The Amazing Adventures of Morph

Last updated

The Amazing Adventures of Morph
Titlescreenforadventuresofmorph.png
Title screen
Genre
Created byAardman Animations
Directed by
Starring
Narrated by Tony Hart
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes26
Production
Producer Patrick Dowling
Running time5 minutes
Production company Aardman Animations (originally credited as Morph Ltd.)
Original release
Network BBC1
Release13 October 1980 (1980-10-13) 
18 May 1981 (1981-05-18)
Related

The Amazing Adventures of Morph is a British stop-motion clay animation television show created by Aardman Animations which ran from 1980 to 1981. It featured the character Morph and his cream-coloured best friend Chas.

Contents

Production

The character of Morph first appeared on the children's art-themed TV show Take Hart with Tony Hart in 1977. [1] This series served as a spin-off to Take Hart and a showcase for Morph. [2] The character had become so popular that the BBC commissioned 26 5-min episodes featuring the character. [3]

Characters

As well as Morph, his cream-coloured best friend Chas, and Tony Hart from previous appearances, the show incorporated various additional characters; Folly (a female tinfoil figure), Gillespie (large, blue and dim-witted), GrandMorph (an elderly grey-bearded version of Morph with a skateboard and a knack for inventing things), Delilah (a blonde female in a yellow dress and glasses who serves as a straight character) Nailbrush (a nailbrush dog), Gobbledygook (a green alien) and The Very Small Creatures. Early versions of Folly and Gillespie had previously made a brief appearance in Take Hart. [4] Tony Hart appears as himself narrating the book about their adventures happening at the same time and often interacts with the characters themselves.

Cast

Episodes

(Actual original episode titles and dates were sourced from Radio Times and BBC Genome)

#TitleOriginal airdate
1"The Beginning"13 October 1980 (1980-10-13)
Morph decides to write a book about his adventures using Grandmorph's newly brought word-processing machine.
2"The Day Nothing Happened"14 October 1980 (1980-10-14)
On a boring day, Morph tries to entertain himself by playing soccer and hide and seek with his friends.
3"Morph Plays Golf"15 October 1980 (1980-10-15)
Morph goes golfing with Grandmorph, but Chas, The Very Small Creatures, and Gillespie prank and sabotage Morph's attempts so Chas can win.
4"Morph's Birthday Party"16 October 1980 (1980-10-16)
Morph's friends secretly set up a surprise birthday party for Morph when he's not looking.
5"The Day Morph Was Ill"18 October 1980 (1980-10-18)
Morph is diagnosed with illness and they try to help him out - but end up getting tired out when he feels better, forcing Morph to tend to them!
6"Morph's Forgotten Dream"20 October 1980 (1980-10-20)
Morph has an amazing dream and tries to write about it, but by then, he cannot remember what it was.
7"Morph the Weakling"22 October 1980 (1980-10-22)
After learning that Delilah is stronger than them, Morph and Chas attempt to get fit.
8"The Dog Show"23 October 1980 (1980-10-23)
Morph is training Nailbrush for the dog show, but Chas decide to sabotage his plans.
9"The Two Mountaineers"24 October 1980 (1980-10-24)
Morph and Chas attempt to steal Tony's tea cake from a shelf while the latter is busy with the phone.
10"The Double Decker Boot"27 October 1980 (1980-10-27)
Morph buys a double-decker mobile boot home and moves out for a life on the road, only to find that the great outdoors isn't all it's bargained for.
11"The Cowboys"30 October 1980 (1980-10-30)
Morph plays a game of cowboys with Desperate Dan McChas, which ends with a tin of paint being spilled. Order is soon returned by Sheriff Grandmorph and his partner Nailbrush.
12"The Day Morph Went Ski-ing"31 October 1980 (1980-10-31)
It's been snowing under Tony's desk. Folly and Delilah build a snowman that the Very Small Creatures try to knock over, Chas and Grandmorph go sledging, Gillespie makes a giant snowball, and Morph goes skiing and gets lost.
13"The Abominable Snowman"3 November 1980 (1980-11-03)
It's still snowing outside and Grandmorph tells Morph and his friends about the Yeti. Next day, Morph and Chas find strange footprints in the snow...
14"The Invisible Morph"6 November 1980 (1980-11-06)
Morph is having difficulty metamorphosing, and ends up turning invisible.
15"Anyone for Cricket?"7 November 1980 (1980-11-07)
Morph and Chas are having a game of cricket, but their bat and ball are confiscated when they accidentally knock Grandmorph off his skateboard. The pair then devise ridiculous schemes to retrieve the lost items.
16"A Swimming Pool in the Garden"27 April 1981 (1981-04-27)
Morph is tending to his garden on a lovely hot day, while Chas helps from his deckchair. As Morph waters the garden, the water drips through under the table. Gillespie's investigations into the cause of the 'leak' result in the complete destruction of Morph's garden. But the others soon find a suitable replacement.
17"The Strange Visitor"28 April 1981 (1981-04-28)
Morph finds an odd-looking, "exceedingly ugly" stranger sleeping next to his box one morning. The stranger seems to like to eat everything, including Morph's leg. Then the visitor's mother turns up to thank Morph for looking after her offspring.
18"A Game of Chess"1 May 1981 (1981-05-01)
One day Tony is late and Morph has to tell the story for the program by himself, after he's finished his game of chess with Gillespie. Morph finds that he can't read the book so he makes up his own story. Unfortunately, Morph's stories aren't quite as realistic as Tony's, as they involve a lot of flying and dragon slaying.
19"Very Small Creature Green"6 May 1981 (1981-05-06)
Grandmorph has invented a hot-and-cold-running-soft-drinks-machine, and everyone is trying it out. The very small creatures are carrying lots of bits and pieces for the machine, but the green one gets left behind. Morph and Chas start ordering him about and making fun of him. Finally Green gets fed up with being left behind, and Morph tries teaching him how to "morphalise".
20"Grandmorph's Beard"7 May 1981 (1981-05-07)
Delilah is desperately searching for her lost glasses, while Gillespie is cutting Grandmorph's hair. When Delilah spots her glasses caught in Grandmorph's beard she spins in him the chair, causing Gillespie to accidentally cut the beard off. Grandmorph is the most upset he's ever been and he strops off to bed.
21"The Baby-Sitters"8 May 1981 (1981-05-08)
Folly is baby-sitting for a friend, but doesn't tell anyone about it. Morph and Chas's fighting causes the baby to start crying, and everyone has a go at calming him down. Morph decides that the best way would be to put on a show for him, so they all participate in the Circus Morph.
22"Morph Sticks With It"11 May 1981 (1981-05-11)
Morph finds one day that he can't open his box, and is puzzled by lots of pieces of paper lying around. He soon discovers that Chas has been playing around with the glue, but when the two start fighting they both have sticky problems.
23"Gobbledegook the Burglar"13 May 1981 (1981-05-13)
All sorts of odds-and-ends have been going missing from under the table, including Delilah's saw, Chas's cricket bat, Grandmorph's skateboard, and Morph's comic. Morph sets out to look for clues while Grandmorph sets up a burglar alarm, but the missing items may not have been stolen: they may have been eaten.
24"Grandmorph's Home Movies"14 May 1981 (1981-05-14)
Morph is embarrassed by Grandmorph’s screening of his home-movies, which include early footage of Morph as a tiny baby.
25"Morph & the Swoggle-Flange"15 May 1981 (1981-05-15)
Grandmorph is trying to fix the soft drink machine, but he’s lost the vital component – the Swoggle-Flange! Morph embarks on a search mission to find the lost Swoggle-flange using some homemade dowsing rods.
26"The Magic Wand"18 May 1981 (1981-05-18)
Morph and Chas have to look after Gobbledegook for the day, but it all goes wrong when Gobbledegook discovers a magic hat and wand. He starts making strange things appear, then turns Chas into a dog and can't seem to work out how to turn him back into Chas...

Online re-release

From 20 March to 2 October 2015, HD restored versions of all 26 episodes of the series had appeared on YouTube.

Critical reception

MSN UK said "It would be fantastic to see this show back on terrestrial TV - it was entertaining and original." [2]

Awards and nominations

YearNominee / workAwardResult
1981Patrick Dowling BAFTA TV Award for 'Harlequin' (Drama/Light Entertainment)Nominated [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stop motion</span> Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own

Stop motion is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. Any kind of object can thus be animated, but puppets with movable joints or plasticine figures are most commonly used. Puppets, models or clay figures built around an armature are used in model animation. Stop motion with live actors is often referred to as pixilation. Stop motion of flat materials such as paper, fabrics or photographs is usually called cutout animation.

<i>Tiny Toon Adventures</i> American animated television series

Tiny Toon Adventures is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It originally aired from September 14, 1990 to December 6, 1992, airing in syndication before eventually settling at Fox's Fox Kids block. It was the first animated series by Warner Bros. Animation to be produced in association with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. The show follows the adventures of a group of young cartoon characters who attend Acme Looniversity to become the next generation of characters from the Looney Tunes series.

<i>Batman: The Animated Series</i> American animated television series by DC Comics

Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated superhero television series based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. Developed by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, it originally aired on Fox Kids from September 5, 1992, to September 15, 1995, with a total of 85 episodes. Mid-way through the series' run, it was re-titled The Adventures of Batman & Robin.

<i>X-Men: The Animated Series</i> American animated superhero television series

X-Men: The Animated Series, also known as X-Men, is an animated superhero television series aired in the United States for five seasons from October 31, 1992, to September 20, 1997, on Fox's Fox Kids programming block. It was Marvel Comics' second attempt at an animated X-Men television series after the pilot X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men was not picked up. Set in the same fictional universe as Spider-Man (1994–1998), Earth-92131, it was followed by a revival, X-Men '97, which began airing on March 20, 2024, on Disney+ to critical acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Hart</span> English artist and TV presenter (1925–2009)

Norman Antony Hart was an English artist best known for his work in educating children in art through his role as a children's television presenter.

<i>Spider-Man</i> (1994 TV series) American animated television series

Spider-Man, also known as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, is an American superhero animated television series based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. The series aired on the Fox Kids Network from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998, for a total of five seasons comprising 65 episodes, and ran reruns on Toon Disney's Jetix block and on Disney XD. The series was produced by Marvel Films and animated by TMS-Kyokuichi.

Lilo & Stitch: The Series is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It premiered on September 20, 2003, on ABC as part of ABC Kids, with a delayed premiere on Disney Channel on October 12, 2003. The series ended on July 29, 2006, after airing 65 episodes in two seasons.

<i>Teen Titans</i> (TV series) American animated TV series

Teen Titans is an American animated superhero television series created by Glen Murakami and developed by Murakami, David Slack and Sam Register. Based on DC Comics's superhero team Teen Titans, it was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, and DC Comics. The show premiered on Cartoon Network on July 19, 2003; its first two seasons also aired on Kids' WB. Initially, only four seasons were planned, but the popularity of the series led to Cartoon Network ordering a fifth season. The final half-hour episode of the show, "Things Change", aired on January 16, 2006; it was later followed by a TV movie, Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, that premiered on September 15 the same year, serving as the series finale. A 15-minute episode titled "The Lost Episode" was released as part of an online promotional campaign by Post Consumer Brands in January 2005.

<i>Morph</i> (TV series) Claymation series (1977-present)

Morph is a British series of clay stop-motion comedy animations, named after the main character, who is a small terracotta-skinned plasticine man, who speaks an unintelligible language and lives on a tabletop, with his bedroom being a small wooden box. Morph was initially seen interacting with Tony Hart, beginning in 1977, on several of his British television programmes, notably Take Hart, Hartbeat and SMart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Lord</span> British animator

Peter Duncan Fraser Lord CBE is a British animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit. He also directed Chicken Run along with Nick Park from DreamWorks Animation, and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! from Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation which was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubber hose animation</span> Style defined by limbs that are simple curves

Rubber hose animation was the first animation style that became standardized in the American animation field. The defining feature is a curving motion that most animated objects possess, resembling the motion and physical properties of a rubber hose. While the style fell out of fashion by the mid-1930s, it has seen a renewed interest since the 2010s.

Ron Rubin is a Canadian voice actor and writer. His credits include X-Men: The Animated Series (Morph), The Avengers: United They Stand, C.O.P.S., Police Academy, Beetlejuice, Stickin' Around, Care Bears, Kratts' Creatures (Tark), and the English-language dub of Sailor Moon (Artemis).

<i>Cow and Chicken</i> American animated comedy television series created by David Feiss

Cow and Chicken is an American animated comedy television series created by David Feiss for Cartoon Network. It is the third of the network's Cartoon Cartoons. It follows the surreal adventures of two talking animal siblings, Cow and Chicken. They are often antagonized by the Red Guy, a cartoonish version of the Devil who poses as various characters to scam them.

The Future Is Wild is an animated adventure television series based on the Canadian 2002 joint Animal Planet/ORF (Austria) and ZDF (Germany) co-production The Future Is Wild, produced by Nelvana, IVL Animation and ST Electronics Pte Ltd. for Teletoon, in association with Discovery Kids and directed by Mike Fallows, with characters and creatures designed by Brett Jubinville. It is made in CGI animation.

Octonauts is an animated children's television series, produced by Chorion in series 1 and Silvergate Media starting from series 2 for the BBC channel CBeebies. It is based on the children's books written by Meomi, the design team of Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy.

<i>Wild Kratts</i> Childrens television series from PBS Kids

Wild Kratts is an educational children's television series that uses a hybrid of live action and animation. The series was created by the Kratt brothers, zoologists Chris and Martin, and produced by The Kratt Brothers Company and 9 Story Media Group, with it being presented by PBS Kids in the United States and TVOKids in Canada. The show's aim is to educate children about species, biology, zoology, and ecology, and how small actions can have a big impact. It has ties to the Kratts' previous shows, Kratts' Creatures and Zoboomafoo, and features several characters from the latter.

The Toothbrush Family is an Australian animated series featuring a group of anthropomorphic personal-care supplies. The series was first aired in 1997. The final episode aired in 1999.

The Morph Files is a 1996 British children's stop-motion animated comedy television series featuring Morph. The series was narrated by Neil Morrissey and produced by Aardman Animations. The series is a mix of new animation and old footage from former shows, and features the same cast from The Amazing Adventures of Morph as well as footage from that show. It was originally aired on the BBC in 1996 and was later aired on the ABC in Australia from 1 June 1998 to 13 June 2000, ATV World in Hong Kong, SABC 2 in South Africa and Channel 5 and Arts Central in Singapore as well as on military television on BFBS and SSVC Television in a number of countries such as Germany, Falkland Islands and Cyprus.

<i>Uncle Grandpa</i> American animated television series

Uncle Grandpa is an American animated television series created by Peter Browngardt for Cartoon Network that ran from September 2, 2013, to June 30, 2017. It is based on Browngardt's animated short of the same name from The Cartoonstitute. Uncle Grandpa is also a spin-off of Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which was in turn a spin-off of The Cartoonstitute short. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios.

References

  1. Sheridan, Simon (2004). The A-Z of Classic Children's Television: From Alberto Frog to Zebedee. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. pp. 38–41. ISBN   1903111277.
  2. 1 2 "1980s kids faves: The Amazing Adventures of Morph - Knightmare: ITV cult kids classic to be shown on YouTube". Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. Lenburg, J. (2006). Who's who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-winning and Legendary Animators. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. ISBN   9781617746604 . Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  4. "History".
  5. "The Amazing Adventures of Morph - Awards - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved 14 January 2014.