The Evolution of Ginger and the Vegesaurs
Written by Gary Eck, co-creator of Vegesaurs
Part One: The Beginning
Creating an animated series like Vegesaurs is a very Darwinian process.
First, it’s a miracle that it even exists at all. Out of hundreds of random, silly ideas that pop into my head, this one stuck and went on to become a 3D animated series sold to over 70 territories worldwide, reaching number two on CBeebies, just behind Bluey! I often joke that you know you’ve made it when your brand becomes either a pinball machine or a soft
toy. Well, now the latter has come true too. A new line of Vegesaurs plush toys and collectibles is about to hit the shelves.
How did the hell did that happen?
Let’s go back to the mists of time…or roughly ten years ago when I witnessed a toddler in a supermarket trolley smashing a carrot and a bunch of broccoli together while making wild ‘Grrrrrrrr” sounds. At first I just thought he was outraged at the cost of broccoli. It was organic after all. But then I realised he must have been playing some sort of game. Maybe he thought they were dinosaurs? Hmm…the word ‘Tricarrotops’ entered my brain and refused to leave. Suddenly, the whole vegetable section morphed into endless possibilities – Bananaraptors, Broccoliosaurus, Bokchoydactyls, Pototoedons, Watermelonsuchus. Now I was playing games – in my head of course. Acting it out like the kid probably would have got me marched out quick smart: “Security. We have a lunatic father in the vegetable section growling and thumping asparagus with tomatoes. He is now moving toward the pineapples with a large stick of celery. Approach with caution.”
Part Two: Adaption
I rang Nick O’Sullivan – my creative collaborator – and pitched him the idea. It wasn’t really an idea, it was more: “What about vegetables as dinosaurs?” It’s the sort of comment that would normally have your friends saying, “Gary, you should see a doctor”. But Nick just said, “I love it.” That night Nick drew a P-Rex, a green pea with huge, gnarly, razor sharp teeth. It was basically all mouth and legs. It looked hilarious. Originally we’d make it into a picture book, like the dinosaur books you see in bookstores, but the more we talked about it the more we thought it would be great fun as a wildlife documentary narrated in the style of David Attenborough. Suddenly we had a story telling device. Nick created a young Tricarrotops, and together with the P-Rex we prodcued a 90-second
animatic featuring a David Attenborough-style narrator explaining how the P-Rex hunts it’s prey. You can watch the original trailer here.
But we had absolutely no idea what to do with it. We sat on it for nearly year. In the Darwinian world, that’s practically the next step before extinction. A slow death. End of story. But as it turned it out it was just the beginning. Luckily, Nick knew a local animation company – Cheeky Little Media run by David Webster and Patrick Egerton. They loved it. That’s an important part of creative evolution. People have to LOVE the idea. Good ideas linger. Great ideas happen. We were well on the way to happening. Or so we thought.
Part Three: Evolution
Together with Cheeky, we evolved the concept further.
We created lots more characters, making sure they followed the Vegesaurs rule: Every creature had to be vegetable-driven, not dinosaur-driven. In other words, they had to look like they had naturally evolved from a vegetable.
The Pineapplesaurus is a perfect example. You hardly have to design it at all. Turn a pineapple on its side, add some legs, and suddenly that spiky top becomes an incredible tail. You’ve got yourself a Pineapplesaurus.
Cheeky pitched the concept and teaser to animation markets. Most buyers weren’t interested unless there was a talking character. We always imagined Ginger as silent to stay true to the wildlife documentary style. And the other feed back was the P-Rex looked a little scary. And can we show what the final animation would actually look like? And how would it play as ten minute episodes? I remember thinking, Can’t you use your imagination like the kid in the supermarket? He created a whole world sitting in a trolley. Anyway, along with Cheeky we made a ten minute teaser with a talking Ginger, and the
final 30 seconds were fully animated. It looked fantastic. And we all loved giving Ginger a voice. It let us tell the story through her eyes. Oh, and Ginger became a she. To solve the scary P-Rex problem, we introduced three adorable baby P Rexes—Minty, Wasabi and Split. They became Ginger’s forever friends.
But the series still had no home. The creatures. The world, was heading toward extinction. But Cheeky never gave up. That’s another secret of creative evolution. Persistence. Three years later the series got the green light. Suddenly there were broadcasters, funding and partners. The show had evolved into a real series. Today, five years after Season One and 10 years after that moment in the supermarket, we’re celebrating 80 episodes. Season Five arrives in 2027, taking the total to 100 episodes. And now we have a range of new, fun Vegesaurs toys. It’s honestly surreal. Just waiting on the pinball machine.
Part Four: The Final Stage
Now, whenever I walk through the supermarket I secretly hope to see a toddler sitting in the trolley. Not smashing fruit and vegetables together but screaming their head off because they desperately want a Vegesaurs soft toy. Or two. Or three. Hey, the kid deserves it. Oh, and don’t forget the books and T-shirts.
