Pethetic ("Some BS cartoon about talking Hamsters")

It is my opinion that upon looking back over the last six years, the greatest achievement that I have completed in my life as of yet is the creation of my own animated show. For years I struggled to create my own characters and settings, and while true originality is something that you could argue can never be fully accomplished. I was able to come the closest I possibly could at the time by producing my own animated series "Pethetic".

Pethetic is a show about three tortured failures named Gibbles, Joe and Fluffers who happen to be hamsters. The rodents would engage in various adventures and over-the-top escapades as they would try to get themselves noticed and appreciated by the much bigger mammals that currently dominate the planet earth. They are located in the small pet shop Pethetic, found in the outskirts of a much larger city somewhere in England. The shop owner Mr Jap is a hard worker with little ambition, he takes care of his business unaware that his animals are sentential creatures with dreams and goals, and also that his best human friend might actually be the head of some illegal underground local mafia... which has yet to be confirmed.

Pethetic Short 2: TV Troubles - 2008 *personal favorite*



The concept grew from a series of drawings I had done of the characters at a young age. As the years went on and my skills improved, everything continued to grow and evolve over time.

Taking writing influences from TV shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park and of course Pinky and the Brain. I wrote the two full episodes and shorts myself, taking the odd joke that were pitched to me from friends and people I had met on the internet, who were fans of my Star Wars and Transformer parodys I had created previously.

The art direction had come mostly from what I watched growing up. These included the likes of the Sonic The Hedgehog cartoon, Dragon Ball Z, Invader Zim, Rocko's Modern Life and Garfield. Using Adobe Flash I was able to create easy to animate puppets of the characters from multiple angles. This made it possible to animate 25 minutes of animation in a shorter time than it would normally take to do by drawing every key frame by hand. I created my own sets and location to which I used to have the characters interact with and be place on top of during scenes.

Other than winning daily awards on Newgrounds, Pethetic also ranked fairly high in a competition held by the escapist website in 2009. The characters of Gibbles and Fluffers were once placed in a banner next to pages of the like of Zero Punctuation, which is one of my favorite things on the internet.

All the four of the episodes (Two television episode lengths & two shorts) can be found in their entirety HERE. As I continue to use the world and characters in different projects, I intend to develop the concept even further. It is my dream to one day be able to produce the continuing adventures of the hamsters on a more regular bases.

Pethetic Episode 01: Pilot - 2006

 

Pethetic Episode 02: No Place Like Jome - 2007

Pethetic Short 1: The 4th Wall - 2008

 

University Work: Character Animation (starring Gibbles toy) - 2010

3D Model of Gibbles Created For Future Projects - 2012