News: Pat a Mat na venkově continues

 

The new Patmat studio

Hello everybody, this will be just a brief post, as time permits. Fellow ajetologists have alerted me to this video, today's airing of the News show from Czech Television's Déčko channel for children. It confirms something only mentioned in brief so far, that the Countryside series is continuing.

Parkety and Vrata: animation

Continuing from my interview with František Váša, today I will be discussing two episodes made in 1992, Parkety and Vrata, with focus on their animation.

The aiF Studio episodes are somewhat of a mixed bunch. I would say that overall, there is a significant drop-off in quality from the episodes which immediately precede them, those made in 1989-90, as they are more consistent. Still, I have noticed that this era is favorite to many fans of the show, especially those in Poland. I don’t know why exactly, but I would guess that the sort-of homemade feel which resonates from them, where you can sense that they come from a new, private studio slowly figuring out how to do certain things is a contributing factor. Broadcast history also must have played a part in this case.

I have never been a very big fan of the aiF era on the whole. This is also because I first saw these episodes only after I had seen the first 35 to death and although I was too young to articulate it, probably felt that they were not as good. However, maybe it is then easier for me to look at the individual episodes and see which I like the most. The episode Parkety has always been one of my favorites of the bunch. It is an episode which makes me laugh even though I’ve seen it many times. It’s got a fun story which keeps getting funnier as the episode progresses, which is why I feel it is definitely one of the best episodes of the fourteen.

Parkety and Vrata were the only two episodes from aiF co-animated by Marek Beneš. Leaving aside his work as a director and other functions on the series, Marek Beneš was, in my opinion, the weakest of the in-house animators on Pat & Mat, in-house referring to the three major studios which continually produced the series, aiF being the second of them. I would say his best work was also his first, Klíč. His animation’s main problem is that it lacks subtlety and fluency. Perhaps this is best seen by his walk cycles, which Pat and Mat can only undertake at a particular speed, performing extremely large steps. This can be funny at times, but when used all the time becomes a nuisance. His Pat and Mat are also very stiff, often jerkily moving from pose to pose, resulting in scenes which may look nice as individual poses (frames), but which do not look dynamic when seen in succession. A good example of his rigidness is the final handshake in this episode, where literally just the lower parts of the puppets’ hands move.

Váša, on the other hand, was the animator who used the most of the puppets’ body at aiF. His Pat and Mat are therefore the opposite to Beneš’s, often looking bubbly, getting even more energized as the years go on. Váša’s Pat and Mat were especially expressive with their hands – for instance, look at how Mat strokes his face at 1:09. This is where we come to the main topic of this post, the animation breakdowns.

2018-20 animation credits

Martin Kublák working on Plot in 2018 (source: pro-miminka.cz)

As I' ve mentioned in a few other posts, a list of animators on the 2018-20 episodes would be useful for future reference, so here it is. These episodes all have the same group animator credits (with all the Czech and Chinese animators listed on every episode), which are annoying when you want to see which people worked on which episode exactly. The credit usually goes:

Animation: Jan Smrčka, Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, Wang Peipei, Xiang Weiwei, Li Xiangyuan, Yu Huagong, Xiao Xieliang

Martin Kublák, seen above, appears in the credits on seven episodes from 2018, but worked on only one of them, Plot. The group credit means that it is impossible to discover anything purposeful about the styles of various animators in the Chinese Steamworks studio. When it comes to style, though, I can see Steamworks' animators mostly tried to copy Jan Smrčka's animation and presumably watched a lot of his Venkovĕ episodes. Steamworks did their jobs well enough that 'ordinary' viewers won't spot many differences between their and Czech works, but we are not ordinary viewers. So, I've produced a list of 'who animated what' on these episodes. Unfortunately, for Steamworks' animators, I can only write the name of the studio, not the animators involved. Of course, this is all guesswork (albeit educated, experienced guesswork based on many instances of watching the episodes), so please report any inaccuracies if you find them. I have already gone through this list with a reader of the blog (Buurman) and none were found, so I am not expecting any. For episodes with multiple known animators, screenshots are included. AMP is short for Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly. The animator credits have been added to my episode list. Thanks to Buurman for all of his help in making this post.

• Včely – Steamworks
• Sekačka – Steamworks
• Krtek – Jan Smrčka, Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, Steamworks; Smrčka does the scenes in front of the fence, while Mensdorff does those on the houses set. Steamworks was given a 20-second sequence inside the workshop.

Smrčka

AMP

Steamworks

Steamworks Studio

Never heard of Steamworks Studio? Neither did I until yesterday, but I am familiar with some of their work, namely many episodes of the last three Pat & Mat series. I've previously written about how I couldn't find any information on the Chinese studio where the newest P&M episodes were (also) filmed. I can now finally stop using substitute, inadequate names such as "Chinese studio" and call them by their proper name, Steamworks Studio.

source: maoyan.com

And how did we finally get to know them? Well, a few months ago, after some heavy searching, I managed to uncover the Chinese name for Pat & Mat, 呆瓜兄弟. I hope somebody from China can offer a fair translation of the name, but online translators variously give it as Dumb brothers and Dolly brothers, which, I guess, sums up the gist of it. Unfortunately, Googling that name turned up almost nothing of importance at the time.

Luckily, Rakso, Pat & Mat fan extraordinaire, thought to search again and hit gold. Nowadays you can find much more posters, videos and advertising material for the characters in Chinese in general and there's good reason for it. Today (July 31) a Pat & Mat feature film will be released in China. It seems to be a significant date from what I've gathered, the reopening of Chinese cinemas for family-friendly movies after the coronavirus lockdown, so it's nice that Pat and Mat will be part of that story. Judging by the trailers, the film is 2018's Pat a Mat znovu v akci or some version of it.

A theatrical release means trailers and an unusual one appeared in China a couple of days ago. The studio filmed a new sequence where Pat and Mat think up of their own dance routine for what I guess is a popular Chinese song. It is a nicely done, pleasant sequence.

[link to video source]

The studio also did a making of video to accompany it. Eventually, they also posted it to their Facebook site and by doing so revealed who they are!

From this short video and the one in the ending credits of Znovu v akci, I can see that the animator is the same person who animated most or all of Schody, so it's not surprising that the handshake at the end of the performance is executed almost identically to the one in the aforementioned episode.

More about the studio can be found on their website. They are based in the Jianggan district of  Hangzhou, a city of more than 10 million people. Their full name is listed as Hangzhou Steamworks Creative Co. Ltd and they have been doing stop motion since 2004. The English translation of the studio's website is pretty wonky, so I have been able to find some familiar names (for instance, Wang Peipei, listed as executive director) only on their original site automatically translated to English.

making of Výroba ledu (maoyan.com)

You would think that's all, but not yet! After some more digging, I also uncovered a much more elaborate behind-the-scenes video uploaded only at the beginning of this week. Here we get an insight into the production process of a couple of episodes:

[link to video source]

Of course, I can understand Pat & Mat producer Tomáš Eiselt perfectly well, but I wish I could understand what is said in Chinese! If there's somebody from China lurking here (and I have seen a few visits from there pop up), it would be nice if they could offer us a basic translation or maybe show us the video's original 1080p version. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if I managed to miss another video or interesting behind-the-scenes photo, so please comment if you find some. I have a feeling more is to come.

Update, August 3: Check the comments for the 1080p version and the translation. Here's the dance sequence in 1080p:

Review: Pat a Mat kutí (Part II)

This post continues my review of individual episodes from the Pat a Mat kutí series. For more on the series as a whole and previous episodes, visit Part I here.

Before I go on, I know there are readers of this blog who would much prefer to read about the old episodes and the history of the series. Don't worry and stay tuned because some very interesting (even exclusive) stuff is on the way...

8. Barbecue

animated in China

I'm not particularly pleased with the three 2020 episodes which were animated in China (8, 10 and 12 on this list). For me, they are mostly average episodes on the whole with some funny moments scattered around. Their pacing is often sluggish and things happen too slowly. It's interesting then that the studio has reedited (or is in the process of doing so) the 39 8-minute new episodes into 5-minute ones for some TV markets. I've only seen Sauna from the Winter series in that format and the result was promising. Do this to some of these episodes (even speed up the animation in some scenes) and I feel they will come out better.

A friend told me this episode reminded him of Grill, but I think it has much more to do with 2003's Opékají špekáčky, with the ending practically being the same. In any case, it's at least easy to identify with Pat and Mat and their barbecue fails in this episode.

9. Potrubní pošta / Tube Post

animated by Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly (interior scenes) & Jan Smrčka (exterior scenes)

I LOVE this episode! When it premiered on YouTube, I watched it and then immediately had to watch it two more times, which didn't happen with other episodes from this series. It's probably my favorite episode from the past decade. In one of my posts, I wrote how viewers looking for a nostalgia trip will rarely find it in these newest episodes. That is definitely not the case here as this episode hits all the right buttons and it's a great one for fans of the original show. There are even appearances of two old friends in the form of props - the original drill from 1976 (how cool is that!) and a jug that appeared in 1980s countryside episodes such as Zahrádka. Experts will recognize some younger props as well, like the green vacuum cleaner which appeared in Patmat's first episode, Puzzle, back in 2002.

Nevertheless, it's not only nostalgia that makes this episode great: it is not the funniest of the episodes, but it never loses focus and feels inspired - I can imagine Marek Beneš, who also wrote it, looking at a tube post system or hearing about it and thinking - this would make a good episode. It shows that the two don't always have to be hilarious to be charming. The pacing is very good and consistent throughout, while the animation is splendid and the animator casting makes the best use of the two animators. This is a great resource for comparing their different styles, which I'll write about in the future. The episode is also very expansive as it takes place on six different sets (the houses and five indoor sets), with the attic rooms appearing for the first time, which adds to the dynamic. All in all, a very pleasant episode with a great atmosphere.

10. Výroba ledu / Ice Making

animated in China

Review: Pat a Mat kutí (Part I)

All of the newest Pat & Mat episodes are out, so it's time to take a look at each one of them and the series as a whole. This two-part post will feature my comments about the series, mini reviews and tidbits. All of the episodes will be available on the official YouTube channel by Monday - all episodes have already been aired on Poland's TVP ABC.

I would generally describe Pat a Mat kutí as: okay to good. I stand by my comment that it's the series I enjoyed most from the three produced from 2018 to 2020 and there are several reasons for it. By and large, I was indifferent towards the first series (my opinion has changed for some episodes, though), more pleased with the second and even more pleased with the third. However, I would understand if some people prefered the second or first series because this is the most inconsistent of the three - it often felt like hit-and-miss and it's a mixed bag: there were some episodes I truly enjoyed, some I enjoyed less and some I did not like. Overall and in this context, this variety is to me more interesting than most episodes being on a similar level and not overly ambitious. As always, your opinion in the comments would be appreciated.

The title, Pat a Mat kutí, is basically saying Pat and Mat do handymen stuff. That's understandable as the title is more a placeholder than anything else. The series is just Pat and Mat. However, it's interesting then that this particular series is not that much about DIY at all. A more apt title would have been Pat & Mat: Food (and else) as only five of the episodes don't have anything to do with food or drinks. I don't have a problem with that as long as the episodes are entertaining and for the most part, they are. Conversely, the first series had no episodes explicitly about food.

Pat and Mat making dough

This series had the highest percentage of animation produced in Czechia (6/13 episodes - almost half). That's a big plus for me as even though the Chinese animators (Update, July 2020: Info on the Chinese studio, Steamworks Studio, has come up - click here for details) handled the series mostly OK up to this point, they can't replace two animators who have a combined 55 years of experience on the show. Also, the Czech episodes from this series were visually much more pleasing than those from the first due to their lighting (the Chinese have a distinct purplish hue). The first series definitely looked way too bright and overblown. Compare two pictures from the website, first and third series:

This series features a nicer array of colors that look more balanced, even if the series as a whole still looks, as a friend noticed, sterile compared to pre-2014 episodes, as that's when a drastic change to the lighting was made, presumably due to new equipment. I also found the music in this series to be the most enjoyable. I especially liked Zdeněk Zdeněk's tune that plays near the end of Palačinky, Potrubní pošta and Chleba (and probably some others) when the two think they are approaching a solution. As such, I would rate this series the best in the context of the three 13-part "seasons". Not on the overall level of Pat a Mat na venkově, but continual progress is present.

Closer look: Popcorn (2019)

Today, we'll take a look at what I believe to be the funniest episode from the 3-season, 39-episode batch produced by the Patmat film studio between 2018 and 2020 - Popcorn. I have not yet seen two episodes that still need to be released on the series' official channel, but I suspect they won't be as funny as this one (hopefully, I will be proven wrong!). When all episodes have been uploaded, I will write a post giving some of my views on the other 12. Popcorn is actually not my favorite episode from these seasons - that honor goes to Tube Post (which I will write about in the future), but I believe this one is best suited to the general public.

This episode was, like many others (around 2/3) from the three "seasons", animated in China. Before we take a look at the episode, let's see how this unusually large batch of episodes came to be. It seems it was, in fact, the Chinese who approached the parent studio, not the other way around. Director Marek Beneš was initially skeptical, but the production offer seemed too attractive to decline. It's all explained in this interview with him from aktualne.cz, where he promises that Pat & Mat will not end up like Krtek (The Mole), whose 3D adaptation The Mole and the Panda produced in China was unfavorably reviewed in Czechia.

Beneš was approached by a couple of Chinese studios that would like to make a new series about the two klutzes. Although the author is personally more against it, the company's sales department does not oppose any cooperation with China. "In Asia, whether it is in Korea or China, they want hundred episodes for the series. We shot 90 of them so far, but they were made in 40 years, "Beneš describes. The Chinese came up with an offer to shoot 39 parts in two years with significantly lower costs, of course. "Today, one episode costs us about three Škoda cars. The Chinese would be able to do it for about half of this amount," Beneš adds.

The main attraction is speed. Today, four people take part in filming: a director, an artist, a cameraman and an animator. They work on one episode for three months, eight hours a day, while a Chinese studio could arrange several such shoots at once. "I say that it will not work, that it is a typical Czech environment, that it has to be done by the creators, and it is, for me, untransferable with such a distance. We also had reservations about how the episodes were made in Zlín, and it was the Czechs who worked on those,“ Beneš describes. However, he admits that there is contact between the studios about the cooperation. "There has already been a suggestion that we remake the episodes with slanted [Monolid] eyes," Beneš says.

In another interview with Beneš, the negotiations were said to be "at an advanced stage", but that one was published only in November 2017. So, it seems production probably started by the beginning of 2018, while the first movie, Pat & Mat in Action Again, was in cinemas in June of that year already - all 13 episodes premiered on ČT by September. Interestingly, Krtek's Chinese series consisted of 52 episodes (standard practice; one episode per week), so an extra "season". Patmat film had already produced Pat & Mat in the Countryside, which explains while one "season" less was ordered. In the end, the parent studio provided the storyboards and received animation work daily.

Are the Chinese productions a success? I would say - yes. Average viewers won't suspect that the episodes were not animated outside of Czechia, let alone as far away as China. The Chinese animators copied the animation style of the series good enough for it to go unnoticed. The animation seems to have gone a bit downhill for Chinese episodes with a 2020 copyright date (presumably those were rushed), but that's a topic for my other post.

Commercials from Patmat film

If you are mostly stuck at home like many of us are right now, here is some extra material featuring Pat & Mat: commercials made by Patmat film in the last thirteen years. These were usually uploaded to YouTube by the original clients, then reuploaded by the operators of the now defunct Dutch website www.ajetobuurman.nl or the current owner of the Dutch licence, Trademarc (are these one and the same? I don't know).

1. Sedita (2007)

Sedita is a Slovak biscuit company. This was made in a period where the studio was dormant, this being its only project from 2004 to 2009. The animation for this commercial was done by Bedřich Glaser, who animated on the series in 2002-03 and 2009, and whose animation I'm not much a fan of. Sorry, Bedřich.

during filming - photo was once on the studio's website

2. Tipos (2011)

Again a Slovak company, this time one that makes lottery scratchards. All of the following commercials in this post were animated by Jan Smrčka. This one was made on the Pat a Mat na venkově set.

3. tablica.pl (October 2012)

tablica.pl was a Polish e-commerce website that was in the meantime taken over by OLX. These commercials are interesting because they are made for new technology, but have a retro feel to them. This includes a recreation of the houses from 1989-1994 (this time conjoined as a duplex) and an old portrait of Pat & Mat that was used in some 1994 episodes.

Closer look: Papírový servis (2011)

When I was first thinking about making a blog about the series, one of the ideas rolling around in my head was to review every episode produced up to that point. That would have been a monumental task and one that I'm glad I abandoned. However, from time to time, I will take a closer look at some of the episodes and those posts will function as kind of a review. That explains the title of the post and here is the episode I'm talking about today. This time, the YouTube video was uploaded by the studio themselves, Patmat film:

Produced in 2011, it is the third episode from the Pat a Mat na venkově (Pat & Mat in the Countryside) series, which I haven't covered much yet. Even though I cannot find any mention of it at the moment, I remember reading an article about this episode premiering on the Zlín Film Festival. It is my favorite episode from that 13-episode series made over six years, mostly because of its absurdist plot. The plot is divided into three parts: 1) Pat & Mat enjoying their meal, 2) the two trying out ways to produce paper plates and 3) the two producting paper plates infinitely. Even though this is a longer episode (8:30 in length), only the second part lags a bit, while I like the tempo of the other two parts. As is the custom with episodes from Patmat, the first shot shows the setting where the action takes place.

This rustic setting was replicated in the 2009 Pat & Mat computer game. I like the general atmosphere of this series, which undoubtedly purposefully harkens back to the 1982-85 episodes set in the countryside as well. The opening of the episode is somewhat an anti-opening for the series; in it, everything goes well and the two handymen show skill and imagination in coming up with different paper tableware. They enjoy sausages, the local Kremžska mustard and some foreign ketchup with a funny label - strašně hot (terribly hot).

The core team that made this episode consisted of only four people from the Patmat film studio, which is in actuality 60 square meters located in an apartment house's basement in Hostivice near Prague. From right to left, Marek Beneš wrote and directed the episode, Jan Bouzek built the sets and most of the props, Jan Chvojka was the cameraman and Jan Smrčka the animator. Here they are in 2010 working on the previous episode, Vodovod:

archive photo from the studio's website

What's in a name?

This is the first post to be published after the corona virus has spread through Europe and its pandemic has been declared. I wish all of you good health. Please follow the advice of medical experts and protect yourselves and your loved ones. Only together can we beat the virus in this difficult time. Stay safe!

Pat & Mat is a show famous all over the world. However, the official name of the series as it is today only came about after the series had already been sold to more than 40 countries. Here is a list of names of the show in different countries, taken from Wikipedia. Users from all over the world have amended it with titles from their respective countries.

Language(s)	Title(s)
Arabic	"زينغو و رينغو" (Zingo and Ringo)
Catalan	"En Pat i en Mat"
Croatian	"A je to! (I to je to!) Pat i Mat"
Danish	"Naboerne Per & Mads (The Neighbors Per & Mads)"
Dutch*	"Buurman en Buurman" (Neighbour and Neighbour), formerly "De twee stuntels" (The two klutzes)
English	"Pat and Mat"
Estonian	"Meistrimehed Pat ja Mat" (Handymen Pat and Mat)
Finnish	"Hupsis!, Pat ja Mat" (Oops!, Pat and Mat)
German	"… und fertig!" (... and that's it!), "Pat und Mat", "Peter und Paul", "Sepp und Heiri" (in Switzerland), "Mack und Macke (in DDR)
Hungarian	"Kétbalkezesek" (Fumblers) (literally "2 Left Handers"), Pat és Mat
Icelandic	"Klaufabárðarnir" (The clumsy guys)
Japanese	"パットとマット"
Korean	"패트와 매트"
Macedonian	"Пат и Мат"
Norwegian	"To gode naboer" (Two Good Neighbours)
Persian	"!همینه " (This is it!) also "پت و مت" (Pat & Mat)
Polish	"Sąsiedzi (The Neighbours), Pat i Mat"
Portuguese	"Zeca e Joca"
Romanian	"Asta e! Pat și Mat"
Russian	"Тяпа и Ляпа" (Tlyapa and Lyapa), "Пат и Мат", "Соседи" (Neighbours)
Slovenian	"A je to! Pat in Mat"
South-Africa	"Hans en Mans"
Spanish	"Los Chapuceros", "Pat y Mat"
Swedish	"Två snubbar (Two dudes)
Welsh	"Now a Ned"

The international titles can be divided into four groups: 1) ... a je to! and its translations (... und fertig!),  2) distinctive, native names for the two characters (Zingo & Ringo), 3) variations of Pat and Mat after 1989 and 4) usually one-word titles referring to both of the characters, mostly pointing out that they are neighbours (Sąsiedzi). Some of these are also combinations of one of the above, like the Dutch Buurman en Buurman.

This post is, however, primarily concerned with how the original names came to be in the first place.

As explained by his son Marek, the genesis of the handymen duo were comic strips by Lubomír Beneš published in local newspapers. They featured two characters named pan (Mr.) Ouholíček and pan Sedlec. The names were borrowed from two villages near Roztoky, where Beneš lived, Úholičky and Sedlec, which you can easily find on Google Maps these days. Unfortunately, no other details about these comic strips were ever put forward by Marek. We don't know what the characters looked like or where and when were the strips published.

In 1976, our heroes were truly born when Beneš and dramaturge Jiří Kubíček, who had worked together since 1974, were joined by cartoonist Vladimír Jiránek. In an interview, Beneš stated that he and Jiránek "locked themselves in the studio and drew and designed until they came to the look of the two figures". Below, you can see Marek Beneš holding the first page of the technical screenplay for the premiere short, Kuťáci. The cover reveals that its working title was Podařené dopoledne (A Nice Morning) and projected length 197 meters. You can see the names I previously mentioned, with additions next to them: Ouholíček became Červeňák (Red), while Sedlec became Žluťák (Yellow).

photo: ČT show Gejzír

What does Kuťáci even mean, you ask? Well, it's not that easy to explain. The official translation used in the 1990s was The Tinkers and it's mostly there. Kuťáci (pronounced coo-tyah-tsee for all you non-Czechs) is the plural form of the noun kuťák - notice the rhyming analogy to Žluťák and Červeňák; a common name for the two characters in Czech is also ajeťáci, derived from the name of the series I discuss down below. Kuťák in itself seems to be a bit of an obscure expression, as I couldn't find it in any Czech online dictionary, while it also appears as a surname. I've been informed by a Czech speaker that kuťák is, as I suspected, a colloquial term for handyman, obviously related to the formal designation kutil.

New series premieres

A new episode, the first of 13 from the new series Pat a Mat kutí (Pat & Mat do DIY - there's no official translation yet), was released on March 5. It is episode 33 (meaning ep. 7/13 in the series) and was posted on Attraction Distribution's (one of the worldwide distributors of the series) Vimeo profile (link here), but the video posted there is slowed down, so here's a link to a corrected version from a dedicated Polish fan. The title is Automyčka, or Car Wash:

I thought this was a funny and satisfying episode, not a bad way to open the new series. The previous 6 episodes were released on December 17 last year and are officially available free of charge on this link: https://www.televizeseznam.cz/porad/pat-mat

UPDATE, March 11: The titles for the next 13 episodes with screenshots have just been announced on Patmat film's website. Click the following links for Czech or English lists.

I haven't had a chance to cover the newest episodes on this blog yet, so this is an occasion to air out some opinions and criticisms of them. This episode is one of 39 episodes split into three 13-part series: Pat a Mat nás baví (Pat & Mat Entertain Us), Pat a Mat v zimě (Pat & Mat in Winter) and the new series, which is basically the first series renamed. Although the episodes are still technically on a high level and were made the same way as older episodes (the only difference being digitization: they are now shot digitally in 4K), the newest episodes generally can't hold a candle to older episodes. It can be said that the newest episodes are all decent, but not much else. There are not (m)any stand-out episodes and there aren't many really bad ones.

The first series, Pat a Mat nás baví, was especially disappointing. It was the first series with these characters that I didn't really enjoy overall and I consider it a step down from Pat & Mat in the Countryside (Pat a Mat na venkově), the series that preceded it. The winter series was an improvement, so I hope the third one will be as well. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not against making new episodes, but I am against making 39 of them in 3 years, numbers which were not reached even when three studios produced episodes at the same time. I'm afraid that is just hyperproduction. Although we can all agree that the heights of ...a je to! will never be reached again, there is always potential for good adventures with these characters if we tread carefully.

The car wash contraption from the episode

Director Marek Beneš has stated that finding new ideas for the episodes is really tough. This was painfully obvious in the often boring and monotonous first series and prompted the studio to hire new writers, specifically Štěpán Gajdoš, who was born in 1997, just like the author of this blog. Interestingly, the story credit for this episode is the first ever given to Kees Prins, the voice of Pat in Dutch dubbings. In this interview from 2018, Prins said:

Well, they did approach us to maybe think about ideas for episodes, because they are now - I believe - making 36 of them, with a master plan of 81 in total. So, they also need feedback from other people, and, of course, it is very nice that they have asked us. I said: first, let me think. Then, I made three stories and sent them to the studio. And they have already chosen one of those three, it still has to be made, but it is already in the pipeline.

Other interesting story shouts are Ladislav Pálka, the Ateliery Bonton Zlín director from 2003-04 (maybe an unused script from that time) and this episode's animator's son.

Even though it was fun, I feel this episode would have been even better if it was condensed into a 7-minute episode with the action sped up. Pacing is problematic in the new series. The action often feels overdrawn; there is a sense that not much (or rather not enough) is happening, which wasn't the case with Countryside. A further hindrance is that all episodes are timed to exactly 8:00, which leaves no room for improvisation during filming. In 2003-04, the episodes were timed to 7:00. The slowing down might also be connected to the target audience: as promotional leaflets say, the new series is marketed to children aged 3-8.

Mensdorff-Pouilly working on a yet unreleased episode (volskrant.nl)

"I did not want to spend the next 15 years animating 30-odd episodes with one animator", Beneš said in an interview, referring to the 2011-15 episodes, where Jan Smrčka worked as the sole animator. Now, seven animators, two Czech and five Chinese, get to do the work. Without much guessing, I can say that Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly animated this episode in its entirety. His handprint is all over it: the fluid, but unique way the characters move (notice their wobbly walk cycle), and Mat's appearance cannot be missed. However, I noticed a certain stiffness in some scenes of the episode, which is probably a result of the fast production schedule. The stiffness can especially be noticed in episodes animated in an unnamed Chinese studio, where young animators work to get these episodes out faster. I've tried to find out the name of the studio, but it has never been mentioned in any interview. Googling the Chinese names listed in the credits also doesn't turn up any results. Beneš criticized the studio in this 2019 interview, saying they finished the episodes later than Patmat film was originally told. These delays meant the studio had to ask for an extension of their 2-year deal with Czech Television. Yet another evidence of a the production being quite hectic is that post-production mistakes occur here and there: look at this scene from the episode, where part of the frame is left unused.

Countryside, the series preceding these three new series, had a much more nostalgic atmosphere and was overall more enjoyable. An important factor in that was also Petr Skoumal's music. Skoumal sadly passed away in 2014 and the last four Countryside episodes had to be completed with music he composed for previous episodes. The new composer is Zdeněk Zdeněk, who possesses years of experience in composing animated series. Skoumal's shoes are very tough to fill after 90 episodes and Zdeněk was only partially successful - I was often annoyed with his music in the first series as I thought there was a certain overload in that department. He improved during the winter series, but there is one major objection I have regardinv his scores - not counting titles, he has never utilized the Pat & Mat theme in any way. As Skoumal used it in practically every 2000s episode, this is a step away from tradition. Older viewers would be pleased to hear the old theme here and there.

Marek Beneš, Zdeněk Zdeněk (patmat.cz)

One of the reasons older viewers still tune into Pat & Mat is that they are given a nostalgia trip, something which, I believe, they can't quite get from these episodes. Before writing this post, I talked with some older viewers and consulted Czech reviews; most of them say that a certain magic and charm of the series has been lost. To paraphrase an old title, you could hear them say: ... and that's not it! 

our heroes

Maybe that's a bit too harsh. The new episodes still remain a unique programme. They are surely interesting to children audiences even though they won't be an older fan's cup of tea. No matter what, it is still Pat & Mat. This blog will therefore continue to keep track of new episodes as they start to appear in the future. Patmat film is currently preparing production of further new episodes, which will start next year.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the newest episodes in the comments below.

Unreleased episode Karty and the dissolution of aiF Studio

Introduction

Pat & Mat's history is full of great stories and tidbits. Marek Beneš, the current director of the series, often tells the story of how he went to a market in Iran while promoting the series there and stumbled upon a seller with unofficial Pat & Mat merchandise. The vendor repeatedly tried to assure him that Mat was in fact the one with the yellow shirt, completely unaware of who he was talking to. However, there is one story that captures the imagination of anyone who even superficially looks at the history of the series and it's the story of the would-be 50th episode of the series, Karty (or Playing Cards in English), a fully completed episode from 1998 which never officially saw the light of day. It is like one of the duo’s ridiculous inventions ― prepared, animated, completed and then never seen, making it completely dysfunctional. 

our heroes playing cards in the eponymous episode

Naturally, as soon as word got out to that this blog exists, a request to cover the history of the episode was requested. This text will cover the episode’s history and the dissolution of aiF Studio that produced it. But first, let’s take a closer look at the mythology built around this episode in the preceding years.

How did we get here? Info about the episode online

Karty’s existence would have probably been mostly unheard of before 2014 had it not been mentioned on the aiF Studio’s official website back in the day. According to the website, Karty was supposed to have been the first in a series of 52 new episodes which would also have been dubbed. This was an insanely ambitious project and would have taken several years to complete. However, the website, available to this day, but on a different address, also contained an important remark: the episode was not authorized for release or distribution. 

aiF Studio's mention of Karty

The Pat & Mat fansite, which served as the most informed website about the series during the early 2000s, also found the episode to be a complete mystery, except for the fact that two snippets of it could be seen on a Korean website. We’ll get to that later. 

Info about the episode on the fansite

The official website of the Patmat studio, opened in 2001 by Marek Beneš, ignored the episode’s existence completely, as it does to this day, which is given the episode’s status completely logical. This was how things remained until sometime around 2006 the website of the studio animation people uploaded these four screenshots of the episode. 

Marek Beneš interview (2017)

A neat interview with Marek Beneš was posted on the Croatian website express.hr in September of 2017. Available here, this interview by Paula Bobanović is one of the better interviews with Marek posted online, so I'll translate it here. The images also come from that interview unless noted otherwise.

When did you get the idea to make a feature film with Pat & Mat?

The idea to bring Pat & Mat to the movie theaters was born in 2016, when the duo celebrated their 40^th birthday. Actually, they had originally appeared in cinemas, as the first episode was made to be distributed in movie theaters.

How did you find the team which made the whole movie and were production companies interested in financing the project?

This time everything happened in reverse. The movie was actually supposed to be a series made for television, but we released it in cinemas for the 40^th anniversary as well. All the work was done by one animator, while myself and my production company financed the movie on our own, without anyone's help.

in the Patmat film studio, 2014

In how many countries has the show been broadcast by now and in which countries is it currently airing?

My father said that the series was, around 30 years ago, bought by more than 80 countries, while my movie is currently being shown in 20, which include Croatia, South Korea, the Scandinavian countries, France and, of course, Czechia and Slovakia.

How old were you when your father started working on the series with his colleague, illustrator Vladimír Jiránek? Were you even interested in what they were doing since the show was actually meant for adults?

Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly: animator profile

Animators are one of the unsung heroes of Pat & Mat and probably every stop motion series. They are the ones who spend the most time actually creating the action we see on the screen, which makes their work vitally important.

While they have mostly stuck to similar principles throughout the years, each animator on this series has some quirks and differences which make their style unique. One of these animators, and definitely a legendary one, is Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly.

at work in 2019 (photo: ČT)

Biography

Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly was born on January 9, 1948 in České Budějovice. He is originally from a known aristocratic family whose roots are in Czechia, France and Austria. Actually, Alfons is a count, which makes him probably the only count to have worked on Pat & Mat. ČT produced a documentary about his family as part of their Blue Blood series. It can be viewed here, but only if you access it from Czechia.

He joined the Jiří Trnka studio in 1969 and started animating sometime in the 1970s, working on many important films, with different directors such as Stanislav Látal and Jiří Barta. When Lubomír Beneš opened his aiF Studio, Alfons followed him there and worked up to the 1997 Jája a Pája series. When aiF went to pieces in 1998, he joined Hafan Film, while also working on some episodes for Patmat. In the next decades he again worked on some feature films, most notably Toys in the Attic and Fimfárum 2.

Even though he is about to turn 72, Mensdorff-Pouilly is still working on Pat & Mat, animating some of the episodes of the new 39 episodes due for TV release 2018-2020. Along with puppet armature maker Ondřej Zika, he is the only member of the current production team who had some involvement on the original ...a je to! series.

Pat & Mat career

His Pat & Mat career spans four decades. After animating on the 1982 episode Mal'ovanie, he worked on the episodes made in aiF, three from 1992 and four from 1994. He handled the episodes which took place outside, while František Váša worked on the indoor sets. Interestingly, in one recent interview Váša stated that a mishap happened to one of his colleagues, presumably this animator, when during the replicating process a negative cutter severely damaged the negative on which a Pat & Mat episode had been filmed, which meant that the whole short had to be reshot from scratch. I wonder which episode was affeceted by that.

at work on ep. #45 in 1994 (photo by I. Vít)