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Classic Dutch character Tummy Tom becomes a theater star in a new hand-drawn feature film

Vaseline August 8, 2024

It’s always a challenge to bring a well-known local character to a global audience, but it’s one that Belly TomThe company’s creative team was pleased to announce that, forty-five years after the character’s first appearance on television in 1978 as part of the Dutch version of Sesame Street.

Fat Fat also known as Belly Tom jumped from TV to print in 1983 with the help of Dutch publisher Gottmer, and has since sold millions of copies worldwide. And now, thanks to a Dutch-Belgian co-production between Phanta Animation, BosBros and Eyeworks Film TV & Drama, the endearing but mischievous furry fellow has landed on the big screen with Tummy Tom and the missing teddy bear.

The first 60-minute feature film, budgeted at €2.25 million, is aimed at children aged three to five. It is the first part of a four-film project that will guide preschoolers through the seasons, together with Tummy Tom and his friends. The directors of the first two features are Joost van den Bosch and Erik Verkerk, who were selected to come on board the project by the late producer, screenwriter, actor and Dutch TV legend Burny Bos (1944-2023).

“Burny was the godfather of Dutch family and children’s television, and he really wanted to make a film about Tummy Tom,” the duo said Cartoon concoction. “When he asked us to come over, we brought our own Tummy Tom books. Everyone in the Netherlands has an average of four. As we talked about this adaptation, Burny felt that there was a good connection between us, and the following week we were developing the project together.”

But adapting Tummy Tom to feature length wasn’t easy, they explained. “Burny, who wrote the film, did a really good job because the books are based on these really small stories, sometimes no longer than four panels. A milkman delivers milk, a letter arrives in the mailbox and that’s the story. It was crucial to maintain the storytelling style and pacing of (Tummy Tom creator and author) Jet Boeke while also expanding the scope. In the film, all these little stories happen, but at the same time there’s this big arc of finding Tummy Tom’s teddy bear, so each story becomes part of this bigger adventure. It’s also a way to keep the kids interested, with songs that punctuate the journey, dancing and children’s voices interacting with the story. We wanted to create a theatrical experience that would appeal to this restless and energetic audience, while paying homage to their favourite kitty.”

Coloring page for Tummy Tom and the missing teddy bear.

For young viewers accustomed to CG razzle-dazzle, the sparse, hand-drawn 2D of Tummy Tom and the Lost Teddy Bear may feel out of step with the times, but there was no discussion within the team that this was the style they wanted. “In the very first meeting we immediately said that we had to stick with the original design of Tummy Tom,” say van den Bosch and Verkerk. “Everyone knows these nostalgic books and recognizes them because of the look. If we were to change it, we would create something new and lose a lot. So we stuck with Boeke’s beautiful style and a voice-over with real cat sounds for our characters. But we still had to animate and build a world around them. Realism was one of our key points.”

They added: “We wanted him to move 70% like a real cat, 20% like a child and 10% like a cartoon character, doing things that a real cat can’t do. And that pursuit of realism also brought us to the cinematography of the film. Most of our shots are a minute long, sometimes two minutes long, which was really interesting for our animating team to work on. When you get that long of a shot, while you’re creating your own in-between shots, you’re essentially creating your own short film within the film, and that was really special for the animators as well. We were lucky enough to find a lot of talented senior 2D animators who did a great job on this film, and most of them want to come back for the second one.”

Model sheet for Tummy Tom and the missing teddy bear.

Research was necessary for van den Bosch and Verkerk to capture the realism of the cat movement. “We spent countless hours watching cat videos on YouTube to get our cats right,” they said. “Turns out a cat doesn’t sneeze like a human, and that’s something we learned from watching ten-hour compilations of sneezing cats. Since our main target audience is three to five years old, we really wanted the parents to have a good time and see their own pets in our characters.”

Coming up with the production design was another challenge, as the character is often set in a sober environment with few props and no background. “Boeke only drew the essence in her stories, sometimes without consistency. Of course, we had to expand the designs, the world of Tummy Tom to make it coherent with her touch. And for this film, she was there every step of the way, even though she was not familiar with animation. We also owe a lot of thanks to our great art director, Leo de Wijs, who created this whole new world based on the few interior sets, always quoting from the books.”

Background design instructions for Tummy Tom and the missing teddy bear.

Van den Bosch and Verkerk have a long history of working together. After art school, they spent a year honing their animation skills at Cartoon Saloon before returning to the Netherlands in 2007 to start their own company, Ka-ching Cartoons. “We’ve built our expertise with a lot of freelancers we met during our time at Cartoon Saloon. Working from project to project allows us to scale up and down with the people we work with, which suits us really well, while still keeping us creatively challenged.” The studio has produced several animated TV shows, as well as short films such as Nicolas Keppens’ recent festival favorite Beautiful menas well as animated adaptations of other classic Dutch characters.

Production team in the Netherlands at Ka-Ching Cartoons for Tummy Tom and the missing teddy bear.

Of Tummy Tom and the Lost Teddy Bear now in theaters, van den Bosch and Verkerk have started production on the second film, A new friend for Tummy Tom, which will retain the same style, but now in a winter setting. “I’ve been to my own film three times,” said a cheerful Verkerk, “and whether it’s a full screening or a quiet day, it still works and children scream and clap. As soon as they hear the soundtrack, they realize that they can interact with the film. It lowers the threshold for them and they become very lively.” Parents may also be left wanting more, because Tummy Tom’s catchy tunes have an earworm quality.

In the Netherlands, where children can discover the film through special children’s performances called Mini-Mornings, Tummy Tom and the Lost Teddy Bear opened at #5 at the national box office in June. The Dutch version will hit Belgian screens mid-September with KFD as distributor.

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Classic Dutch character Tummy Tom becomes a theater star in a new hand-drawn feature film

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Classic Dutch character Tummy Tom becomes a theater star in a new hand-drawn feature film

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