Amblimation was the animation production arm of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment,^[1][2] and was active from 1989 until about 1997.

The feature animation studio was located in London, England, UK.^[3] In 1997, the London studio was shut down and some of the Amblimation staff went on to join DreamWorks Animation.

It was known for its quieter atmosphere, more subdued acting, and more atmospheric pace compared to a great deal of American animated films; these qualities usually led to underperformance at American box offices and may have factored in the decision to close the studio down.

The company's mascot was Fievel Mousekewitz from the An American Tail series, who appears in its production logo.

A project to adapt the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats was in the making, but was abandoned with the studio's closure.

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television[link]

• A Wish for Wings That Work (1991) (TV special)
• Back to the Future: The Animated Series (1991)
• Fievel's American Tails (1992) (with Nelvana)

Note: All series were co-produced with Universal Animation Studios.

References[link]

External links[link]

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Barry Leslie Norman, CBE (born 21 August 1933 in London) is a British film critic, writer and media personality. He presented BBC Television's Film 72 (and successive years) until 1998.

Early life[link]

Norman, the son of film director Leslie Norman and the brother of script editor and director Valerie Norman, was educated at a state primary school and at the Highgate School, a boys' independent school in North London. He did not go to university, but instead began his journalistic career at the Kensington News, later spending a period in South Africa where he developed a hostility to the situation created there by the emergence of apartheid.

By the 1960s, Norman was a prominent journalist, and show business editor of the Daily Mail until 1971, when he was made redundant. Subsequently, he wrote a column each Wednesday for The Guardian, also contributing leader columns to the newspaper.

He was one of the collaborators with Wally Fawkes on the long running cartoon strip Flook. He has also contributed a column to the Radio Times for many years, and has written a number of novels.

Film critic[link]

He presented BBC1's Film programme from 1972, becoming the sole presenter the following year. Norman's tenure was broken in 1982 by a brief unhappy spell presenting Omnibus. After having returned to the Film series in 1983, Norman became increasingly irritated by the BBC's reluctance to screen the programme at a regular time, and in 1998 he finally accepted an offer to work for BSkyB, where he remained for three years.^[1] Jonathan Ross took his place as the BBC programme's presenter.

Norman has written and presented a number of documentary series for the BBC, including Hollywood Greats (1977–79, 1983), British Greats (1980) and Talking Pictures (1987).

Radio[link]

Barry Norman was for some years a regular radio broadcaster. He was the original presenter of the BBC Radio 4 transport and travel show Going Places and of its sister travel magazine, Breakaway. He is a former chairman of The News Quiz on Radio 4 and also presented for the network, The Chip Shop, an early 1980s series dedicated to the emerging home computer industry.

Satire[link]

He is associated with the phrase "and why not?", which originated not as his catchphrase but as that of his puppet likeness on the satirical show Spitting Image. Norman has since adopted the phrase himself, and it is the title of his autobiography. In a recent ITV documentary on Spitting Image, Norman admitted initially hating the way his puppet looked on the programme (mostly because it had a large inexplicable wart on its forehead), but later somewhat moderated his attitude and felt flattered that the series found him famous enough to include him in its sketches.

Personal life[link]

Barry Norman married acclaimed author Diana in 1957. She died on 27 January 2011 at the age of 77.^[2]

Barry Norman's other passion is cricket; he is in the process of writing a book on the subject. He is a member of the MCC and likes spending time at Lord’s watching cricket and is a supporter of the Liberal Democrats.^[3] Barry Norman has a family recipe for pickle that has been passed down through generations, and which was used as the recipe for his own brand of pickled onions, which went on sale in September 2007.^[4][5]

References[link]

• Clive Conway Celebrity Productions page on Barry Norman
• Barry Norman at the Internet Movie Database