Captain Pugwash

Pugwash is a cartoon from between 1957 and 1966, this is a remastered coloured version from 1974. I think this is for me, a key piece of animation in the history of animation in Britain. It's beauty is in the simplicity of hand crafted bits of card puppets. I think what makes it so interesting is that it's one of the first comics that was then comissioned by the BBC to be turned into a tv series, by puppeteer Gordon Murray, whose biggest success was Trumpton in !967 the childrens stop motion tv series. I however think that Captain Pugwash is much more beautiful because of it's simplicity. Generally there isn't a lot of motion the eyes roll, the mouthes move up and down and arms waggle, but there are no joints as such. The part that I am most interested in is the sea because the waves never break they just wobble up and down yet they still give the feeling of being on the sea. It is this key detai that I plan to take forward into my animation.

I think another key element that plays a massive part in the success of this tv show is the theme tune. The accordion song, The Trumpet Hornpipe goes back to the 19th century so it's origin is unknown but the fact that this tv show was able to take this song and make it it's own so that whenever it's played Captain Pugwash is immediately thought about says a lot about the success of the character design and association. I think these two elements play off each other and make it successful.