The Wombles (partially found cancelled CGI reboot of British children's TV series; 2013-2017)
The Wombles (cancelled CGI reboot) was going to be a rebooted CGI series based on the original series by Elisabeth Beresford and was going to be directed and produced by Mike Batt's Dramatico Productions.
Background
The reboot was announced in 2013[1] when Dramatico Productions bought the rights to the reboot at the time. Ray Winstone would've joined the voice cast with Bernard Cribbins; who previously narrated the original series, reprising the role as Great Uncle Bulgaria.[2] And it was also originally intended to air on Channel 5's preschool block "Milkshake" in 2015.
New toys were also made during the London Toy Fair 2015.[3]
But then a year after its original intending date, it ended up in development hell, until it over-ran the production budget and was eventually cancelled due to it. Mike Batt had filed for bankruptcy and left as director of Dramatico, and soon after that, the original recording label was completely closed because of it.
But those two episodes (Rocket Womble and Green Cake) however were screened at Cambridge Film Festival in 2016 earlier on before the cancellation of the reboot.[4]
Availability
Three years later, Mike Jupp, who was the storyboard lead and art director as the series was in production, uploaded the full "Rocket Womble" episode on YouTube in Feburary 7th 2020. He stated that the episode was 90% in near completion and that he's always proud of the episode's storyboard. Several months later, the full episode was eventually taken down by Mike Batt's Dramatico Productions due to copyright infringement despite being in good terms during the production of the show. Earlier on, the episode was reuploaded on the Internet Archive website a day after the YouTube upload and can still viewed down below on the website.
But as of now, the only things that ever resurfaced on the internet are the first episode, Rocket Womble, Ray Winstone's voice session on the reboot, the screenshots of episodes, and a couple of concept arts by Mike Jupp on his own website and Mike Batt on his own Twitter respectively.
Photo Gallery
Screenshots
Early development between 2013 to 2015
Concept Art
Mike Jupp
Character and Prop designs
Storyboards
Mike Batt (Twitter)
WABBA; a parody to a Swedish pop group; ABBA. They would've compete with the Wombles in "The Womblevision Song Contest" episode.
Miscellaneous
Video
Episodes
# | Episode Title | Intended Date | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Rocket Womble | October 24th 2016 (Cambridge Film Festival) | Found |
2 | Green Cake | October 24th 2016 (Cambridge Film Festival) | Lost |
3 | Super Womble | 2016 | Unaired (Only a storyboard for this episode can be found.) |
4 | Orinoco Kid | 2016 | Unaired (Only a storyboard for this episode can be found.) |
5 | The Womblevision Song Contest | 2016 | Unaired |
6 | An Unknown Christmas Episode | 2016-2017 | Unaired |
External Links
- The Wombles Wiki article on the CGI reboot. Retrieved 27 Jun '21
References
- ↑ Digital Spy article on the announcement of the reboot. Retrieved 27 Jun '21
- ↑ The Guardian article on how both Ray Winstone and Bernard Cribbins was going to join the voice cast for the CGI reboot. Retrieved 27 Jun '21
- ↑ Tidy Bag article on the new toys of The Wombles originally planned for 2015. Retrieved 27 Jun '21
- ↑ Another Tidy Bag article of how the two episodes were screened at the Cambridge Film Festival in 2016. Retrieved 27 Jun '21