Sir Paul McCartoon-ey: Former Beatle's lost sketches of Bruce McMouse go on sale... but will they be bigger than cheese-us?

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 07:23 EST, 8 June 2011

Original drawings by Sir Paul McCartney that were turned into a bizarre animation that was never released have emerged for sale.

The former Beatle created the characters of Bruce McMouse and his family who lived under the stage where his band Wings were playing.

From his drawings in 1973 a professional animator turned them into a cartoon.

This sketch by Sir Paul McCartney, who created the characters of Bruce McMouse and his family who lived under the stage where his band Wings were playing and interacted with members of the group, is one of many going up for auction

Sir Paul's drawings, which include one of a walrus, are set to fetch £25,000 pounds when they are sold later this month

The finished hour-long film shows interaction between Wings and the family of mice - but the final version was never shown and only a handful of people have ever seen it.

The original sketches by Sir Paul, and others possibly drawn by his late wife Linda and her daughter Heather, emerged from the family of the animator.

Eric Wylam was tasked with turning the sketches into colour drawings for the film that is the subject of a lot of myth-making by McCartney fans.

Mr Wylam was disappointed that the film was never released and kept the sketches until he died in 1997 when his daughter Maggie Thornton inherited them.

Sir Paul's drawings, which include one of a walrus, are now set to fetch 25,000 pounds when they are sold at auction.

The McCartney family created them when they stayed on the Caribbean island of Antigua in 1973 - the year after the Wings tour that provided to footage for the cartoon.

It has never been fully established why the film was never released publicly, but some suggest it did not conform to Sir Paul's high standards.

Animation included in the film, however, was advanced, especially during moments when the Wings interacted with the creatures.

The drawings by the former Beatle were turned into a bizarre animation that was never released

Maggie Thornton, who is one of very few people ever to have watched the film, said: 'My father did all the animation for the film but never got to see it at the time.

'When he fell ill in about 1993 I wrote to Paul McCartney asking if there was a way that my father could see the finished film.

'And he sent the video which my father watched. I have seen it and can see why it was never released.

'The storyline doesn't really work and some of the cutting between the singing and the animation isn't very good.

'My father didn't like the music - he was into classical music and I'm not really sure what he thought of the film, although he didn't say he didn't like it.'

Doing the voice-overs for the Bruce McMouse Show were Deryck Guyler, who did Bruce, Pat Coombes, the wife, with Sir Paul, Linda and Derek Nimmo doing the children.

Mystery has always surrounded the film that never was and McCartney fans will be thrilled to see the early stages of the project.

The original sketches by Sir Paul, and others possibly drawn by his late wife Linda and her daughter Heather, emerged from the family of animator Eric Wylam

Also included are some of the final characters that were drawn by Mr Wylam and his experienced team.

Chris Albury, from Dominic Winter auction house that is selling the sketches, said: ' The Bruce McMouse Show is a topic of much mythmaking and hearsay among Paul McCartney fans.

'It was intended as a one-hour part-animated film for ITV with two advert breaks and the film was made but never shown.

'Paul McCartney owns the master copy of the film and the idea for the project seems to have been entirely his own.

'Paul's interest in animation can be traced back to at least the involvement he had with the making of Yellow Submarine in 1968.

'The idea of this film was to show concert footage from the Wings Over Europe tour of 1972 interspersed with animation action relating to cartoon character Bruce McMouse and family living under the floorboards of the stage.

'Although it was completed it's never been shown and probably didn't stand up to McCartney's high standards.

'But the drawings are very interesting and show how the characters were developed.

'The 26 pictures include one of a walrus and several probably drawn by Linda or her daughter Heather.'

There are 26 drawings in total and the sale at Dominic Winter saleroom near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, is on June 16.