Emmy Award-winning Sydney company SLR Productions has received a nod at one of the industry’s leading animation events for new show GASP!.
The East Sydney company, led by executive producer Suzanne Ryan, has been nominated in the 2011 International Animation Film Festival of Annecy for episode “Fish Stick” in the TV series category.
The episode sees the lead character – a thrill-seeking goldfish named Gasp – experimenting with mind control techniques while babysitting toddler Winston. Panic ensues when Gasp thinks he has turned him into a fish stick.
“I am thrilled for GASP! to be nominated for this prestigious award,” Ryan said in a statement.
“This nomination is a huge credit to our partners Canal +, Nine Network, ABC, Agogo and Moonscoop along with the show director and the creative team behind the series.
“The series has already won animal lover hearts internationally and is currently enjoying a great response in Australia on the Nine Network”.
The 52×11 minute series, based on a series of comic books by multiple-award winning Aussie author Terry Denton, is distributed globally by Moonscoop.
It currently airs Down Under, in France and in New Zealand and has been picked up for broadcast by TV3 Catalunya, RTP Portugal, Nickelodeon Israel, E-vision, MBC, Chutti TV India, and True Visions Thailand.
Moonscoop president Lionel Marty said the show – which follows the title character and his fellow pet mates who are left home alone when their owners have left for work, school or play – was a “one-of-a-kind series” that was perfect for the “energetic minds of 6-12 year-olds”.
The series currently airs on Channel Nine every Saturday at 11.30am.
For a full feature on children's TV, see the April/May issue of IF magazine.