as good as always

While live-action producers in Ottawa are struggling into the fiction field, animation is another animal. Perhaps the long celville history of Ottawa – Crawley, Hinton – led MCA/Universal to link with Ottawa’s Lacewood Productions to bring the Creature from the Black Lagoon back to life via Monster Force.

In addition to producing two 13-episode series under license from Universal, the $5.4 million Monster and the $5.8 million Problem Child, Lacewood associate producer Chris Wightman says the company is just starting work on a 30-minute special based on the furry characters gracing kids Wedgewood crockery, Happy Birthday Bunnykins, destined for the CTV Television Network.

Also in the works is Kampung Boy, a special fueled by financial interest from Asia, which should be ready in January. And for tvontario, La Chaine and Family Channel/Canal Famille, 26 more episodes of Katie and Orbie are in preproduction.

The development slate includes Legends of the Land, a three-part special based on aboriginal stories for cbc. Patrick Granleese, who wrote The Woman Who Raised a Bear As Her Son, is writing the scripts. And with Family Channel as well as National Capital Television on board for the ride, Lacewood is developing Matthew and the Midnight Adventures, a new 13-episode primetime animated series based on the children’s picture book series by author Allen Morgan and artist Michael Martchenko.

Wightman attributes a lot of the creative force behind these projects to Monster Force producer Gerald Tripp, who is keeping the creative craft contributions local as well. Monster director is Chris Schouten and local scribes are writing the show. Edmund Eagan is composing the score for both mca-licensed series; Weldon Poapst is the Problem producer, Lee Williams is director. MM