The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe – Harrison, Con and Bex talk to the creators Christian Bøving-Andersen and Eva Lee Wallberg
If you were ‘Stagg Royalty’ what would you first order be? Con age 10
Christian Bøving-Andersen – That’s a tricky one. It’s a good question. I think it’s probably a good idea to send Ivandoe out on this quest in the first place. I think he needs some education and he needs to see the world, because he keeps believing he is the greatest hero that has ever lived so it’s good for him to come out and see the world.
That would be a good first order – to send him out on this quest.
If you woke up one morning and Prince Ivandoe was standing there – what would your first expression be and why do you think he’d be there? Con age 10
Christian Bøving-Andersen – I think it would be a little bit scary. I would hope he’d be there to ask for a direction or something – I would hope he’s not there to slay us.
Eva Lee Wallberg – Yeah I would be a bit afraid that we were one of the characters that needed defeating.
Christian Bøving-Andersen – I would hope he’d be there to ask for a direction or something – I would hope he’s not there to slay us.
Eva Lee Wallberg – Maybe he’d be there to ask for a new adventure or direction to the mountain.
Why did you want to make ‘The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe’ TV Show? Con age 10
Eva Lee Wallberg – It’s a good question. While we were working at Cartoon Network we did a lot of different pitches and one day we just sat down and thought – if we could do anything we wanted, what would our idea be? And then Ivandoe came up as we love, love, love adventure – and fairy tales and a little bit of fantasy as well. And that’s how it came about. And then we came up with the kind of character that was a little ‘Mr Faulty’ (Character from the TV Show faulty Towers) and kind of an anti-hero.
Christian Bøving-Andersen – He’s not the perfect hero that’s good at everything and not exactly perfect. He’s more like a silly little boy who is a bit stupid sometimes – but he’s a nice guy. We wanted to make that type of character.
Why does ‘Prince Ivandoe’ lie? Bex age 6
Christian Bøving-Andersen – It might seem to people from the outside that he lies to himself because some people might think that he’s very very good and self-confident – but he actually fully believes that he is the greatest hero who has ever lived. So he’s not really lying to himself or to anybody else. He is convinced he is the mightiest Prince to walk these lengths. He doesn’t really lie – it’s just the way he thinks of himself.
I like Prince Ivandoe as he’s a Stagg, what other animals are in the show? Bex age 6
Eva Lee Wallberg – There are a lot of animals. We have a pink Poodle.
Christian Bøving-Andersen – We have a bird – Ivandoe’s squire.
Eva Lee Wallberg – We have a Sea monster as well.
Christian Bøving-Andersen – Sea Monsters and fishes and we have weird creatures that don’t really exist. We have a squirrel, a swan and Trolls – there’s a lot of different creatures and they are all mainly from Scandinavian countries. There’s lots of European creatures that hopefully people will recognise.
What was the biggest hurdle while making ‘The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe’ TV Show? Harrison age 13
Christian Bøving-Andersen – Technically it’s tricky to make all the backgrounds. They are built in real life and all made out of natural materials like twigs and small leaves and stuff we found in nature. So it was very elaborate work to build all of those sets. And then mix it with the hand drawn animation – so technically there’s a lot of challenges.
Eva Lee Wallberg – There’s was a specific episode that was definitely the most difficult to finish – It was the Mountain. Its stop motion.
Christian Bøving-Andersen – There’s a big mountain face that animates and its old school stop motion almost.
How many episode ideas do you have and how did you pick the first 10? Harrison age 13
Eva Lee Wallberg – We have thirty or maybe fifty different ideas and then with the help of our creative producers shortened it down. It took a lot of time because we had to come up with a lot of different things before found those ten good ones.
Christian Bøving-Andersen – We still have a lot of spare good ideas and we’ve developed a lot of good new ideas. So we hope to make even more episodes later.
Ivandoe is quite a useless Prince. Will he get better as series continues and what powers or strengths will he gain? Harrison age 13
Christian Bøving-Andersen – He is quite a useless Prince but what he lacks it skills he has in confidence and enthusiasm. We’re not sure if he’ll ever get better at much or anything at all – but he will keep up his good spirits and optimism that’s for sure.
Play Ivandoe: The Adventure Game now on Cartoonnetwork.co.uk/ivandoe. Catch the new short-form animation The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe this March on Cartoon Network.
