Beached Az

In April last year, a simply drawn animation called Beached Whale appeared on Youtube, showing a blue whale on a palm-lined beach, somewhere in New Zealand. “Ah, noo,” says the whale. “Ah, noo. I’m beached, bro. I’m beached as.” A seagull saunter up. “Hey, bro,” says the bird. “You’re heaps beached ... You want a chup, bro?” An understated, hilarious exchange follows in a one-minute film that became a cult hit. To date, it’s had 4.8 million views and in a sign of the times, its success promoted the ABC to commission a series. The upshot is 11 animations (consisting of the original short and 10 new instalments) that airs on ABC2 at 9:25PM. Just one minute in length, each one is utterly charming, what with all the exaggerated Kiwi accents and oddball dialogue. Heaps choice, bro.