Getting Personal - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 84

The energy buzz you get when such an idea hits the fan is intoxicating. We were on a high
with this one and within a few days and nights Chorlton and the Wheelies emerged. Wheelie
World would be ruled over by a misery-spreading witch named Fenella who saw no good and
it would be saved by a happiness-spreading dragon called Chorlton who saw no bad. Classic
good versus evil stuf .
We invented characters that allowed us to experiment with mixed methods of 3D animation
that rel ected the surrealism of their world. Heads on wheels was a good start. Other characters
like the Toadies, toadstools, only had eyes to animate. Spikies were cocktail sticks stuck
into central core balls, sprayed green and rolled around looking like some sinister military
tumbleweed. Riley was Fenella's one-eyed telescope looking down from Spout Hall on
Wheelie World, reporting back everything he sees to Her Miseryship. Only the pages animated
on Fenella's spellbook. Broomsticks were coni ned to the brush cupboard, as her mode of
transport was to pop up and down in a series of dif ering scale 3D cut-outs, pop pop popping
all over Wheelie World. Simple but funny. She, like Chorlton, was able to be animated in the
conventional way because of full armature. Both of them had easily replaceable faces held in
place by small magnets.
The barminess of this wonderful, surreal show, entertaining to all ages, was the result of an
exciting meeting of visual and writing talents. Both fed of each other. No better illustration of
this was the arrival in Wheelie World of Pablo Petito - champion ballroom - Latin American -
dancing duck. Daft, as writer Brian Trueman would say. Gloriously daft. Some dream.
Seeing some hugely satisfying results with Chorlton, and being surrounded by such an
innovative team, all the elements i nally started to fall into place, and a lifelong, if slightly
peculiar, relationship started, not just with puppets and performing them, but with a whole
breed of gloriously colourful, friendly, committed, passionate, unique and fantastically
eccentric people called animators. I love them, and often they are more interesting than their
creations … but that's another book.
Another way in - Andrew James Chapman, animator at Cosgrove Hall
I started as an illustrator creating my own characters, copying and refi ning work from a young age. I was
always sculpting with Plasticine and drawing or bringing them to life. I'd been interested in 2D but never
imagined I could do something in 3D, bringing an actual physical object to life and give it a personality of
its own! My infl uences from an early age were mainly 2D cartoons such as Dangermouse , Count Duckula ,
Transformers , Popeye , and all the Warner Bros and Disney characters. But my fi rst stop motion series I
saw was Morph … wow! I was overwhelmed and gobsmacked by the magic it possessed. I thought it was
real. Plasticine actually coming to life. I wanted much much more. The way it was able to change shape
and move around like that was breathtaking, magic. This inspired me to reach new heights. Aged seven I
knew I wanted to be an animator and started to watch as many stop motion programmes as I could. Even
in my teens I was unable to have a go at stop motion as I had no contact with computers or camcorders
… money was tight.