The Travels of the Young Marco Polo

The Irish financing for the co-production project “The Travels of the Young Marco Polo” closed late March, 2012. Magpie 6 Media, along with Monster Entertainment, immediately began the 15 month production. Our international co-producers are Germany’s Motionworks, Melusine Studio in Luxembourg and Yowza! in Canada.  The two Irish studios will handle the animation of the episode “Ali Baba & The Forty Thieves”. The studios will also be responsible for Scene Prep, Key Pose and Overseas Animation Supervision. The “Ali Baba” episode was written by John Chambers.

The Travels of the Young Marco Polo – 26 x 25’ Action/Adventure

Irish Animation Director – Andrew Crotty

Irish Producers – Deirdre Barry and Cliff Parrott

Mr. O'Dear and the kids at the dock

The Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann awarded the studio a development loan in November 2011 for its series, “Inis Spraoi”. The series was co-created by Stephen O’Brien, Kevin O’Brien and Cliff Parrott. The plan for development is to complete a 7 minute pilot episode titled, “The Foggiest Notion”.  In the pilot, Mister O’Dear welcomes his preschool pupils Sean, Roisin and friends to Inis Spraoi as they arrive to the mystical island. The story follows the children’s decision to visit their friend Skipper Seamus on a foggy day at the beach. He helps them discover how to “See with their Ears” by using their sense of hearing and their imaginations.

The episode is recorded in English and in Gaeilge. The voice styling of Morgan C. Jones is heard on the English version and the voice talent of Niall O’Siordain is on the Irish version. Development is scheduled to be completed by May 2012, with the goal of going into a season of production early in 2013.

Produced and written by Cliff Parrott. Directed by Paul Madden. Background and Layout by Frank Montagna.

A Scene from "The Foggiest Notion"

Children's Media Conference 2011- Sheffield, England

Just got back from the Children’s Media Conference, thinking I could update the blog as I was there but no chance, it was a busy few days. It was my first time in Sheffield and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the city was put together; pretty fountains at public places, good restaurants and very friendly people. The conference was primarily held at the Showroom Cinema & Workstation, and The Hubs.

The Hub, Sheffield

The first day of the conference was an opportunity to pitch “Inis Spraoi” to Ken Anderson of Redkite Animations and Wassime Achkar of Al Jazzera TV. It was well received and some really good points were made to improve the project. Other recommendations were made by other conference delegates which are being well headed.

Jamie Rix "Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids"

There were so many good conferences but my favourite was Jamie Rix, the author of many children’s books but especially “Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids”. One day I hope to grow up to be him! He made a good point about starting a project off as a book first. It’s good for many reasons but most importantly, at least in my opinion, is that you can pitch the book with leverage, you’ll own the publishing IP rights. Not only that, he made the point that a book doesn’t intimidate a development exec as much as a full blown show bible with scripts. This is because, to an exec, a book represents an opportunity for adaptation. A full blown bible with scripts and animation may appear too concrete – it makes it harder to imagine how the project can molded.

Eileen Bell (Enterprose Ireland), Shari Donnenfeld, and Marion Edwards

Magpie 6 Media attended the conference as part of an Enterprise Ireland delegation of Irish animation studios. Many, many thanks to Eileen Bell, Claire Bodys and Sarah Collins for including the Magpie 6 to join them. Also a big thank you to HIT Entertainment‘s  Marion Edwards, Chris Rose, Karen Barnes and Anne-Laure Trehorel for the invite to a scrumptious Japanese grilled dinner at Wasabi-Sabi.  The hilight of the dinner was watching everyone take a turn trying to catch an eggroll tossed at them by the chef. Eileen Bell caught hers in one attempt, straight in (two was a charm for me).

Cool Characters on Poster

On the last night of the conference all the delegates were treated to pizza and beer at Pizza Express. While walking on Devonshire St., I noticed a cool poster on a night club. The characters on the poster are really great. I also passed a cool pub called the “Frog & Parrot.” Nothing amazingly spectacular about the place except the cool name. Sounds like the start of a cool Grimm’s Fairy Tale.

The conference had a great effect, it’s really given me some great new ideas on how to tackle some old projects and inspired more projects for the future. I look forward to going to the conference again in 2012.

Frog & Parrot - New Grimm's Fairy Tale

Broadcast Flash Discussion at Filmbase, Dublin

Happy Birthday Filmbase! On June 25th, Dublin’s own Filmbase turned 25 and they celebrated with a weeknd of events sponsored by Jameson. They included an interview with the young and talented Saoirse Ronan, an Oscar’s panel discussion called “Road to the Oscars” with filmmakers Juanita Wilson (The Door), Steph Green (New Boy) and Nicky Phelan (Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty), and lastly an overview of producing animation with Magpie 6 Media’s Cliff Parrott. The animation discussion went over a typical production pipeline using Adobe’s Flash as the main animating software. A big thanks goes out to Filmbase’s Paul Schwer for setting this up.

Morgan C. Jones

Magpie 6 Media signed on the amazing voice talents of Morgan C. Jones for the parts of the Narrator and of Mister O’Dear for “Inis Spraoi”. Morgan was recorded at Gorilla Post Production in Dublin and Gorilla’s Barry Reid did a great job as Sound Engineer. Morgan was chosen from a long list of Irish talent because of his range and professionalism. He did the recording basically on a first take and had given variations on style.

Everyone is looking forward to seeing Inis Spraoi’s animatic finished featuring Morgan’s work. You can get a sampling of his work on Magpie 6′s website. When your mouse rolls over the Mister O’Dear character peeking from behind a tree, you’ll hear his giggle.

Kick Buttowski & Brother Brad

Magpie 6 Media wrapped up a project that has Disney’s characters, Kick Buttowski and friends, as animated objects on Disney Online worldwide. Working closely with Disney Online and the Kick Buttowsk Television crew, Magpie 6 Media created a slew of animated actions for Kick, his brother Brad, his friend Gunther and the neighbourhood dog, Otto. They debuted Worldwide on various Disney Online outlets. Hopefully these “animated sprites” will be the next rage and the project will extend to other Disney TV properties like Phineas & Ferb.

Professor Owl's Class

After finishing the Preschool shorts for Disney Junior, the studio was commissioned to create a series of shorts dedicated to teaching kids about numbers. Again, Disney gave a wide creative berth come up with a concept. Out of several ideas given, the one chosen was “Professor Owl’s Class”.  Each episode begins with the Professor flying into his cute little school room where he greets his eager pupil, the elephant. The elephant isn’t so eager once he finds out the day’s lesson, “to learn about numbers.” Professor Owl is not only smart, but he’s wise. He aids his lesson with the help of some lively peanuts. His pachyderm pupil perks up when he sees the peanuts. As Professor Owl sings a song about the lesson’s particular number we transform into a chalkboard world. The story always ends with the elephant inhaling the peanuts right out of Professor Owl’s hand and learning a thing or two about numbers.

Kavaleer's Creative Team

Magpie 6 Media brought in the talents of one of Ireland’s most creative animation studios, Kavaleer Animation. A big thank you goes out to Gary Timpson and Andrew Kavanaugh for doing such a great job. Kavaleer’s Graham Corcoran created the beautiful background art. John Byrne rigged the characters. Zhuo Wang designed the world inside the chalkboard. Paul Shanahan did the digital layout. Ciara Gillan coordinated Kavaleer’s crew. And Aiden O’Sullivan and Jorge Ortiz were the animators.

 

Disney Junior's Preschool Video

Disney Junior’s Preschool Video

Disney really took a shine to two little series in the fifty called “Walrus & Duck” and “Find the Rhyme”. They liked these so much, they commissioned thirty more shorts of them.

Disney Junior's Preschool Video

Walrus & Duck teaches letters and things that begin with the featured letter of the short. Each episode has the same setup where the two of them are on a small boat in the middle of a lake. Walrus casts his fishing line out and the nervous Duck waits patiently. As Walrus hauls up a letter from the water, Duck has to deal with a comical character on his side of the boat. Duck tries his best to get his tusk mouthed friend to turn around to see the spectacle on Duck’s side of the boat. But by the time he turns around, it’s gone. The frustrated Duck gets a kindly pat on the head and Walrus goes back to fishing.

Higgins the Bulter at the Museum

“Find the Rhyme” features a long jowled hound dog who is a bulter. His name is Higgins. As he tidys up a room, a Narrator asks him if he’d like to play the game “Find the Rhyme” with a group of children off screen. Higgins is eager to play, too eager though. The Narrator gives Higgins a word and he has to find something in the room that rhymes with it. In his over eagerness, Higgins usually destroys the place before he finds it.