Gogs

Gogs!, or simply Gogs, is a Welsh claymation-style animated television series which took the form of a sitcom, originally aired on S4C in 1993, and aired in the rest of the UK on the BBC in 1996. Gogs has since been aired internationally, and still enjoys re-runs on occasion.

Gogs revolves around a family clan of dumb, primitive and socially inept cavemen in a fantasy prehistoric Stone Age setting, and contained much dark comedy, various toilet humour-based gags and gross out situations; for example the cavemen losing control of their bodily functions. It also featured their often comedic daily struggle for survival, and attempts to advance their technology and society, such as creating fire, and often failing miserably, comically and absurdly in the act.

In the Welsh language, the term 'Gogs' is slang for 'Gogledd' which translates as 'North' and 'gogs' as 'Northerners'. The originators of Gogs, schoolfriends Deiniol Morris and Siôn Jones – both Welsh speakers from Bethesda in North Wales decided that the single syllable word 'Gog' just had the right sound and a simple, direct quality which seemed to lend itself well to the primitive nature of the cave family.

The show is more oriented towards an adult audience than other claymation television series such as The Trap Door or Wallace and Gromit, which are more child-friendly than Gogs. Although often called a children's television program, the "grungy" Gogs with its adult humour-based gags tended to be shown after the watershed, and so was often referred to as "claymation for the post-pub generation". There was an intention by Jones, Morris and Mort to rebel against the 'cleaning up' of the comedic cartoon 'violence' with which they had grown up. Later VHS and DVD releases carried a parental guidance rating.

The original series contained only five episodes each of around five to six minutes long. After winning numerous awards a second series was commissioned with episodes running at a similar length, bringing the total number of episodes of the two series to thirteen in number. In 1998, the last installment of Gogs, a 30-minute-long special, Gogwana, was aired, which was also critically well received and won numerous awards.

Development
Production of the show was a collaboration between numerous companies and individuals in 1993. Welsh animation studio Aaargh! Animation Ltd were among the most prominent of these, created specifically for the purpose of making the Gogs series as a result of the success of the initial episode created by originators Deiniol Morris and Siôn Jones and by animator Michael Mort. Later Aaargh Animation Ltd went on to produce the animated segments of the 1997 film A Life Less Ordinary, and numerous commercials including ones for Levi jeans. Gogs was initially the brainchild of Siôn Jones and Deiniol Morris, who brought in animator Michael Mort. Michael and Deiniol then went on to front Aaargh Animation, and eventually directed the subsequent two series and finally the feature film Gogwana, under executive producer Helen Nabarro. Welsh channel S4C originally commissioned the first award-winning episode of Gogs. (This episode was originally aired on Welsh television), and was funded mainly by S4C. Also by Harlech Television (HTV), and Bumper Films. Comedian/actress Josie Lawrence lent her voice to The Gogs, and it is also her shrieking tones heard on the end titles. Noted Welsh actress Gillian Elisa did most of the voices and Dafydd Emyr was responsible for the male voices in the series. Additional "voices" were provided by Marie Clifford, Josie Lawrence, Rob Rackstraw, and Nick Upton.

Airings
The first series was brought initially to a minor Welsh audience by Meirion Davies of S4C in late 1993, complete with Welsh language titles and credits, and thereby less suitable for English language channels. Gogs sprung on to an international platform with the help of Colin Rose at the BBC, who had the show translated for an English-speaking audience and aired on BBC Two in the Christmas holidays of 1996. The Gogs did not use any language. This was a deliberate move by originators Siôn Jones and Deiniol Morris. It would make Gogs a better commercial prospect for prospective commissioners S4C by eliminating the costly need to translate and re-dub the voices and would also cut production costs by saving time in overdubbing and animating lip sync. After this, a second series, Gogs II, was produced and aired in 1997, and in 1998 the Gogwana 30-minute special and finale.

Later history and stalled film
Both series of Gogs and the Gogwana special were critically well received and garnered numerous awards. However, Gogwana would prove to be the last ever episode of the show. The high costs of producing claymation compared to the emerging sophistication of computer-generated animation (even one episode of Gogs took a very long time to produce with the small team, little resources and funding they had), and the prime time slot allocated to Gogs which would be better filled with "more conventional" sitcoms, ensured that Gogs was not commissioned for a third series or another special by the BBC. Steven Spielberg and his newly founded DreamWorks had recently attempted to retain the services of Nick Park, head of British studio Aardman Animations and creator of Wallace and Gromit, to make an animated caveman film; however Aardman "resisted being bought by Hollywood lock stock and barrel." Soon after, Spielberg saw the first episode of Gogs, which revolves around the consequences of the Gogs discovering fire for the first time; Spielberg was being impressed by it he offered Gogs creators AAArgh! work in the United States instead of Aardman. Morris and Mort met with Spielberg at his ranch and admitted they would be tempted by an offer to produce a theatrical Gogs with DreamWorks, although no deal was made and there were no further developments to the plan. DreamWorks later resumed their contract with Park and Aardman, resulting in the films Chicken Run and Flushed Away. In 2005, Aardman announced they were working with DreamWorks on an animated caveman comedy without AAArgh!; it was to be called Crood Awakening in which a clan chief is threatened by the arrival of a prehistoric genius who comes up with revolutionary new inventions like fire. Co-written by John Cleese it eventually became the 2013 film The Croods.

Plot
The series depicts the Gogs comically as being mind-bogglingly stupid and struggling to navigate and avoid the perils of an exotic, prehistoric land inhabited by dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, giant insects, human-eating plants, and other exotica. Even the primeval landscape is a danger, likely to erupt in a volcano or collapse in an earthquake, and the world is wracked by powerful lightning and thunder storms. Among the show's key comedic aspects are crudeness and toilet humour; the characters do not talk, instead communicating with grunts, roars, screams, burps and farts, and overly exaggerated facial expressions. The rest of the show had an emphasis on slapstick, cartoonish violence as the Gogs spend the rest of their time wrestling, urinating, vomiting, bashing each other on the head with clubs, and scoffing food. The show was criticized by some for being too over the top.

Gogs

 * Gogas – The "grandfather figure" of the Gog family and elderly patriarch of the clan. Gogas is derived from two Welsh words 'go' and 'cas'. They translate into English as 'quite' and 'nasty': a quite accurate description of the sometimes maniacal grandfather. Gogas has a bald patch, white hair, and unkempt facial hair. He is completely senile, hot-headed, uncouth and crude, and wants to do things all his own way. His most prized possession is his club, and his solution to pretty much any problem is to bash it with it. Gogas is surprisingly one of the more physical of the group, often being the first to fight off giant bears and hungry dinosaurs with his club, although this is down to his craziness rather than bravery. At night, he snores like a wailing coyote. In the "Gogwana" special, Gogas is given a small backstory.
 * Goglas – The "father figure" of the clan. From the Welsh language word 'goglais' which translates to 'tickle'. Goglas is the middle-aged son of the elderly "grandfather figure" Gogas. Goglas has a Neanderthal-like face, shoulder length dark hair, and a dark cropped beard. Goglas is a slobby and lazy lay-about, mostly concerned with idling around and living life his own way. Although he occasionally goes out hunting, he is often the first to run away from danger, and abandon his family in cowardly fashion and is not averse to leaving them behind in such situations. Goglas often fights with his teenage son Ogo and his bear-like wife Ogla who, despite often crudely fighting with him, also gives him somewhat unwanted affection.
 * Ogla – The "mother figure" of the clan, and Goglas' mate. Ogla is derived from 'Oglau' and is the colloquial North Walian Welsh word for 'smell'. Enormous, bear-like and bossy, she is the matriarch of the family. None dare challenge her. Though at times disgusted and disliking of the rest of her family, she does care for them deep down, particularly her baby Gwj, when she is not kicking Gwj around. Ogla keeps her dark hair tied with bones.
 * Ogo – The son and firstborn of Goglas and Ogla. Ogo is named after creators Siôn Jones and Deiniol Morris' history teacher during their schooldays. 'Ogo' being a shortened version of ogof, the Welsh word for 'cave'. Ogo is a teenager. Has a simian expression and has ginger hair which sometimes appears blonde. This is due to inconsistent film developing because the model itself has ginger hair. He is extremely slow and dim-witted, the dumbest of the clan, yet is constantly trying to impress and follow the orders of the others. He always fails however, and usually gets covered in mess or his teeth knocked out. Most of the rest of the time, all he does is pick his nose and eat it, or chases animals such as centipedes and eats them instead.
 * Igi – The hippie and pacifist daughter, presumably a teenager like Ogo, although younger than Ogo. She has shoulder-length black hair which also covers her eyes. Igi is the smartest of all the Gogs, even something of a genius many millennia ahead of her time, drawing things such as scientific equations and blueprints of cars, planes and helicopters on rocks. She invents things such as a bird-costume and a hot-air balloon made out of a dinosaur's carcass in the half hour special Gogwana. She is the quietest and least obscene member of the clan. However, also being the smallest and physically weakest, Igi is often victimized or misunderstood, or left behind when the rest are fleeing from danger. Her grandfather Gogas hits her over the head with a club when he sees her advanced drawings, although they give Gogas the idea to build a swing for baby Gwj, which subsequently has been mistakenly taken as some ceremonial building such as Stonehenge.
 * Gwj – The infant. His name is derived from the nickname of co-originator Deiniol Morris' brother in law. It also has elements of the term of endearement "coochie coo" used for babies. He is cute at a first glance, but is actually very brave, tough and sneaky. Gwj is sometimes subjected to the same cartoonish violence as the others, and kicked off screen by the others when they cannot be doing with him, although Gwj is never injured and indeed seems the hardiest of the entire clan, laughing in the face of danger instead of running away from danger like the rest of them. What Gwj spends most of his time doing is crying and screaming (Composer Arwyn Davies sampled the screams and weaved them into the theme tune of the Gogs series), and the other Gogs have to desperately find ways to get him to stop. Besides that, he often defecates and gets into horrible messes a lot, and into very sticky situations (usually at the same time). Gwj often has snotty, horrible colds, and sometimes blows snot at the screen.

Ray the T-Rex
A major supporting character and the primary antagonist of the show, Ray is a ravenous Tyrannosaurus rex who is frequently attempting to eat the Gog family clan, and is constantly stalking them wherever they go. In the first episode, when the characters are introduced in the opening credits, the T-Rex is said to be named Ray. Ray is used a designation for the T-Rex at other points in the show also. The name was in homage to the artist, designer and early model animator Ray Harryhausen Ray's obsession with the Gogs may be as much down to revenge as hunger, as also in the first episode Ray is thwarted from eating the Gogs by having his private parts burnt by fire. In the second episode, Oglas and Ogo flee from the small dinosaur, only to discover a massive T-Rex which chases them off a cliff. Ray continues to appear in several episodes in the first series and in the half-hour special Gogwana.

Ray's depiction is inconsistent. In the first episode Ray is smaller and faster (perhaps a juvenile T-Rex), and in the film Gogwana he is depicted as slower but larger and generally more menacing. In Gogwana Ray, who is again stalking the Gogs, inadvertently saves them when he eats the new antagonist, the Cannibal King. There are other assorted dinosaurs featured throughout the episodes but Ray is the only one who makes more than one appearance. One model was made for the series episodes and a larger, more menacing model was made for use in Gogwana.

Other animals seen

 * A prehistoric mole is a recurring animal in the first series. Gogas is often seen trying to club the mole.
 * In the sixth episode, Igi sees a giant eagle flying above the ground, which inspires her to make a bird costume. The eagle was almost hit by an arrow from Oglas and Gogas's bow-and-arrow.
 * In the third episode, Oglas and Ogo find a human sized, Therizinosaur eating leaves. It soon notices them, and continues to beat them up with martial arts.
 * In the seventh episode, Ogo is attacked by a Metridiochoerus whilst tied to a tree. The boar then chases Oglas and Gogas, making them fall down a hole. The tree Ogo is attached to is thrown over the pit. The boar continues to urinate and defecate on them until Ogla scares the boar away.
 * In the third episode, a thunderstorm occurs, driving the Gogs to find shelter. Ogo climbs up a tree and finds a leaf to shelter under, which came from a pteranodon's nest. It then carries Ogo in the air and, later in the show, Ogla as well. These creatures are seen numerous times throughout the show.
 * A Brontosaurus is seen in the third episode where it died apparently from old age and again in the fifth episode where another one fell into a crack in the ground that opened during a volcanic eruption, however it poked its head up, meaning it survived.
 * Trilobites are seen in the final half-hour special Gogwana, which although were marine animals in reality they are seen scuttling along the ground, alongside many other creatures with which they did not co-exist.
 * A Gigantopithecus mother and its baby appeared in a second-season episode. The mother had lost her baby and had mistakenly taken Girj, she later got her baby after having a fight with Ogla who tried to get Girj back; however, her baby had stolen Gogas's club and hit her on the head with it.
 * A Triceratops skull is seen in the desert, also in Gogwana. In the same scene numerous creatures are seen – a pair of unidentified furry desert creatures, perhaps the ancestors of rabbits, vultures, and a desert Dimetrodon. The Gogs take refuge in the hulking carcass of a dead woolly mammoth which had evidently veered mistakenly into the desert.
 * An Allosaurus the one time antagonist appears in one episode babysitting and about to eat Girj while still asleep and trying to eat Ogo but gets killed off by Igi who saves their lives.
 * A Yeti, another one time main antagonist appeared in the final episode of the second series. Ogo encounters the angry Yeti while fishing. Gogas with a sore back comes to the rescue yet the Yeti fixes Gogas's back when it grab him and chases after Ogo riding on his frozen father Oglas like a snowmobile. Luckily Girj was hiding in backpack filled with fishes to knock the yeti off. Eventually when the Yeti is feeling happy by wearing Oglas's footwear and made friends with Gogas, who is enjoying eating fish and chatting with the Yeti.
 * A Cave Bear appeared in the second season. It went into the Gogs cave looking for a place to hibernate whilst they were out fishing, and then forced the Gogs out when they came back. After several unsuccessful attempts to get it out they managed to lure it out using some fish.
 * A Hypsilophodon appeared in a second-season episode. It encountered the Gogs and was captured by them. However, before they could eat it they got into an argument and whilst rowing the Hypsilophodon managed to chew through the ropes that held it and escaped.
 * In "Gogwana", a dead Dimetrodon is seen as the Gogs are exploring the jungle oasis. It is later inflated into a large hot air balloon in the final sequence to help the Gogs escape the cannibals.

Named episodes

 * Fire – the English-language pilot, Fire, premiered on BBC2, 21 December 1996 at 8.50pm.
 * Stone Circle
 * Hunt
 * Cave
 * Earthquakes
 * Inventions
 * Trappers
 * Illness
 * Bear
 * Gramps RIP
 * Apes and Men
 * Babysitting
 * Snow
 * Gogwana Special (1998 finale)

Critical
Based on 241 user ratings, Gogs has a weighted average vote of 7.5 out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database. Of the IMDB users who rated the show, 43.2% rated it 10 out of 10.

Series
Gogs received international acclaim and won several awards, initially winning "Yr Animeiddio Gorau" (Welsh for Best Animation) for four years running in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 at the Welsh BAFTA Cymru. Again, in 1995 the show won the international Children's BAFTA Award for Best Animation, and in the 1996 international BAFTAs, Gogs won the entry for Best Animation. In June 1996, Gogs won the award for best animation at the Banff television festival in Canada.

Gogwana extended finale
The thirty-minute-long special in 1998, Gogwana, which wrapped up the show, was also well received, winning several awards. These included the Banff Rockie award for Best Animation Program Award at the 1999 Banff Television Festival, and the Audience Award for Best Film at the Rio de Janeiro Anima Mundi Animation Festival. It won Best Children's Series at the 1998 British Animation Award and was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 1999 international BAFTAs.

Releases and availability
Both the first and second series of Gogs were released separately on VHS in 1997 by Warner Vision International with a parental guidance rating. With the airing of the thirty-minute long special Gogwana in 1998, Gogwana was also released separately on VHS.

Gogs was released as a Region 2 DVD on 9 April 2001 also by Warner Vision International. The DVD contains all thirteen episodes of both series, including the 30-minute special "Gogwana", all on a single disc, with a total run-time of 89 minutes. Special features include a rare photo gallery.