It is difficult to sound more passionate on the phone than Claudio Biern Boyd (Palma de Mallorca, 80 years old).
"It has been a long journey," he confesses about the film
D'Artacán and the three muske dogs,
which opens this Wednesday in Spain.
Currently, Biern Boyd is not so well known, but in the eighties he was responsible for several television bombings: the series
Ruy, the little Cid;
D'Artacán and the three muskedogs;
Around the world of Willy Fog
and
David, the Gnome.
There is that streak, a concatenation of successes that marked the generation of EGB, which learned that of "there were one, two and three, the famous muskedogs", "around the world will begin, we will arrive yes or no" or " I am seven times stronger than you, and fast ”.
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Biern Boyd was not a newcomer.
Since its foundation in 1972, the BRB company managed the rights and the sale of official products
from the drawings of Hanna-Barbera and Warner,
Maya the Bee, Vickie the Viking,
The Pink Panther
(BRB came up with the idea of pink cupcakes that still survive in supermarkets today), and
Mazinger Z,
until in 1980 they made the leap to production. And until today. "A decade ago we began to consider the film," he recalls about the film directed by Toni García. “And production started four years ago. It has slowed down due to the pandemic, but I think we have achieved the best animated family film in recent times. I said, pure enthusiasm. "I benefit from the fact that many parents have great memories of those years," he laughs. However, he is also aware that the world has changed a lot: both Juliette or Milady in this series and Princess Romy in
Around the World of Willy Fog
they were absolutely passive (not that Willy Fog did much, except take money out of his wallet).
“Now Juliette goes from being a fan of love to the queen's trusted lady who organizes and fights to the point;
and Milady is almost Catwoman.
We have balanced the image that remained in the memories of the parents with the new tastes of the children, and in the process we have modernized the
looks
”, he explains.
“I just hope that Alexander Dumas is not turning even more in the grave.
By the way, I would like to defend Jules Verne: he made an
English
gentleman
marry a
Hindu princess!
You can't send a better anti-xenophobic message.
And it is still valid ”.
Claudio Biern Boyd, with his new D'Artacán.
Biern Boyd cares a lot about the messages that are sent from cartoons.
“You have to entertain by educating.
I asked Fernando Argenta to help me as a consultant in
La banda de Mozart.
If you look at it,
there is no blood
in
D'Artacán
.
We see fights, of course;
however, no one dies.
There is action, not violence.
I'm not sadistic like Disney [laughs].
In the eighties I adapted classics from youth literature [
Sandokan
also animated
in a telefilm] which, in turn, had fascinated me.
Each of my products defend concepts such as loyalty, persistence and in
David, the Gnome
environmentalism ”, he explains.
“I made that allegation 35 years ago.
If the world had listened to the gnomes, we would not be today as we are with climate change ”.
If the world had listened to the gnomes, we would not be today as we are with climate change
Good moment to enter what between laughter defines as the mistake of his career: at the end of the series, David became a cherry tree.
“There are still people who hold it in my face [laughs].
Let's see, wouldn't you sign to reach 400 years, without tax inspectors, happily married, without banks, and return to nature in a logical cycle?
I didn't see its success coming, of course, and that's why I had to invent other gnomes for the continuations ", he tells to explain how
David, the Gnome
was released in the US and how he created two other series related to that world.
Bet on movie theaters
He has animated Cobi, Naranjito, Zipi and Zape for the small screen. Why don't you do more series? “Mainly because the world of television has changed a lot. Children are with Spotify, TikTok, they live almost on mobiles. But that has also given me other keys: they love music ”. That is why now he is raising
Around the World of Willy Fog
in cinema with songs.
“It will be an animated musical.
I want to do something that nobody has done ”, he assures.
He has arrived late to the cinema, because he was "very successful on television," he says;
"The big screen gave us a certain fear of the unknown," he adds.
“On the other hand,” he continues, “in the current dispersion of audiovisuals, there is still a cathedral: the movie theaters.
It is the only place where the children attend without distractions, where families enjoy a common leisure, it is an experience like no other.
Platforms hurt cinema, true, although most of the audiovisual income will continue to come from theaters.
I bet on them ”.
Which does not prevent the series
Bernard
from being made on YouTube
,
with 150 three-minute episodes “with 3,500 million views in total, thanks to the fact that everything is
gags ".
Return to
D'Artacán and the three muskedogs.
“If you look at it, its design is very reminiscent of a dog that fascinates me, Snoopy.
Although the ones who really love me are
Tom and Jerry
and, above all,
The Pink Panther.
Look, they are both mute, ”he says.
Biern Boyd once met Blake Edwards and remembers a dinner with Peter Sellers, in which the actor ended up playing drums.
“The pink panther
is too much.
That surreal and universal humor is great. "
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