Outer View
| Outer View | |
|---|---|
 Sonia, depicted on the title screen | |
| Genre | |
| Voices of |
|
| Opening theme | "In the Hall of the Mountain Queen" by Ricardo Scarpa |
| Composer(s) | Ricardo Scarpa |
| Country of origin | Gylias |
| Original language(s) |
|
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production company(s) | Gylian National Film Institute |
| Release | |
| Original network | GTV1 |
| Original release | 30 May 1960 – 1 September 1961 |
Outer View is a Gylian animated series which aired on GTV1 in 1960–1961. Produced by the Gylian National Film Institute, it is a comedy series depicting the adventures of Sonia, a "moon princess" who seeks to understand human behaviour.
It was Gylias' first successful animated series on television, and remains a landmark in post-war Gylian culture.
Plot
The series follows the adventures of Sonia, a "moon princess" who seeks to understand human behaviour. She comes to Earth every episode, and is accompanied by her friends: Ana, an athletic tomboy, and Maia, an aspiring journalist.
Characters
- Sonia
- Voiced by: Şeori Ætes
- Sonia is a "moon princess" and the central character. Cheerful, polite, and refined, she is greatly interested in human behaviour and life on Earth, and explores it with the aid of her friends. Her foreign status is alluded to through her unusually formal speech, thick accent, and inability to correctly use slang or understand pop culture references.
- Her human appearance despite her ostensible provenance from the Moon is never explained in the series. Beneath her stiff formal manner is a kind and thoughtful girl who cares deeply for her friends.
- Ana
- Voiced by: Teona Siyn
- Ana is an aspiring athlete and one of Sonia's best friends. She has a passionate personality and is the most energetic of the trio, often dragging her friends along into adventures. She loves sports and enjoys fighting, but is also sensitive to other people and settles on the appearance of fisticuffs in order to bond with friends.
- She is carefree and impulsive, and has little patience for complicated plans. She has a curvaceous physique, unkempt brown hair, and wears a white shirt and red miniskirt.
- Maia
- Voiced by: Rema Nersi
- Maia is an aspiring journalist and one of Sonia's best friends. She always carries a camera around and takes photos constantly. She is shy and easily flustered, but most comfortable around her friends. She is optimistic and sensible, and beneath her quiet exterior she is unafraid to speak her mind.
Production
Shortly after becoming Head of Programming at Gylian Television, Estelle Parker and Cecilia Parker scheduled a meeting with the Gylian National Film Institute with a view to launch an animated series. During the meeting, Cecilia came upon one animator's doodle, depicting Sonia sitting on a half moon, and exclaimed, "Oh, this is lovely! What is it…a moon princess?". The animator went along with Cecilia's interpretation, and the project became GTV's first original animated series.
The series was produced by the Gylian National Film Institute between 1960 and 1961. It was famous for its artistic use of limited animation and its ramshackle feel. One producer recalled, "It was overflowing with animation and continuity errors, but those errors were artistic enough to add to its charm." In some episodes, animators did without backgrounds entirely by filming directly on city streets and rear projecting the footage behind the finished cels.
The soundtrack was done by Megelanese composer Ricardo Scarpa, from Radio Alba's Studio of Musical Phonology. Ricardo's electronic music score, characterised by playful melodies, chirpy sounds, and experimental tinges, matched the series' whimsy and gentle satire.
He composed "In the Hall of the Mountain Queen", a repetitive instrumental influenced by Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King", for the series' famous opening sequence, a time-lapse sequence showing an animator's hands drawing and colouring the title screen — the doodle of Sonia on a half-moon that had inspired the series to begin with.
Much of Outer View's humour came from the defamiliarisation of daily life through Sonia's perspective, and the dynamic between the three friends, as neither Ana nor Maia were especially representative of ordinary people themselves. The low-key, character-focused nature of the humour evoked the tradition of radio comedies like Easy Aces, and the writing helped the series gain a following among adults and children alike. It was also notable for its sensitive exploration of adolescent issues, and was praised for its handling of adolescent sexuality in several episodes.
Reception
Outer View was a significant critical and commercial success upon airing. It garnered positive reviews, with praise in particular for its stylised animation, soundtrack, and the voice acting. It was an unqualified success as GTV's first animated series, opening the way for future projects like Agent Jane, Heart of the Village, and the Kleptechne franchise.
Although only 30 episodes were made in total due to the creative team disbanding, the series endured over the years through repeats, and became a beloved icon of Gylian children's programming. Radix would later describe it as a "valuable artifact" of the National Obligation period, reflected in its ambiance and frequent plot points revolving around rationing and mutual aid.
An additional fanbase emerged at the peak of Rauna Næsve's popularity, when viewers and creators highlighted the similarities between Rauna and Ana in appearance and character, and helped inspire a trend of Ana-themed pornography. Ana's voice actress Teona Siyn approved of this interpretation of the character, finding it amusing, and agreed to reprise the role for several of these pornographic productions.