The Big Knights
The Big Knights is a British animated television series created, directed and produced by Astley Baker Davies. It was first broadcast on BBC Two over the Christmas season of 1999–2000. It was the first TV series to be digitally animated using CelAction 2D, while the first release of the software was still under development. It is mixed with cutout animation, traditional animation, and flash animation. The stories tell the adventures of the two Big Knights, Sir Boris and Sir Morris, who are incredibly strong and brave, but are also incredibly stupid. They solve crises, usually of their  own creation, but cause great destruction and mayhem in the process. Setting. The eponymous Big Knights live in Castle Big, on the edge of Forest Big, in the land of Borovia. Borovia seems to be situated in either Central or Eastern Europe. The knights themselves are indeed big; according to the title sequence they are "the height of two men, the weight of four, the strength of sixteen". Borovia is rife with dragons, witches, trolls, ogres and a race of tiny people. The only real civilisation aside from Castle Big and King Otto's run-down palace is Borodzo, a  tiny country town in the middle of nowhere. In the town square was a large gold clock which the incompetent King Otto accidentally spent a huge amount of money upon, only for the Big Knights to destroy it before the King arrived to view it. The population is negligible, the economy is poor and the army consists mainly of Sir Boris, Sir Morris and their pets, as well as a host of lesser knights who, not being big, tend to take a back seat. This is mainly due to their snobbish elitism and general martial incompetence; they are much happier  practising genuflection and brushing up their courtly manners. There does not seem to be much going for Borovia. The land has a fledgling television system (in black and white, consisting mainly of weather reports), at least one car (owned by the King) and an ill-fated hydroelectric dam, along with a failed proton power plant, which runs on pig manure. From this it becomes apparent that Borovia, rather than being merely medieval, is in fact in the modern age, and whether through geographical isolation or sheer indolence, very backward. The country borders on the land of Moridia, a richer and  more prosperous nation. The people there are more intelligent, and are always one step ahead of their envious neighbours. Borovia also borders a land of vampires, which the Big Knights help to get rid of more by accident than design, in the process reviving the land's tourism industry. As lovable as they are, the Big Knights always seem to make life for all Borovians that little bit harder. Style of humour. The Big Knights appeared over the Christmas of 1999/2000, and was lauded for its funny humour and cleverness. Jack and the Beanstalk, for example, is retold from the  point of view of a tiny race of people who inhabit Sir Morris' garden. In another episode, an asteroid narrowly misses a new hydroelectric dam, only for the knights' efforts to rescue the princesses to result in the destruction of the dam by Sir Morris hurtling into it from a great height. The theme tune was provided by the Rostov Balalaika orchestra.