André van Duin is again working on a comeback of his former TV hit Animal Crackers, but he feels that in 2023 it is all a bit more sensitive. “You get those action groups!”
Animal Crackers, which saw the light of day in the 1980s, is a program in which André van Duin edits humorous voices and sound effects under TV images of animals in zoos. That is no longer really possible nowadays, the comedian explains in the weekly magazine Weekend.
Not in zoo
André is currently working on one revival of this format, but in 2023 that will be a lot more difficult, according to him. He is no longer allowed to film in zoos. “That used to be easy, then it was just possible, but nowadays they want to protect the animals and you have to deal with image rights, because the animals are owned by the zoo.”
You have to pay for that, says André. “I can’t make fun of the animals, they have to be taken seriously. There is also something to be said for that.”
Action groups
Andre still finds that difficult. “Then things quickly go wrong, you immediately get action groups again. You have to be careful with those things. The images I have now are almost all of animals from nature films. They also do strange things in the wild. They just fall out of a tree.”
Where does he get that from then? “In the meantime I have collected a lot of images of animals, from the BBC, among others, and I am going to work with that. That’s really nice work. If I have nothing to do for a while, I will make a few hours of those films.”
15 minutes
When will this be on TV? “When I have enough together, we come up with a program, because it takes fifteen minutes and we may have to put that somewhere, in another program.”
It may become a feature in Time for MAX. “I don’t think it will be a whole program, not that it is wise to fill half an hour. Because then you fall into repetition and it becomes more of the same.”