Colin takes his dog Cumberland to the park for a game of fetch, but Cumberland has other ideas. What happens when man’s best friend refuses to cooperate?

A small team of four artists at Axis Animation created Fetch over a period of four weeks using Lightwave, Photoshop, and Combustion. The short was originally written by Dana Dorian as a pilot episode for an animated TV series called Colin and Cumberland, which was funded by the BBC to promote the indigenous languages of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. After starting a handful of episodes, BBC Education decided to change the general content of the series, which meant the episodes that had been started needed to be cut from the final series. The series that was broadcast on BBC went on to win a few awards, such as the 2005 Bafta Cymru award for best animation.

After the third series was broadcast, Dana asked the BBC for permission to complete and screen the original episodes at various Film Festivals. The BBC kindly agreed, so Dana and the team at Axis Animation completed Fetch and premiered it at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August 2006. Since then Fetch has been screened at over 35 film festivals around the world and has won several awards, most notably the Bafta Scotland award for best animation.

Director: Dana Dorian. Producer: Sam McCarthy. Writer: Dana Dorian. Art Director: Jon Beeston. Modelling: Cath Brooks, Tom Bryant. Animation: Steve Townrow. Lighting / Compositing: Nuno Conceicao. Sound / Music: Joris De Man. Voice Talent: Gareth Howells. Production House: Axis Animation (UK)
Supported by: BBC Nations and Regions development funding