Nickelodeon plans to animate colourful family
OK, so your mum might have a blue rinse instead of six feet of blue hair and your dad works in a factory instead of a nuclear power station, but dysfunctional relationships, unruly children, the absence of neighbourly love and devotion to beer all ring true.
Lovers of The Simpsons could soon be joining their favourite yellow family on celluloid, if TV company Nickelodeon has its way.
To celebrate the launch of its new digital cable cartoon channel Nicktoons, the TV company has launched a search to find an Irish or British family to be immortalised in their own cartoon series.
The station hopes that the winning family will become celebrities as a result of becoming the The Nicktoons TV Family.
Initially, ten animation shorts featuring the family will be created and shown as inserts between other cartoons such as Rugrats and Hey Arnold! However if the material proves strong enough the cartoon will be developed into a series, with the possibility of it going global.
"It could be any kind of family. A one parent family or a huge clan with a granny and grand-kids. The feel of the series will obviously depend on what the family are like and what kind of adventures they have," Nickelodeon's creative director Steve Shannon said.
In addition to being made into cartoon characters, the actual Nicktoons TV Family will be flown out to the headquarters of Nickelodeon in Los Angeles to visit the company's animation studios.
Closing date for entries is September 1 after which an expert panel will narrow the choice of families down to ten finalists who will then be interviewed. The winning family will be announced as The Nicktoons TV Family early next year.
Interested families can contact the Nicktoons website at www.nick.co.uk/nicktoonstv or call the hotline number 1550 718 701.
