Shaun Tan book becomes ABC TV series
The beautiful and whimsical work of renowned Australian children’s author and illustrator Shaun Tan is never finished. At least that’s how he feels about the fantasy worlds he creates on the page, where readers young and old explore their imaginations.
From his first award-winning comic book, Arrival, until 2006 The Lost Thing And Red TreeTan surprises and enriches with his untold surreal tales of adventure. But as it is Stories from the Outer SuburbsHe could always add a (complementary) touch to this novel, inspired by his childhood in Perth and the last of his books to be adapted for the big screen.
Shaun Tan’s award-winning book Tales from Outer Suburbia has been turned into an animated series for ABC.
“There is a saying that a work of art is never finished, it is only abandoned,” says Tan. “It always feels like a work in progress… But there are so many possible universes in which something can exist. And eventually you find one, and you learn to live in that world and understand it. And after a while, the creative work starts talking to you. And that’s always a nice feeling.”
The animated series, directed by Noel Cleary, attributes 10 of the book’s 15 illustrations (such as a water buffalo grazing in a vacant lot and a deep-sea diver hitting the pavement) to a new family on the block. Geraldine Hakewill voices the single mother, Dawn French voices the grandmother, and Tony Nikolakopoulos voices the grandfather. Brooklyn Davies and Felix Oliver Verges are 12-year-old Klara and her six-year-old brother Pim.
As the younger of two siblings (Tan’s older brother, Paul, is a geologist to whom the book is dedicated and one of Tan’s most valued critics), the author best reflects Pim, the fearless young adventurer driven by curiosity. “I was kind of semi-adequate and kind of annoying.”
Tan, who is now the father of a girl and a boy the same age as the characters, observes the dynamics of this complex bond.
“It’s frustrating, but it’s also very funny because the topics of their fights are often so meaningless,” Tan says. “But this is driven by the unstable emotions of the developing brain. Anger and rage can be very hot. When we become adults, I think we can forget how intense childhood emotions can be.”
The story centers around a family, including 12-year-old Klara (voiced by Brooklyn Davies) and her grandfather (Tony Nikolakopoulos).
As the story progresses, other characters come into play. There’s a punk rocker, Lorenzo (Michael Theo, austin) and two other siblings; Mysterious cat-like girls named Cat (Andrea Solonge) and Esme (Shabana Azeez). Modeled after the genre of “parasitic, dangerous children” that Tan felt had “a deep sense of insecurity that fueled both coolness and danger” as a child, Cat evolved dramatically throughout the script-writing process.
