Broadcast:
Sunday, April 21, 2013,
5:00 PM on Nederland 2
Website:www.ntr.nl/hetuurvandewolf

Joop Geesink, the creator of Loeki the Lion, was nicknamed the Duivendrecht Disney. As a gifted cartoonist, he pioneered animation in the Netherlands in the 1940s, first with Marten Toonder and later with his own studio, Dollywood. Hundreds of cheerful and technically innovative puppet films saw the light of day, mostly in the form of commercials. In this documentary, former employees, his daughter, and former STER director Smeekes talk about the 'larger than life' extra Geesink, who managed to inspire hundreds of employees with his lightning-fast thinking and boundless creativity.

Their anecdotes and the remarkable archival material evoke an image of the creative sector in the 1950s and 1960s that we now also know from the series Mad Men: cigar in mouth, whiskey on the table, a crowded workplace. The employees of the first studio speak of a big family when describing the atmosphere among the hundred animators, cameramen, scriptwriters, and illustrators.

Joop Geesink began with commercial illustration and designing theater sets, but he was soon drawn to film. He maintained lifelong admiration for Marten Toonder, but due to their clashing personalities, they parted ways in 1943, and Joop Geesink started his own animation studio following in the footsteps of his great role model, Walt Disney. When animation became too expensive and live action gained the upper hand in commercials, Geesink turned his creative energy towards attractions. Shortly after his death in 1984, the Carnaval Festival attraction, created by him, opened at the Efteling, tangible proof of his boundless imagination.

Joop Geesink would have turned one hundred on April 28. Earlier, on April 5, Queen Beatrix will open the Philips Museum in Eindhoven, where much of Geesink's work will be on display.

Composition: Berenike Rozgonyi and Inti Mego
Production: NGN Produkties (2012)



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