that these songs from Hallo aus Berlin (aka Rolli and Rita songs) ARE IN FULL UNCUT CLEAN VERSION ON YT?? :D

I found out just now. I AM EXCITED HONESTLY. It's a completely different experience to hear it in better version than this from VHS (also on yt), FINALLY I CAN HEAR FULL EINMAL EIS BITTE WITHOUT CORRUPTION AT THE END. It sounds as I imagined, even better! They even published instrumentals! AFTER ALMOST 30 YEARS.

The Bad Guys 2 got me thinking of characters I'd love to see in their universe and one that came to mind was the Rook King, from an obscure cartoon called "The Magic Key" based on the Oxford Reading Tree's "Biff and Chip" series. When I was a small child, for some reason I thought he was the most badass villain imaginable, likely owing to his cool anthro design, magical abilities and imposing presence. He was up there with Cruella De Ville and the Mouse King from the Nutcracker, in my young mind's eye.

I can't help wondering what antics he'd get up to. Would some of the characters help him get his magic back? Would he and his rooks become more ambitious in their life of crime? Would he become a major threat to humanity in general? The possibilities in this universe are endless. It's almost a shame that he was in reality confined to being a mere villain of the week in a forgotten edutainment series. My child self would agree that he deserves to be a more formidable and important antagonist! 😈

This 18-minute British Sleeping Beauty hails from the BBC School program Music Time, which was produced on-and-off from 1970 until 1991 to bring music education to children. In keeping with the aim of the show, it's more an adaptation of Tchaikovsky's ballet than of the original fairy tale, and its soundtrack features even more of Tchaikovsky's music than the Disney film does. The music is further emphasized by the lack of any spoken dialogue, although there is voiceover narration by Helen Spiers.

Despite ostensibly being based on the ballet, this short incorporates some details from the original tale and some unique ideas too. It opens with the Prince on a hunting trip, pursuing a stag into the briars that surround Princess Aurora's castle. In front of the castle, he finds a large book sitting on a marble pedestal, and opens it to find that it contains the story of the Sleeping Beauty: thus we go a hundred years back in time to see what happened.

When Princess Aurora is born, her parents send messenger pigeons to deliver all the invitations to her christening, including to the kingdom's four fairies. But one pigeon accidentally drops the invitation meant for the fairy Carabosse, so she never receives it. Although it's hard to imagine that she wouldn't have caused trouble anyway: in sharp contrast to the three lovely, ethereal good fairies, she's a blatantly evil-looking, ugly fairy with a bald head, an eyepatch, and long black fingernails, always accompanied by tiny green devils. As in Tchaikovsky's ballet, it's the Lilac Fairy who softens Carabosse's curse from death to sleep, and sixteen years later, as in the ballet, it's amidst Aurora's grand birthday feast that the curse comes to pass. But the details of how it happens are slightly different: here, Aurora plays hide-and-seek with other young ladies as a party game, creeps into an old tower to hide, and there finds Carabosse disguised as an old woman with a spinning wheel. The Lilac Fairy then arrives to magically transport the sleeping Aurora to her bed, to put everyone else to sleep too, and to surround the castle with protective briars. This is where the story ends in the book the Prince reads, with the statement that only a prince brave enough to fight and defeat Carabosse will wake the princess.

The Prince chops through the briars with his sword, then finds Carabosse waiting for him. They duel at the top of the tower, the Prince's sword against Carabosse's magic staff, until finally the Prince flings the staff over the tower parapet, and powerless without it, Carabosse promptly falls from said parapet to her death. The Prince then finds Aurora and kisses her. As the young lovers stroll together in the moonlight, the briars sprout white roses, the rest of the court awakens, and fireworks light the sky in jubilation.

The stop-motion figures are simple and doll-like yet charming, and the Rococo-inspired sets and costumes pair well with the beauty of Tchaikovsky's music. While I certainly wouldn't call this an essential version of Sleeping Beauty, it's enjoyable all the same, and it probably served as a good introduction to Tchaikovsky for British children in 1979. If you enjoy both Tchaikovsky and the art of stop-motion animation, I recommend it.

A daft idea whilst drawing the Dynamo piece the other day.

A little trip back in time to 1979, because I didn't know this version existed until now. A stop-motion animated short based on Tchaikovsky's ballet, from the BBC children's series Music Time.

Drawing more things in an attempt to cheer myself up.