Whatever Happened to the Arthur Animation Cels?
One question I've always had was what happened to the hand painted animated cels from the show? I have tried to find the answer to this question for years but I have never found a definite answer. For this article I have compiled the most likely answers to the question to "Where could the Cels Be?"
In Storage at DHX Media
Currently, Cinar animation is under the name/branding of DHX. Cinar was originally an independent animation company from 1976 to 2004, until it was bought-out by Nelvana Animation founder Michael Hirsh and was re-named and re-branded as "Cookie Jar Media". Later in August 2012 it was purchased again by Vancouver animation studio DHX media. I would be assumed that through all these buyouts the cels would have been retained along the copyrights for the Arthur program which DHX currently retains from Cookie Jar.
In Private Collections
Another assumption to where they could be is in private collections, specifically in the ownership of previous animators of the show. Again there is no backing to this theory, but we can assume that after a show or episode was finished an animator would have been allowed to keep their work, again, this has not been confirmed.
Disposed of/Thrown Away
Currently, judging by the amount of times Cinar & the Arthur ownership was passed over could easily mean these were disposed during one of these transition periods. Sadly this is the most likely theory as the cels would not have been needed/desired by Cookie Jar or DHX at the time, or was disposed by employees who were un-aware of their significance. Again, this has not been confirmed.
My Search for the Cels
Through the past few weeks I have attempted to track down the cels. I attempted to get in touch with ever DHX/Cookie Jar contact I could find, and several previous animators from the show, sadly from all the contacts that I attempted to get in touch with, I did not get any responses at all. I'm at a bit of a dead end, but I'm hoping to stretch farther and see what comes up.
They are out there..... somewhere.
LINKS
Arthur on CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/parents/shows/view/arthur
DHX Media: http://www.dhxmedia.com/
Information about Cels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel
The answer is simple. There are no cels, because the show never used any. It has been entirely digitally animated since day one.
ReplyDeleteI worked as an artist on Arthur for several seasons, both at Cinar and later at Oasis Animation (for Cookie Jar). While the show is currently done digitally, it was indeed traditionally animated for many, many years.
ReplyDeleteBack sometime around 2008-2010, they decided to clear out some storage lockers. Several large boxes of original painted production background art were brought into the studio and was divided up among the staff. Most backgrounds came with a matching cel. I was told that while the background paintings were original production art used in the show, the accompanying cels were made after the fact as promotional art to be used in tv guides, magazine articles, etc. I took home about a dozen pieces, including a terrific panoramic cityscape for Dark Bunny, done in the style of the Batman animated series.
As for the location of production cels, I have no idea. There was surely more material than what came into the studio that day. What I saw was not full episodes of art, just several seasons' worth of promotional samples. For all I know, it may be overseas, where the actual animation was done.
Very interesting. What position did you work for arthur?
DeleteThe show used to use hand painted backgrounds. However, the foreground characters were always colored digitally.
DeleteThe Animation was NEVER done by cinar, DHX media or cookie jar. While they did make the storyboards, the animation for seasons 1 - 9 was done by an North Korean animation company called AKOM (You can see their name in the credits of those season). Seasons 1 - 3 and the original intro were animated by cels, seasons 4 - 11 were digitally painted. If Cinar or WGBH wanted cels for promotional purposes they would contact Akom (which they don't do very offen) which explains why jeff found few cels. Around 2008 or 2009 Animation duties were handed over to another overseas animations company called Hong Kong Limited who animates the show ENTIRELY digitally [which is why colors are so bright compared to the previous seasons] So Akom's rights to animating arthur were no more and thus the cels and outlines for seasons 1 - 3 and 4 - 11 were thown away. Some of The Cels from seasons 1 - 3 were given to the best working animators as a gift. In conclusion Unless you are one of the North Korean animators who worked on akom, chances of finding an Arthur animation Cel are VERY, VERY low. But One of the Animators who recieved a cel could put it up for auction in North Korea, which is even more unlikely now.
DeleteIn case you were wondering, Hong Kong Limited animated the show for seasons 12 - 15 (and the New Intro), Intil WGBH made the decision to have the show animated by 9 story, presumably because it was more cheaper for the show to be animated by flash in a studio closer to WGBH headquarters intil animation duties were changed AGAIN to Oasis Animation studios [Because of complaints by fans about the show animation looking "cheap and lazy")
DeleteLast Update, I forgot to mention that the backgrounds were returned to WGBH when Akom's animation rights were taken away from them also for promotional purposes.
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