Teddy Ruxpin Animators and War Films?

[Deleted]

I was watching The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin Episode 24, " The Secret of the Illiops" yesterday, and during the battle between the Airship and the Gutang airplanes, I started wondering if the animators or even Mr. Forsse and some of the writers of the series, were fans of old war films from the 1940s and 1950s.

The reason I began wondering this, is that in the episodes where Teddy and his friends fight the Gutangs in the air, it looks like an old style dogfight that you see in movies about WWII, and even in the Star Wars movies. Even the battle between the Airship and the Eclipse in "Captured" feels like two submarines dogging each other, mixed in with fights between pirate ships. So, I think that the creators of the show (maybe even of the whole Teddy Ruxpin franchise) were influenced by war movies and the old adventure movie serials from the '40s, that had pirates in them. What do you guys (and girls) think?

[Deleted]

I'm not sure that there is a way to find if that is true, but it's certainly a possibility. I don't think you have to be a fan of WWII (or even WWI) dogfights to know how to write a scene about a dogfight, but perhaps as far as execution goes, there's certainly a chance that the animators drew their inspiration for the fights from classic dogfights.

It's a known fact that George Lucas screened WWII dogfight footage for his SFX team (early Industrial Light and Magic) to use as inspiration for the dogfights in the origianl "Star Wars" (Episode IV: A New Hope). As I imagine the animators for Teddy Ruxpin were probably not old enough to remember adventure serials from the 40's or 50's, I tend to think it's more likely they drew their inspiration from films like "Star Wars" or even "Star Trek" rather than the serials that inspired them.

Just a thought. Love these discussions, though!

[Deleted]

That's a good thought. But, Mr. Forsse would be old enough to remember the old movie serials and WWI/WWII films. And he was involved in the story development for the episodes, so that's why I asked. Because the animators wouldn't know what they'd be animatin', until they had a script, and perhaps the scripts would give a good enough description for the animators to animate a scene in a specific way. Not to mention the books (The Missing Princess was the only story where the Gutangs appeared). But that is a good thought on the inspiration thing. Anyone else? I'm interested in what everyone thinks on this.

[Deleted]

You know, I never even thought about that, but those scenes definitely do have a twang of old adventure serials, and other tales derived from them in one way or another.

[Deleted]

Exactly. I'm a huge Star Trek and Star Wars fan, and the battle between the Airship and the Eclipse in "Captured" actually reminds me of the chase between the Enterprise and the Reliant in Star Trek II, as well as some of the space battles in the Star Wars novels. Though it is too bad that the last aerial battle between the Trio and the Gutangs happens in ep 25, "Through Tweeg's Fingers", after that, they face the Gutangs on the ground, or beneath King Nogburt's Castle.

I haven't gotten to that episode yet, I'm only on Episode 26, "Uncle Grubby", but just the Gutang episodes had that feel. Of course, with Teddy Ruxpin, especially the animated series, being a fantasy franchise, it does have the feel of old adventure serials, movies about knights, and war movies, sprinkled with a little bit of Science Fiction with some of Gimmick's inventions.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure how detailed a script for an animated television show gets. I'm also not sure how experienced anyone on the board is with screenwriting. We seem to have some budding authors sharing their fan fiction, so I'm assuming SOMEONE here besides me has dabbled in screenwriting of some form or other.

What I've learned in my VERY brief experience about writing a script is that the details are largely left out. Aside from key descriptions or actions that DIRECTLY affect the movement of the story, the script is mostly dialog and setting. If you're one of those privileged enough to be able to write AND direct your own film, you're given the freedom to specify shots, such as close-ups, zooms, or other shots, those these are largely used in some way to represent something in the story. For instance, a shot at the beginning of the film may be replicated at the end of the film to show how a character or situation has grown or changed. However, there must be a PURPOSE to the shot as far as narrative is concerned. You cannot simply throw in the idea of a shot because you think it's "cool" (that's the director's job.) It must have some narrative impact.

Of course, this all pertains to film in general, and I'm not sure how detailed the scripts for an animated series get, since they are generally shorter and much of the exposition (in contrast to the basics of storytelling) is done through dialog rather than the golden rule of "showing, not telling."

I would think that specific shots of sequences like the Gutang battle and such are conceived in storyboarding, though again, I'm not sure how extensive these processes are in an animated series (with a considerably accelerated production rate) as compared to a feature film.

Just some thoughts.

[Deleted]

I have no idea actually. I took a film studies course, and we were taught that scripts for live-action shows are as long as the episode, so a fifty-minute show (minus commercials) would be fifty pages. We weren't taught about animation at all.

Though, I'm pretty sure that for tv there's standards that all shows follow, whether they're animated or not. So, I'm assuming that an animated series, such as Teddy Ruxpin, would be between nineteen and twenty-one pages, as the show, without commercials, is nineteen to twenty-one minutes in length, depending on if it has a next time on the Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, and last time on the Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin segments.

Having said that, scripts for animated shows, most likely would have some details, just so the animators could create the storyboards, before going into full animation. That's my assumption.

But, back to the topic at hand. For certain episodes, a lot of the visual work would be finished for the main storyline, as the animators might take the book (if the episode is based on one of the books), and use it as a reference. Whereas, for the B-plot, and the expanded material would be new.

Take "Escape From the Treacherous Mountains". The aerial battle between the Airship and the Gutang flying machines, was probably adapted from the still images in "The Missing Princess" or the footage or storyboards made for "The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin" animatronic movie.

Like I said though, even if the animators and the story people weren't inspired by the old dog fights in WWI/WWII films, the aerial battles did remind me of them, because of the way the Gutang planes moved and the angles the scenes were animated at. But, in a way, the Teddy Ruxpin franchise, with the fantasy and adventure aspects, carries on the traditions started by the old movie serials, war films, and even the early Disney movies like Peter Pan and Snow White.

[TRO Admin]

There are a lot of elements of 1950's and 60's culture in Teddy Ruxpin as this is when the majority of the property was conceived. I see some loose similarities to Star Trek especially. War Films too in certain contexts, although most of that plotline was added by the TV writers. MAVO was meant to be much more slapstick than it ended up being. When Teddy returns we will see some slight changes in the subtext of the relationship between villains & good guys I believe, for the better.

[Deleted]

That's true. With most of the early concept work being done in the '50s and '60s, Mr. Forsse probably couldn't help but be influenced by what was popular back then in movies and on tv. I've also seen similarities between Teddy Ruxpin and Star Trek, such as the Gutangs being a stand-in for the Klingons, and, Teddy, Gimmick and Grubby forming the franchise's character trio, like Kirk, Spock and McCoy did for Star Trek in the '60s.

I don't know why I just started thinking about the similarities now. I guess it was just watching that particular episode of the Animated Series, with the Gutang planes flying around, and the Trio defending the king's castle, made me realize how much certain scenes in Teddy Ruxpin, resembled scenes from science fiction, fantasy, and adventure tv shows and movies of the past. I'm looking forward to Teddy's return for sure.