We talk to the team behind the creation of the new-look animated classic.
The James Bond of the mouse world is back. A staple of after-school television for a generation of children (including this writer), Danger Mouse was the eccentric British secret agent, voiced by David Jason, who was assisted in his adventures by his clumsy sidekick, Penfold. Plus he had an amazing theme tune.
With viewing figures reported to have hit highs of 21 million, it’s no surprise that news of the reboot by FremantleMedia Kids & Family Entertainment and CBBC was greeted with much acclaim. New footage was one of the highlights from this summer’s Comic-Con and social media is awash with praise for the new look.
The team behind it is Dublin-based Boulder Media, which boasts the likes of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and The Amazing World of Gumball among its previous projects.
“We were huge fans of the original show, and we had a really clear idea of what we would do with it,” says creative director, Robert Cullen. “I think the big change was the look of the overall show that we wanted to push – it was to bring this kind of live action, realistic photographic elements to it, but mixed with painted backgrounds as well. We wanted to make everything feel bigger, like a Hollywood blockbuster, but set against this lovely little relationship that the guys have.”
It all starts with a script, of course, and these will go through a number of drafts, with feedback given from Fremantle and the BBC. Robert explains: “My notes will be what I think is achievable in the 11 minutes that we have, plus the schedule and budget, but also how we can make things even bigger and cooler and make the action scenes more intense and comedy scenes funnier.”
Next step is the voice record over in Soho – this is where Alexander Armstrong and Kevin Eldon (the voices of DM and Penfold respectively), plus Stephen Fry, Richard Osman, Dave Lamb and Lena Headey among others breathe life into the characters.
“Once we get the radio play edit, then the proper pre-production stuff from our end starts,” says Robert. “Myself and the art directors will start coming up with ideas for locations, sketches and ideas for best place scenarios. It’s the first visual step of creating the show. The guys will probably spend about a week on this stage, mapping out all the action.”
Character design is also approved at this point and special ‘turnarounds’ made – which is basically the character from all different angles. The characters are rigged and scaled to help all the different animators who will work on the project stay ‘on model’ and make sure there is continuity between the scenes.
Robert continues: “Everything has to be signed off at every stage because otherwise you run the risk of getting retakes after the show has been finished.
Once the character and concept designs are approved, these are sent to the storyboard artist. I will send director’s notes and sketches for how I want the scene to play out and ideas for shots they could use. Some of the scripts can get quite complicated because there is a lot going on at the same time, and you want to make sure that it is really clear for the younger viewer.”
The board artist will take away all of this information, and what comes back is the show in comic book format, ready to be animated. Here, the storyboard sequences are combined with the audio track from Soho and the show really starts to take shape.
“This is the first step in finding the length of the show and finding the pacing of it,” explains Robert. “We start putting music and sound effects in at this stage, too, to help get the sense of timing and an idea of the ebb and flow of the show. We try and get it down to the ten-minute mark, decide if the gags are working or not, then send it off to Fremantle and BBC. All feedback goes back to the board artist and he does another pass which makes it cleaner. He will also add in the main locations and backgrounds at this point.”
It’s obvious from talking to Robert – and his colleagues Anne Tweedy (producer) and Louise Ni Chonchuir (production manager) – that he is completely invested in every tiny detail of the show. Indeed, when I was shown an episode – Planet of the Toilets – all three of them looked delighted throughout the whole 11 minutes.
“We wanted to make everything quite filmic – cinematic and big – and the guys have done an amazing job [on the locations, backgrounds, lighting],” Robert continues. “The production values are incredibly ambitious, and the scale and scope is super ambitious. Everything reacts to the camera in the same way as if it was live action.”
Once the animation and backgrounds have been approved, it goes to the compositing department to light the scenes, add shadows, depth of field and extra lighting to pull everything together, enhancing what’s already on the screen. The proper music and sound effects are added and then it’s off for final approvals.
Robert and his team have been tasked with 52 episodes in total, with 16 likely to be completed by the time this issue hits desks.
The challenge from the start has been how do you make the show better without losing the essence of the original – but from what I’ve seen this has certainly been achieved.
Robert concludes: “The scale and scope is much larger – this is a Danger Mouse sized world, whereas the original was based in a human world. This is the first time we’ve had total ownership of a show and it’s been an exciting journey.”
