Magic Round About

The original Magic Roundabout series was first produced by the BBC in the 1970's created for children each episode lasted around 5 minutes and was used for entertainment and educational purposes. It was a great success and not only did it appeal to children but attained a cult status and was even watched by adults due to its dry humour. The series was created with the pure intention of entertaining children and creating a feel good happy atmosphere, with a laid back reflective view on life. Due to when it was made the original episodes are heavily influenced by the 1960/70's era.

The programme featured a rather well of cast that were designed and made using real toys the animators would take a picture of a scene the toys would then be moved and another picture would be taken. From there a cartoon would be produced. Each 5 minute episode required an estimated 7500 pictures or 25 images per second.There were several resources needed in order to produce an episode, they would have to begin by designing and creating a set then they would simply need a camera, real toys and photographs.
The colours and characters are the main attraction of the programme with each character being an individual and different for example a sheep and a snail therefore they are quite contrasting. As the series was influenced by the 1960/70's era it is very bright and colourful therefore i can see how it would appeal to children and retain there attention. Also although again technology has become more advanced, the programme is very realistic and the movement between shots is not noticeable to the audience therefore flows well. The programme stands out in it's own right due to its contrast in charcters and how they are all able to live together in a fantasy world and the adventures they get up to. The weakness of the programme is that they only lasted a maximum of 5 minutes due to the time it took to produce one episode therefore its airing time was limited although it was shown on television everyday. Also in comparison to todays episodes the advance in technology is very obvious in terms of the natural flow and realism as it was still quite early in the development of stop motion animation therefore looking at it now the movement of the characters can be quite jerky.