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I Pony

A gallop through the do’s and don’ts of pet care narrated by a plump pony with personality.

Children's 1983 5 mins

From the collection of:

Logo for North East Film Archive

Overview

An adorable pony cheerfully dispenses pet care advice to the young. This is one of a series of ten traditional colour animations from the Best Friends television series that delighted children around the world in the 1980s, hand painted by the renowned South Shields-born artist Sheila Graber.

As a gifted amateur, Sheila Graber received commissions from the Tate Gallery in London, Tyne Tees TV and the BBC. Her work was broadcast on the 1970s children's programme for Granada Television, Clapperboard, and the award-winning 12 Days of Christmas was shown on BBC Look North in 1975. As a full-time professional animator, Graber gained an international reputation for her 1981 adaptations of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories for Nicole Jouve of Interama, the agent for The Magic Roundabout, who began to distribute the artist’s animations worldwide in 1977, and commissioned the Best Friends series in 1983.