AFA UK: Children's BAFTAs, The Secrets Of British Animation and More
Last weekend The British Academy Of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held their annual awards for excellence in kid's entertainment, the BAFTA Children's Awards. Animated series Hey Duggee was the big winner, taking three awards, for best director, pre-school animation and best digital. Paddington 2 beat out impressive competition from Coco, Incredibles 2 and The Greatest Showman to be crowned Best Feature. Amazon's Tumbleleaf won for Best International (pre-school). In what turned out to be a bitter-sweet development, SpongeBob SquarePants won Best International, just days before the announcement of the passing of its creator.
On Sunday, December 2 BBC Four will air one hour documentary The Secrets Of British Animation at 9:00PM. Produced in association with the BFI, it charts the history of the medium in the UK, including "the individual artistic visions of Len Lye, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Joanna Quinn and Bristol’s world-conquering Aardman Animations". The documentary will be followed by Animation 18, a compilation of new shorts by fresh talent commissioned by the BBC and BFI. Both programs will then be available on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast. The shorts will also be available via the BFI Player from December 3.
The Christmas episode of Daisy and Ollie due to air on Cartoonito and December 1, will feature a guest appearance from Take That's Gary Barlow. Barlow will appear as himself, and perform a song What's So Great About Christmas Anyway? written by the show's star and co-writer Jason Manford. You can watch a preview here:
Daisy & Ollie - Christmas Special Gary Barlow Promo from CHF Entertainment on Vimeo.
You may remember the Off The Leash shorts from our previous coverage on web animation watch. Based on the popular cartoon dairy by Rupert Fawcett, the shorts delight dog lovers around the world. Now Factory, the studio behind the shorts is teaming up with pet retailer Pets At Home to create new videos for both Off the Leash and Fawcett's feline-based On The Prowl. The shorts will be released via the retailer's social channels, and the first one was inspired by Bonfire Night. You can watch it here.
