Archive-name: tv/og/faq
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Late 1998, there were rumors about OCEAN GIRL being made into a feature film. These rumors originated from a newspaper article which reported about Jonathan M. Shiff confirming that some global distribution company had offered to do a blockbuster movie. But journalists usually tend to exaggerate a little bit, so besides telling the facts, the article also let it sound like there was already a definite decision to do the movie. However obviously, nothing was ever heard about it again, so one can safely assume the deal was not accomplished.
Currently there is no sign of a feature film being made. It is impossible to say if there will ever be one, but, though unlikely, given that the idea was already there and might come up one day again, there is some hope left.
References: Ocean Movie, page 54, Sydney's Sunday Telegraph, November 8, 1998.
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Supposedly the UK broadcasting company feared the series to be recognized as being for girls only if it had been titled OCEAN GIRL. Also presumably a goal was to avoid confusion with THE GIRL FROM TOMORROW, an Australian kids show from 1991. In fact, there is a different version of the intro for UK.
References: Private correspondence with Phil Watts, 13 Jul 2005.
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There seems to be no relation except that the cartoon also carries the title OCEAN GIRL and that the name of the main character, Neri, is the same. Further a planet whose surface is covered almost entirely by oceans is an imporant element of the story, and the main character's best friend is a whale in both series. Jonathan M. Shiff was executive producer of the live action series as well as of the cartoon.
References: Animation Works, The New Adventures Of Ocean Girl, cast and crew; OCEAN GIRL media kit, series 1, crew list.
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As of 2007, The first two seasons of OCEAN GIRL are available on DVD. There is no official VHS version. One sees sale offers for them from time to time in guest books or on web sites directly. These offers are not authorized and thus illegal. The quality of such copies is supposedly very low. Also repeated offers for a set of DVDs with all seasons have already been observed on ebay. From the buyers' comments it can be seen that these are digitalized copies of privately recorded VHS tapes. These are of course illegal, too, and the quality is accordingly very bad.
Several requests for a DVD version were made by fans in 2004 to Jonathan M. Shiff Productions directly. At first they replied that no official DVD version of OCEAN GIRL was available and that there were also no plans to release the show this way in the future. After quite some time, the standard reply changed, mentioning that the situation might become different. Finally, in late 2005, the official web site announced that a DVD was planned. To everyones surprise, shortly thereafter, Series 1 started to appear in stores.
It is distributed by Shock, costs around AUD 30 and comes as a set of two discs. There is no region restriction. English is the only language, none of the dubs and no subtitles have been included. (Which is not surprising, given that Jonathan M. Shiff does only have the rights on the English version.) The video format is 4:3 PAL, the audio comes as stereo.
As an alternative, if ordering the DVD is difficult for you, you have another option. If the show is running currently where you live and you have a modern computer with TV card, DVD recorder, a big and fast enough hard disk and some know how, you might be able to create your own private DVD version. (Of course if you have a VHS recorder, you can also tape it, but the quality is inferior as you surely know.)
References: Private correspondence with Jonathan M. Shiff Productions; private ICQ message from David Banz, 14 Jul 2005; mail by David Banz to the German OCEAN GIRL mailing list, 30 Oct 2005.
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Martin Requart is said to be the greatest OCEAN GIRL fan of all times. He maintained the OCEAN GIRL supporter page and spent a lot of time and money for this hobby. Unfortunately, he died under mysterious circumstances in September 2000 on a trip in the USA.
References: Mario Fuchs' OCEAN GIRL episode guide; mail from Lars Hoogeveen forwarded by Mario Fuchs to the German OCEAN GIRL mailing list, 19 Dec 2000.
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You can order a book about the first season, which is also available as a two volume German translation. Then the soundtrack CD for the first season might still be available second hand, however possibly at enormous prices. Promotional cups were given out by Beyond Distribution and postcards by Jonathan M. Shiff Productions, but those were not available commercially. The same is true for ORCA uniforms from sweepstakes in German television.
References: Index of books available about OCEAN GIRL, German OCEAN GIRL mailing list file system; Ocean Girl, Garry McDonald and Laurie Stone, Oceanic Music, OM8988D; Message by Jenny, Martin Requart Memorial Page; sweepstakes on Tabaluga TIVI.
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The typeface used for the OCEAN GIRL logo does not have a name. It was designed specifically for the series by Phil Cordingly, working for ABC television network at the time. Additional letters for the ORCA CITY and OCEAN ODYSSEY logos were designed by Phil Watts. It never made it into a computer font, however an imitation named OCEANIA is available. The font used for credits in the intro is ITC Bolt, designed by Ronne Bonder and Tom Carnase. The HELEN logo and German episode titles of season 4 are typeset in the famous Handel Gothic designed by Robert Trogman. The DVD uses a strange variation thereof, mixing it wildly with characteristic design features from the original logo.
References: Preface, OCEANIA; MyFonts.
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Inside the OCEAN GIRL section of the official Jonathan M. Shiff web site, there's a menu on which you can click 'email the stars.' You are then presented with a list of those actor which you can send mail to. Simply make your choice and your mail program will be started with the respective recipient preset.
References: Jonathan M. Shiff Productions web site.
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Because of licensing issues. ZDF holds the exclusive rights on OCEAN GIRL only for the German territory, but you can receive their satellite program in many more countries, including english speaking ones. People there could be watching OCEAN GIRL for free. This would make it impossible for local broadcasting companies to market OCEAN GIRL themselves.