November: Watch something fun

Well, finally, the end of our November week: a lazy post for a lazy activity. Sometimes it's time to curl up somewhere warm and watch something fun: Barbapapa.

Cloud on TV

Finally the long-awaited interview with Cloud (the co-star of our new book "Foggy") is on TV! You can watch it between kids programming on Knowledge Network, or find it at http://knowledge.ca/program/cartographies-shorts. The interview is one of a number of shorts from cArtographies: a documentary directed by Brian Johnson, produced by Leah Mallen (Twofold Films), and commissioned by Knowledge Network.

Huffy

Miyako Kanamori: Part 2

From Orion Books, an animated series starrring Miyako Kanamori's creatures.

Fablernas värld

Ah, Owls. How we love owls.

Rainy by Euan

When we did our book tour for Sunny, we found that one of the exciting things about the books is that they inspire children to make their own illustrated books or animations. This is partly because they are photographic, so they are perhaps less daunting than drawing or painting at a professional level. Also, our dioramas often incorporate everyday objects (such as pencils for telephone poles) and this sparks all kinds of ideas....

One of the things we'd like to do with this blog is showcase some of the amazing and cool responses that we come across from young readers.

Here is the director's cut of the short film Rainy, inspired by the test photos for Foggy, by Euan.

Cheburashka Чебурашка​

A few years ago, I saw a cute little character in a magazine (maybe petit glam, which was being featured in Inside Magazines...I'm not sure) with massive furry ears. As the text around him was only Japanese and Russian, it was difficult to tell what his name was and find out more. The Russian Olympic team (which was recently in Vancouver, sporting his image) has solved the mystery. He is a Cheburashka, and will be the official mascot of the Sochi 2014 games.Cheburashka originally appeared in a 1966 children's book by Edouard Uspensky. In 1969, a stop-motion animated series based on the book came out. We love Eastern European stop-motion animation, some of which has been a source of inspiration for our dioramas and hopefully for some stop-motion animation of our own.

Stills

Here are a few stills from our animation tests. It's exciting to see the elements moving and fantastic to work with real stop-motion.

Mini Saskatoon

At the Karma studios one of the toilets had this mini toilet roll (sized for the Wapos characters). We also loved this float plane, which hung above our work area.

Saskatoon

A little more than a year ago, we spent a week in Saskatoon working on an animated version of Windy. We were hosted by Karma Films (producers of the animated series Wapos Bay). It was quite a whirlwind! Hopefully, we will have more updates and information about this, but in the meantime here are a few snapshots from our visit.

Cloud in the spotlight

Look out for a terrific and heartfelt interview with Cloud (the co-star of our new book "Foggy") in TwoFold Film's upcoming 1 hour documentary 'cArtographies'. Directed by Brian Johnson and produced by Leah Mallin for the Knowledge Network, Cloud gives an amazing performance. We're not sure of the release date yet, but look for it on the Knowledge Network very soon or at www.twofold.ca.