The new year has started with a bang for Toonz Animation India. The Thiruvananthapuram based studio has landed up a host of new assignments. Amongst the new assignments is Willo the Wisp (26 episodes * 6 minutes each) a 2D series for UK based Willo TV.

The deal has been signed and the production work has begun last week. The series is to be delievered by November.

Speaking to Animation 'xpress, Toonz Animation India CEO P Jayakumar said that," Willo the Wisp’ is a great series to kickoff the New Year. Though we are working on a couple of big 3D and mixed media projects this year, we are also keen to tap our traditional artistry working on a 2D project. ‘Willo the Wisp’ gives us a good opportunity to showcase our skills, and I am happy we have already started production on the series.

Willo the Wisp is aimed at pre-school children but is expected to have an adult 'cult' audience in UK, as it was very popular when it first aired in 1980s .

Willo centres around a group of woodland characters, set in classic English beech woods: Arthur the caterpillar, Moog the dog, Carwash the cat, Mavis - an overweight fairy, the Beast - a hairy mythical character, Evil Edna - a discarded television witch, and Willo himself - a woodland spirit based on 'willo the wisp' which is a naturally occuring flame produced by marsh gas. Willo is the narrator

The animation producer for Willo, John Cary is currently supervising the production at Toonz. When asked by Animation 'xpress as to how he found working with an Indian studio, Cary replied, "Persoanlly I have used two studios in Spain, and worked on co-productions in Russia and Eastern Europe, and Toonz comes far and away above all these destinations for quality, reliability and dedication"

On being asked about the style and the look for the series , Cary stated,"We have chosen absolute classic drawn animation, as this was the style originally used - but in the new version, we will be using multiplane backgrounds, a greater variety of camera angles and sharper editing. The dialogue is all spoken by Willo - the narrator"

Willo the Wisp was originally produced by Nick Spargo in the UK in the 1980s, on classic cel painted animation. The narrator voice was Kenneth Williams, a very famous UK comic actor. Nick's daughter, Bobbie, has revived the show which is being commissioned by Disney Channel, UK for airing this autumn. The top production company is Willo TV Ltd, a joint venture between Spargo Productions and Elephant productions. The scripts are written by BAFTA award wining writer Jamie Rix, read by James Dreyfus directed by Bobbie Spargo and Mark Woods, produced by Sarah Muller, Carey Weitch and John Cary, edited by Darren Jones. Mark Woods, John Cary, and Darren Jones are contracted through Animoon plc to produce all the animation content, who in turn are sub-contracting to Toonz Animation India.

Besides Willo, there are quite a few other big projects lined up. The announcements about those projects and co production deals are to be made shortly.

Keep reading Animation 'xpress to be in the know!

- Anand Gurnani

Animation 'xpress is an Indiantelevision.com Publication

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