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Turtle-Duck Emphasizes Individuality For Canyon Country Author And Animator

TurbiePicture 1968.

Eight year old Richie Arons is staying at his grandparent’s house in the sleepy beach community of Ventnor, New Jersey.

One day a turtle appears at the back door.

Richie fed the little guy some carrot. The turtle then crawled away.

The next day he came back for more.

And he kept coming back.

“I never forgot about that. It made a big impression on me that you could just adopt a little critter, or he’d adopt you,” Rich Arons said.

That experience served as the inspiration for the now adult Arons to write the children’s book “Turbie the Turtle-Duck.”

Turbie, as you might have guessed, is part turtle and part duck. In this case, the duck’s webbed feet spin at a turbo rate, allowing Turbie to fly.


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Rich_photo

 

“I just wanted to make something that was fun for young kids. Being that my brain is sort of young-ish, I just did something that I would like if I was four or five years old. What would I like to read, you know?,” Arons said.

The young boy who receives Turbie as a gift teaches him to read. Turbie discovers he was born/hatched on the Lost Island of Animoxie.

“The duck reads a book his own roots, where he came from. And he goes wow we got to go there,” said Arons.

So the boy climbs on Turbie’s back and they fly to Animoxie. There they discover a world of hybrid creatures: Propeller-Gators (alligators with propellers for noses), Rocket-diles (rocket powered crocodiles), the gravity defying Hippo-Copter (part hippo/part helicopter), Elephant Mice and Pea-Cocker spaniels.

“It’s about adoption, about friendship, about individuality and sort of a longing to find out where you came from,” Arons said.

However, he wanted to get the theme across without being too preachy.

“When you look at the book, it’s definitely a funny animal type book,” said Arons.

Arons, a Canyon Country resident, is a 1981 graduate of Cal Arts. He’s had a long career in television animation at Warner Bros., Dreamworks and Disney working as director, producer and writer on numerous shows including Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and Freakazoid!

Although Turbie the Turtle-Duck is a book, Arons says he always has his eye on the potential of animation.

“I just did a little bit of animation of Turbie flying. It’s the first time I’ve animated him, just coming up with some fun, hummingbird motions for him as he’s in flight,” Arons said.

You can watch the Turbie animation by clicking here.

If the concept of Turbie the Turtle-Duck flies (get it?) it could soon be a TV series.

“I’d love to get either a series or maybe a feature out of it. These things turn into epic tales, even though they always start out sort of simple and then when you get into it, you think wow this thing could actually grow and become a whole feature story so,” Arons said.

If you’d like to see pictures from the book and hear Arons read this epic tale of an epic tail, click here.

And to learn more about Rich Arons and his projects, click here.

Turtle-Duck Emphasizes Individuality For Canyon Country Author And Animator

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