat exclusive to video (the first was not televised until 1991, neither was the latter until 1993). Count Duckula episodes were also released on special VHS compilations with episodes of other series. In 1989, the episode "Down under Duckula" was released on Thames' VHS title More Children's Summer Stories , with episodes from Danger Mouse and The Wind in
6351-476: The tomb of the great Pharaoh Upanatem (a pun on "up and at 'em") to find the mystic saxophone. What they do not know is that they have brought along some unwanted guests in the form of the Crow brothers. The game was a basic jump and run platform-type game. At the start, the castle was transported to an ancient pyramid. Then, players had a set amount of time to go through the pyramid, evading the various baddies inside
6438-462: The two . As CGI increasingly approximates photographic imagery , filmmakers can easily composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation , while 2D computer animation (which may have the look of traditional animation) can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth, or faster real-time renderings . Other common animation methods apply
6525-847: The use of less detailed or more stylized drawings and methods of movement usually a choppy or "skippy" movement animation. Limited animation uses fewer drawings per second, thereby limiting the fluidity of the animation. This is a more economic technique. Pioneered by the artists at the American studio United Productions of America , limited animation can be used as a method of stylized artistic expression, as in Gerald McBoing-Boing (US, 1951), Yellow Submarine (UK, 1968), and certain anime produced in Japan. Its primary use, however, has been in producing cost-effective animated content for media for television (the work of Hanna-Barbera, Filmation , and other TV animation studios ) and later
6612-565: The value had increased to an estimated US$ 370 billion. Animated feature-length films returned the highest gross margins (around 52%) of all film genres between 2004 and 2013. Animation as an art and industry continues to thrive as of the early 2020s. The clarity of animation makes it a powerful tool for instruction, while its total malleability also allows exaggeration that can be employed to convey strong emotions and to thwart reality. It has therefore been widely used for other purposes than mere entertainment. During World War II, animation
6699-401: The very popular 3D animation style was generated with computers, but also most of the films and series with a more traditional hand-crafted appearance, in which the charming characteristics of cel animation could be emulated with software, while new digital tools helped developing new styles and effects. In 2010, the animation market was estimated to be worth circa US$ 80 billion. By 2021,
6786-683: The words "traditional" and "digital") to describe cel animation that uses significant computer technology. Examples of traditionally animated feature films include Pinocchio (United States, 1940), Animal Farm (United Kingdom, 1954), Lucky and Zorba (Italy, 1998), and The Illusionist (British-French, 2010). Traditionally animated films produced with the aid of computer technology include The Lion King (US, 1994), Anastasia (US, 1997), The Prince of Egypt (US, 1998), Akira (Japan, 1988), Spirited Away (Japan, 2001), The Triplets of Belleville (France, 2003), and The Secret of Kells (Irish-French-Belgian, 2009). Full animation
6873-482: The world market of animation with a plethora of cel-animated theatrical shorts. Several studios would introduce characters that would become very popular and would have long-lasting careers, including Walt Disney Productions ' Goofy (1932) and Donald Duck (1934), Fleischer Studios / Paramount Cartoon Studios ' Out of the Inkwell ' Koko the Clown (1918), Bimbo and Betty Boop (1930), Popeye (1933) and Casper
6960-574: Was again put under review by ITV plc in October 2009, being absorbed, and ceasing to exist a few months later. Cosgrove Hall was developing Theodore , a CGI-animated series, when ITV absorbed the company. Despite being absorbed, the company is still classified as an "Active" business on Companieshouse. The land occupied by Cosgrove Hall's studios, in Albany Road, Chorlton, adjacent to the town's telephone exchange, which had stood empty for two years,
7047-430: Was announced that during the past summer, prior to the death of Mark Hall, he and Brian Cosgrove had pitched the idea of resurrecting the brand to possible investors. Brian Cosgrove became the executive producer at CHF Entertainment , (defunct 2019), as was Hall until his death. On 18 November 2011, Cosgrove Hall Films closed down due to Mark Hall’s death of cancer at the age of 75. CHF Entertainment had actively worked on
7134-422: Was finally sold in the summer of 2010 to a housing development company. The intention was to demolish the historic studios and build retirement flats. During 2012, the studios were eventually demolished as part of the above development. Urban explorers who visited the site during the demolition found and photographed some models and backgrounds used in previous productions. Coincidentally, during April of that year it
7221-543: Was gradually developed since the 1940s. 3D wireframe animation started popping up in the mainstream in the 1970s, with an early (short) appearance in the sci-fi thriller Futureworld (1976). The Rescuers Down Under was the first feature film to be completely created digitally without a camera. It was produced using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), developed by Pixar in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company in
7308-407: Was released in 1972, and the television series, Noddy , which aired in 1975. The company also produced opening credits and graphics for children's TV series such as Rainbow in 1972. Stop Frame Productions halted production, and was closed in 1975. Following the closure of Stop Frame Productions, Cosgrove and Hall were able to find new work in animation, specifically due to their earlier work on
7395-487: Was released. The entire 65 episodes of the series are set to be released on UK DVD on June 3, 2024. This appears to be the first time ever the whole series have been available on English-language DVD's. During the show's original run, Count Duckula episodes were released on numerous VHS titles from Thames Video collection, often in a different sequence than what was shown in the TV. This VHS title appeared in 1990 but, at
7482-534: Was the title sequence for the 1974 feature film The Best Of Benny Hill for Thames Television and EMI Films. Thames Television also hired John Hambley as Cosgrove Hall Films' first executive producer . Its first series was Chorlton and the Wheelies , the lead role being named after the suburb of Manchester where the company was based (the other characters were placed on wheels as this made the stop-frame animation easier). The pop singer and musician Bernard Sumner worked for Cosgrove Hall from its founding until 1979 as
7569-482: Was widely exploited for propaganda. Many American studios , including Warner Bros. and Disney, lent their talents and their cartoon characters to convey to the public certain war values. Some countries, including China, Japan and the United Kingdom, produced their first feature-length animation for their war efforts. Animation has been very popular in television commercials, both due to its graphic appeal, and
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