By Frank Baker.
TV Cartoons Limited are better known by their initials TVC. Formed in the summer of 1957 by George Dunning and John Coates, like all small animation studios its earlier days were spent on TV. commercials, winning many prizes for advertising at international festivals, but time was also found to work on less commercial work. Two of these short films won British Academy Awards. George Dunning’s THE APPLE 1962 follows several fruitless attempts by a small man to obtain a solitary apple from the tree. He is led into various embarrassing situations, finally, when he least expects it, the apple falls, almost into his lap.
The second film INSECTS 1964 by Jimmy Murakami has a man concentrating
on his writing, when he is constantly plagued by a variety of insects. He engages in battle with them, but in the end he is overcome, and the invincible army of ants carries him off into the distance.
These successes led to the production of many animated documentary films and to producing animated titles for feature films such as A SHOT IN THE DARK and the famous multi-screen film CANADA IS MY PIANO made for the Canadian Pavilion at the Montreal “EXPO 67”.
In 1965 TVC made its first contact with the Beatles music when they were chosen along with other animation studios around the world to produce episodes for the American ABC TV series The Beatles, they helped to design and produce the larger part of the BEATLES SERIES which ran on ABC Television from 1965 to 1968. Bob Godfrey was one of the animators and directors on some of the episodes.
Most of this series was shown much later on British Television. Each episode had a story that led as quick as possible to a Beatles song.
DAY TRIPPER — The Beatles take a one—way trip to the moon.
STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER – The Beatles visit an orphanage where they try to put smiles on the faces of the unhappy occupants.
PENNY LANE — The Beatles take a stroll down a London street and encounter its colourful inhabitants.
Voices for the series – Paul Frees, (John and George) and our own Lance Percival as (Paul and Ringo).
