British animation

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Pei Shan

New member
Seriously, the only brit cartoons off the top of my head that I am really into and that crossed over to the states is Danger Mouse, Duckula, and that Charlie and Lola thing on Disney. Japan, Italy and France along with Canada have cornered the market on animation outside of us here in the U.S. but is there anything decent going on in the UK market as far as cartoons?
 
Well, I don't think any new episodes have been made, but The Secret Show is pretty darn cool :) It airs on Nicktoons Network here in the states.
 
... Unfortunately the first thing that came to mind for me was the UK animated film Plague Dogs... never had I ever seen such a heart-wrenching animated film that left such an emotional impact on me. That and Watership Down, which was made by the same director as well and apparently rated PG in the UK. I'm hoping the rating system meaning for "PG" is far different than ours, because the content in that supposed kid movie was horrifying... ;.; *sniffle*

Other than that I have yet to see any UK animated series, although the UK does have some excellent live action shows.
 
I was going to say that the only British animation that I knew of was the magic Roundabout, then remembered that it was French. I didn't know that Britian did animation. They haven't put anything out recently aside from the series listed in op, have they?
 
I think their PG rating is pretty similar to the American one. It only got that because it was a cartoon. I don't think the people who put the rating on that film watched that movie closely and thought a movie about bunnies was "cute".



Ah the Magic Roundabout, I remember seeing that on Nick. It's shocking how much adult jokes managed to get on Nick. It should be noted that when it was imported into Britain, it got dubbed almost the same way as Samurai Pizza Cats.
 
Ah, Watership Down. Seems to be a real barometer for cultural differences - I often see Americans class it as an adult animation, but over here it once got voted one of the top 100 family films. Moral: British children like dead bunnies.

Well, anyway. We've made a number of worthwhile animated TV series besides Dangermouse and Duckula - some of my personal favourites are the Oliver Postgate/Peter Firmin filmogaphy (the surest evidence you'll ever need that great kids' TV doesn't need a massive budget), Rex the Runt (weird stuff from the creators of Wallace and Gromit) and Pond Life (basically King of the Hill meets Bridget Jones) - but the most noteworthy cartoons in Britain are far and away our short films. For more information read my lovely article here. Oh, and this one too.



Yes, we have
 
Bromwell High, a British/Canadian cartoon (it used a bit of Canadian slang, most importantly calling the school at which it's set a "public school"), is one of my favourite cartoons of all time. Brilliant, brilliant show - really funny and consistent.

Unfortunately, it's pushed back to late-night/early-morning hours on Teletoon. (Well, that might have been for the better, considering there were only 13 episodes made - you tended to see the same ones over and over.)
 
Oh man, Watership Down. I saw that in middle school and never fully recovered (my parents had to sign a waver before the teacher would even show it to us). It's messed up stuff!
 
Not to nitpick there Monkeyfunk but Roobarb & Custard Too was produced in Ireland by Monster animation and Design for five TV. Granted it's British in origin but it'd be debatable whether it would count as British animation if looked at from a purely production angle.
 
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