Penny Crayon

I remember it being shown on the BBC in the early 90s. The idea of being able to draw things and then make them come to life was something that definitely appealed to me when watching this as a child. It had a great singalong theme tune and Sue Pollard did a great job as the voice of Penny Crayon. Its one of those shows that really takes you back to a period of your childhood it's just a shame we cant time travel back. Penny Crayon was shown around the same time as other classic kids shows like Maid Marian and her merry men and animals of farthing wood, shows that far exceed todays kids shows in quality and storytelling. To use a well worn cliché they don't make them like this anymore.

I was chatting to some friends about shows that we all loved whilst growing up, someone mentioned Penny Crayon, I absolutely loved this show as a child, but it seems to have been well and truly forgotten.

My era was all about Dungeons and Dragons, Danger Mouse, He Man etc, but Penny Crayon deserves its status as a bit of a kid's classic. What child didn't want to be able to draw things, which came to life, I think this show had me drawing and sketching more than any teacher could.

Some of it is in YouTube, I watched a couple of episodes (whilst waiting for the football to kick off,) and I loved them, took me right back.

Not exactly ground breaking in terms of animation, but it didn't need to be, it was the creativity that worked, it sparked the imagination.

I loved the exploits of Penny and Dennis, as always Su Pollard shines, her charisma and enthusiasm shines through.

Lovely memories.

8/10.

In my continuing pursuit for cartoons that I didn't watch growing up and that I may find appealing, this is yet another discovery I made some months back. I first learned about this through reading up on it on the site, Toonhound. Desperately trying to find something that may be among the better animated material to watch and get into more 'toons from the U.K., I decided to give this a try. It's not one of the series that comes even close to being 100% perfect technically, but despite this, it's still has enough enjoyability to sit through it anyway, going by or based on the premise itself.

It's art imitating life, centering on an artistically gifted, British girl named Penny Crayon. As her surname suggests, she's an aspiring artist who draws with a special crayon that can magically make any illustrations she creates come alive. When they come alive, they also seem to be as genuine as the things that weren't originally doodles. Water is used on them to revert them as they were and a magic eraser is used to rub them out of existence. Penny is often accompanied and assisted by her best friend, and schoolmate, Dennis.

The art style in this has a comic book feel and everything about it is well-colored, but the animation quality isn't the most fluid. While Penny's voice isn't all that bad, the funny but somewhat hard-on-the-ears voices of some of the other characters, such as Dennis, and Cockney accents may take some time for them to grow on listeners. The music, especially the theme song, is alright. The overall plot and the stories may be the best thing about it. In all of the dozen episodes, Penny uses her magic crayon as a problem-solving mechanism, to get out of jams, and for other conveniences. Penny is very clever and resourceful, as she never goes anywhere without carrying her delineative tool or art supply.

In spite of it not being high art or even quite a masterpiece, or the most sophisticated as far as the animation goes, it still should be appealing enough, especially to art fans. As this arrived at the tail end of the '80s, it's still one of my favorites from that decade. However, I wish this had run longer, as it was never explained how Penny found the extraordinary crayon that represents her namesake, which would've been better had there been an episode that revolved around that and should've been among the further episodes, had there been any more. While it may not be the most exquisite, it's still is, in my eyes, as far as storytelling is concerned and nevertheless makes for a fine alternative to all the mindless drivel that would come along later. So that's another reason why anyone should watch this, in addition to curiosity. This may be better, if at least, slightly, than the similarly-themed Chalkzone. Recommended.

This show is super chill and charming to watch! The animation is a bit dated but it's easy to look past that because the adventures Penny and Denis get into are so fun to watch. It's nice to see that there were 80s toons that weren't just made to sell toys (though I wouldn't mind Penny Crayon merch) and it desperately needs a reboot like Danger Mouse, though the chances of that is slim since this show is pretty obscure and on low demand (I just want more good CBBC toons) Overall this is a great show and is worth a watch!