The Wombles is a stop motion animated British television series made in 1973–1975, and also a second animated series for children based on the characters created by Elisabeth Beresford transmitted in 1997 and 1998. The Wombles had remained popular with children into the 1980s.[1] After FilmFair was acquired by the Canadian company Cinar Films in 1996, a new series of episodes was made, with a number of new Womble characters. In the UK, the series was purchased by ITV.[2]
A stop-motion animated series of five-minute episodes was made between 1973 and 1975,[3] along with two half-hour specials. Narration and all Womble voices for these were provided by Bernard Cribbins.
Further animated episodes, using new animation models and sets, were made by Cinar/Filmfair in 1998–1999.[4] These were ten minutes long and had several Canadian actors provide the voices. Background music was adapted from the Wombles' records along with new compositions.
A new television series of The Wombles was announced in 2013. Richard Desmond snapped up the rights to the new TV series which would have consisted of 26 episodes each 11 minutes in length. The new series was set to be made using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and was due to air in 2015 on Channel 5. As of 2022 no further development on the series has confirmed other than its animated shorts on social media.[5][6][7]