CatDog Halloween Stop-motion handcrafted with felt. This was my final second year project for my Graphic Design degree.
Strategy:
CatDog is an American popular children’s cartoon which aired from April 4, 1998, to June 15, 2004 (Nickipedia, n.d.). The show is about the adventures of CatDog which is a hybrid of a cat and a dog with two heads and no tail or hind legs. In this project, we have been tasked to design an opening title sequence as a stop motion for any of Nickelodeons children’s offerings. CatDog has an eerie tone, and a Halloween special opening title sequence is fitting. Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31. Over time, Halloween has become a day of activities like dress up, trick-or-treating and things the whole family can enjoy (History.com, 2009).
Catdog’s humor can be described as dark and has an eerie tone which matches with Halloween.
The show targets children from the age of 7 – 12 who can access Nickelodeon or YouTube and watch NickRewind. NickRewind covers all the favorite Nickelodeon shows from 1980s to late 2010s. The dark humor found in the cartoon attracts older viewers which expands the target audience from teens to young adults 18-21, and millennials 25-40.
Through my research I found that CatDog has one episode that has a Halloween theme. The episode is called CatDogula which was aired on October 26, 1999 (NickRewind, 2017). There was no special title sequence made for this episode. With the gap identified, a Halloween title sequence would be fitting.
The title sequence will be made by using stop-motion as a technique and the medium choice is felt. Felt is a cloth made of wool often mixed with natural or synthetic fibers (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). CatDog has dull and dark colours, exaggerated features, thick lines which contributes to the creepy aesthetic of the show. Felt has texture which will translate well in stop-motion animation and match with the vector style of CatDog. The tone of voice of my stop-motion will be scary, dark, and gloomy. The tone of voice will be translated through felt.
Bibliography
Nickipedia, n.d. CatDog.
Available at: https://nickelodeon.fandom.com/wiki/CatDog
[Accessed 06 November 2022].
Available at: https://nickelodeon.fandom.com/wiki/CatDog
[Accessed 06 November 2022].
Lansford, K., 2014. Nickelodeon: The Evolution of a Brand.
Available at: https://platformmagazine.org/2014/12/05/nickelodeon-the-evolution-of-a-brand/
[Accessed 05 November 2022].
Available at: https://platformmagazine.org/2014/12/05/nickelodeon-the-evolution-of-a-brand/
[Accessed 05 November 2022].
Tongal, n.d. Nickelodeon.
Available at: https://tongal.com/brands/Nickelodeon
[Accessed 05 November 2022].
Available at: https://tongal.com/brands/Nickelodeon
[Accessed 05 November 2022].
History.com, 2009. Halloween 2022.
Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
[Accessed 05 November 2022].
Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
[Accessed 05 November 2022].
