| Spot | |
|---|---|
 Spot's First Walk book cover | |
| Created by | Eric Hill |
Spot is a fictional puppy created byEric Hill, anEnglishauthor andillustrator of children'spicture books. The success of Hill's books about Spot led to other media productions, including television and home video titles, music albums, and CD-ROM titles.
First published in 1980,[1]Where's Spot? was inspired while Hill was working in creative marketing; he noticed that his three-year-old son was fascinated by the process of lifting up a paper, on a design that he was creating. Captivated by this thought, Hill created a story about a puppy which incorporated the flap design.[1] During the late 1970s, this was an extraordinarily innovative concept, and it took some time for any publisher to take any notice of the idea before Puffin books decided to publish his book. Within weeks of the first book being released it topped the Bestseller list.
Hill said that, "When I first drew Spot I realised that when I came to draw the spot on his body and the tip of his tail I was copying the markings on an aircraft. I grew up drawing aircraft – that is how I learned to draw. "I am quite convinced now, as I look back, that the actual training of drawing cartoons – which is, of course, my style – led to my producing Spot. Cartoons must be very simple and have as few words as possible and so must the Spot books. I designed Spot out of my previous background as a designer and illustrator. It was quite unconscious but I can see now that I have created a ready-made trademark of its kind, with the essential spot on the body and a bit on the tail."[2]
Overtime, the book was translated into more than sixty languages.[2] In the Afrikaans version of the book Spot is translated to "Otto", widely believed to be the surname of a South African friend of Hill's. This name has been attributed to Spot, as many of the books were believed to be inspired by the life of aforementioned friend, J. Otto.[citation needed] In the Netherlands, Spot is known asDribbel.
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Since 1980, with the success ofWhere's Spot?, the late Eric Hill went on to write and illustrate numerous other books, with most being translated intoWelsh (as well as the TV series, commissioned byS4C), some have also been translated intoScottish Gaelic, andWhere's Spot? has been translated intoCornish.[citation needed]
In the 1990s, a number of books were released with sound effects, produced by Publications International and published byFrederick Warne.[3] The U.S. edition of the sound books were somewhat different from the UK editions of the book. The text in these editions is slightly altered, and in some cases, the title is changed as well. They are produced and published by Publications International.
The books are set in thetypeface Century Schoolbook Infant, a very rare, single-story version ofCentury Schoolbook.
With the success of the books, theBBC commissioned an animated series, which first appeared on 9 April 1987;[4] withPaul Nicholas providing the narration, and re-narrated in 2000 byJane Horrocks. The series aired on television channel across the world, includingRTÉ in Ireland, with the series dubbed intoIrish Gaelic with the titleEchtrai Bhrain. A DVD version was released in Japan in 2005 with Japanese, English and instrumental audio tracks. The DVDs used the same name for Spot as the books in Japan, that being コロちゃん (Korochan). The series aired onPlayhouse Disney andCBeebies.
In February 2024, it was announced a new animated series is currently in production fromGuru Studio, which marks a revival.[5]
The first series ofThe Adventures of Spot, which was animated and produced byKing Rollo Films, aired on theBBC between 9 April and 17 July 1987. It consisted of 13 episodes, each 5 minutes long. The episodes were narrated byPaul Nicholas (original version) and the music was composed byDuncan Lamont (original version).
Episodes in this series:
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The second series ofThe Adventures of Spot aired between 6 September and 20 December 1993, and, like the first series, consisted of 13 5-minute episodes. Once again, the episodes were produced by King Rollo Films. Paul Nicholas (original version) returned as the voices and Duncan Lamont (original version) returned as composer of the music.
Episodes in this series:
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Spot's Musical Adventures, similar toThe Adventures of Spot, aired between 25 October and 10 November 2000. LikeThe Adventures of Spot, this series consisted of thirteen episodes, but this time, with a short song in them. The format of the series reverted to the narration format used prior to the specials. For these episodes, however, comedianJane Horrocks was given the role of the narrator and voices, instead of Paul Nicholas. The episodes and the songs were all written byAndrew Brenner, and the songs were performed by American London-based actorDan Russell. The music was also composed by Kick Production.
Episodes:
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A number of specials produced for release on VHS were created:
The first phase ofIt's Fun to Learn With Spot was produced by Spitfire Television and Living Doll Productions and released on VHS. It consisted of four episodes, each approximately fifteen minutes in length, and narrated byPeter Hawkins. The theme song used inThe Adventures of Spot was licensed from King Rollo Films, so the familiar tune by Duncan Lamont was heard at the beginning and end of each episode. However, music on the show was kept to a minimum.
The second phase ofIt's Fun to Learn With Spot, like the first VHS, consisted of four fifteen-minute episodes. However the episodes were produced by King Rollo Films and retained the talents ofPaul Nicholas and Duncan Lamont in the UK.
Episodes in this series:
Note: The two phases ofIt's Fun to Learn with Spot are often listed as one series, even on Penguin Television's website. However, as noted, the two phases were produced four years apart by two different companies and are very different in design.
Spot's Magical Christmas was released in 1995 andSpot and his Grandparents Go to the Carnival in 1997. These two specials, which are both thirty minutes long, have some notable differences from the normal series. First off, they have no narration, and each character is voiced distinctly. The characters' mouths also move to speech, in comparison to the other episodes, in which the characters' mouths remain static and the entire episode is narrated as a story. There are also several songs in the specials, as there were inIt's Fun to Learn With Spot.
Voices
From 1989 to 2002,The Disney Channel aired the twoThe Adventures of Spot series as part of its half-hourLunch Box series, and later as post-show interstitials. For the program's home video releases in the United States,Walt Disney Home Video re-dubbed the series with character voices rather than a singular narrator. The Disney Channel also aired the two re-dubbed specials but continued to airThe Adventures of Spot in its original British version.
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A number of companies have released a number of CDs featuring mainlynursery rhymes, under the name of "The Spot".
Two Spot CD-ROM titles were published byEuropress andHasbro Interactive. Both titles runs on bothMicrosoft Windows (Windows 95 or NT4 or newer) andApple Macintosh (OS 8 up to Mac OS X Leopard) computers.