It's no coincidence that most people who remember The Dreamstone from their childhood have especially vivid memories of the way it looked; the smooth, fluid animation, bright colours and detailed backgrounds. It all seems to come together so effortlessly, doesn't it? Well, perhaps not surprisingly, it's not quite as simple as it looks. In fact, anyone in the business will tell you that animation can be a nightmare of the kind of proportions not even Zordrak could cook up!

You wouldn't think so to look at it, but The Dreamstone had a relatively small core of creators responsible for the show's essential look and feel. The "daddy", as it were, was Mike Jupp. He was art director and basically originator of the whole concept, producing loads of lush artwork from his base in "sunny" Bognor Regis. You can click here for an example of one of the astonishingly lovely paintings he produced. Oh yeah, check out his books too (but where's a Dreamstone artbook??)

Then, we have a writing team, consisting of Sue Radley, Martin Gates and James Costello (who was also a producer). No mean feat, having such a small team creating so many scripts! Martin Gates also directed the voice acting, which I hear is one of the most enjoyable jobs in the animation industry (well, there had to be *one*!). On top of this, there was John Stevenson and Phil Robinson, two talented individuals who took care of different aspects of direction (layout and animation respectively). Of course, let's not forget you need voice actors, animators, cel painters, rostrum camera operators and all sorts of other folks too. But for the sake of simplicity, and because many of these jobs are done overseas, we're going to concentrate on the British crew here. Although naturally we salute every single person involved in creating this mighty cartoon!

Dreamstone season one: production details

Art direction, character design: Mike Jupp
Script/story: James Costello, Martin Gates
Dialogue: Sue Radley
Voice recording director: Martin Gates
Layout director: John Stevenson
Animation director: Phil Robinson
Colour models: Carol Hughes
Production manager: Kaye Robinson
Executive producers: Bengt Odner, David Yates
Producer: Martin Gates
Music: Mike Batt (performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra)

And now, click here for an insider's view of the making of The Dreamstone!