SPONGEBOB AS GAEILGE TAGTHA GO DTÍ NETFLIX
“IT’S ABOUT US RE-ENGAGING WITH IRISH FOLKLORE AND BRINGING IT TO LIFE - THAT’S THE BEAUTY OF IT” - WILL COLLINS
IS iomaí clár agus scannán ar Netflix agus, tar éis bliain beagnach den dhianglasáil, tá go leor acu feicthe againn.
Ach ón tseachtain seo chaite, tá scannán tar éis tuirlingt ar an ardán siamsaíochta atá neamhghnách sa mhéid is gurb é an chéad scannán Gaeilge ar Netflix.
Is aisteach an scéal, is dócha, gurb é Spongebob Squarepants seachas aisteoir aitheanta ó dhramaíocht na Gaeilge atá ina réalt ar an scannán seo.
Tá cloiste againn faoi Gaeltacht Mhúscraí agus Conamara agus Ciarraí Theas - ach seo deis dúinn cuairt ar Ghaeltacht Bikini Bottom, áit chónaithe Spongebob agus a chairde, Patrick is eile.
Caithfidh mé a admháil gur chaitheas fuíollach ama i mBikini Bottom nuair a raibh mo phaistí níos óige agus bhí an saol sin aerach gan amhras.
Bhí Spongebob Squarepants i measc na gcláracha a deineadh leaganacha Gaeilge díobh a raibh rath orthu i laethannta luatha TG4. Is cuimhin liom go mbainfeadh mo pháistí an taithneamh ar fad as Spongebob agus, gan amhras, Dora.
Is maith an rud é a leithéid a fheiscint ar Netflix anois agus tá súil agam go mbeidh a thuilleadh ann as Gaeilge. Ní fada ó shin gur craoladh ‘Dominion Creek’ ann - ach bhí an bunleagan, An Klondike, i nGaeilge.
“I HAD a passion for cinema and film since I was a dot.”
So said Castlemagner man Will Collins, whose most recent screenplay is for ‘Wolfwalkers’, a film which has just been nominated for a coveted Golden Globe in the Best Animated Movie catergory.
It’s not the first such recognition for a movie for which he has written the screenplay.
His previous film, ‘Song of the Sea’, was nominated for an Academy Award.
And the son of Willie and Peggie Collins and brother to John and Pádraig is now working on the script for a new animated movie, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Ryan Andrews, This Was Our Pact, a film which is to be directed by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage (Tyrion in the fantasy series).
But it all began in Castlemagner, where he spent hours watching videos while his brothers were out playing football, and whatever enjoyment he got from that, there was better to come.
“When I discovered there was a cinema in Kanturk, my mind was blown,” he said.
“I was hooked and my passion for it didn’t wane during my teenage years.
“When I should have been out playing hurling with my
brothers I was at home watching video tapes of stuff I’d taped off the television.
“We were a big GAA family, my father was from Freemount and he had won a few medals with them and my brothers played with Castlemagner.
“I was the black sheep - I was happy so it didn’t bother me too much.”
Back in the 1980s and 1990s when Will was growing up,
going to a local school and thinking of what he might become, there were few courses or avenues which would take you into the movie world. “Back then film and TV was very narrow in Ireland and you might as well have been dreaming about going to the moon,” he said.
He went to Tralee IT to do a degree in Computer Science but his passion for movies led him to form a film society which, he
confessed, took much more of his time than his studies.
Back then he was helping out with his film-making friends as they made ‘no-budget’ movies of all genres and descriptions around Tralee and Cork.
“That’s when I figured out how the hell you use a camera and do you put everything together.”
“They were student no budget productions - horrors, dramas, a few comedies.
“They were just like young lads running around with cameras, roping their friends in, it was learning on the fly.”
Working on those films brought out the writer in Will.
“Growing up I always had the impulse to write creatively, to express myself through writing - it wasn’t a conscious thing, it was something I did privately.
“It wasn’t until I was on a film set and there was no script, my writer mentality kicked in and I started writing on a script.
“I remember feeling quite comfortable and happy imagining a film on the page.”
His big break came when he won a pitching competition at Galway Film Fleadh in 2008.. He pitched an idea for a film in four or five minutes to a group of commissioning editors.
That led him to get support from Bórd Scannán na hÉireann to get the film made - and that led to his first screenwriting credit on ‘ My Brothers’, a film which came out in 2008.
At the same time he had got to know Tomm Moore of Cartoon Saloon as he was doing a Masters in Screen Writing in NUIG.
Tomm, who had founded the renowned Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny, now one of the world’s top animation studios, told how he and his son had been out walking near Dún Chaoin when his son saw a ball, as he thought, bobbing in the water.
“It was actually a decapitated seals head. Tomm went around the corner and saw a beach on which seal cull had just taken place - it was like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.
“When he returned to his B&B and told the landlady what they came across, she said that was a great pity as in other days, great respect had been shown to seals as they were felt to be the souls of those lost at sea.”
It took four years for the idea to become the film which, in 2014, was nominated for an Oscar when the statuette was won by Big Hero 6.
Will started work on Wolfwalkers in 2013, a story that was based on a legend from Ossory . “I thought it wouldn’t take as long but, as it turned out, it took a year longer.
“It’s about us re-engaging with Irish folklore and bringing it to life - that’s the beauty of it, it pumps life and interest into our culture and folklore.”
Will believes having a passion for the work is key to his success and the achievments of Cartoon Saloon, now one of the world’s top animation studios and in contention for major awards.
“The satisfaction has to be the work itself - you’re not going to get the big premiere nights.,” he says.