Latest news with #kidsbooks
ABC News
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Why Andy Lee's Do Not Watch This Show is his biggest creative challenge yet
Andy Lee is no stranger to the media sphere, with top-rating projects across TV, radio, podcasting and writing. But when it came to turning his best-selling kids' book into a TV show for the ABC, it was a process unlike anything he had experienced. So, what made it so challenging? "Long, it's so long [to make]!" Lee said, laughing. "I went into a sound booth some time in March last year and, finally, people can see what happened with it when [the show airs] in July this year. "To give you perspective, the first book took 40 minutes [to write] on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne. "[The show] has been quite the process, but I've loved it, I've absolutely loved it." For anyone new to the Do Not Open This Book series, Lee wrote and released the first book for his nephew, George, as a birthday present in 2016. He's since written 10 more, with the next book set to be released before the end of the year. The TV adaptation, Do Not Watch This Show, sees the book's main character, a blue monster named Wizz (voiced by Lee), brought to life. He takes viewers on fantastical journeys with life lessons along the way, all while imploring them not to watch any further. With him on screen are his friends Douglas (also voiced by Lee), Tortoise (Denise Scott), Lime (Joel Creasey), Kiwi (Kura Forrester) and Goblin (Dave Hughes). As well as the main cast, expect cameos from other notable Aussie voices, including: "David Hughes being Goblin I find the most fun because I think Hughesy's natural voice does sound like a goblin," Lee joked. "It was funny when he came in to do it, he was like 'So mate what voice do you want?' and I was like 'Oh man, I want your voice. You know, I didn't hire you because you're an amazing character actor — all due respect — I want Hughesy'. "I love the idea of this show [going] international, that Hughesy will be the voice of the goblin next door that's constantly feuding with Wizz." Lee said part of the extra time it took to make the show was crafting hand-drawn expressions or movements for the characters. While the animation used 3D technology to produce Wizz and friends' basic movements, any adjustments Lee or the team wanted were made by hand by illustrator Heath McKenzie. "The amount of drawings has been quite incredible," Lee said. "To give you an idea of just Wizz's expressions, I think we ended up with 60 mouth shapes." Retaining creative control was a priority for Lee, and was part of the reason talks with a Hollywood studio for the show didn't come to fruition. But Lee himself says being so deeply involved in the show's creation was both a blessing and a curse. "The strange thing about making an animation versus a live action is we used to go out and film something and we'd get back into the edit and I'd go 'Oh do we have a shot of that? Oh no, we don't, OK well that's all it is,'" he said. "Now I sit in the edit and go '[It] would've been good if he kind of fell from the ceiling here' and the editor goes 'OK, well let's just draw that in.' "The problem is it's endless, you could keep changing things. "That was my big learning: 'OK, there has to be a point where you can't creatively keep changing it because otherwise this thing will never get finished.'" Given the effort it's taken to bring Wizz to life on the screen, is Lee nervous about sharing the show with the world? "Not until you said that," he joked. "No, not really. I suppose I've had the benefit of making them and you watch them back and ... watch every frame and ponder it. While Lee says he's not nervous for the show's release, he admits his measure of success has "never been a numbers" game. "As I get slightly older — gosh that's an old person thing to say — it's certainly more about how much fun you have," he said. "It's so hard when you release something, you never know how it's going to go and there's so many things that can dictate how something resonates. "It's important not to hang too much on the results because that would be a pretty nerve-wracking game." Stream Do Not Watch This Show free on ABC iview.
The Guardian
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Andy Lee: ‘It's illegal to taxidermy a human in Australia. I know because I looked into it'
You wrote your first kids' book, Do Not Open This Book, on a 40-minute flight as a present for your nephew and you've now sold three million books. Your sister Alex also writes kids' books. How pissed off with you is she? Hahaha. Look, she should be. But fortunately for me, I have the most supportive siblings so she's just thrilled for me. She keeps sending me ideas for future books to pass off as my own. Do Not Open This Book was originally only meant to be for my nephew George. When I was first asked if I would publish it, I said no. I rang my sister and said, 'Would it be OK if I publish this?' She agreed, so I decided to put the proceeds into a fund for George and all the kids – not realising that we'd go on to sell millions. I had to ring up and renegotiate the deal with George! He was three at the time, so he was a pushover. What song would you like played at your funeral? Tribute by Tenacious D. I actually wanted to have my body taxidermied and be at the funeral holding a tray of drinks for everyone, like a butler at the front. But no, it's illegal to taxidermy a human in Australia. I know because I looked into it. Do you have a nemesis? No! I'd love to have one though. It seems fun. People with a nemesis really dedicate their time to it. It seems to add a bit of extra purpose to life. Look, consider this an ad. If anyone would like to apply to be my nemesis, I am very happy to look at applications. It would be preferable if you have some type of public profile. This question rhymes: can you make a better cake than Hamish Blake? I am sorry to say, nay – I tried to rhyme my response. He's much better than I thought he'd be. Although, tell you what – I reckon I'd make a cake from scratch better. He just buys slabs of cake from a bakery and builds it! I keep saying to him, 'You build a cake! You don't bake!' But he does an amazing job of decorating. I'd be the better baker though. I can actually follow instructions. I don't think he can do that. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning What's been your most cringeworthy run-in with a celebrity? Hamish and I were on an episode of Rove with Adrian Grenier. After the show, he asked whether we were going out and I said no. But I was – I was heading out with Daniel Johns, the Silverchair guys and Natalie Imbruglia. But when Adrian asked, I was kind of like, 'I'm not sure if you're the vibe', in my head, so I lied. He then got invited out by someone else separately, so when I walked into the venue he was there looking at me. I just wanted to hang with my own friends! Nothing against Adrian! What's the most memorable review you've had from a kid? I was once sent a video from a school in Mexico. There's one teacher at the front on a little microphone, speaking in Spanish in front of about 400 kids. They're all listening to her and they suddenly go, 'Si si si! No no no!' And then the camera turned to one kid, who gave a big thumbs up to the camera. That is the best endorsement. I can't understand what they're saying but they seem to be enjoying it. You used to pretend to propose to your fiancee [Rebecca Harding] each time you saw a paparazzi taking pictures of you guys. This is a very good joke. Which was your favourite attempt? At the airport conveyor belt with all the bags coming out. [Laughs] Because there's no way that that would have been the perfect place to propose. The other one that was really funny was when I was bending down to pick up my dog's poo – I saw a paparazzi so I turned around and made it into a proposal. I got banned from doing that joke for a while. Eventually I just had to propose for real. The newspapers never printed the proposal photos – they'd always print the ones in the lead-up. I think they didn't like that I was taking the mickey out of them. But there should be a whole array of them somewhere. I'd love to get them now, even just for memory's sake. There should be like 10 or 12 pictures of me proposing in different places. What's the best lesson you've learned from someone you've worked with? Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Rob Sitch might have stolen it from someone else, because it's quite profound. He once said, any great idea takes three people: one person to come up with it and two to say, 'that's a great idea', because that's what gives people the confidence to go off and do them. Which book, album or film do you always return to, and why? Although it's less of a cool film these days due to the controversy around Mel Gibson, my favourite film was always Braveheart. I used to watch that every year with a new person that I'd met who hadn't seen it. They'd come around and we'd watch it – well, I'd get them to face the screen and I sit there watching them. I love the score, it is amazing. And the story is a great mixture of love and war and defying authority. It's pretty awesome. What's your most controversial pop culture opinion? It's not a pop culture opinion but it is my most controversial opinion. I think maybe we should just euthanise everyone at a set age – like, everyone gets to live to 90, and then everyone knows how much money and time they have left. People worry about these things so much. And then they can go catch up with their family, because people always say, 'Oh, I wish I'd caught up with them before they died. I didn't know they were going.' I know it's controversial and you're not going to include this. Er, yes I am. This is a surprising turn. Have you seen Logan's Run? Look, 90 might be too young. But by the time I get to that age, I'm not sure if I would be hanging around. How about Midsommar? It's set in a Swedish village where they kill people when they reach 72. Oh, that's bad news for my dad. Do Not Watch This Show starts on ABC on 4 July. Andy Lee's books are published by Lake Press in Australia.
