Sunday 18 September 2011

TVC's Charley


Made by TVC in 1965, Charley (not to be confused with the other boy-and-cat cartoon called Charley) is one of those felt tip on paper shorts that used to be common before Flash came along. It takes place in the imagination of a boy, who transforms himself into a clown, an aeroplane and an explorer before running up against an angry hairy creature and a stern policeman.

Of special note is the soundtrack - all of the sound effects are made vocally by Noel Picarda, perfectly fitting in with the overall stream of consciousness aesthetic. It's almost as if you're hearing an animator mumbling and humming to himself as he draws the frames.

The film's credits list George Dunning, Jimmy Murakami, Alan Ball, Ron Wyatt, Alex Rayment and John Williams as its creators, but exactly who did what is not explained. Denis Gifford's filmography identifies Dunning as director and producer, Murakami, Wyatt and Ball as animators, Rayment as editor and Williams as camera operator. The BFI database, on the other hand, credits Murakami and Ball as co-directors and Dunning as producer, as does IMDB, which also lists Rayment as editor. Meanwhile, when the film was shown on Channel 4 in the nineties, it was identified simply as a George Dunning piece.





















1 comment:

  1. Well George Dunning certainly takes a fair share of credit for his time at TVC, but it is interesting how conflicting the credits of "the creators" have gotten given the sparse nature of it.

    ReplyDelete