Morph (animation)
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Morph is a British series of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
stop-motion
comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
animations, named after the main character, who is a small
Plasticine Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product category ...
man, who speaks an unintelligible language and lives on a tabletop, his bedroom being a small wooden box. The character was initially seen interacting with
Tony Hart Norman Antony Hart (15 October 1925 – 18 January 2009),Debrett's People of Today 2008, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2007. known professionally as Tony Hart, was an English artist best known for his work in educating children in art through his role ...
, beginning in 1977, on several of his British television programmes, notably ''
Take Hart ''Take Hart'' is a British children's television programme about art, presented by Tony Hart. It took over from ''Vision On'', and ran from 1977 until 1983. The programme featured Hart and the animated Plasticine character Morph, and other cha ...
'' and '' Hartbeat''.


History

Morph was produced for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
by
Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay ani ...
, later famous for the " Sledgehammer" music video,
Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...
, and
Shaun the Sheep ''Shaun the Sheep'' is a British stop-motion television series and a spin-off of the '' Wallace and Gromit'' franchise. The title character is Shaun (previously featured as the sheep named "Shaun" in the 1995 short film '' A Close Shave'' and t ...
. Morph appears mainly in one-minute "shorts" interspersed throughout the ''
Take Hart ''Take Hart'' is a British children's television programme about art, presented by Tony Hart. It took over from ''Vision On'', and ran from 1977 until 1983. The programme featured Hart and the animated Plasticine character Morph, and other cha ...
'' show. These are connected to the main show by having Hart deliver a line or two to Morph, who replies in
gobbledygook Gibberish, also called jibber-jabber or gobbledygook, is speech that is (or appears to be) nonsense. It may include speech sounds that are not actual words, pseudowords, or language games and specialized jargon that seems nonsensical to outside ...
but with meaningful gestures. Later on, Morph is joined by cream-coloured Chas, who is much more troublesome and mischievous. Morph can change shape. He becomes spheres in order to move around and extrudes into cylinders to pass to different levels of his environment. He can also mimic other objects or creatures. Morph lives in a wooden microscope box on an artist's desk. He and Chas both love to eat cake, as seen in many of the shorts. Most appearances of Morph revolve around his friendship and rivalry with Chas, with each often playing tricks on the other and laughing at each other's misfortune. While Morph's nature is that of an innocent, curious character, Chas is much more mischievous and prone to bad behaviour. After Hart's shows ended, Morph and Chas appeared in shorts on the
Children's BBC BBC Children's and Education is the BBC division responsible for media content for children in the UK. Since the launch of specially dedicated television channels in 2002, the services have been marketed under two brands. CBBC (short for Chi ...
's successor programme ''
SMart Smart or SMART may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014 * Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com * ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper * '' SMart'', a children's television se ...
'' from 1994 onwards. Some of the early plasticine models of Morph were destroyed in a fire at the warehouse where they were being stored on 10 October 2005. Morph's 30th birthday was celebrated in 2007 by creator
Peter Lord Peter Lord CBE (born 1953) is an English animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring p ...
and celebrity fan and comedian Phill Jupitus at events for the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol. In March 2009, shortly after Hart's death, a flashmob of Morph characters was organised in London outside the
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
art gallery. In 2009, the BBC drama '' Ashes to Ashes'' featured Morph in a guest appearance as a representation of a present-day medic.} Morph was used to give a comic feeling despite a very serious situation in episode 3 of the second series. The character was pictured in an episode of ''
Take Hart ''Take Hart'' is a British children's television programme about art, presented by Tony Hart. It took over from ''Vision On'', and ran from 1977 until 1983. The programme featured Hart and the animated Plasticine character Morph, and other cha ...
''; however, Morph appeared on the television after it was turned off, separating it from the context of the ''Take Hart'' episode. On 29 October 2013,
Peter Lord Peter Lord CBE (born 1953) is an English animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring p ...
(co-founder of
Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay ani ...
), created a fundraising project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The campaign set a target of £75,000 to be used to fund 12 new one-minute episodes. The target was reached on 6 November 2013 after only nine days, attracting contributions from over 1,700 backers, who received a variety of rewards, including early access to the new animations and a small box of clay used in the production, depending on the individual's level of funding. In January 2014, Peter Lord and Aardman began production on 15 new episodes featuring Morph. The new series premiered on Morph's official
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
channel with 15 episodes from 4 July 2014 to 30 January 2015. In 2015, a Morph experience opened at
Land's End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
. The Land's End signpost was rebranded "Lamb's End" with original sets, models, and characters from a range of Aardman productions. Visitors were also able to star in a real Shaun the Sheep scene, using green screen technology, and meet other characters from the Aardman family, including Shaun the Sheep and Wallace & Gromit. Released between 20 March and 2 October 2015, HD-restored versions of ''
The Amazing Adventures of Morph ''The Amazing Adventures of Morph'' is a British stop-motion clay animation television show created by Aardman Animations which ran from 1980 to 1981. It featured the character Morph and his cream-coloured best friend Chas. Production The ch ...
'' appeared on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
; and in the summer of 2015, Morph returned to TV on
CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
with the 15 new episodes. From 6 November 2015 to 7 January 2016, ''The Lost Tapes'' from 2001 were revealed having been redubbed and remastered on
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. In March 2016, it was announced that
Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...
had made a deal with Aardman Animations to produce new Morph material to be directed at its child audience. From 6 May 2016 to 15 September 2017, all clips captured from ''
Take Hart ''Take Hart'' is a British children's television programme about art, presented by Tony Hart. It took over from ''Vision On'', and ran from 1977 until 1983. The programme featured Hart and the animated Plasticine character Morph, and other cha ...
'' were revealed on the Morph YouTube channel. In August 2017, new Morph merchandise was shown at Wallace & Gromit's Charity Shop. Between 2 March and 14 September 2018, 15 more episodes of the new Morph series that were previously shown on Sky Kids were shown on YouTube. From 15 February to 17 May 2019, all 13 episodes of ''
The Morph Files ''The Morph Files'' is a 1996 British children's stop-motion animated comedy television series featuring Morph. The series was narrated by Neil Morrissey and produced by Aardman Animations. The series is a mix of new animation and old footag ...
'' that were remastered into HD were released on YouTube. In May 2019, Morph and Chas appeared in an advert for
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
as part of the company's centenary celebrations, which also featured celebrities
Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a Welsh-born television and radio presenter, broadcaster, journalist and painter. Early life and education Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wale ...
and Derrick Evans (the latter more commonly known as Mr. Motivator). On 9 November 2020, the new Morph series, ''The Epic Adventures of Morph'', appeared and began to stream on Sky Kids. The series features Morph, Chas, and two old characters—Delilah and GrandMorph—who were brought back to add more life to the show. There is also a very small cameo from Gillespie, who is another character from ''The Morph Files'' and ''The Amazing Adventures of Morph'' that was revived for the series.


Films, shorts, and TV series


Series overview


Original episodes (2006, 2013–2015)

The original 44 episodes of Morph were originally produced on the Aardman website back in 2006, and were re-used on Aardman's YouTube channel by around September 2008 until 2010, and Morph's YouTube channel from 4 November 2013 until 23 October 2015. The original episodes uses the same clips originally used from Take Hart, Hartbeat, SMart and The Morph Files.


Series 1: 2014–2015

The first series of the then-named Brand New Morph was released on YouTube from 4 July 2014 to 30 January 2015 with a Red Nose Day special being released on 6 March. The first series was also aired on CBBC throughout the summer of 2015.


Series 2: 2018

The 2nd series of Brand New Morph was released to YouTube from 2 March 2018 until 14 September 2018, it is the first series being produced for Sky Kids, which streamed the first 2 series of Morph on Sky TV.


Series 3: 2021

The third series of Brand New Morph made its way to YouTube on 12 February 2021 until 31 December 2021, with the episodes taking place during some special events that occurred during the year. All of the episodes were produced during production for the 2nd series in 2018, 3 years before it was officially shown in 2021.


Series 4: 2022

The fourth series of Brand New Morph (now titled: 'The Epic Adventures of Morph) made its way to YouTube on 1 April 2022 until 8 July 2022, with the episodes' running time now extended to five minutes. Delilah and Grandmorph made their return to the series as main characters also. The Very Small Creatures still appeared from time to time and Gillespie made a cameo in 'Beanstalk.' All of the episodes were produced in 2020, 2 years before it was officially shown in 2022.


Characters


Main

*Morph – The protagonist with terracotta skin. He is a clay figure who can transform into many things. He is very clever, curious and creative, and has a good sense of humour. *Chas – Morph's white-skinned best friend. He is amoral, narcissistic, and dimwitted but has a good friendship with Morph, although this doesn’t stop him playing tricks on him at times. Chas was originally named Stu. *Nailbrush – Morph's 'canine' companion, a barking, male nailbrush. He is very loyal to Morph, although he sometimes gets him into trouble.


Supporting

*Grandmorph – Morph's elderly, bearded grandfather, who travels by skateboard and frequently invents things. Although wise and kind-hearted, Grandmorph is very strict, and often punishes Morph and Chas when they misbehave. *Delilah – A bossy, bespectacled female character in a yellow dress with dark brownish-purple skin. She has a good relationship with Morph. *Folly – A scatter-brained girl made of tin-foil. *Gillespie – A large, blue friend of Morph's. He is very clueless and silly but is peaceable and often meditates. *The Very Small Creatures – An array of small plasticine balls with eyes who travel in a swarm; the smallest of the group, Little Green, features prominently on his own in a number of episodes. *Gobbledygook – A green, omnivorous alien child (who arrived on the table by sleeping near Morph's box in ''
The Amazing Adventures of Morph ''The Amazing Adventures of Morph'' is a British stop-motion clay animation television show created by Aardman Animations which ran from 1980 to 1981. It featured the character Morph and his cream-coloured best friend Chas. Production The ch ...
'', but in ''
The Morph Files ''The Morph Files'' is a 1996 British children's stop-motion animated comedy television series featuring Morph. The series was narrated by Neil Morrissey and produced by Aardman Animations. The series is a mix of new animation and old footag ...
'', he arrived by mistakenly being printed from a 'Space Invaders' style game). *The Paint Pots – A group of sentient paint pots who can morph their paint into facsimiles of people; unlike Morph and Chas, they are able to speak coherently (one of them even chides Morph for his non-existent linguistic skills on multiple occasions); they only appear in ''Take Hart''. *Luxo the Lamp – A
Luxo Luxo ASA is a Norwegian manufacturer of lamps. Based in Oslo, it has sales throughout Europe and North America, with production plants in Norway, Sweden and Keila, Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by th ...
lamp who warns the others when Tony is entering the room; like the Paint Pots, it only appears in ''Take Hart'', but later reappeared in a 2018 short in a silent role more akin to Luxo Jr.


See also

*
Gumby ''Gumby'' is an American clay animation franchise, centered on the titular green clay humanoid character created and modeled by Art Clokey. Gumby stars in two television series, the feature-length '' Gumby: The Movie'', and other media. He im ...
*''
Davey and Goliath ''Davey and Goliath'' is a Christian clay-animated children's television series, whose central characters were created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe, and which was produced first by the United Lutheran Church in America and la ...
'' *
Pingu ''Pingu'' is a stop-motion children's television series co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. It was originally produced from 1990 to 2000 by Swiss company The Pygos Group (originally called Trickfilmstudio) for SF DRS in Switzerl ...
*
Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...
*
Shaun the Sheep ''Shaun the Sheep'' is a British stop-motion television series and a spin-off of the '' Wallace and Gromit'' franchise. The title character is Shaun (previously featured as the sheep named "Shaun" in the 1995 short film '' A Close Shave'' and t ...
*
Creature Comforts ''Creature Comforts'' is a British adult stop-motion comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about th ...
* Cartoon Network (Japan) *
Pogo (TV channel) Pogo is an Indian cable and satellite television channel owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery India under its International division, as part of Cartoon Network India as the network’s sister channel. It was launched on 1 January 200 ...


References


External links


Official Morph websiteOfficial Morph YouTube channel
*
B3ta B3ta (stylised as b3ta) is a popular British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by ''The Guardian''. It was founded in 2001 by Rob Manuel, Denise Wilton and Cal Henderson. B3ta's main feature is a newsletter featuring th ...
br>interview with Tony Hart
which discusses Morph

Tony Hart article about Morph
''Animation archive up in smoke''
BBC News article about Aardman's warehouse fire
Limited edition Morph prints created for Morph's 30th anniversaryGuardian article about Aardman's warehouse fireKickstarter project to fund new production
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morph (Character) Television characters introduced in 1977 Stop motion characters Fictional shapeshifters Aardman Animations Cartoon mascots Male characters in animated series no:Morph