Plasmo is an Australian children's science fiction claymation TV series that consisted of a half-hour short film ("Happy Hatchday to Plasmo") made in 1989 followed by thirteen 5-minute episodes made in 1997 which aired on the ABC

ABC Television

ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....

, and 24 other countries. Plasmo the character was originally created by animator Anthony Lawrence

Anthony Lawrence

-Biography:Born in Tamworth, New South Wales, Anthony Lawrence left school at 16, and has worked variously as a jackeroo, fisherman, teacher and writer. Lawrence has received a number of Australia Council for the Arts Literature Board Grants and has won numerous awards for his poetry, including the...

 in 1981. In the 1989 film, Plasmo is a young alien who is being sought by the bounty hunters Coredor and Brucho; by the time of the TV series they have become his (somewhat grumpy) companions.

Production

The series used puppets made of plasticine, foam latex and solid plastic replacement style puppets. CG was used in some scenes as in addition to chroma key

Chroma key

Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...

, matte paintings, hanging miniature

Hanging miniature

Hanging miniature is an in-camera special effect similar to a matte shot where a model, rather than a painting, is placed in foreground and the action takes place in the background. It is thus a specific form of forced perspective.-Description:...

s, double exposures, peppers ghost, live action effects and rod puppetry.

Plasmo

Plasmo, the main character of the series, is a "three and a half year old polybop" who is capable of shape-shifting. He spent the first few years of his life on the planet Pynco, after the Hatchery his egg was upon steered off course and crashed. He is trying to find his parents.
The character of Plasmo was voiced by top Australian voiceover artist Abbe Holmes

Parsty

Parsty is a polybop, and a day older than Plasmo. She wears a tiara upon her head which allows her to create a protective forcefield around her. She has a little pet called Niknik.
Parsty is quite protective of Plasmo and she will assert herself against bullying characters, such as Coredor, if she senses they are trying to exploit Plasmo's niceness and friendliness.

For the tv series,the voice of Parsty was performed by Pia Morley.

Coredor

Coredor, a self proclaimed "intergalactic space mercenary". He is secretly fascinated by Plasmo, and accompanies him as an effort to understand himself. He only ever has one eye at a time, but every seven years a new eye buds on the opposite side of his face to replace the "old" eye.

Brucho

Brucho is a space mechanic who yearns to become a famous intergalactic space adventurer. He and Coredor teamed up, after they both flunked Bounty Hunter School - he as the pilot, Coredor as the navigator. He always wears a helmet.

Episode list

1. Moontower
2. Blast off!
3. Deep Space
4. Plasmo arrives!
5. Tour of Monjotroldeclipdoc
6. Space Ghosts!
7. Plasmo and the bookworm
8. Rainy day
9. Big dam
10. Nice to be nice
11. Plasmo and the golden robot
12. Bon voyage to Plasmo
13. The return of Kila Wami!