Tuesday 27 December 2011

Animation at Farnham

Grizzly Tales co producer, Simon Bor, writes about his time at art school in 1970s Farnham, for the University of the Creative Arts Alumni magazine  Here

Monday 19 December 2011

Honeycomb's Christmas Specials



After the huge ratings success of Wolves Witches & Giants series 1, ITV gave the series two Christmas Specials to follow series 2 and 3.  German co producers RTV then ordered a third special, not shown in the UK until the series was reacquired by CiTV a couple of years ago. Aladdin uses a previously aired episode with clips, new linking material and songs performed by Ed Welch.


1996  Cinderella   A Wolves Witches & Giants Special  first broadcast on ITV 1
1997  Snow White  A Wolves Witches & Giants Special  first broadcast on ITV 1
1999  Aladdin  A Wolves Witches & Giants Special first broadcast on Pro 7  (Germany)


2001  Lost in the Snow based on the book by Ian Beck first broadcast on ITV 1 Buy from Amazon



2004 A Grizzly New Year's Tale - The Crystal Eye  A Grizzly Tales Special first broadcast on ITV 1

2007 A Funky Christmas  A Funky Valley Special first broadcast on Channel 5

Thursday 15 December 2011

Read Bunny Boy for Free

Jamie Rix's Grizzly Tales story, Bunny Boy, is available to read for free  HERE or via his website. http://www.jamierix.com/


First published in the fourth Grizzly book, which had the inspired title of "More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids", Bunny Boy also featured in series four of the TV series. The full book is available to buy as a download   HERE or as an audio book download or CD, HERE

The cover, featuring another story from the book, "The People Potter", was designed by Simon & Sara Bor of Honeycomb Animation, a couple of years before the episode of the same name was made. They then went on to make sure that the image on the cover was compatible with the series.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Binka the Cat

Although Honeycomb Animation's pre school series Binka is no longer being shown on BBC channels, the series continues to run on S4C's preschool block, Cyw.

Completed in 2001, the Series originally ran on CBBC slots on  BBC 1 and 2 before moving to it's digital homes on BBC Choice and later Cbeebies.




Binca, as he is known in Wales, can be found HERE. English subtitles available

For more Binka trivia, go to binka.co.uk

Audio Go Download

Audio Go have added THE DREADED LURGIE to their collection of audio books by Jamie Rix Books. This one, available to down load HERE features, none other than the voice of Uncle Grizzly, Nigel Planer as reader.

Monday 12 December 2011

Christmas Grizzly Tales, and beyond

Grizzly Tales continues on NickToons for UK and Ireland in the run up to Christmas, at 10pm Monday to Saturday and 9pm on Sunday, as well as early morning broadcasts at 5am and 7.30 am.

Watch out for A Grizzly New Year's Tale, which should be broadcast between Christmas and New Year.


Beyond Grizzly Tales,


Funky Valley continues on Channel 5 at 9.10 on Sundays, with the complete series two still available at 5 on demand.

Wolves Witches and Giants is back on CiTV from at Christmas, with the specials being show at 3pm on Christmas Eve,  Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Wednesday 28th December has back to back Wolves Witches and Giants from 9.30am to 1pm.

Then from January 7th, the series returns to a regular slot at11.30 on Saturdays and Sundays

Saturday 3 December 2011

Smelly Farts on ABC 3 & Upset Stomachs on NickToons


Grizzly Tales - The Rise And ... Fall Of The Evil Guff

Childrens11 mins
abc36:20pm Sunday, December 04 2011
Bart Thumper refuses to eat vegetables. When his parents finally trick him into eating cauliflower he discovers that he has the smelliest farts in the world and uses them to pay back his poor parents.

While on NickToons in UK and Ireland, four more classic shows at 9pm Sunday 4th December including 

The Upset Stomach: 

Greedy Ethel wants an extra stomach to eat twice as much. But when she mistreats her pet stomach, it comes back for revenge and bites the hand that fed it.

Thursday 1 December 2011

Spike & Ed's early Wolves



Before the TV series of Wolves Witches & Giants, Ed Welch collaborated with Spike Milligan
on a Double Album of fairy tales of the same name.

This vinyl treat released in 1982, is still available from internet sites such as www.discogs.com

It features eight stories later re-recorded for series 1 of Wolves Witches & Giants

The Three Little Pigs
The Sleeping Beauty
Jack & The Beanstalk
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Little Red Riding Hood
Rapunzel
The Wolf & The Seven Kids
Hansel & Gretel





Wednesday 30 November 2011

Spike Milligan for Christmas


CiTV will be showing Wolves Witches & Giants between Christmas and New Year, including the specials.

The series was made by many of the personalities involved in Grizzly Tales, including music and words by Grizzly composer Ed Welch, Honeycomb Animation producers Simon & Sara Bor and Michael Forte's team at Carlton Television.

It features the voice and frequent ad-libs of comedy legend, Spike Milligan.

The series originally ran on ITV 1 from 1995 -9 and won the RTS Award for Children's Entertainment for 1995.

Toonhound article

NickToons Tonight


Four classic episodes of Grizzly Tales on NickToons at 10pm tonight. Including one of, Co Producer and Director, Sara Bor's favourite episode. "The Barber of Civil"   Sara's Grizzly Tales

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Spindleshanks safe . . . . . for now

Congratulations to "The Amazing World of Gumball" for winning the BAFTA for Animation. See here.
I'm looking forward to the re match at the Broadcast awards.
Spindleshanks will be happy.

Uncle Grizzly

Sunday 27 November 2011

Rot in Hot-Hell


I had a lovely little note from Faye yesterday, who is sad because she can't watch Grizzly Tales since it moved from CiTV to NickToons.

If you don't receive NickToons, you can find episodes on YOUTUBE, but beware, they are not there legally. Small children in bedrooms throughout the land are stealing my stories and letting other small children watch them for nothing.

Mr You Tube kindly removed the earliest examples of Grizzly theft, but as soon as one channel was shut down, six others appeared.

The only consolation I have, is that each copyright thieving little person, will eventually have to check in at the Hot-Hell Darkness .............. Forever.  I have a room waiting for you all.

You have been warned,

Love

Uncle Grizzly xxx

Saturday 26 November 2011

BAFTA Essentials No4

Black coffee and over the counter pain relief for the morning after the night before.

Friday 25 November 2011

ITV Global Entertainment Trailer

ITV Global Entertainment have a trailer to promote international sales of Grizzly Tales   HERE

NickToons this Weekend

On NickToons this weekend, episodes from Grizzly Tales series 7 & 8

9pm on Saturday
The Dragon Moth, The Long Face, The Kingdom of Wax & The Spelling Bee

9pm on Sunday
The Flat Pack Kid, The Blood Doctor, The Hair Fairies  and The Apostrophic Expositor

The Dragon Moth, Saturday 9pm  26th November NickToons (UK & Ireland)

BAFTA Essentials No 3

75% of Nominees don't get a BAFTA


Thursday 24 November 2011

A Grizzly Christmas Day on ABC3 Austrailia


7:30pm - Sunday, December 25 on ABC3    A Grizzly New Year's Tale - The Crystal Eye
During this Christmas special, Uncle Grizzly shows us a 'tale of terror' called The Crystal Eye, where a naughty boy is punished for being a very greedy brother.
Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill, a time for sharing and for families to unite. But not for Fick and Finn. They are identical twins, but could not be more un-alike! While Finn is the model of good behaviour, his identical brother Fick is greedy, unkind and just plain horrible to his brother and parents. He hates being a twin. He hates sharing anything with his brother and this causes untold problems at Christmas.
Fick goes to extreme lengths to make sure that he receives every present on offer while Finn gets none.

The Gruesome Headlines

A few Grizzly headlines from the past few days


UCA alumni nominated for Children's BAFTA



Broadcast  SFX  Digital Spy  also reveal the shortlist for the Broadcast awards


BAFTA Essentials No 2


Remember the tickets.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

BAFTA Essentials No1

The Children's BAFTA awards are held on Sunday night.

The boys get the chance of wearing a bow tie. (Though dress code is described as "Stylish", it has to be black tie for an awards dinner don't you think?)

Broadcast Awards Shortlist

Spindleshanks, the awardphobic araneae, is trembling this week.  First up is the Children's BAFTA Awards Ceremony on Sunday the 27th November, where Grizzly Tales has been nominated for Children's Animation Series.


Now comes the news that the show has been short-listed for Best Children's Programme at the Broadcast Awards.  Our eight legged friend may keep a low profile until it's all over. 






The winner will be announced at the awards dinner at The Grosvenor House Hotel on 2nd February. Grizzly is facing strong competition. The full list is...........



  • Grizzly Tales, Grizzly TV for Nickelodeon UK
  • Horrible Histories, Lion Television for CBBC
  • House of Anubis, Lime Productions for NickToons
  • The Amazing World of Gumball, Cartoon Network for Cartoon Network
  • The Itch of the Golden Nit, Aardman Animations for BBC2
  • The Sarah Jane Adventures, BBC Vision Productions for CBBC

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Who's your favourite British Animated Character

The British Animation Awards are asking for nominations for favourite British Animated characters. You can see the nominations to date HERE

You can send your nominations to febac@britishanimationawards.com

Monday 14 November 2011

Spindleshanks fears BAFTA

Following a life time of award abuse at the hands of Uncle Grizzly, Spindleshanks is fearful of Grizzly Tales's nomination for a BAFTA at this month's award ceremony for Animation series at the Children's BAFTAs.

"Previous awards have been heavy enough, but a BAFTA is such a weighty object, I won't be able to rest until I know the result on the 27th" said Spindleshanks. The octipede has had several narrow escapes before, this is the third nomination for Animation series at the BAFTA awards, Jamie Rix receiving a further three nominations for Writer of the series.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Award winner on NickToons tonight

The award winning Dr Moribundus is on at 10pm tonight, on NickToons for UK and Ireland


Featured on the cover of the third Grizzly book, Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids, the episode from the very first series, won best Network Programme from Royal Television Society, Devon and Cornwall Centre in 2000

Monday 7 November 2011

Ep 3 on ABC 3 20th November

ABC have announced the third episode in it,s run of Grizzly Tales

ABC3 Sunday November 20th, 6.20 pm

The Ugly Prince

About The Program
Spoilt Prince Spencer and his childhood sweetheart Princess Britney are pledged in marriage. But when Britney calls off the engagement because Spencer is so ugly, Spencer undertakes an ugly revenge with a thousand frogs.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

NickToons Brand New Grizzly Tales trailers




Watch out for brand new Grizzly Tales trailers running on NickToons in the UK and Ireland.

Monday 31 October 2011

Grizzly Tales comes to ABC 3 Australia November 6th

It's an early evening Sunday slot for the new Grizzly Tales series on Australia

Tinklebell starts on 6:20pm Sunday, November 06 2011
Followed by Sick To Death at 6:20pm Sunday, November 13 2011
 
Mrs Spew is a grass widow because her husband is away all week. Their daughter Victoria screams and screams till she's sick and gets what she wants. When a vacuum cleaner salesman turns up Mrs Spew can't believe it!

Sunday 30 October 2011

Grizzly Halloween Tales


Plenty of Grizzly Tales on NickToons for Halloween. (UK and Ireland)

Take advantage of the extra hour and watch 4 four new series episodes at 5am.

Then at 7.30, the first ever classic episodes with The New Nanny and Spaghetti Man

After school, there's two more new series episodes at 4.30

Then an hour of late night Grizzly Tales from 10 pm.

Monday 24 October 2011

BAFTA Children's Awards


The University of the Creative  Arts  have a news item about the Grizzly Tales nomination HERE.


British Academy Children's Awards

The 2011 British Academy Children's Awards will take place on Sunday 27 November.
Nominations  include Grizzly Tales for Animation.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

New DVDs

The Shock Records website has added covers for the new Australian DVD releases for 4th January 2012 including the new series 7 and 8. The price $Au14.95  (about £10) each series.

Previously available as 3 two disc sets, and later as a 6 disc box set, series 1-6 are now reissued as single DVD releases.  All DVDs feature 13 Grizzly Tales. Series 6 also includes the half hour special, "A Grizzly New Year's Tale"

As most Australian DVDs, the original releases were compatible with region 2 DVD players.







Tuesday 11 October 2011

Audio Go downloads

Following the launch of the new series on Nickelodeon, BBC label, Audio Go now have re issued the original four Grizzly Tales books as downloads

Andrew Sachs reads the first two complete and unabridged collections, Nigel Planer reads the third and the fourth book is read by Bill Wallis

the Audio Go  downloads are from £6.74

Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is also available as a 3 CD set for £12.99, while More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids runs to 4 CDs at £14.99


Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids



Ghostly Tales for Ghastly Kids



Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids



More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

Nigel Planer is The Third Man

Voice of Grizzly Tales, Nigel Planer is back with the Comic Strip in "The Hunt for Tony Blair" 14th October Channel 4



Nigel stars as third man, Peter Mandelson. Could he be typecast after his roles as Uncle Grizzly and The Night Night Porter?

Read about it here.

Monday 10 October 2011

Shock Release

The new series sees it's DVD  release in Australia and New Zealand next January, by Shock records on the Time Life label.

Currently listed release date is 4th January 2011 and at the moment, Series 7 and 8 are listed as separate releases.


Previous releases  are  Series 1-2, Series 3-4 and series 5-6 all available as 2DVD sets. A box set of all 6 DVDs was also released.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Monday 3 October 2011

New Grizzly Tales from today

It's welcome back to The Night Night Porter. NICKALIVE has details of the new series of Grizzly Tales, starting today.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

New series starts October

NickToons will begin to transmit episodes from Grizzly Tales series 8 in October.

First up is THE BLOOD DOCTOR

Vain Georgina, aka Gorgeous George, will do anything to become a beauty queen. Her parents seek to alter her nasty behaviour by asking the Blood Doctor to change her bad blood. 

Saturday 3 September 2011

Devon Open Studios is open


Grizzly Tales and Wolves Witches & Giants artwork are amongst the exhibits on show at Honeycomb Animation's  exhibition as part of  Devon Open Studios, for info see the  Mid Devon Artist's Trail


Also on display are paintings by Sara Bor


and prints by Simon Bor