For its continent-wide launch this month, the new African children’s network ABC (Africa’s Best Channel) commissioned several pieces from Los Angeles independent animation studio Evil Cat Land.
Using both digital and traditional techniques, Evil Cat Land animated three sets of lively, fun, musical logos and network I.D.’s. One set involves an ABC logo designed by Evil Cat Land with the continent of Africa broken up into colorful geometric shapes. Another set involves hand drawn character animation starring brightly colored, friendly monsters. The third set features 3D character animation.
“I met Firdoze Bulbia, who eventually became one of ABC’s principals, in South Africa at the 5th World Summit on Media for Children back in 2007,” said Evil Cat Land founder Walter Santucci. “Her enthusiasm and sincerity was both inspiring and infectious, and when she told me about the new network earlier this year, I immediately leapt aboard.”
Seeing parallels between the birth of ABC and the early days of Sesame Street, Santucci was excited to have his company involved. “When ABC contacted me, I was in the middle of reading a book about the genesis of Sesame Street. The more I read, the more I found myself wishing I could have been a part of creating something like Sesame Workshop. Suddenly, Africa’s Best Channel gave me the chance.”
Ms. Bulbia added, ” We were humbled by Walter’s immediate response to assist ABC with animation logos and ID’s for the channel. We know Walter from our brief time together at the 5th World Summit on Media for Children when Walter also generously gave of his time and expertise to introduce animation to children in South Africa, particularly rural children who would have very little opportunities to participate in animation workshops. We have replaced our own crude animation ID with the ones that Walter has produced and the children (and adults!) absolutely love them. We cannot thank Walter enough for his commitment to assisting ABC build a brand that offers quality to media for African children.”
ABC is also including two of Evil Cat Land’s short films in its programming. One of these films, “Pachelbel Kanon” has already been seen on PBS, Australian television and Italian television and is currently being distributed to art house cinemas across the US and Canada as an opening featurette.
Evil Cat Land’s music branch, The Detroit Illharmonic Symphony, is providing music for all of the animation.
For more information on Evil Cat Land, please visit: http://(www.evilcatland.com).
To view some of the ABC spots, please visit:
<a href="http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCmonster.mov”>http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCmonster.mov
<a href="http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCmoon.mov”>http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCmoon.mov
<a href="http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCshapes01.mov”>http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCshapes01.mov
<a href="http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCshapes02.mov”>http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCshapes02.mov
<a href="http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCshapes03.mov”>http://(www.evilcatland.com)/ABCshapes03.mov
To see “Pachelbel Kanon”, please visit: <a href="http://(www.evilcatland.com)/kfin002.mov”>http://(www.evilcatland.com)/kfin002.mov
About Evil Cat Land
Evil Cat Land ((www.evilcatland.com)) is a team of animation directors made up of Layron DeJarnette, Walter Santucci, Seth Strong and Dr. Clarpupia Hernandez. The studio got its start when Monty Python’s Graham Chapman introduced their animated character “The Evil Cat” to the world on his Cinemax series The Dangerous Film Club. Since then, they have been making award winning, critically acclaimed shorts, commercials, TV shows, movie titles and music videos that have been seen all over the world, working with such companies as Disney, ABC, McDonald’s, Ogilvy & Mather, Chiat/Day, McCann/Ericsson, Noggin, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., Duck Studios, Marvel Comics, Lionsgate Films, Fox, the B-52s, Ice Cube, Ice T, Cedric the Entertainer, Spike TV, Klasky Csupo and many others.
