April 23, 2025
Doctor Who Magazine speaks to the team at VFX studio Framestore about the classic animation techniques they used on Doctor Who’s most ‘animated’ villain yet…
Mr Ring-a-Ding captured more than the Doctor, Belinda and fifteen cinema-goers in Season 2 adventure Lux – he also captured the hearts of Doctor Who fans everywhere.
Voiced by Alan Cumming, the malevolent cartoon was painstakingly created by Ian Splendoff and his team at VFX studio Framestore, whose recent work also includes Wicked, Mickey 17 and Marvel’s Thunderbolts*.
Showrunner Russell T Davies and the Frameworks team share the process behind Mr Ring-a-Ding’s creation in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine – scroll on for an exclusive excerpt.
The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is on sale from Thursday, April 24th. You can order here.
“This is proper animation,” Russell T Davies told DWM last month. “There are cheaper ways of doing animation, and then there’s this, which is the real deal. It’s so beautifully done.”
“We knew from the start that, if we wanted to do this authentically, we’d have to bite the bullet and just do it frame by frame, 25 frames a second, hand-drawn, the same way they’d have done it back in the 1930s,” says Ian, of a character Russell’s script describes as being “like a Fleischer cartoon” – in reference to Fleischer Studios’ animated shorts of the 1930s. “We could have animated it in 3D and given it a 2D look, but you can always tell when it’s not authentic. So we went proper old-school with it.”
“Though we’re not literally flicking through bits of paper,” stresses VFX producer Ashlee Turner. “We use a piece of software called TVPaint – which is essentially the same thing, but digitised.”
“It saves an awful lot of paper,” smiles Ross.
Though Framestore employs more than 3,000 people at studios all over the world, all the animation and visual effects for Lux were done in the UK, explains Ian. “As well as Mr Ring-a-Ding, our London team created all the other visuals in the episode: the sentient film strips that attack the Doctor, the film scrolling sequences, Mr Ring-a-Ding stealing the Doctor’s regeneration energy, as well as the more traditional explosions and DMPs [digital matte paintings], and turning Wales into Miami.”
Because of the specialised nature of the job, the team hired in experienced 2D animators from outside the company. “We needed to make sure we had the best people on it – people who’ve been doing this for a very long time,” says Ashlee. “We had the guys who worked on [1988 live action and animation feature] Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is obviously very in keeping with this episode, and also Space Jam [the 1996 comedy starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny]. That experience was invaluable. In total, almost 60 people that worked on this. It was a really big job for us – and an incredibly fulfilling one.”
Tim Watts and Neil Boyle were two of the “big guns” brought in to give life to the episode’s cartoon lord of misrule. “In these days where animation is often slick, and realism is the goal, it was a joy to go back to the pure animation language of Max Fleischer,” says Tim. “It was fun to embrace cartoon logic, or lack of it, unapologetically.”
Read the full feature in Doctor Who Magazine issue 616.
In this issue:
- PREVIEWS OF THE LATEST EPISODES FROM THE NEW SEASON! Including contributions from writers PETE McTIGHE, INUA ELLAMS & JUNO DAWSON and Interstellar Song Contest host RYLAN CLARK.
- Director PETER HOAR discusses his work on The Robot Revolution and Lucky Day.
- RUTH MADELEY, aka UNIT’s Shirley Anne Bingham, announces a special competition!
- DWM joins the Doctor Who team on set for the recording of scenes from Lux, including chats with BRONTÉ BARBÉ, SAMIR ARRIAN & STEPH LACEY who play the Fans, Lizzie, Hassan and Robyn.
- RUSSELL T DAVIES on writing Lux.
- Script to Screen – the talented team from Framestore explain how they brought the 2D cartoon character Mr Ring-a-Ding to life!
- A tribute to SIMON FISHER-BECKER who played Dorium Maldovar alongside the Eleventh Doctor.
- How the archives of the Radiophonic Workshop have been made available for a new generation of musicians.
- We visit Riverside Studios for a close examination of 1967’s The Tomb of the Cybermen.
- Gary Gillatt considers the use of pop music from An Unearthly Child to The Reality War…
- Back to 1966… what part did The Gunfighters have on the downfall of First Doctor William Hartnell?
- We scrutinise the schemes of Daleks in Manhattan.
- The Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda in a brand-new comic strip!
Regular features:
- Gallifrey Guardian – our news round-up including new audio ranges from Big Finish.
- Shelf Life – featuring reviews of the latest DVDs, Blu-rays and audio releases.
- Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe.
- Prizes to be won including The War Games in Colour Blu-ray Steelbook!
The new issue of Doctor Who Magazine is on sale from Thursday, April 24th. You can order here.
