Dingo Pictures Works: Early Years

Well, I intended to end my review but I was reminded that there are even more Dingo Pictures works that I’ve missed. So let’s look at those.

Moving pictures

For some reason Germany has not exactly cartoons but rather still pictures illustrating the story with some narration to accompany them (in order to make them less boring some effects may be applied to pictures like panning or zooming in and out, hence the title I gave them). There were a couple of those on the DVD set with some Dingo Pictures cartoons. I’ve never seen such before and something tells me I didn’t miss much.

Anyway, probably before transitioning to the fully animated pictures Dingo had produced couple of those. Their website lists those:

  • Fröhliche Weihnachte (i.e. Merry Christmas) — can be about anything really;
  • Weihnachtsgeschichten (i.e. Christmas Stories) — see above;
  • Hampie, ein kleiner Wal entdeckt seine Welt (i.e. Humpie the Little Whale Explores the World) — I guess the title is the spoiler.

But it turns out there are more of those, probably lost in VHS era, but here are some details about two of those.

Es weihnachtet sehr… (i.e. It Was Christmasing Much)

Here’s just one picture from it that explains it all:

And here’s the remake:

Indeed, it seems to be the same story just set around Christmas and with some snowy landscapes here and there. It may also be one of two stories mentioned above or it may be something different.

Bunny

I suspect this story had a different name but the only source I could find was in Italian with the title card replaced.

The story is about Easter Bunnies living in a village and painting Easter Eggs:

But unfortunately a bandit kidnaps one of the younger bunny and demands a ransom:

Obviously his plans are foiled:

… and he has to serve a term in prison:
The title is obvious pun on Alcatraz and Hase (German for bunny or hare)

Happy end!

This story might be a prequel to the later Easter Bunnies story that has the same setting but heroes are different and the story itself differs too.

Perseus

Before Hercules Dingo Pictures has tried its hand on adapting another series of Greek myths.

The story seems to be straightforward and seems to cover all major points mentioned in the myths.

Medusa sisters, the most famous encounter for Perseus

This is probably the first fully animated Dingo Pictures cartoon and it has slightly strange style compared to the usual one: many characters are not following the canon outlook they got in later films and all backgrounds seem to be drawn on the computer instead of hand-drawn backgrounds like we see in other cartoons. Yet it has a share of canonical Dingo Pictures characters, tropes and style so you won’t mistake it for any other studio.

Perseus—not quite the Dingo Young Man we’re accustomed to

Geese—exactly like many other of their cameos

The players—I don’t remember seeing one of them anywhere else but another one plays music (or cooks) in a lot of other stories

It’s not mentioned at the official site and I suspect it was written off as an experiment and not transferred to DVD with the rest. In any case it was an interesting experience.

9 Responses to “Dingo Pictures Works: Early Years”

  1. Lisa Gilby says:

    Thanks very much for covering those.

  2. Lisa Gilby says:

    BTW the original title of the “Bunny” film is “Die schonsten Geschichten vom Osterhasen”.

  3. Wabuu Raccoon says:

    Found an actual copy of Die kleine Hexe Arischa, being sold along other German witch related stuff. I’m not entirely sure about shipping costs, as it seems the seller is in Portugal. https://www.olx.pt/anuncio/livros-infantis-da-bruxa-em-alemo-IDAZHbk.html

  4. Kostya says:

    Interesting…

  5. Wabuu Raccoon says:

    I expect this is the “Fröhliche Weihnachte” that Dingo mentions in the PDF file… Also I swear the lion is called “Kimba”, but considering my knowledge of German is very limited, I’m not entirely sure.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAseMrxlPNc

    Sidenote: The only movie of Dingo’s which is now completely missing seems to be a movie entitled “Siegfried”, and like Perseus, was released in 1992. However, unlike Perseus, there is no mention of the movie anywhere on the Internet except from a film listing website.

  6. Kostya says:

    Thank you very much for the pointer. It’s striking to see people drawn in different style in Dingo Picturesmedia concept video stories.

    And yes, the lion’s name sounded like Kimba to me too (maybe Germans know the original Japanese Lion King better than that American remake?).

    As for the names, considering that they have not converted all of their early works to DVD form and that they liked to release the same work under several names, we may have even more of their stuff missing and never know :-(.

  7. Lisa Gilby says:

    “Die schonsten Geschichten vom Osterhasen” is actually a prototype version of the animated Easterbunny film according to a translation of the German blurb of the VHS (if I remember correctly, may need to check again). The Bunny film covered here is “Im Tal der Osterhas”, as the blurb on the back of the VHS seems to match that film perfectly.

    So you still have some work left to do!

  8. Kostya says:

    Keep them coming!

  9. Lisa Gilby says:

    Sorry, I mean “Neue Geschichten vom Osterhas'”.

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