RTVE Play surprises with the pilot episode of the lost animated series
The RTVE Play catalog brings us more and more surprises. In addition to a huge collection of TV series, movies, programs and just about anything else you can imagine, they are now starting to add products lost in television history. More precisely, what they published was pilot episode of a series that was considered lost during.
Despite the fact that RTVE Play appeared without any announcement or hype, it made one of the best decisions that could be imagined. The platform has published the pilot episode of “The Little Captain,” one of the most interesting animation projects created in Spain that can be remembered. A completely lost seriesit was believed that he would never be seen. And, of course, it would be a shame.
A very famous failed project
“Little Captain” was born in the early 80s and became Spanish television’s response to their interest in get away from the addiction they had to anime offer cartoons to children. TVE has produced animation before, but in all cases it received help from the Japanese. With Little Captain they wanted to unite the great animators and escape the Japanese influence that had plagued them for years.
For this they had Hipolit Andreu and his studio, where they started working on a very ambitious pilot episode. But, as they say, they worked on the pilot so conscientiously that they invested an exorbitant budget into it. The goal was to achieve amazing animation quality, allowing for more realistic character movement than could be imagined at the time. They even noted that their goal was to have 200 characters move simultaneously in one scene, which was unthinkable at the time.
Unfortunately, the pilot episode of “Little Captain” did not make it. Perhaps there was some problem that went beyond the budget, since the head reached even attended the famous Cannes Film Festival. Following this, it was noted that offers had been made to distribute the series internationally. In any case, it should not be forgotten that the topic was sensitive, since The Little Captain was about the Spanish conquest of America. Even then, those in charge admitted that this was a factor that hindered the success of the series in other countries.
The story goes that after the pilot TVE requested changes and addition of new scenes.which gave him the final look of the episode as we see it now. But even with these changes, the series was not well received and was forgotten. At least now, after so many lost years, we have the opportunity to see it on RTVE Play.
What was it about?
As we have already noted, the central plot was the conquest of America by the Spaniards. The series begins with Christopher Columbus. put forward the idea of the upcoming trip to Spanish leaders in order to receive a budget and be able to carry out his odyssey. He explained to them at that moment the real shape of the Earth, but in those days there was still talk of an “abyss” at the edge of the world. The series changes the situation and takes us to Extremadura, where the main character is a modest 12-year-old boy. This is Andrés, who is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, traveling on one of the ships heading to conquer a new world.
The series was originally planned to have 26 episodes. However, as we said, the project was canceled and only this pilot was released. Its restoration in RTVE Play is a good way to honor the historical memory of this performance and help those who participated in it to share their creativity once and for all. In addition, it was published by a streaming platform. with good picture and sound qualityso to see this is a very good experience. To watch this episode, you just need to click on the link below to RTVE Play.