Famous Fred

Last updated
Famous Fred
Directed by Joanna Quinn
Written byJoanna Quinn
Based onFred
by Posy Simmonds
Produced by John Coates
Catrin Unwin
Edited byJane Murrell
William Oswald
Music byDanny Chang
Production
company
TVC London
Distributed by Channel 4
Release date
  • 24 December 1996 (1996-12-24)(United Kingdom)
Running time
25 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Famous Fred is a 1996 British animated short film written and directed by Joanna Quinn. It is based on the children's book Fred by Posy Simmonds.

Contents

Plot

Fred, the pet cat of young siblings Sophie and Nick, has recently died. Word gets around in the street and the children and adults remember Fred, who took every opportunity to sleep. Together with their parents, Sophie and Nick bury Fred in the courtyard and paint him a simple gravestone.

At night, Sophie and Nick are woken by a noise outside their window. Upon sneaking downstairs, they find a neighbour's cat, Ginger, standing outside in a tailcoat and top hat, looking at his wristwatch. Sophie and Nick crawl out the house through the catflap and approach Ginger, who suddenly speaks to them in English and inquires whether they knew 'the deceased'. Realising he means Fred, Sophie and Nick explain they were Fred's owners. Ginger is delighted to learn they owned 'the most famous cat in the world', which confuses them. They then realise the whole courtyard is filled with cats and tomcats, who have gathered for a funeral service in honour of Fred. When the children explain that Fred couldn't possibly have been famous because he had literally done nothing, the cats reveal the truth: by night, Fred was a famous singer and rock star in the feline world.

Kenneth, the guinea pig of the two children, suddenly pushes himself through the catflap. In jeans and a leather jacket, he introduces himself to Sophie and Nick as Fred's former manager. After a cat named Ruby leads a gospel choir in performing a song in Fred's memory, the cats unveil a grand headstone over Fred's grave with the name FAMOUS FRED, before laying flowers and wreaths. Kenneth then gathers the children and cats to tell Fred's story.

Fred came to Sophie and Nick as a birthday present for the mother of the family. By chance, he was introduced to rock and roll after accidentally turning on a vinyl player and speakers in the living room, and secretly practised singing in the garden shed. Kenneth, who had recently left the Royal Opera House at the time, overheard him and decided to take over Fred's training. After being 'found' by Sophie and Nick's parents and adopted as a pet, Kenneth introduced himself to Fred (who initially tried to eat him) and offered to be his manager. At night, Kenneth made costumes for Fred and taught him to dance and perform. Soon Fred could perform in public and the crowd of feline fans grew continuously.

When the backyards were no longer enough for Fred's audience, they both left the family to go on a world tour, with Sophie and Nick desperately searching the streets to find their missing pets. Fred's dissolute lifestyle, however, increasingly caused diseases, reflected in ever higher veterinary bills. In the end, Fred fell ill with 'cat flu' and died shortly after returning to the family.

In the present, Sophie and Nick are saddened that they never heard Fred sing, with Kenneth blaming himself for Fred's death. Ginger reveals he made a secret recording of Fred's final song on tape (without Kenneth's permission), and the funeral service moves to Sophie's and Nick's house, where the children and cats dance to Fred's music and empty the fridge. When dawn falls, everyone disappears and Sophie and Nick are also sent to bed by Kenneth, who laboriously cleans the kitchen before retiring upstairs himself.

The next morning, Sophie and Nick's parents are left confused by the previously-filled refrigerator being suddenly empty, along with all the flowers from the garden plants missing. Leading them down the garden, the children reveal Fred's still-decorated headstone to their amazed and delighted parents, who assume they made it themselves. Sophie nods in agreement, with an initially confused Nick also deciding not to reveal the truth.

Meanwhile, Kenneth is sitting in his hutch upstairs listing the different cat lives that Fred had lost in various incidents over the years. He realises that the cat flu was only Fred's eighth consumed cat life. Since every cat has nine lives, Kenneth exclaims that Fred still has one life left, and calls out for his whereabouts.

In the garden, Fred appears from behind his headstone, and secretly creeps away with a smile.

Production

Famous Fred is based on Posy Simmonds's children's book Fred. The film was released on 24 December 1996 on Channel 4. Lenny Henry sings various songs in the film as Fred, including the title One Last Song composed by Danny Cheng and written by Rob Reed and Nigel Crowle.

Cast

RoleActors
Fred Lenny Henry
Kenneth Tom Courtenay
Ginger David Robb
SophieJessica Lynam
NickDaniel John Barker
Father Matthew Marsh
Mother Joanna Quinn

Awards

Famous Fred was nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation in 1997 and won the British Academy Children's Award for Animation the same year.

The film was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1998, but lost the award to Geri's Game .

Related Research Articles

<i>Top Hat</i> 1935 film by Mark Sandrich

Top Hat is a 1935 American musical screwball comedy film in which Fred Astaire plays an American tap dancer named Jerry Travers, who comes to London to star in a show produced by Horace Hardwick. He meets and attempts to impress Dale Tremont to win her affection. The film also features Eric Blore as Hardwick's valet Bates, Erik Rhodes as Alberto Beddini, a fashion designer and rival for Dale's affections, and Helen Broderick as Hardwick's long-suffering wife Madge.

<i>Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat</i> Childrens animated television series (2001-2002)

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, or simply Sagwa, is a children's animated television series based on the children's book The Chinese Siamese Cat, created by Amy Tan which aired on PBS Kids, co-produced by Canada-based animation studio CinéGroupe and Sesame Street creator Sesame Workshop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Posy Simmonds</span> British cartoonist, writer and illustrator

Rosemary Elizabeth "Posy" Simmonds MBE, FRSL is a British newspaper cartoonist, and writer and illustrator of both children's books and graphic novels. She is best known for her long association with The Guardian, for which she drew the series Gemma Bovery (2000) and Tamara Drewe (2005–06), both later published as books. Her style gently satirises the English middle classes and in particular those of a literary bent. Both Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drew feature a "doomed heroine", much in the style of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gothic romantic novel, to which they often allude, but with an ironic, modernist slant.

<i>Cats & Dogs</i> 2001 spy-comedy film directed by Lawrence Guterman

Cats & Dogs is a 2001 spy-comedy film directed by Lawrence Guterman and written by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. It stars Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins and Alexander Pollock, with the voices of Tobey Maguire, Alec Baldwin, Sean Hayes, Susan Sarandon, Charlton Heston, Jon Lovitz, Joe Pantoliano and Michael Clarke Duncan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris the Cat</span> Advertising mascot for cat food

Morris the Cat is the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials since the 1970s.

<i>Charmed Life</i> (novel) 1977 fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones

Charmed Life is a children's fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones published by Macmillan Children's Books in 1977. It was the first Chrestomanci book and it remains a recommended introduction to the series. Greenwillow Books published a US edition within the calendar year.

"Shiny Happy People" is the 18th episode of the fourth season of the American television series Angel. Written by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, and directed by Marita Grabiak, it was originally broadcast on April 9, 2003 on the WB network. As Cordelia lies in a coma following her demonic delivery, the rest of the gang becomes enchanted by her unexpected offspring - a full grown woman, whom Angel names Jasmine, who hypnotizes anyone she meets by mere sight. Jasmine tells the gang that she is a former higher being who wants the world clean of all evil. But when Fred has a sudden vision of Jasmine as something other than good, or human, she must find the root to Jasmine’s true nature on her own. The episode's title is derived from the R.E.M song of the same name.

<i>Eight Days of Luke</i> Book by Diana Wynne Jones

Eight Days of Luke is a children's fantasy novel written by Diana Wynne Jones published in 1975. It tells the tale of a neglected English boy who encounters what prove to be figures from Norse mythology.

<i>Kaun?</i> 1999 film by Ram Gopal Varma

Kaun? (transl. 'Who?') is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language psychological horror film directed by Ram Gopal Varma, written by Anurag Kashyap and starring Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpayee and Sushant Singh. It was shot in 15 days making it one the lowest recorded time to complete and wrap up shoot in Indian cinema history. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Yevaru?. The film was remade into Kannada as Shock (2010).

The Blue Peter pets are animals that regularly appear on the long-running BBC children's television series Blue Peter. For 27 years, when not on TV, these pets were often looked after by Blue Peter's long-standing pet keeper Edith Menezes, who died in 1994. The exceptions were the dogs Petra, Shep and Goldie, who lived with Peter Purves, John Noakes and Simon Groom, respectively, for which the three presenters were paid a stipend for their upkeep.

The Ugly Duckling and Me! is a 2006 animated film directed by Michael Hegner and Karsten Kiilerich. Intended for a family audience, it is a modern adaptation of the 1843 fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen. The Yorkshire Post described it as a "feel good" film for family audiences. The film follows over a rat named Ratso who strives to become a famous showman. His life changes when an egg falls out of its nest revealing an ugly duckling with brushy grey wings, and he is forced to becomes a father. It also won an award at the China International Cartoon and Digital Art Festival. The film initially premiered in Denmark on 6 April 2006.

<i>Olivia</i> (TV series) Animated TV series or program

Olivia is an American/British/Irish children's computer-animated comedy television series produced by media company Chorion and based on the late Ian Falconer's books. The series won a silver Parents' Choice Award for its positive storylines and characters. The series premiered in 26 January 2009, on the Nick Jr. Channel and aired episodes through 29 October 2015. It had 40 episodes.

<i>The Ginger Bread Boy</i> 1934 film

The Ginger Bread Boy is a 1934 animated short by Walter Lantz Productions and is among the many films of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. The story mentioned in the cartoon is based on "The Gingerbread Man", published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1875.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Bowen (author)</span> English author

James Anthony Bowen is an English author based in London. His memoirs A Street Cat Named Bob, The World According to Bob and A Gift from Bob, written with Garry Jenkins, were international best-sellers. A film based on the first two books was released in 2016 and a sequel was released in 2020. Bowen now dedicates his time to helping numerous charities that involve homelessness, literacy and animal welfare.

<i>About Time</i> (2013 film) Film by Richard Curtis

About Time is a 2013 romantic science fiction comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Curtis, and starring Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, and Bill Nighy.

<i>Thomasina, the Cat Who Thought She Was God</i> 1957 novel by Paul Gallico

Thomasina, the Cat Who Thought She Was God or Thomasina is a 1957 novel by Paul Gallico about a cat, owned by a child whose strict father must learn that love is powerful enough to help others. The book was adapted for the 1963 Disney film The Three Lives of Thomasina.

<i>Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost</i> 2018 American film

Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost is a 2018 American animated comedy mystery film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and the thirty-first entry in the direct-to-video series of Scooby-Doo films. It premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2018. The film was released digitally on August 28, 2018, and was released on DVD on September 11, 2018.

<i>Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids</i> 1996 short story collection by Jamie Rix

Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids is a 1996 children's black comedy horror book written by British author Jamie Rix. It is the third book in the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids series. It was published by Hodder Children's Books and was the last in the series to be published before the CITV cartoon adaptation, containing 16 short stories—one story more than the previous two books.

<i>More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids</i> Book full of short stories by Jamie Rix

More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is a 2001 children's horror short-story collection from Scholastic UK by British author Jamie Rix and is the fourth book in the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids book series. It was the first book to be written after the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids cartoon adaptation by ITV, which aired on CITV. It was also the last book in the original book series before it was retooled in 2007 as Grizzly Tales: Cautionary Tales for Lovers of Squeam!, and is the book with the most stories at twenty, whereas the first and second had fifteen, the third had sixteen, and the rest that would later follow had six.