''Bootleg'' is a 2002

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

for children, commissioned by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and based on a book of the same name by

Alex Shearer Alex Shearer (born 25 June 1949) is a British novelist and scriptwriter. He was born in Wick, in the north of Scotland. Alex Shearer sold his first TV script at the age of 29, after a varied career of some 30 odd jobs. He wrote for televisi ...

. It was shown as a three-part series in the UK, with subsequent broadcasts in Australia and all over the world. The novel has been adapted in Japan in the form of

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and 13 episode ONA series under the title .

Plot

The film is about a new political party called the "Good for You" (abbreviated as GFY) which comes into power and bans chocolate. Two kids named Smudger Moore and Huntley Hunter want to get their chocolate back. They begin by selling bootleg chocolate, and go on to join an underground resistance organization. The film climaxes in a huge revolution where people take to the streets. They demand that chocolate be brought back, and that the government be overthrown. It tells us about how they face ups and downs on their way.

Media

Book

''Bootleg'' was first published as a book written by

and is published by Macmillan Children's Books on 4 July 2003.

TV series

The adaptation, commissioned by BBC was made into a three-part series and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom and later in Australia. It has won a

British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

Award for Best Children's Drama, with the screenplay written by

Paul Smith Paul Smith is the name of: Music * Paul Smith (composer) (1906–1985), American film music composer * Paul Smith (pianist) (1922–2013), Los Angeles jazz pianist * Paul Smith (English singer) (born 1979), vocalist and songwriter of British in ...

Cast

* Martin Jarvis * Steven Geller *

Gemma Jones Jennifer "Gemma" Jones (born 4 December 1942) is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include ''Sense and Sensibility (film), Sense and Sensibility'' (1995), the Bridget Jones (film series), ''Bridget Jo ...

Louise Siversen Louise Siversen is an Australian actress. She is known for her television roles, including Lou Kelly in ''Prisoner'' (1984–1986), Debbie in '' The Flying Doctors'' (1988–1990), and 2012-2017 Heather Looby in '' House Husbands''. She has a ...

as Mrs Spring *

Tim Robertson Tim Robertson is an Australian actor and writer. Early life Robertson was born in 1944 in Braintree, Essex, in the UK. He relocated to Australia in 1952. He is a graduate of the University of Western Australia (1965). After graduating, he ta ...

as Prime Minister Tom Turner *

Damien Bodie Damien Bodie (born 2 January 1985) is an Australian television actor from Melbourne. Bodie began his career securing roles in children's television roles such as Ram Foley in '' Crash Zone''. He later secured the regular role of Dylan Timmins in ...

as Frankie Crawley

Manga

The manga adaptation was done by Japanese

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

, Aiji Yamakawa. It was serialized in

Shueisha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Shueisha is the largest publishing company in Japan. It was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The ...

's shōjo monthly manga

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

Bessatsu Margaret , or for short, is a shōjo manga magazine published monthly in Japan by Shueisha since 1964. The stories featured in it are noted to have an emphasis on character growth, focusing on themes of interpersonal relationships and settings of ever ...

from its 2nd issue and ended on the 15th issue of the magazine in the year 2008. It has only one volume and was released in October 2008.

Anime

The anime adaptation of the manga is written by Kiyoko Yoshimura and animated by

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio. Headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Production I.G was founded on December 15, 1987, by producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and character designer Takayuki Goto as I.G Tatsunoko, a branch studio of the animation giant Ta ...

with original character designs provided by Aiji Yamakawa. voice actor

Fumie Mizusawa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and novelist. She is represented by Sigma Seven (2005 - July 2019; March 2024 - present) and was formerly represented by Aoni Production (December 2019 - November 2023). Personal life Mizusawa announced ...

and

Toshiyuki Toyonaga is a Japanese actor and singer. He began working on television and stage as a child actor. He currently works with the Super Eccentric Theater Inc. He played Mikado Ryugamine in ''Durarara!!'', Yuri Katsuki in '' Yuri on Ice'', Shun Matsuoka in ...

voices the main characters, Smudger Moore and Huntley Hunter respectively and Japanese singer,

Maaya Sakamoto is a Japanese actress and singer. She made her debut as a Voice acting in Japan, voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime ''Little Twins'', and became known as the voice of Hitomi Kanzaki in ''The Vision of Escaflowne''. Other ...

voicing Carol Hunter. The adaptation's theme song and insert song are sung by Kana Nishino. The theme song's title is ''Make Up'' and the insert song is titled as ''Kirari'' and is released under

SME Records , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

Cast

*Smudger Moore –

*Huntley Hunter –

*Louise Bubby –

Mikako Takahashi is a Japanese voice actress and J-Pop singer from Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As the ''Excel Saga'' character Mikako Hyatt, she forms one half of the voice acting duo ''The Excel Girls'' (the other half being Yumiko Kobayashi). She is employed by ...

*Director of Headquarters –

Katsuyuki Konishi is a Japanese voice actor from Wakayama, Japan. He is affiliated with Ken Production. His debut role was Volfogg/Big Volfogg in '' GaoGaiGar''. He is most well known for portraying Kamina in '' Gurren Lagann'', Laxus Dreyar in '' Fairy Tail'' ...

*Ron Moore –

Keiji Fujiwara was a Japanese actor and voice actor. His best known works are voicing Shinnosuke's father Hiroshi Nohara in the long-running anime series ''Crayon Shin-chan'', Maes Hughes in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'', Holland Novak in '' Eureka Seven'', Axel ...

*Joe Crawley – Kenjirō Tsuda *Carol Hunter –

*Kylie Moore – Rie Nakagawa *John Blades –

Tatsuhisa Suzuki is a Japanese voice actor and singer. A former lead vocalist of Oldcodex, he used his stage name Ta_2. Biography '' Shūkan Bunshun'' reported that Suzuki was engaged to Lisa in May 2019. In January 2020, they announced their marriage. On Apri ...

Source:

References

Other references

* Shearer, Alex. ''Bootleg''. Macmillan Children's Books, July 2003. ()

External links

* *
Burberry Productions'

Chocolate Underground Official Site
* {{Production I.G OVAs 2000s British children's television series 2002 British television series debuts 2002 British television series endings 2008 manga BBC children's television shows BBC television dramas 2000s British television miniseries Production I.G Shōjo manga Films scored by David Hirschfelder Fiction about chocolate