Dec 13, 2016

The Curious Art of Mukpudi: Original Animated Series from New Zealand

When "The Barefoot Bandits" began airing on New Zealand television earlier this year, it was one of the few animated series produced in the country. Others, such as the adult-oriented "bro'Town," went off the air in 2009, and "Thunderbirds Are Go," of course, is based on an already established property.

"The Barefoot Bandits" is already in production for a second season by production company Mukpuddy Animation, with a third season and spin-off movie in the works.Cartoon Brew spoke with Mukpuddy director Ryan Cooper in Ryan Cooper, director of Mukpuddy, about the challenges of producing an animated children's series in New Zealand and setting up a studio to complete it.

For a taste of The Barefoot Bandits, watch a clip from the first season below.

The series is a spin-off from Mukpudi's 2012 one-off holiday TV special called Missing Christmas, set on Ngalo, a quiet island where many secrets are unraveled by a group of children who call themselves the Barefoot Bandits Mukpudi sells the film to the broadcaster. Mukpudi's pitch to the broadcaster was Kiwi's "The Goonies. The film was broadcast in prime time on TVNZ, a rarity for a New Zealand children's series.

"We entered a funding round for a children's series that doesn't usually air in prime time, but once we started providing scripts, they realized that it was a family show, not a toddler show, which we had always secretly wanted," Cooper said.

Mukpudi was able to produce the show with support from NZ on Air, the government's broadcast funding agency, but Mukpudi retains the rights to sell the show overseas; NZ on Air requires a percentage of the profits until the original budget is met, but requires that the show be shown outside New Zealand. There are no restrictions on where the program can be shown.

Mukpuddy began working on animated short projects in 2002 with just a handful of employees, but scaled up in 2015 for The Barefoot Bandits. Says Cooper, "The hardest part of expanding to a larger studio for a TV series was trying to maintain what makes Mukpuddy so special to us."

"There was a very improvisational nature to our work, which came from ridiculous time constraints. At one stage, two of us were producing the animation and the other was designing the characters and backgrounds, producing five minutes of animation a week. But so far it has been smooth sailing. I think that's because we trust the people we hired very much."

From Cooper, Tim Evans, and Alex Leighton, who owned Mukpuddy, the studio was augmented to 14 artists and produced 10 22-minute episodes for the first season, After Effects. Cooper explained, "It allowed us to add depth to certain scenes, focus, and add lighting where it was needed."

Production on the second season of Barefoot Bandit continues; Mukpuddy successfully pitched the series continuation in July 2015, when the first season was halfway through production. They received permission before the first episode aired.

"We also sued the staff we didn't want to let go of while we spent a year preparing for the second series," says Cooper.

Mukpudi is pursuing not only a third season, but also a movie based on the show, possibly featuring the space heroes that kids on the series see on TV. It also recently sold its first season to Channel 10 in Australia, and Cooper has said he is working on other sales internationally.

"We are greatly inspired by the beautiful work coming out of the Irish cartoon saloon," Cooper said, "and we hope to be able to create something intimate and special for us that will entertain viewers around the world.

Visit the official Barefoot Bandits website for more information.