Set design in Little J and Big Cuz

Australia, 2017-2020

Courtesy Ned Lander Media Pty Ltd

Object First Nations On display
A still image from Set design in Little J and Big Cuz

There’s a world of adventure over Little J and Big Cuz’s back fence. Their house is magically located at the doorstep of the desert, bush and coast – environments that represent where the show’s writers are from. And as locations in the first animated show made for Indigenous Australian kids by an Indigenous crew, these environments aren’t just settings for great stories – they reflect the different landscapes of the people the show was made for. To the show’s fans, Little J and Big Cuz live in the same place they do.

They also speak like them. Each season, Indigenous communities could choose an episode to have translated into their traditional language. Naturally, they typically picked episodes set in locations that represent their country.

This work contains First peoples content

Curator Notes

During the development of Little J and Big Cuz, there were many, many decisions to be made about how to represent the lives and worlds of contemporary Indigenous kids. The show’s writers set their episodes around their home Countries and stories. This meant different episodes could be set in saltwater, freshwater, or desert countries. Director Tony Thorne had to work out a way of fitting all these different landscapes into one cohesive show world.

An early idea was to create some sort of magic portal that Nan, Big Cuz, and Little J could travel through to visit these different places. Ultimately, the team decided that as an animated show they had the power to rely on cartoon logic. In the world of the show, these places just happen to be right next to each other.

– Assitant Curator Jim Fishwick

How are these works connected?

Explore this constellation

Related articles

Related works

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

Stream, rent or buy via Just Watch Logo

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

Previously on display

8 February 2024

ACMI: Gallery 1

Credits

creator

Tony Thorne

production company

Ned Lander Media Pty Ltd

Production places
Australia
Production dates
2017-2020

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

182482

Curatorial section

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Worlds → MW-02. Set Design → MW-02-C01

Collected

115463 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/100652--set-design-in-little-j-and-big-cuz/ |title=Set design in Little J and Big Cuz |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=28 March 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}