I Wanna Mink

A cartoon cautionary tale of a marriage turning sour, featuring real-life husband and wife Sam Wanamaker and Charlotte Holland

When the sea of matrimony turns tempestuous. This cartoon cautionary tale sees the relationship of Herbie and Abby turn from sweet, to sour, to acid… literally. The HaBa Tales series was initiated by Halas & Batchelor to try and make animation for the limited budgets of the new commercial TV channels. Significantly, with this title in particular, the stories aimed at adult audiences rather than suggesting cartoons are just for children.

The pared back look of the drawings was partly to do with designing for the black-and-white 405-line televisions of the time, but mostly to do with cutting costs. Rather than trace pencil drawings onto cels as in traditional animation, here the artists drew directly onto cels with wax pencils. The voices of real-life husband and wife Sam Wanamaker and Charlotte Holland bring an added kudos to the production.