This document summarizes and analyzes several existing animated children's TV shows to research their styles and elements that make them appealing. It discusses the My Little Pony series focusing on its portrayal of friendship and ability to appeal to both young girls and older viewers. It also analyzes the animation styles, episode structures, use of color and lack of dialogue in shows like Hey Duggee, Dipdap and Larva. Finally, it comments on the iconic 2D animation style and use of costumes to identify characters in The Powerpuff Girls. The document examines these properties to help inform the creation of its own animated product.

1. Research
Leah Ellis

2. Existing Product
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Created by Hasbro and Lauren
Faust
This children’s animated series focuses on the friendships between the 6 main
characters and shows them overcoming different situations that they are experiencing
in their world of Equestria. This is a 2D animation aimed towards young girls, as the
main characters are female, but is enjoyed by a wide amount of people both young
and older of both genders.
I have chosen to look at this as it is something I am very experienced with and feel the
2D animation and bright characters with strong personalities will help to influence my
own creations.

3. This show has a lot of bright colours, creating each personality to have a different
shade in their coat and manes. Along with their individual cutie marks on their
bottoms that helps identify the different ponies. This makes it slightly easier for them
to produce more merchandise as there are such differences between each of the
characters.
There are often very bright, happy scenes with few much darker scenes to highlight to
the viewer that it is not the normal setting and the characters are supposed to be
scared. This is also used with mise-en-scène and composition of the shots to give us,
as the audience, a clear view of the characters emotions for even the youngest viewer.
This works as they often have scary scenes using a wide shot to emphasize just how
small and defenseless the character is being portrayed as at the time.
This appeals to the audience as it gives a very clear portrayal of the story and
characters so that even the youngest of viewers can be enthralled and follow what is
happening. It also has a deep, underlying message of friendship and connection
though which helps to keep older viewers interested in the story and want to watch on
and not get annoyed or fed up with it as they do with many shows for younger
viewers.

4. Trailer
The trailers for this show and their films seem to be quite related-
including clips from it at different points through the series, some
seemingly related and some seemingly random, but which still gives
the viewer an idea of where the story through the series is planning to
go and how the characters act of certain bits. This could be related to
the scene on show, but the viewer is still unaware of the context so it
is not giving away any important plot points.
There seems to often be instrumental versions of the songs from the
show throughout with a few lines of one of them at some point to
confirm that it is a song to be used in the production, and to an extent,
who will be singing, if it is one of the characters or a non-diegetic song
over the top of a scene.
There seems to be many cut screens with just text over a blank
background to give the viewer some important details that are not
only said. This could be in order to try make it stick in the viewer’s
mind more instead of blending in with all the rest.

5. There is often certain clips that have the character saying something that
seems to be in reply to what the narrator is saying. This is usually an
expression of excitement that the character was saying in the show, which fits
with the narration as well.
There are also variations that allow for there to be more of the characters
saying one of their lines and then showing some action, followed by more of
the characters lines in reply. This is similar to how they have the characters
reply to the narrator.
There are often seeming to be the logo for the show to come in at the end
and take up the whole screen so that the viewers know what they have
watched it for. This along with the release date for the series are what most
trailers seem to end with. Possibly where they will be released – which
channel they will be shown on, or “in cinemas”.
On average, the trailers are between 1 and 2 minutes long with lots of
different clips mashed together to create a sort of story, with no finish to it,
just cutting to the release date.

6. Existing Product
Hey Duggee
Created by Grant Orchard
This show is is a 2D animated show created for very young children of both genders
which shows them certain life aspects and encourages them to look for friendship and
even gives them a view of scouting, in a way, which is a very worthy thing to join to
make friends and have fun learning more skills.
I have decided to look into this show as I like the animation style and would like to
research it more. There is also the aspect of how short each episode is and yet it still
fits a full story, without even having a full dialogue.

7. This animated series has episodes that are each around 5 minutes long, making it a
very easy to keep the attention of young children who are likely to not have long
attention spans. There is a clear view of how all the colours are just vey bold and
bright block colours in simple shapes as to not over complicate the screen and confuse
the viewers.
It often uses just a straight on camera angle in long shot, and occasionally uses a close
up, but it is more rare. They also often use a plain one or 2 colours background with
very little detail as to not pull the attention away from the characters and what they
are doing in the foreground. With very simple props in use, it is designed so that the
young children can understand what they are doing even if it may be something that
they may not really know what is happening.
The young viewers would be interested in this show as it gives them a chance to
explore what happens in a more grown up environment, but also in simple ways that
they can clearly understand. It is very simple and bright to keep their attentions, with
the added aspect of not complete dialogue to keep it funny and more childish from all
the voice over and different characters speaking.

8. Existing Product
Dipdap
Created by Steve Roberts
This product uses a simple 2 main colours for the foreground and a solid, unchanging
background throughout the entire episode. They are short episodes that use lines
and a simple character.
This may influence me as it is 2D animation that is extremely simple and creative and
I admire how they are able to create such complete stories with no dialogue and
everything created by drawn, crayon type lines.

9. The image of these episodes consist of 3 main colours, one of which is a solid
background. As the characters are 2D, it gives us limited camera angles which are long
shots with the occasional close up for a reaction shot. Although sometimes the
“camera” (POV) may use a dolly type shot to move across the screen revealing more.
The colours used throughout the series are mainly blues. Which is a very calming
colour to many. There is one other colour mainly used within this show which is a red,
used only for the main character to separate them from the background and
environment There are occasionally some very small highlights of other colours to
break the mold but not always.
I would say that this cartoon appeals to it’s audience because of the fact that it is such
a simple animation with no dialogue, which makes it so much easier to follow with
less complicated aspects. It also is only a few minutes long, which means it is very
short for the young children who will be watching it so that it will hold their attention
adequately to get through an episode and make them want another story in the
universe, making them watch even more episodes.

10. Existing Product
Larva
Created by TUBAn Co, Ltd
This cartoon is presented as short couple minute long animations that appear to be more
of a break to the adverts between shows on TV channels.
I have chosen to research this show as it is a very short animation with little dialogue
used in it.

11. This cartoon has quite a lot of slapstick comedy involved to be able to be comedic for
the young viewers, as it has no words. It is a 3D animation and so there are many
different angles that the camera goes to in order to produce this show in the most
comedic way.
There is a clear divide in the show, which is shown through colours as the backgrounds
are always quite dark, muted colours where as the characters are all quite bright
colours that pop against the background. This is also made to be a point as they are
slugs/larva in an alley way or some form of dark, dingy corner where there is just dirt.
Also because it was originally a Korean show, that is now shown in England and such,
it is useful that there is no talking otherwise most people who watch it in England
would not be able to understand what they are saying at any point. Although with just
actions, it is much easier to understand what is happening at the time.
I would say that this appeals to the audience as it is comedic in a way that takes the
actions of the characters to understand and not have to understand the language. This
makes it much more appropriate and appealing to younger children as it is simple to
know what is going on.

12. Existing Product
The Powerpuff Girls
Created by Craig McCracken
This is a show about 3 genetically engineered superhero girls. It has a 2D animation
style which is very individual to the show.
I have decided to research this show as I have looked through my audience’s answers
to my survey and many of my answers have come back saying that they like
superheroes more than any of my other suggestions.

13. The style of this show is a very iconic 2D animation that many people will instantly
recognize due to years of watching. They are a very professional company that
animates it as if it was just a live action show unlike many 2D creations that have much
more limited work, allowing it to be a 2D world instead of a 3D one.
The use of costumes in this show is very special as it allows the viewer to separate
each of the main characters from each other by identifying them with a different
colour that they then use to separate their possessions.
Their location is a very stereotypical superhero town to live in as it is called Townsville,
going from the general stereotype that all heroes seem to live in cities that have
“ville”, “city” or “town” in the name – for example Gotham City or Smallville.
I would say that this show appeals to the audience as they can identify with at least
one of the main characters with their deeply different personality. They also would be
able to enjoy the very simple animations and hero based story lines that lead to the 3
young girls saving their home town of Townsville.

14. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched
products have?
• My researched products all seem to have brightly coloured characters with slightly
darker backgrounds so that there is just the characters standing out.
• These also seem to be mainly populated by anthropomorphic animals instead of
humans. This could be to encourage it to be seen as more of a fantasy story than
anything that could possibly happen in real life.
• Many of these cartoons also seem to have a related length, as they are quite short
in comparison to a lot of things, being only around 5 minutes each for most of it.
This is helpful for keeping young children watching as they often have a short
attention span.
• These cartoons also seem to have quite a limited vocabulary for the most part.
This seems to be as they are very short and supposed to be easy to understand for
many age ranges including when the viewer is so young that they may only just
learning the language of their country.

15. • What aspects of the research will you include
within your own production work?
• I will likely feature some anthropomorphic characters in my work as my research
has shown that they seem to be very popular with cartoons in general as a lot of
the ones that I see seem to have them included.
• I will also use simple, block colours, likely in a bold colour for my characters with a
much duller colour in the background of the shots so that the actual characters,
and important aspects that the viewers should be looking at more, will stand out
and catch the attention of the viewers much more. I may do this in the way of
making the backgrounds just slightly darker or more muted than the foreground or
using completely different colours, but I feel it may look more aesthetically
pleasing to reuse colours more, just in different shades.

16. Questionnaire Analysis
Audience Analysis

17. How Old Are You?
• Observation: My research shows that it is mostly from the point of view of
16-20 year olds.
• What this says about my audience: This says that, although there may not
be many people out of this age range, it is still a quite even split between
it all as there is still a cross section of society.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will take this
into account and make it appropriate for this slightly older age range as
well as the younger viewers that I was initially planning.

18. What Gender Do You
Identify As?
• Observation: This shows me that my survey was mainly taken by female
people.
• What this says about my audience: This shows me that possibly more
females are interested in cartoons, although this could just mean that
there are more females willing to take surveys that are posted on social
medias.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will make my product
appeal to this audience by possibly adding more female characters into it.

19. Do You Like To Watch
Children’s Cartoons?
• Observation: This shows me that the majority of my survey takers are fans
of children’s cartoons.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that I am producing work
for the 75% of the cross section of society that I was looking into.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: As the divide is so clearly
over half, I feel that I will not have to change my product too much for
those that dislike cartoons, and instead I can focus on those that do like
these products.

20. What Aspect Of A Children’s
Cartoon Appeals To You Most?
• Observation: This shows me that the majority of my survey takers are
most interested by the characters of a show.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that many of my audience
will be mostly appealed to the cartoon by how the characters act, and that
the story line will be the 2nd most important thing they look for within a
cartoon.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to
my audience as it will show the characters and story line as the 2 most
important things to focus on, above anything else.

21. What Sort Of Characters Would
Encourage You To Watch A Cartoon?
• Observation: This shows me that the majority of my audience are fans of
superheroes and anthropomorphic animals.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that they likely are more
encouraged by a hero figure, who can take care of the problems in the world. Also
that they seem to like having characters that are animals who appear to have
humanistic features, which may appeal more to the fantasy aspects of cartoons in
everyday life.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product may appeal to this
audience as I am considering making it some form of possibly an animal superhero.
As I have seen quite a few variants of this around, I feel it may be quite a popular
genre.

22. Do You Prefer Cartoons
That Include Songs?
• Observation: This shows me that songs are often preferred in a cartoon.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that my audience will
prefer to have a song in my cartoon, although followed by indifference.
With a very small selection preferring to not have any songs within a
cartoon.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product may appeal to
my audience as I may attempt to create some form of song to include
within my cartoon, as it is the preferred format.

23. How Do You Feel About Cartoons
With Little To No Dialogue?
• Observation: As 50% was indifference and 100% was strongly dislike, I see it is
more towards dislike but not too strongly. Although there were a few strong
opinions, this is the average.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that the majority of my audience
are not as big fans of cartoons with no dialogue. In fact, there were a few very
strong opinions to this question and they mostly were to disagree with cartoons
that include little dialogue, showing me that my audience would like speech.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will make my cartoon with an
amount of dialogue I feel is appropriate, as my audience seems to be quite
against none, I will have to add some into it.

24. How Long Do You Like
Cartoons To Be?
• Observation: This shows me that the most liked cartoon length is 11-20
minutes.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that my audience would
most like cartoons to be 11-20 minutes in length, which is around the length
of an average cartoon.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I may not be able to appease
my audience with this part of the survey. I may have to limit my cartoon to 5
minutes as I will not have too long to make it, and it will probably have to be
about 2 minutes maximum.

25. How Often Do You
Watch Cartoons?
• Observation: This shows me that cartoons are mainly watched a
few times a week or less than once a month.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that my
audience will mainly be watching cartoons a few times a week,
but not every day.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will make my
product appeal to my audience this way by not producing many
of these cartoons. I will likely only produce 1.

26. Individual Responses
Q1 – 16-20 Years Old
Q2 – Male
Q3 – Yes
Q4 – Characters
Q5 – Anthropomorphic
Animals
Q6 – No
Q7 – 100 (Strongly Dislike)
Q8 –Over 20 Minutes
Q9 – Less Than Once A
Month
Q1 – 0-5 Years Old
Q2 – Female
Q3 – Yes
Q4 – The Sounds/Music
Q5 – Superhero
Q6 – Yes
Q7 – 50 (Indifferent)
Q8 – Between 5 and 10
Minutes
Q9 – Every Day

27. These are a couple randomly selected responses from
anonymous survey takers. These will be used to see how
individual people have responded to my online survey
about this topic.
The response from the 0-5 year old female shows that
there are stereotypes surrounding children that many
seem to pull away from without even knowing that they
are supposed to be fans of something specific. This is
shown from how she has selected the love of
superheroes instead of any other.
Similarly the 16-20 year old male responder has selected
anthropomorphic animals which could be seen as a more
stereotypical female thing to be interested in.

28. These 2 respondents alone show that not
everyone follows stereotypes, and that it is quite
hard to make something that there will
specifically only be 1 gender attracted to it. This
means that my animation should be more
gender neutral and targeted towards a general
age range seems as the older person is just as
interested in the cartoons, just has less time to
watch them.

29. Interviews

30. Interview 1
 What character traits do you usually like to see in
cartoon characters? Why?
Funny, relatable, creative things that I can see in myself,
or things I can see in my friends.
 What colour schemes do you feel are most
appropriate/your favourite in a cartoon?
Not really sure, I would say depends on the show. For
example, My Little Pony is bright and colourful and the
colours stand out and show a happy environment, but if it
is grey, blacks and whites you can say this is a sad
environment. To me, colours represent different
emotions and feelings in a cartoon.

31.  What kind of story line is your favourite to see in a
cartoon?
Don’t really have a favourite, I would probably say one
that has a happy ending or is maybe part of a bigger story
or picture.
 What would you say is the most important theme to
have within a children’s cartoon?
Something that the children can learn from or relate to
depending on how old they are.
 How would you like a short cartoon to present their
characters?
Animals, people, ponies, I don’t mind.

32. Interview 1 - Review
• Observation: That they like something creative, funny, and
relatable with colours that represent the feelings involved,
not too specific on what things should involve.
• What this says about my audience: This tells me that my
audience may like things to be happy and relatable while
also teaching people important things in life like friendship.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I would say
that my product will appeal to my audience as it will have
some happy tones, specifically more towards teaching
friendship, while being funny and relatable to an extent as I
wish to make it similar to real life instead of completely
unlikely and impossible.

33. Interview 2
 What character traits do you usually like to see in
cartoon characters? Why?
I like friendly and relatable characters as while staying
entertainment they can teach the viewers (predominantly
young children) about respect and kindness.
 What colour schemes do you feel are most
appropriate/your favourite in a cartoon?
I like bright unrealistic colour schemes, this is because
cartoons are often comedic and cheerful so bright vibrant
colours work well to convey that tone and mood.

34.  What kind of story line is your favourite to see in a
cartoon?
I like story lines that revolve around the characters
defeating someone or learning something about the
world while simultaneously teaching the viewers as well.
 What would you say is the most important theme to
have within a children’s cartoon?
I think the most important theme is ’family friendly’
content pushing positivity and kindness.
 How would you like a short cartoon to present their
characters?
I think a short cartoon does not need to develop
characters as much as a cartoon series lets say, but still
enough so that the viewer can understand the basic
morals of the characters.

35. Interview 2 - Review
• Observation: This person likes the more happy and cheerful
cartoons that present the viewers with a message about being
friendly and kind to each other.
• What this says about my audience: This shows me that my
audience likes to view their cartoons as more of a happy, fantasy
thing than with realistic aspects, this could be as a form of
escape from the reality around them. They also like them to be
able to teach the younger audience with more positive content.
Along with not wanting full character development within
shorter cartoons, but still so you can see their personality.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product, I
feel, will appeal to this audience as I wish to make it a positive
experience for people pf all ages, involving bright colours and
ideas towards how good friendship and kindness is.

36. Bibliography

37. Bibliography
1. Leah, Ellis. (2018) Target Audience Research Survey (conducted on 11th
April 2018)
2. Stephanie, Yarrow. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 16th
April 2018)
3. Samuel, Schoettner.(2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on
17th April 2018)
4. Anon. (). Dipdap. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipdap. Last
accessed 11th April 2018.
5. Anon. (). All Shows. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows.
Last accessed 11th April 2018.
6. Anon. (.). Home. Available:
http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/My_Little_Pony_Friendship_is_Magic_Wiki.
Last accessed 17th Apr 2018.