Twipsy (series)

Twipsy is the name of a 52 episode series starring the protagonist character of the same name, Twipsy.

## Summary

> Twipsy, a cyber messenger delivers the world's emails and data, traveling from end to ends of the World Wide Web, however, he stumbles into the real world and meets Nick, Lissie and Albert, who experience the joys and thrill of the Web.
>
>

> In the cartoon series Twipsy, reality and virtual reality come together perfectly. Thirteen-year-old Nick never dared to dream that he would ever meet his very dynamic friend Twipsy in real life. But one day his computer goes haywire and the dream becomes reality. 26 instalments of 30 minutes each or 52 instalments of 15 minutes each. Twipsy is also the official mascot of the world exhibition Expo 2000 in Hannover.
>
>

## Aims

According to a site serving as the critic of the EXPO's possible shortcomings, there is another aim of the series, as cited by New York scriptwriter, Patricia "Patty" Marx: ”Twipsy wants to give the Internet a face and at the same time show that the Cyber world and naturalness are no irreconcilable contradictions.”

## Creation

The series was the first animated series produced in Spain to utilise 3D computer graphics. Innovative for its time, the series was the most complex project that Estudio Mariscal had done during its time. Documented in writing in *Drawing Life* by Javier Mariscal, each episode took 100 workers a week for sixteen months. Given the average animated series having 5000 to 8000 drawn frames per episode, each episode took 20,000 drawn frames.

With regards to the merging of both 2D and 3D animation techniques, the most laborious of its kind, a plugin was developed for rendering the scenes taking place in the real world. The cyberspace world however is rendered as is as a 3D background.

## Episodes

The series ran in 52 episodes listed here, each running at 14 minutes, and each one is divided into two parts - the header introduction and the main content.

### Plot Holes

It is common practice to pair the episodes into pairs, condensing into 26 half-hour episodes. However, in some instances of broadcast (for instance, in the European Portuguese dub broadcast on Canal Panda in 2012), half of the episodes are missing header introductions to date, contributing to plot holes.

Another documented issue is that each episode may have at least some missing scenes, also contributing to plot holes per episode. However in the books, some of the missing scenes were retold in writing. The short time for each episode contributes to some scenes being missing, and hence the potential for plot holes.

## International

The series was sold to over 90 countries throughout late 1999, and dubbed in some languages.

## DVD Release

Around 2000, a DVD containing the first eight episodes was released, and in addition contained special features. This included the “making of” featurettes, as well as a DVD game and many informational articles.

Further information: List of home video releases

## Online Presence

Despite a wide release, the series in its English dub was considered lost, until being released to Amazon US in 2015. The entire English dub was released to YouTube under KidsTVEnglish in August 2017, heir distributed being under Studio 100 Belgium. While rumor is mentioned of a European Portuguese dub and an Italian dub being found, there is no official release confirmed at this time for these dubs.

More information can be found on the English dub at the Dubbing Wikia.

## References

1. ↑ IMDb. 2015. Twipsy (TV Series 1999). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2436454/. [Accessed 08 June 2015].
2. ↑ EMTV-Wavery (archived). Available at http://web.archive.org/web/20010204145300/http://www.emtv-wavery.com:80/english/tvrights.htm#9
3. ↑ El País. Article found at https://elpais.com/diario/2000/11/06/radiotv/973465203\_850215.amp.html [Accessed 3rd February, 2019]
4. ↑ BGM STORE. 2015. 접속! 트윕시 오프닝 - 브금저장소 :: 세상의 모든 브금! BGM STORE. [ONLINE] Available at: http://m.bgmstore.net/view/563Jt. [Accessed 08 June 2015].
5. ↑ 미만부 가사묶음. 2015. 접속 트윕시 : 미만부 가사묶음. [ONLINE] Available at: http://sulfur.pe.kr/tech/board.php?board=lyric&command=body&no=1053. [Accessed 08 June 2015].

**English**