Now this is exciting news! The Emmy-Award winning Simpson animator, Chance Raspberry, is making the World's first cartoon about neurodiversity. The idea behind Little Billy stems from Chance's own experience of growing up in the 1980s with Tourette Syndrome.
It all began way back in 1999, while Chance was still an animation student. After almost two decades in the making, the educational animated series aims to help end the stigma associated with having special needs, and has been influenced by the traditional, 2D hand-drawn animations that we all grew-up with during the 1980s.
According to Chance, "Whenever I watched cartoons, I was drawing, and whenever I was drawing, I wasn't ticcing". I can actually really relate to what Chance is saying here, as I suffer with an anxiety disorder myself. Indeed, it's one of the reasons I started a nostalgia website, and whenever I absorb myself in writing articles (like this one!) it reduces my anxiety significantly.
Having watched the official series trailer above, I must say that I am very excited about this project. The look and feel of the cartoon is authentically 80s, from the logo and graphics, to the cool electronic theme music. Those wonderful characters with their voluminous quiffs looks fantastic, too. But it is, of course, the puff-cheeked lead character, Billy, who is the cartoon's main focus - the mascot of neurodiversity. Being someone who is about as artistic as an inebriated elephant, I have a deep appreciation for cartoonists, and Chance is up their with the very best.
