Diving for treasure

PROFILE THE OCTONAUTS:THE REST of the country may be queuing up for a financial haircut, but life in Irish animation couldn't look any rosier. Earlier this month the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland announced that Ireland would make up the focus of Annecy Animation Festival, the world's most prestigious cartoon showcase, in June next year.

Last Monday, to the surprise of no one, Boulder Media- Dandelion Studios-Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumballand Brown Bag Films' The Octonautswere both shortlisted for the 2011 British Academy Children's Awards.

“It’s a fantastic time to be working in Irish animation,” says Octonauts director Darragh O’Connell. “As well as us you have all the other companies – Kavalier, Jam, Boulder, Cartoon Saloon – and everybody’s busy. At this stage we’re all fighting over people to get them in to work.”

Brown Bag, the Smithfield-based imprint behind Nickelodeon's Olivia, Disney's Doc McStuffinsand two Oscar-nominated shorts, Give Up Your Aul' Sinsand Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, is no stranger to success. Still, even O'Connell, who founded the company with Cathal Gaffney in 1994, admits that the success of The Octonauts, based on the books by Meomi, aka Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy, has taken him by surprise.

"When we started on Octonautswe couldn't sell it to the US," he says. "Even toy manufacturers were telling us nobody liked bath toys enough to watch a show about them. It was felt there were too many characters and that the names were too complicated. But the producers that we were working with at Chorion" – a production company – "were convinced it was great and decided to break all the rules. And kids have really responded to it."

The Octonauts, a mash-up of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteauand Star Trekfeaturing eight adventurous bath toys, premiered on CBeebies and RTÉ2 late last year.

Despite early concerns that the concept was too convoluted for tots, the pitch turns out to be delightfully straightforward. Uniting under the motto “Explore! Rescue! Protect!”, Captain Barnacles Bear, Kwazii Kitten, Peso Penguin, Dashi Dog, Professor Inkling Octopus, Tweak Rabbit, Dr Shellington Sea Otter and Tunip the Vegimal seek out new life, explore strange new underwater worlds and boldly go where no bath toy has gone before.

The intrepid gang’s primary vessel is the Octopod, a vehicle designed to look like a giant octopus, but they have an entire fleet of extremely cool fishy-themed subs to get them around.

"Even though it's for a very young audience we wanted to make it a proper action adventure," says O'Connell. "We all wanted to make something that we liked. We always knew there [would be] elements of Star Trekand Stingray, but with various cute little Japanese-style characters. And kids seem to love the action."

He's not kidding. The Octonautsis the most watched preschool show in the UK and has been snapped up by Disney Channel for a US run next spring. More significantly, the programme is the only preschool title to be ranked in the top 10 by older audiences (aged four to 15), a group not normally renowned for its tolerance of "baby shows".

The motto “Explore! Rescue! Protect!” carries a lot of weight around contemporary school yards. Meanwhile, on campus, Kwazii Kitten has become the stencilled icon (and occasionally tattoo) of choice.

Parents, too, have fallen under The Octonauts' spell. Among caregivers, the show's educational content, though cleverly masked by high-octane escapades, has become a major selling point. Each episode features a "creature report" delivered in the form of an easy-to-memorise song.

“There’s a lot of educational stuff in the mix,” says O’Connell. “But the credit for making it work has to go to the writers. Animation is always a very collaborative business. We had more than 100 people working on this.”

In common with SpongeBob SquarePants, a franchise devised by the marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, there are genuine boffins at work behind the scenes at The Octonauts. The marine biologists Dr Lara A Ferry-Graham and Dr Michael H Graham, who previously worked on Pixar's Finding Nemo, acted as consultants on a series that has already explored such rarefied marine delights as brittle stars, blobfish, dwarf lanternshark and remipedes.

That's enough to keep the big people happy. For others, The Octonauts' inarguable worth as a primer for ocean studies has been largely overshadowed by its zippy storytelling and adorable critters. Having spent a couple of years transposing Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy's gorgeous storybooks into impressively cinematic-looking TV, O'Connell must have a favourite character, surely?

“Oh, no,” says the director. “I couldn’t choose. There are eight of them. It would be picking your favourite kid.”

Curriculum vitae

Who are they?Wildly popular bath toys, heroes of their own cartoon show, with a taste for aquatic adventure.

Why are they in the news?They and their creators, the Irish animator Brown Bag Productions, have just been nominated for a children's Bafta.

Most appealing characteristicAn ability to combine zany fun with adorability and educative content.

Least appealing characteristicCan compel children to shout "Sound the Octo-alert!" at terrifyingly regular intervals.

Most likely to say"Explore! Rescue! Protect!"

Least likely to say"Let's leave well enough alone."