FableVision Clients

Client: FableVision

Some of FableVision's most creative and inspired work was created for ourselves, often in collaboration with creative partners. From books and animated films to multimedia CD-ROMs and website, FableVision has amassed a catalog of uniquely original and educational materials. Here is a small sampling of our original projects.

Project: He Was Me

Challenge/Solution:
FableVision's animation studio continues to produce "stories that matter, stories that move." In the tradition of The Blue Shoe and Living Forever, this latest film has moved audiences around the world.

Conceived by Peter H. Reynolds, He Was Me is a quiet story about the inner child in all of us, and the eternal struggle to retain our sense of self in a busy world. In the film, as a man waits at a bus stop in the rain, his inner child is brought poignantly to life as he reflects on his past and ponders his future.

Peter's longtime collaborator John Lechner directed the film, which includes a touching musical score by Tony Lechner.

Project: Cecile and Her Very Own Universe

Challenge:
Nickelodeon's sister network Noggin was looking for short animated stories for national broadcast. The stories needed to be completely original, with fresh characters and situations that would grab the attention of young viewers.

Solution:
"Cecile and her Very Own Universe" is an original story by Peter Reynolds, about young girl who follows her own path. Despite living on a futuristic, underground planet where everyone wants to tunnel to the core, she dreams of going UP to the surface, and exploring the many wonders there. The FableVision team created the characters, story and animation for this 6-minute pilot, utilizing the all-digital US Animation System by Toon Boom Technologies. Noggin's Essie Chambers and Amy Friedman collaborated with FableVision to produce this animated story.

Project: SwampDog

Challenge:
Nickelodeon's sister network Noggin was looking for short animated stories for national broadcast. They needed to be completely original, with fresh characters and situations that would grab the attention of young viewers.

Solution:
"Swamp Dog," FableVision’s second TV pilot for Noggin, was conceived by Peter Reynolds and directed by Gary Goldberger, with creative input from creative director Noah Jones and lead animator Matt Ducharme. The story follows a young boy who yearns for a dog, but finds a giant swamp creature instead, who follows him home. The FableVision team worked on every stage of this project, from character design, to script, to storyboards, to final animation, editing and sound design. The animation was completed with the all-digital US Animation System by Toon Boom Technologies. Original music was composed by Tony Lechner, and editing was completed at Cosmic Blender (now Broadstreet Boston.) Noggin’s creative duo of Essie Chambers and Kim Howitt collaborated with the FableVision team to bring this futuristic fable to life.

Challenge/Solution:
This gentle, animated fable began as a story written on napkins, by FableVision founder and author/illustrator Peter Reynolds. He wrote it page by page to entertain his daughter while they sat in a restaurant. To create an animated film from the story, the challenge was to retain the simple quality of the original tale, while utilizing the cinematic resources of animation.

The resulting film, designed and animated by Peter Reynolds, Gary Goldberger and John Lechner, has since won countless awards, including Best 2D Computer-Generated Animation by an Independent, in the 1998 World Animation Celebration, and Second Place, Independent Film category, in the ASIFA-East awards. (See a full list of FableVision's awards.)

This simple tale of a shoe looking for its "soulmate" can be read online, in the FableVision Library. You can also hear the story, narrated by Richard Davies (who narrated the film) in FableVision Radio.

Challenge/Solution:
Living Forever is a short animated film based on a story by Peter Reynolds. In the story, a young boy is seeking the artist who inspired him, and their meeting ultimately changes both of their lives and the way they see the world. Directed by Gary Goldberger this film was animated by Matt Ducharme on the all-digital US Animation System by Toon Boom Technologies. Like The Blue Shoe, the challenge was to maintain the elegant lines of Peter Reynolds’ illustrations while bringing his story to life.

Living Forever won Third Place in the Independent Film category, 1999 ASIFA-East awards, and has been shown in festivals around the world, from Vancourver to Seoul. You can read the original story of Living Forever online in the FableVision Library.

Our Educational Mission:
FableVision is an educational publisher with an outstanding reputation for quality, creativity and inclusive learning. Our award-winning software BrainCogs™, produced with the Institute for Learning and Development (Research ILD), is a creative exploration of learning strategies to help students excel in studying and test-taking. Using animation, music and interactive lessons, the software provides a unique learning experience that can be approached on many levels by different learners.

FableVision is also the publisher of The North Star, an illustrated fable by Peter Reynolds which explores "off the path thinking". The North Star philosophy of creativity and multiple learning styles permeates all of FableVision's educational works, from ClipMation™ to Off the Path Math™ with Tobbs™. To learn more about our many educational properties, visit the Educational section of our website.