Cyberchase "The Poddleville Case" (found test pilot of PBS Kids educational animated series; 1999)

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Matt, Jackie, and Inez in the Pilot's Portal sequence.

Status: Partially Found

The pilot of the 2002 Nelvana animated program Cyberchase originally was a 1999 Pilot made by Curious Pictures, known as the Poddleville Case. It was initially distributed privately in schools around May [1], then publicly premiered in August 1999 through September 1999 on NSF shows on KTCA. [2] The pilot was digitally edited, completely redubbed, slightly rescripted, and reused as Episode 7 for the final 2002 series.

History

For a long while, most information was speculation based on how radically different the animation for Season 1 Episode 7's, "The Poddleville Case" was compared to the rest of the series, in addition to the different Live Action Actor, Kareem Blackwell, compared to the rest of the series using Matt Wilson and Bianca DeCroat. Some recall Hacker not being voiced by Christopher Lloyd, while others think the pilot initially was called the Poddleville Caper, thought to air on March 2000[3]. This is false for the latter.

On May 20, 2018, One of the Pilot's Storyboard Cleanup Artists, Gino Patti, posted on his Instagram several camera shots of the Pilot, including the end Credits and VHS video track length. [4] Notably the credits feature far more developers of Curious Pictures, and a completely different cast of voice actors

In particular, voice actors Joanna Rhinehart and Thom Christopher both have confirmed their roles indirectly, with Joanna voicing Jackie in the pilot as noted on her portfolio[5], and Thom coincidentally voicing Hacker again in the PC Cyberchase games. [6]

As for the Live Segment, User SonikkuAorDatH has personally contacted Gino Patti about where the Live Action footage came from. His response was he didn't recall any Live Action scene.

The Pilot notably has the track length of 24:15. Final is only 22:30 for animation, with Over 3 and a half minutes for the Live Action segment, bringing to to a full 26 minutes. So the Live Action Segment most likely was made later, sometime in 2000.

On January 21, 2019, Wnet's Official Cyberchase Facebook account Released the original 3 minute Promo used for the pilot back in 1999. [7] Several users have noted differences for scenes, redone script, and completely redone dubbing compared to the Season 1 episode "Poddleville Case" that reused some footage.

Contents

Despite the Pilot being recycled for Episode 7, there are many differences;

Script

For the Mayor panicking over the missing Pods, several of his lines were changed. All references to eggs were changed to Pods, the "Five-sie" Poddle's line is sound mixed a little later, and the kids have added exclamations when chased by the Poddle Crowd.

Version Transcript
Pilot Mayor: No! Not Again! Hurry! We must do the official Poddleville Egg count, before we lose all our Cyber power!

Pod1: One, Two, Three, Four, all eggs accounted for

Pod2: One, Two...*gasp* Ah! no! They got our darling Three! Three has been stolen!

Pod3: Five-sie! Our fives gone!

(they see Jackie with one of the Eggs)

Jackie: Oh no!

Pod4: She took them, she has our eggs!

Jackie: No no, it's not what you think-

Mayor: Aliens. ALIENS have landed!

Pod background noise: (Angry crowd)||

Final Mayor: No Not Again! There's an alien in our midst! Find him before we lose power, and then get TWISTED into oblivion!

Pod: One, Two, Three, Four all Pods accounted for

Pod2: One, Two...*gasp* Oh! no! They got our darling Three! Three has been stolen!

Pod3: Five-sie! Our fives gone!

(they see Jackie with one of the Pods)

Jackie: Oh no!

Pod4: She took them, she has our Pods!

Jackie: No no, it's not what you think-

Mayor: Aliens. ALIENS have landed!

Pod background singular: Catch the Pod Poochers!||

In addition, Hacker's lines when walking off the chair were changed.

Version Transcript
Pilot Hacker: Now where was I? Oh yes!....Being wonderfully.. Evil....
Final Hacker: Now where was I? *Gasp* YES, Hahaha!....Being wonderfully awful

Visuals Despite all vocal audio being redubbed for a major change, there were also many scenes visually edited, either digitally masked, completely reanimated, or incorrectly transferred with artifacts.

Logos

Interestingly the Promo/Wnet Site used the Ice Age Font a couple years before the Blue Skys Studio Movie

A comparison of logos from the 3 minute promo and Site till Final. Note that the Pilot logo uses the same font as final, just differently stylized.

Hue Edits

Two scenes from the pilot in final had the Hue tweaked. This leads to inconsistencies of later reused scenes featuring orange colored objects.

Filter

The filter is a spotlit slant

Hacker scenes specifically in final have an added spotlight filter.

Masking

The masking artifacts on Jackie

Some scenes use the original animation, but then digital remove then restitch the characters on altered backgrounds, or other digitally masked effects. Here it was to add shadows.

Added Camera Movement

This causes us to not see the full frame in final

Before the characters get to their last frame of animation for the scene in final, it starts to rotate and zoom in for added effect.

Reanimation

CG galore in final
The characters look different in artstyle compared to the pilot once exiting the portal

The portal sequence in the Pilot used 2D animated shapes, with the outside portal looking more like a vortex. Final used CG shapes, no color cast, and the outside is a flat disc like other episodes. One thing to note is that final's sequence is roughly twice as long.

The Street view showing the scenery

In Final, Jackie incorrectly was made shorter than Inez, and both shading and perspective for the background was decreased heavily.

Brighter set

As noted, Hacker's scene is cut short in Final, also reanimated to keep the camera pan still, as in the Pilot it moves to reveal Buzz and Delete. This would have ruined continuity for the changed script and sequences.

Glass crash inversion

Besides being reanimated in a different angle, there's an invert effect for right when the villains crash through the glass. Potentially this is due to censorship, or just a way to make the crash more dramatic.

Everyone is miscolored
The egg was recolored

The crowd cheering in Final has a discrepancy. Right before that scene we see unaltered footage from the pilot of them all in the correct colors. So recoloring them for the reanimation creates an inconsistency. Besides that, there are numerous coloring errors for the eyes and some of the Poddles' hands. Flags went from Green Red Blue to just Blue, and since this scene wasn't meant to be zoomed in, the main character's low detail is shown final with the added zoom effect.

For the next scene, unlike the Pilot where everyone blinks at regular intervals, Matt is permanently stuck in a half lidded expression. The Podling's pupil also got bigger, the egg it's holding also got recolored, and the background is digitally redone.

External Links

Videos showing comparisons of footage from the Promo and Final, and note of Voice actors;

Theory of other digitally edited/reanimated scenes:

References