#bobinogs

It's been a long time,

but I'm finally sharing this old art of mine.

This cartoon illustration depicts the band 'Keane' in a battle with the 3 main characters of the children's cartoon 'Bobinogs'. For those who are fortunate to have not heard of this show (and I don't blame you), Bobinogs was a Welsh cartoon that was aimed at small children; it was about this band that consisted of the same instruments as Keane. Each episode would have them tackle a certain social skill or topic, which would end with the band making a song about it.

The reason why I did such a satirical drawing was to illustrate my distaste for it. In the past, I've gone on record stating it to be one of the worst animated TV shows that I've ever seen. Now how could I be so brutal to what seems like an innocent cartoon, that you might even call subpar?

It certainly had a promising premise, but what got my goat about this series was that the execution squanders any potential it might've had. My problem with the plots is that they fall flat, they don't do anything to stand out from other kids' shows. It doesn't know how to harmonize the lessons with its storytelling. But rather, it hits these dumb cliches to pander to its target audience. Whatever concepts it uses don't have a sound basis. Not to mention that the stories are awfully formulaic.

There's also this recurring gag with the 'bobinoculars' that the characters use to observe whatever the episode is about. Which shows live-action footage of children with the Bobinog's commenting over it. Once again, my problem with this gag is that rather than have the characters go through the situation themselves; they use what is essentially a literal plot device. What should be a wrap-around segment shouldn't be part of the narrative. If you don't want to tell a linear story, fine; but this isn't how you allure any audience. The commentaries aren't even funny or likable.

As for the characters. Not only are the 3 main characters bland, but they come off as stupid. These 3 can make music, yet they have no idea about any basic social skills (then again, they're not good musicians anyway). Moronic characters are funny because of how they react to their settings and when there's someone sensible to work off from. The problem is that these 3 are daft in the same way; they don't have any contrasting personalities (not like Ed, Edd n Eddy). The supporting characters don't leave an impact either and are less-interesting archetypes. As a result, I couldn't care less about their struggles.

Visually, the animation quality is insipid even by the standards of Flash animation at the time. I'm sure they didn't master the application at the time, but still, the movements are minimalistic and the designs are bland and basic. The musical sequences are nothing remarkable or artistic. The same goes for the songs themselves, they're so generic, juvenile, and forgettable that I'd rather listen to bad pop music.

Is it any wonder that most people don't know about it? I understand this show was made for little kids, but that doesn't give the makers the excuse not to try. That's what irked me about Bobinogs, is that it thinks that kids will watch any inept Bobi-rubbish made with little care or effort. It has all the passion and soul of a below-average celebrity cartoon. If there's anything noteworthy about it, it showed me what not to do when writing for children. Any child who did see this probably grew out of it, but if you still find value in it; tell me how. The very existence of this cartoon and its inception is something only they and the creators know. Bottom line; this show's bad and it should feel bad.

Done in Watercolour and Ink

Made in 2012