Aubrey
(1983)
producers:
D.P. Films animation: cel animation
episodes:
39 x 5mins
Aubrey is a round orange humanoid character
with a bulbous nose. He is
also an aspiring inventor. Aubrey creates devices,
contraptions and inventions
in his garden shed, which he uses to solve
his everyday problems. Sadly, his
ideas are somewhat mightier than his skills and
his poorly constructed designs
regularly let him down. But Aubrey is a tenacious
chap, which means he
often finds an even better use for his
broken endeavours, come the end of
each episode. Amongst other things, Aubrey builds
a boat, he plays with a
fire engine, puts his apple tree to good use
and accidentally discovers soap.
There's no narration, instead each calamity plays
out to the accompaniment
of a blomping synthesised music track...
Now, if you're thinking there's a Roobarb
vibe here, you'd be right. Series creator
Derek Phillips was concurrently working for Bob
Godfrey's Movie Emporium.
Indeed, he was the cameraman on Henry's
Cat.
Aubrey, Roobarb, and Henry actually share
many character traits. Each is
bursting with ideas and concepts, and each
of them finds that their enthusiasm
isn't always shared by the watching wildlife.
In addition, all three ultimately
fail because of a specific shortcoming.
Aubrey is let down by poor
draughtsmanship, whilst Roobarb is over-eager,
and Henry is just too
darned lazy to fulfill his potential!
»Trivia
Hounds will see that the Bob Godfrey connections continue with Stan
Hayward, who was
one of Aubrey's story advisors. Stan also wrote the "Henry's
Cat" series. He
and Aubrey's second story advisor Ted Rockley had worked
with Derek previously
on the 1978 short film called "When I'm Rich"...
»Derek
Phillips' later series include "Crazy Crow" from
1991, and "Little
Brrrm" which was
produced in 1994 (and shouldn't be confused with
Ragdoll's remote-controlled
car Brum...)
»By
the way, the keen-eyed viewer will soon note that Aubrey is not
alone.
There are other
paler-skinned Aubrey-types co-existing with normal humans
and animals in this
series. But as to the whys and wherefores of this, well,
that's never explained...
Aubrey
episodes
(partial list)
Aubrey's Garden
Aubrey's Boat
Aubrey Framed
Aubrey's Apple Tree
Aubrey Discovers Soap
Aubrey's Fire Engine
Aubrey and the Beanstalk
Aubrey
on DVD
Sadly, Aubrey's one DVD appearance
has been deleted, but here's
the link anyway, just in case a Third
Party Seller has it on offer:
Aubrey
Region
2 / six episodes / Contender
/ July 2004
made by Derek Phillips copyright D.P. Films
story advisors: Stan
Heyward,Ted Rockley painting: Nancy
Waller
On
the web
Little
Gems
The
Gems present us with two episode guides and plenty of
top-quality screen grabs...