You don’t get bored of a chase comedy if there is constant humour and variation added to the storyline. “Oggy and the Cockroaches can be placed in any situation and it can be fun. The storyline, situations and characterisation has humour engrossed in every series,” expressed Oggy and the Cockroaches, creator and director, Olivier Jean-Marie.
Enthralling the congregation at the Animation Masters Summit 2016 at Kerala with his phenomenal presentation of the pilot series of Oggy and the Cockroaches, Olivier explained how he went about creating episode after episode for this hit series right from 1998.
“I would watch Tom and Jerry which is a renowned chase comedy on a mute mode and would then write my script.” As far as the characters are concerned, he expressed, “I thought of a cat because I wanted to show a simple, comfort zone character and cockroaches because they are highly troublesome. So, Oggy represents each one of us with an easy simple life while, the troublesome cockroaches represent life as it is full of new problems.”
Creating the first Oggy and Cockroaches 2D episodic series in 1998, Olivier went on to create, script and direct around four seasons of the franchise. “With each season, I had to do something new as the producers demanded for variation. Therefore, in each season I tried to incorporate a new story like Oggy travels to some place, starts working, meets his love mate and so on.”
It wasn’t written initially with the view of creating a feature film” Olivier exclaimed as he had written few chunks of the series in the episode format. But, then he thought of compiling it together to make a movie out of it. Thus, Oggy and the Cockroaches The Movie was created in 2013 in a complete 2D format with the efforts of over 150 artists who worked for one and a half year to complete this feature.
“It was a silent feature with tremendous voice to express the characters and we created it in 2D entirely because that is how Oggy was in the series. We didn’t want to refrain from the original series for the essence would be lost.” The feature was created in Toon Boom Harmony; Photoshop and Maya was used for the modifications.
The series has travelled overseas and is aired in India by major broadcasters like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Well in India, the series has been modified a bit as trendy dialogues are added to enhance the humour to suit the target audience. “Honestly, I think using dialogues is useless as Oggy and the Cockroaches was created to be without dialogues But, if it works for a particular type of audience then well and good.“
In a silent series, voicing the background music and adding sound effects is the paramount factor. And, Olivier prefers to do it physically by voicing while scripting and creating the storyboard itself. “I like to express the emotions and reactions of characters myself and this adds life to the series.” Olivier led the congregation on an uproar as he voiced an entire 7 minute storyboard live from the podium.
Xilam and Gaumont Film Company have been producing these series, Olivier is currently working on the fifth season of the same. He added, “The fifth season will be out in the next two year probably and Oggy will be back with more variations and adventures with a modern touch to suit the current state of the audience.” And with the fifth season, there is a Mobile App, YouTube channel and Games around Oggy and Cockroaches in the pipeline to enforce and build the brand immensely on the digital front.
“All I intend to do with animation is – Have Fun,” concluded Olivier.