Animation Magazine's 35 Year Anniversary Issue

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for your EMMY®consideration

WINNER OF 9 9 ANNIE AWARDS THE MOST OF ANY TV SERIES

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© 2022 Riot Games, Inc. ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS and any associated logos are trademarks, service marks, and/or registered trademarks of Riot Games, Inc.

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The Bob’s Burgers Movie Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers The Sea Beast and a lot more!

Buzz’s Spectacular Space Odyssey: $7.95 U.S.

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Pixar Soars to New Heights with Lightyear

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Digital is great!

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But if you would like a PRINT COPY of this SPECIAL 35 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ISSUE Order Here 

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Pixar’s Lightyear The Bob’s Burgers Movie Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai and a lot more!

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The Sea Beast Makes a Big Splash on Netflix

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We Have Issues!

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DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys:

A Beautiful, Beastly Caper

Plus Samurai Rabbit, Battle Kitty, Even Mice Belong in Heaven, Charlotte, The Batman and much more!

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June | July 2022

Volume 36, Issue 6, Number 321 Frame-By-Frame 8

June-July Animation Must-Haves

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June Animation Planner

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July Animation Planner

Features 12 A Toy’s Origin Story Director Angus MacLane and his team talk about the bold choices and classic sci-fi thrills of their new Pixar movie Lightyear.

By Ramin Zahed 16 A Real Disney Heroine Jennifer Lee, the CCO of Disney and the acclaimed director of the Frozen movies, discusses her amazing career, priorities, leadership style and guilty pleasures in this exclusive interview.

By Ramin Zahed 20 Here Be Monsters!

How Chris Williams and Netflix Animation’s The Sea Beast took to the high seas.

By Rich Johnson 24 Make It Extra — with a Side of Optimism!

Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman bring Bob’s Burgers to the big screen in a meaty animated musical.

By Jennifer Wolfe 28 Whatever Happened to Those Chipmunks?

The clever new Disney+ movie Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers offers a hilarious take on the studio’s favorite nut hoarders!

By Michael Mallory 30 Teddy Bears vs. Unicorns!

Director Alberto Vázquez answers our burning questions about his new movie Unicorn Wars.

32 The Tiniest Movie Star After years of hard work, Marcel the Shell gets to shine in a wonderful feature-length movie.

By Ramin Zahed 34 The Way of the Feline Samurai The creative forces behind Paws of Fury tell us how they mixed Eastern and Western archetypes in their new movie.

By Devin Nealy 36 Mavka, the Spirit of Ukrainian Culture The team at Animagrad studio strives to finish their stunning movie despite the terrible Russian war against their country and culture.

38 The Red Ribbon Army Returns!

The producer of Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO offers an update on the much-anticipated feature project.

By Charles Solomon

40 A Toon Town Trailblazer The Gotham Group founder and award-winning producer Ellen Goldsmith-Vein speaks about her new movie Wendell & Wild and the changing animation business.

TV/Streaming 42 Sophisticated Sci-Fi Is Back Tim Miller and Jennifer Yuh Nelson guide us through the third season of their acclaimed anthology Love, Death + Robots.

By Ramin Zahed 46 And Never Feed Them After Dark!

The artists behind Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai offer us an exclusive sneak peek at the muchanticipated show.

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48 From Stage to Animated Screen!

Mo Willems and Tom Warburton share the details of their new animated special Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Underground Rock Experience!

By Karen Idelson 50 A Hero Who Keeps on Giving The team making DreamWorks’ new Kung Fu Panda series takes us behind the scenes of the greatlooking project.

By Michael Mallory 52 Crouching Teen, Hidden Powers Find out all about Jade Armor, TeamTO’s new animated action-comedy series about a martial arts-loving heroine.

By Ramin Zahed 54 On Being a True Warrior Story editor Taneka Stotts talks about her work on Apple TV’s Pinecone & Pony and the industry’s positive push for diversity.

56 Daughter of Invention Norton Virgien and Niamh Sharkey take us behind the scenes of their charming new Disney Junior show, Eureka!

By Karen Idelson

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58 Drawn to Excellence Disney’s traditional artists are the subject of the fascinating new series Sketchbook.

By Karen Idelson

Studio Spotlight 60 Cyber Group Expands Its Giant Footprint Studio Founder Pierre Sissmann discusses recent expansions in the U.K., Italy and Singapore, and highlights his 2022 slate at Annecy.

62 Blue Skies Ahead for Red Animation Milton Guerrero, founder of Peru’s top studio, discusses its current slate and future plans.

Cover A: Disney/Pixar’s Lightyear Cover B: Netflix’s The Sea Beast Annecy Cover: Cyber Group Studios’ 50/50 Heroes

Comic-Con Cover:

Cartoon Network/HBO Max’s Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai

35th Anniversary Collage

by Tracey Hollinsgworth

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P ublisher ’ s L etter

I

am writing this note to you as I’m sitting in the airport with Jose Iñesta, CEO and director of Pixelatl Festival (which will be held Sept. 6-10 in Guadalajara, Mexico). We are both returning to our homes after two weeks of animation events — the 16-year-old Animayo Festival, which is the brainchild of Damián Perea Lezcano in Gran Canaria, and the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards in Tenerife, Spain. I can easily say that I have never been more certain about the health, growth and vitality of our industry worldwide.a The tireless festival directors around the world and their dedicated crews are largely to credit for this positive trend. They remind me of the early days of the Annecy Festival and MIFA, and how much the French and international animation scenes have evolved alongside the exponential growth of that fantastic event.

About 10 years ago, on a trip back from South and Central America and after printing our first issue in Spanish, I was hoping that we would see more studios and original shorts, TV shows and features from the countries in the region. I am so excited to have met people from almost all of the countries of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, who are building co-productions and the distribution of their original content across their borders and around the world.

So much has changed in just the five years since our last anniversary issue. Of course, the magazine has also evolved with it, and I am happy to say that thanks to our wonderful staff — Ramin, Mercedes, Sheri, Jan, Susanne and Damaso, our content is more vital and more widely distributed than ever. Something that never changes for me, however, is the joy of meeting new talent from around the world at all the festivals and markets we attend, and to hear about and see their unique perspectives. This is combined with the happiness of running into old friends who continue to reinvent themselves and their studios with better technology and new, relevant content for emerging generations and methods of distribution.

As we look down the road toward the future of animation, I am confident that in five years, we will find ourselves part of an even more expanded artform that dominates and spans all industries and areas of our world. Animation is no longer “the poor step-child” of the live-action industry. It is an integral part of every film, TV show and commercial we watch. This was indeed the vision of our founder Terry Thoren back in the early ‘80s (see page 68 for his historical account).

We hope you enjoy this special issue and all of the ways we bring you the news everyday. I am so happy that Animation Magazine continues to be read and enjoyed on the media shelves of the many libraries who subscribe and, of course, by our loyal readers who receive it both in print and digital formats. And yes, we publish 10 informative and jampacked issues annually!

The habit of reading about our industry is one that should never be undervalued. Every successful executive or creative industry player can tell you this. If you are reading this issue, I know you are one of those people, and I thank you for your interest and your contributions to our wonderful world of animation.

I am sending with this issue, my very best to you after our emergence from two very challenging years! Please stay in touch with us regularly and thank you for your contribution to the creation of positive visions for our world through the medium of animation!

Left, top to bottom: 1. A proud board member of KEPYR! 2. My three sons.

3. Attending SIGGRAPH. 4. Colorful characters at Hong Kong FILMART. Right: 5. In Mexico at Pixelatl.

6. Reconnecting with an old friend, Pierre Sissmann (Cyber Group Studios).

7. Making new friends at the VES Awards.

8. Attending the Disney Picnic at Annecy.

Sincerely, Jean Thoren President/Publisher

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35-Year Anniversary

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64 35 Years of Great Quotes A sampler of the wonderful insights, clever quips and career tips from our favorite animation superstars that have stayed with us over the years.

102 Flight of Fancy Acclaimed Canadian directors Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby discuss their stunning new short The Flying Sailor.

68 A Crowd-Sourcing Pioneer!

Founder Terry Thoren looks back at the era that shaped the birth of Animation Magazine.

By Terry Thoren

104 Brief and Beautiful Visions A look at some of the exquisite shorts premiering in competition at Annecy this year.

70 Reflections on 1987 and the 35th Anniversary!

By Jerry Beck

20 Movies to Catch at Annecy

112 First Look: Netflix Animation Spotlights Upcoming Shows at Annecy Creators of a few of the streamer’s upcoming titles tease their exciting projects.

72 A Lot Can Happen in 35 Years!

A look back at three and a half decades of TV’s rebels, goofballs and smart-ass kids.

By Ray Richmond

114 Experiencing the World of Tomorrow, Today Eclectic VR projects are ready for in-person experiences at Annecy.

By Ellen Wolff

74 Riding the Japanese New Wave The next generation of visionary anime auteurs leave a huge artistic mark on the pop culture landscape.

By Charles Solomon

VFX

76 On Representation and Diversity: How Far Have We Come?

78 The Essentials:35 U.S. Studio Movies of the Past 35 Years 79 The Essentials: 35 International Movies of the Past 35 Years 80 35 Animated Shorts to Explore, Ponder, Ignore or Enjoy*

By Chris Robinson 84 50 TV Shows That Defined the Toon Landscape (1986-2021)

136 Unleashing the Dinosaurs Again VFX supervisor David Vickery discusses the thrills and chills of introducing new creatures in Jurassic World Dominion.

By Trevor Hogg 138 Conjuring New Demons How the VFX artists of Stranger Things crafted more frightening monsters for the fourth season.

By Trevor Hogg

Opportunities

90 Office*

144 Autonomous Animator Keys to longevity in the animation industry.

By Martin Grebing

Book Excerpts 92 An Animation Legend Looks Back

By Don Bluth 96 The Strike That Shifted the Landscape

By Jake S. Friedman

Annecy Festival 98 A Few Words from Monsieur le Délégué Artistique Artistic director Marcel Jean reveals some highlights of this year’s in-person festival.

146 Animated Musings How many hats does a development professional wear?

By Mary Bredin

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148 Creative Connections Dear phone...

By Josh Selig

Day in the Life 150 A Day in the Life of...

We visit Jennifer Yuh Nelson, supervising director of Love, Death + Robots!

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140 Tech Reviews What’s new in the 2023 versions of Autodesk’s Maya and 3ds Max, plus a peek under the hood of Unreal Engine 5.

By Todd Sheridan Perry

88 Top 35 Animated Movies of All Time at the Box Office* Top 35 VFX-Driven Movies at the Box

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F rom

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E ditor

We’re Halfway to Seventy, Woo Hoo! S

ince this issue marks the 35th anniversary of this publication, I was searching high and low, trying to find something profound to say about this milestone. As expected, there was no shortage of silly quotes about turning 35 online: “You’re 18 with 17 years of experience!” and “Turning 35 is a false assurance that you are not as old as 40 and not as immature as 30!” and my favorite, “Your midlife crisis is just around the corner!” But none of them applied to our resilient, indie magazine which never seems to run out of awe-inspiring projects and unbelievably talented artists to write about.

I thought about the day I got that life-changing call from the then publisher of Animag, the amazing Rita Street, who told me that there might be a job at the publication for me. I remember how excited I was to be able to write about my favorite artform and wild artists all day and every day. Getting to work with the terrific team here at the publication has been a true blessing: I don’t think I’ll ever meet a kinder, more dedicated and talented group of people in this life, and I thank my lucky stars that I have had the chance to cover such a constantly evolving and creative industry for so many years.

Putting together this massive anniversary/Annecy Festival issue was not an easy task. Not only did it seem that there were more new movies, TV shows, VR projects and specials premiering at the French festival than ever, this summer seems to be one of the busiest animation seasons of recent memory. We had several movies competing for the cover this month, but we finally managed to narrow the field down to Pixar’s Lightyear and Netflix’s The Sea Beast, both of which are quite fascinating in their own way. The eagerly awaited Warner Bros. show Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai found a home on our special Comic-Con cover.

There are too many fun behind-the-scenes features and interviews included in this issue to single out: But I do recommend reading our chat with the amazing Jennifer Lee, CCO of Disney Animation and the director of the Frozen movies, who was kind enough to answer a few of our burning questions. We also had a lot of fun putting together a collection of quotes from some of our favorite animation heavyweights from the past 35 years, as well as thoughtful essays on the changing landscape of animation by beloved experts such as Jerry Beck, Ray Richmond and Charles Solomon.

I also have to give a shout-out to artist Tracey Hollingsworth, who had the very challenging task of fitting as many of our favorite animated characters on our special anniversary cover collage. Believe me, I wish we had several more pages to devote to these beloved toons. And thanks to our dedicated art director Susanne Rector, who made sure everything followed our general cover requirements. (Susanne even planned her wedding for the weekend after this issue goes to the printer — now that’s what we call true dedication! Congrats, Susanne, on your special day, from your Toon Town family.)

One big lesson that we took away from this particular task was that there are way too many outstanding animated movies, TV shows and shorts to fit in one simple anniversary issue. We could have created five special collages, and we still wouldn’t have enough room for everyone.

Then again, isn’t it wonderful that we have so much to choose from — from the days of Gertie the dinosaur and Oswald the rabbit, all the way to 2022’s Lightyear and Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby’s new short The Flying Sailor! Isn’t it another reason why we love animation so much? Because we all feel as if these characters are our old friends, and the special connection we all have with these living and breathing drawings is undeniable and independent of our age and the passage of time. We grow older and weaker, but they remain as colorful and vibrant as the day they premiered.

So, here’s to all our animated friends and the gifted women and men all over the world who have devoted themselves to making the best projects they possibly can — to entertain us, to make us laugh and cry, and help us dream of a better world. We wouldn’t be here without you, and we’re so proud to have been a witness to your greatness.

ANIMATION MAGAZINE June | July 2022

Vol. 36, Issue 5, No. 321 Info@animationmagazine.net

President and Publisher: Jean Thoren Accounting: Jan Bayouth EDITORIAL

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Animation Magazine acknowledges the creators and copyright holders of the materials mentioned herein, and does not seek to infringe on those rights.

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june|july 22

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FOR YOUR EMMY ® CONSIDERATION

OUTSTANDING SHORT-FORM ANIMATED PROGRAM

“EXQUISITE.” INDIEWIRE

“A WORK OF ART. HEART POUNDING.” SLASH FILM

“A SPECTACULARLY ANIMATED MASTERPIECE. JIBARO HAS JAW-DROPPING VISUALS AND AN INCREDIBLE LEVEL OF DETAIL.” CBR

june|july 22 7

FYC.NETFLIX.COM

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Frame-By-Frame

June-July Animation Must-Haves Digital Diva: Mamoru Hosoda’s critically acclaimed multiverse fairy tale Belle brings us into an incredible virtual world for a uniquely modern take on Beauty and the Beast. A coming-of-age epic about accepting your true self, this Studio Chizu masterpiece came together with the help of a pedigreed international creative team (including Jin Kim, Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart) and swept away audiences worldwide after its Cannes premiere. The Bluray includes exclusive Making of featurette and design gallery, plus behind-the-scenes bonuses on the scenecraft, music and voice acting. [GKIDS/Shout!, $27] Cute Overload: Grownups, kids and millennials (a.k.a. kids with backaches) fell in love with dorky, sassy, 13-yearold Mei and her untamable inner red panda when Pixar’s Turning Red debuted in March. Now, Domee Shi’s ode to early 2000s Toronto, awkward puberty and the Asian-American/mother-daughter experience is ready to poof onto discs. The cherubically cute, touching, hilariously relatable flick stars Rosalie Chiang and Sandra Oh, and comes home with tons of bonus features, including deleted scenes, commentary and featurettes on the team’s shot process, character animation and how to craft the perfect fictional boy band. [Disney, $30 4K | $25 BD] To Infinity…: You can read more King Tweety [June 14 | WB | $20]

Poupelle of Chimney Town [Shout!/Eleven Arts | $27 BD]

Teen Titans GO! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse [WB | $25 BD]

The Art of the Con: DreamWorks broke into new stylistic frontiers for the studio and stole our hearts with its animated ode to heist classics this spring. In The Art of DreamWorks The Bad Guys, entertainment veteran Iain R. Morris (A Field Guide to The Croods: A New Age) clues us in on how a crack squad of visionary filmmakers, artists and storytellers adapted Aaron Blabey’s books into a fresh, illustrative CG caper for the big screen. The hardcover is packed with hundreds of paintings, drawings and production artworks, prefaced by actor Sam Rockwell (Mr. Wolf) and with a foreword by debutant feature director Pierre Perifel. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

[Cameron Books, $50 | June 28]

about Pixar’s highly anticipated Space Ranger origin story in the pages of this issue, but nothing brings you into the unique creative universe of a film like a large-format art book. The Art of Lightyear takes readers behind the scenes of this sci-fi actioner with 176 vibrant pages of production designs, storyboards, colorscripts and exclusive commentary from the creative team. The book features a foreword by Toy Story writer Andrew Stanton and intro by director Angus MacLane, who explains how his early love of Star Wars and the double-edged visual goal of “cinematic chunk” inspired this giant leap for toonkind. [Chronicle Books, $43]

The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation [Dark Horse Books | $50]

Cowboy Bebop: Making the Netflix Series [June 21 | Titan Books | $40]

To Strip the Flesh A moving collection of manga shorts about a young trans man uncovering his true self in the face of family obligation, finding freedom and understanding.

[June 21 | VIZ | $13] — Mercedes Milligan has worked for Animation Magazine for 18 of its 35 years. She still hasn’t learned to self-edit.

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Animation Planner 1

Happy birthday to us! Animation Magazine celebrates 35 amazing, animated years this month. (But if anyone asks, just tell them we’re turning 27. Again.)

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June

The ultimate French animation fête kicks off in Annecy! Among the program highlights will be a special screening of Inu-Oh by MIFA campus patron Masaaki Yuasa. [annecy.org]

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Roberta the T-Rex gets a state of the art glow-up in Universal/Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion.

17 Lightyear

Fans of all ages will be going bananas for Minions: The Rise of Gru, the long-awaited prequel-sequel from Illumination/Universal.

Minions: The Rise of Gru

15

Disney-Pixar’s sci-fi actioner Lightyear reveals the origins of Toy Story’s Space Ranger: the man, the myth … the action figure.

Netflix Original feature The Sea Beast is ready to make a splash! The seafaring adventure is written and directed by Oscar winner Chris Williams (Big Hero 6).

In theaters, Taika Waititi brings his unique storytelling savvy back to the MCU in Thor: Love and Thunder, as the Norse God embarks on an epic quest for … inner peace.

Summer film festival season is in full swing! Palm Springs ShortFest begins today, followed by Fest Anča (Slovakia, 6/30), Animator (Poland, 7/8) and Anibar (Kosovo, 7/23), to name a few. [psfilmfest.org | festanca. sk | animator-festival.com | anibar.org]

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Based on his acclaimed short, Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On feature screens in select Marcel the Shell with Shoes On U.S. theaters through A24, starring Jenny Slate as the adorable mollusk.

July Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank delivers a furry, family-friendly twist on a Mel Brooks classic, in U.S. theaters through Paramount Pictures.

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Comic-Con is back, ready to pack the SDCC with wall-to-wall geekery, pop culture fandom and visual storytelling genius for four overMerly the cosplay dog stimulating days. (ph: KC Alfred/SD Union Tribune) [comic-con.org]

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Sinister forces are out to get their hands on ancient technological relics in Spriggan, Netflix’s new anime based on Spriggan the classic manga.

21 Inu-Oh concept art

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Don’t miss the fifth and final season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, on Netflix today.

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UFOs, eerie phenomena, folks being yeeted into the sky by invisible forces — Jordan Peele’s latest thriller is sure to make you say Nope!!! (In a good way.)

29 DC League of Super-Pets

WB’s DC League of Super-Pets sends a rag-tag pack of animals to the aid of Superman and co., landing paws-first in theaters today.

To get your company’s events and products listed in this monthly calendar, please e-mail edit@animationmagazine.net. www.animationmagazine.net 10

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Features

Angus MacLane Galyn Susman

Greg Peltz

A Toy’s Origin Story Director Angus MacLane and his team talk about the bold choices and classic sci-fi thrills of their new Pixar movie Lightyear.

By Ramin Zahed

W

hen Pixar veteran Angus MacLane was a young boy growing up in Portland, Oregon, he used to love cowboys, Spider-Man and cartoons. He also enjoyed wearing a mask to school every day and scaring his friends. As he tells us, “To be honest, I was a bit of a weird kid. I also remember that one day after eating corn on the cob with my father, I saw a movie that changed my life: Star Wars. And after I saw that movie, all I wanted to play and draw was Star Wars.

Star Wars was my religion, and it was only the beginning of a string of sci-fi classics that defined my childhood.”

MacLane gets to pay homage to many of the sci-fi movies that influenced him in this summer’s much-anticipated Pixar pic Lightyear, which gives audiences the intriguing back story of the popular Toy Story character. “In Toy Story, Andy gets a gift that he loved, it was a Buzz Lightyear the Space Ranger toy, which redefines playtime for Andy,” notes the director. “I always wondered, what movie was Buzz from, you know? Why couldn’t we just make that movie? So that’s what we did. This is the movie that changed Andy’s life — Andy’s Star Wars!”

Lightyear, which is Pixar’s 26th feature, follows the human Buzz as a young astronaut who is marooned in a hostile planet with his commander and crew, and has to find a way across time and space to defeat the familiar enemy Emperor Zurg (who first appeared in Toy Story 2). Showcasing the voice talents of Chris Evans as the title character, along with Keke Palmer, Dale Soules, Taika Waititi, Peter Sohn, Uzo Adubo, James Brolin and Isiah Whitlock Jr., the film finds Buzz also dealing with how the passage of time affects his colleagues and surroundings as he tries to find a way to return to Earth.

A Prisoner of Time “Although I’d been working with the character for the better part of two decades, it was in the development for this film that we truly discovered the unifying character trait of the character that we know and love as Buzz Lightyear,” explains MacLane, who was a storyboard artist on Toy Story 2, directed the shorts Toy Story of Terror and Burn-E and co-directed Finding Dory. “Buzz is a character who is best when he is at odds with his surround-

ings. Here we have a story where he would be traveling rapidly through time, because of his job. And because of that, it would separate him from society and his loved ones. He’s like a Rip Van Winkle trapped in a future he doesn’t recognize, desperately trying to get back to the past to correct the mistakes of his youth — a hero out of his own time.”

To help realize his vision for the movie, MacLane teamed up with another studio veteran, producer Galyn Susman (producer on Toy Story 4, assoc. producer on Ratatouille), who had worked with him on several shorts. “I am a tech nerd, but it took me a while to notice,” she says. “I went to college as a physics major hoping to be an astronaut. So when we started working on this film, I was absolutely certain we had to get a research trip to NASA. Our goal was to take our key creatives and expose them to the people, environments, experiences, all the stuff that will impact the design and the language of the film.”

Susman says the team was fortunate enough to get first-hand advice from astronauts Tom Marshburn and Kjell Lindgren, who treated them to a comprehensive multi-day

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Features

1. “First Mission” sequence storyboard drawn by story supervisor Dean Kelly.

2. Layout team establishes a visual template for how the film will look like in CG. 3. The lighting department integrates all the elements into a final image Below right: Design sketches for Lightyear archenemy Emperor Zurg.

exploration of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We saw the original control center for the Apollo missions, as well as the one being used today to track the ISS,” she recalls.

“We learned about spacesuit construction. We saw buttons, and switches, and knobs, and dials, and badges. We were guided through a replica of the ISS U.S. quarters, and the labs!”

A Push-Button Throwback In addition to anchoring the film in authentic scientific research, MacLane says he wanted Lightyear to adhere to a certain visual language. “I wanted to take advantage of all the technical and artistic advances of the last quarter century, but first and foremost, I wanted Lightyear to feel like a movie. I wanted the

design of the world to be cinematic, and I want it to be chunky. I envisioned a graphic image that would use high-contrast atmosphere inspired by the look of a 1970s film.

Lightyear would mark a bit of a departure from the earlier films by using lenses and lighting techniques to give the film a more cinematic look. We’d build a believable, tangible world, and then we’d throw it away using shadow and atmosphere. We’d have bold lighting, emphasizing the graphic and letting the detail fall away, drawing the viewer into a rich world of a tangible alien landscape.”

Another key word the director likes to use to describe his design aesthetic is “chunk!”

“CG tends to look cold and flimsy,” he explains. “I wanted there to be a thickness to the

obvious construction of things. The original Buzz has a tremendous sense of this look, inspired by a healthy dose of NASA and influenced by Japanese anime. But we didn’t want this new Buzz to look like a toy.”

The film’s visuals depict a push-button world of inefficiency — and what MacLane describes as “a celebration of early 1970s and 1980s visions of the future.” The design team experimented with a variety of shapes and textures to explore the design possibility of a neo-retro future. “These early exploration sketches inspired us to settle on a clear design ethos: a rugged military aerospace design, combined with the 1980s consumer electronics aesthetic,” says the director. “This design language informed everything in the

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Features Character development artwork for Lightyear.

film, from the-the ground vehicles to the spaceships, you know, to all the sets. They all got the same treatment.”

Lightyear’s sets art director Greg Peltz was one of the key engineers of this inspired look. “We envisioned this push-button world that was thick, geometric and analog,” he explains. “We wanted the look of our models to be such that you’d want to reach out and touch them and start playing with all the buttons and switches. There are no touch screens or cloud sharing in the world of Lightyear: It’s all zip disks and 20-pound CRTs. In addition to looking cool, there’s kind of a toy-like appeal to the shapes and the deco of the style that fits really well with the subject matter that we’re adapting, Buzz Lightyear.”

According to Peltz, the design team took their styling cues from 1970s aerospace tech. “The cockpit is filled with analog control surfaces, exposed wires, buttons, knobs, levers — all sorts of just neat stuff that Buzz can interact with to make the cool action on screen. Real cockpits have all sorts of details that shake and rattle, lights that blank, buzzers that scream, while the whole vehicle’s shaking like crazy. Space launches are violent, chaotic events, and we wanted the designs of our ships to sort of highlight that sense of danger, so that audiences can experience that excitement themselves while they’re watching.”

Peltz also mentions that the team went all-in to explore the visual possibilities of this chunky universe. “A bunch of our designs started as sketches that Angus made out of LEGO bricks, because he is kind of a LEGO fanatic. While working on the movie, there were mornings when Angus would just show up and be like, ‘Look at this thing I made last night,’ and then he’d show us some insanely cool build that he’d just whipped up out of nowhere. After we picked our jaws up off the floor, we’d take his concepts and we’d riff on them in the art department. The blocky, bold shapes of the brick sketches really gave them a distinctive flavor that was fun and unique. Plus, we had instant toys.

That’s always cool!”

Bigger Screen, Bigger Challenges The film’s visual effects supervisor Jane Yen (Coco, The Incredibles, Up) reveals that one of Lightyear’s key challenges was building Pixar’s first IMAX pipeline for film production. “We created a virtual IMAX camera with 143 aspect ratio and developed a pipeline to allow us to simultaneously

Finishing the Cat

L

ightyear’s robotic feline companion Sox is bound to be one of the film’s most beloved characters. According to director Angus MacLane, the character’s inspiration was not what you might expect: “Well, I should tell you, ‘I’m a cat person,’ but he really came from my love of limited animation,” he reveals. “As an animator, I always enjoyed animating limited characters. I animated WALL•E, and Ken in Toy Story 3, and most of the toys in the Toy Story shorts. These movement limitations provide much of the charm and comedy of these characters. So, for Sox, I wanted a robot character that had the limitations in terms of simple animatronic puppets. Sox is a true contrast to the other elements of the film, both in design and in motion, making him stick out in a good way.”

MacLane points out that although Sox has limited movements, he is by no means helpless.

“He’s got a welding laser, he’s got longrange scanners, holo projectors, short-range sensors — as well as an empathy chip, quadruped locomotion, magnet feet, self-writing mechanism, a data port in the tail, the ability to talk…” lists the director. “Sox has many other abilities we can’t even tell you about.

But what we can tell you is that he’s a scene stealer. And he’s performed by Pixar’s own Peter Sohn, the voice of Emile from Ratatouille, or Squishy from Monster University, and the director of The Good Dinosaur. Pete’s natural warmth, charm and humor made him the first and best choice for this character!”

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Intergalactic Images: Director Angus MacLane says the film emulates a cinematic feel, while adding a special “chunky” element harkening back to the pre-digital era of model making in sci-fi movies.

shoot the film for IMAX, and then crop down for our standard 239 format,” she points out. “We created workflows for editorial and layout, shot teams and rendering.”

Yen adds she is also proud of the team’s development of new groom construction techniques and the braided hairstyles created for some of the characters. “Our braids system has controls for braid partitioning, curl and graphic shaping that have allowed us to bring our beautiful characters even further to life,” she notes. “We also had to create a planet and clouds as seen from space. For this scale, we developed a procedural system to generate terrain and volumetric clouds that were both high fidelity and art directable. One of our most fun challenges was creating the hyper-speed effect, which was a key story point, and critical to get right for the film. For our final look, we went with a style of long, multicolored streaks that pays homage to the classic sci-fi films that Angus loves.”

While fans of the Toy Story franchise count the days until the opening of the movie in June, MacLane and his team are excited to be sharing this new voyage with them. “I want the audience to have this feeling that they’ve gone on this fun space adventure,” says the director. “I want them to enjoy what the protagonist is going through and to be surprised and delighted by the filmmaker’s choices, just like I used to be with the sci-fi movies I grew up with.”

Disney-Pixar’s Lightyear blasts into theaters on June 17.

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A Real Disney Heroine Jennifer Lee, the CCO of Disney and the acclaimed director of the Frozen movies, discusses her amazing career, priorities, leadership style and guilty pleasures in this exclusive interview.

By Ramin Zahed

A

lot has happened since Jennifer Lee took over as Disney Animation’s Chief Creative Officer exactly four years ago. The talented, Oscar-winning director of Frozen and its sequel has done a remarkable job of keeping the studio on the right creative track after former CCO John Lasseter exited due to allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior toward women. Originally trained in live-action filmmaking, Lee has been a passionate advocate of powerful storytelling and has overseen the studio’s expanded content creation for Disney+. Not only did she manage to take the reins and keep the employees happy during a very challenging period, she juggled her other duties as director of the hugely successful Frozen sequel, which

quickly became the most successful animated movie of all time with a remarkable $145 billion take at the box office.

This month, Lee will be awarded an honorary Cristal at the Annecy Festival in France. In the words of festival director Marcel Jean, “Jennifer Lee is a model for all young women (and men) with aspirations of pursuing a career in animation film. Her accomplishments are exceptional in terms of scriptwriting, directing and creatively leading Disney Animation. We can confirm that there is a before and after Jennifer Lee in the way that women creators are perceived in our industry.”

We were thrilled when Lee accepted our request for an exclusive interview on this occasion:

First of all, congrats on being the recipient of an Annecy Honorary Cristal. What does winning this award mean to you?

Receiving the Honorary Cristal at Annecy means so much to me. Animation is such a complex, inventive and evolving artform, to be recognized amongst this incredible global animation community is such an honor. Animation has been a part of my heart my entire life, and it’s a dream to be a part of the Annecy Festival where the artistry, imagination and groundbreaking technology of animation are shared and so wonderfully celebrated, as they should be. Animation is truly a special artform, where imagination and collaboration inspire one another and create stories, char-

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Jennifer Lee and actor Alfred Molina (pictured at the Frozen II premiere) married in a 2021 ceremony officiated by Jonathan Groff (voice of Kristoff). Photo: Alfredo Rodriguez Strange World Encanto

Wreck-It Ralph Frozen

From left, Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature for Frozen in 2014. june|july 22 17

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Features acters and worlds that are transcendental and transformative.

How would you describe the past four years as CCO of Disney? How has it compared to what you thought you would be doing at the studio originally?

Yes, it really is hard to believe it’s already been four years. Looking back, I stepped into the role before I knew the word “Disney+,” Frozen II was in early production and a global pandemic was not yet in sight. Hard to know how to even remember what I thought the role would have been.

What I do know is that the journey has been full of some of the most incredible creative experiences of my career. Disney+ has given us so many fantastic opportunities to expand the stories of some of our favorite characters and allowed us to discover new and diverse talent from around the world. The pandemic really showed us the strength of our studio as we produced two features and several shorts from hundreds of different homes, all while staying connected. Over these four years I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, never stray too far away from creativity, and that the best ideas and the best collaboration come from the most diverse rooms.

What is your favorite part of your job?

I absolutely love that I get to be a part of so many projects, working with so many very different and very inspiring filmmakers and artists from all around the world. My favorite moments are when we have a creative breakthrough, and I can see the energy of the whole story room lift, and the ideas start building off of each other. I feel very lucky that when I watch one of our finished films, I don’t just experience that finished story, but the memories of all the people and the discoveries that shaped the film.

And the toughest part?

The most challenging part is unique to our times.

Due to the pandemic, we are still mostly remote.

We are navigating through increasingly complex times in our industry, our country and our world, all while still apart. As I mentioned, I’m in awe of all we’ve been able to accomplish, but I miss the hustle and bustle and the face-to-face of us all being together every day.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I aim to support, first and foremost — support the visions of our filmmakers, support the passion and ideas of the people of our studio, their talents and artistry, their innovation, their passion.

My goal is to always help them get the tools and support they need to discover and build on their

Box Office Magic: Directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, Frozen II is currently the top animated movie of all time (over $1.45 billion gross worldwide). own potential, and to journey together to push our storytelling and our technology to ever greater heights. I believe that honesty, transparency and trust are critical. And I believe in being fearless in our approach, but always with eyes and ears open.

new adventures of favorite characters. We have over a dozen more projects in development for theatrical and Disney+. And, at D23, as we kick off celebrations for our approaching 100th anniversary, I can’t wait for folks to hear about our 2023 release and beyond.

During your time at Disney, the studio has been quite strong and vocal about continuing to tell stories that represent all audiences — regardless of race, country of original, sexual orientation, etc. How do you feel about the upcoming slate at Disney and how these movies continue this mission?

For me, no matter what I have gone through in my life, Disney has always been a place that made me feel like I belonged. When I stepped into my role as CCO, it was important to me that our storytelling continues to expand to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to feel that same sense of belonging.

What is your absolute guilty pleasure at home?

Pho delivery and face masks!

Which animated movies and TV shows left the biggest impression on you when you were growing up?

Cinderella was number one. She was a part of my earliest memories. When I was in middle school, the VHS of Cinderella got me through a tough period of loss and bullying in my life. Her ability to stay true to herself, while others aimed to tear her down, gave me strength. The incredible drawings of her dress transformation hang above my desk at work.

What is the most exciting part of the Disney slate in 2022 and beyond?

There is so much I could talk about because there is so much going on. The world will soon get a glimpse into our fall release, Strange World.

It’s such a fantastic, truly imaginative adventure.

We’ve got our first two official series releases for Disney+, Baymax and Zootopia+, where we get

The pandemic impacted the way many audiences consume their entertainment and the studio faced some tough decisions about putting some of the features directly on Disney+ without a theatrical window. What are your thoughts on the importance of the theatrical experience?

I appreciate that during the pandemic Disney+ was there for us. As I’ve mentioned, I love how Disney+ is allowing us to expand our storytelling.

But I also believe wholeheartedly in the theatrical experience. Our films are epic and so imaginative and built to be seen on the big screen, in a theater, where the stresses and demands of the world fall away and we can be truly immersed and transported.

One last question: What’s your best advice to those who want to follow their dreams in the animation business?

Create a lot. Worry less about trying to figure out how to “get it right.” Instead, embrace exploration and, most importantly, collaboration. Finally, there’s an expression, “Leave your ego at the door.”

That doesn’t mean don’t bring all of yourself to a project, it means don’t think difficult feedback on a project is a measure of you. Those who do best, I’ve seen, are able to listen to feedback constructively and not defensively, and thus are better able to see what their characters/stories/projects need.

They tend to be the ones who get stronger from project to project, developing better and better tools to support their vision.

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Here Be Monsters!

How Chris Williams and Netflix Animation’s The Sea Beast took to the high seas.

By Rich Johnson

B

ig Hero 6 director Chris Williams is no stranger to the ocean, having also co-directed 2016’s uplifting Disney musical adventure, Moana. Baymax and a whaling harpoon are propped in the corner of his studio — both past and present reminders of his work — and it is already clear, as he begins to talk about his new animated feature for Netflix, The Sea Beast, that there’s a genuine sense of nostalgia coupled with his love of big movies.

Ancient myth and Melville are inherent within such seafaring stories, but it was specifically from the uncharted maps of tall sailing ships (and taller tales) that Williams’ leviathan passion project grew. As much a Star Wars fan as the next person, it is his admiration for the ’76 King Kong and Raiders of the Lost Ark that provide more personal touchstones. At its colossal heart, The Sea Beast is all about such epic productions and a return to classic storytelling. “That to me is always compelling and I guess I really had the desire to take on a movie like these,” he notes.

Of course, there are the movies… but then

also Williams’ curious fascination with old maps, especially the empty parts; those less familiar regions. “I found the ‘nothingness’ more compelling,” the director admits. “There was something revealing about human nature that we wanted to make these areas more exciting and more dangerous, marking them with monsters.” So, heading off into the unknown world, he embarked on his own journey to tell a big adventure story. The difference here is that the sea monsters on the map are real…

Anchors Away As one of the first projects to be greenlit by Netflix Animation, The Sea Beast took three and a half years to produce. With no beat missed during the pandemic, Williams admits early development helped a great deal, “I love the feeling of camaraderie and collaboration, so it was a challenge to form that relationship and challenge each other remotely. But people were invested early on and we hit our stride, making a movie big in scope and its ambition.”

Around 400 people worked on the film, 10

of whom were directed by production designer Matthias Lechner (Zootopia, Encanto). Williams’ experience was staring through his screen for two years, working with Lechner, the rest of his Los Angeles team and Sony Imageworks in Vancouver, who provided the animation and visual effects. Lechner goes on to highlight, “Any movie is a prototype. So, you don’t know exactly where you are going until you get there. A lot of my job is to look into the director’s mind and ask the right questions.

Unfortunately, you are an expert on this at the end of the movie and not at the beginning.

But Chris is an excellent communicator.”

It seemed to be all plain sailing — production designer in sync, director at the helm — following the same map from the beginning with their initial artistic references. These included: N.C. Wyeth, Frederic Remington and the Hudson River School movement; all of which captured the bold colors and spirit of the great outdoors they were looking for.

“These painters were the original jumping-off point,” notes Lechner, “I didn’t want it to look

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‘I wanted more a sense of peril than you normally associate with feature animation …

The story can only get better and better if you’re open to other options.You’re always chasing the best possible version of the movie.’

— Director, writer & producer Chris Williams

staged, so I had to find other ways of bringing color in there; a filtering of light. The other key artist was Caspar David Friedrich, who painted these huge canvases like early forms of cinema.”

Lechner’s continual effort was to move more towards this realism rather than lean too heavily on an illustrative style, “Because the story, at its essence, is a seaman’s yarn, a tall tale, I really wanted to ground the film in reality. Character-wise, the animation is more controlled, more subtle, pushing it towards that reality.” Balance was key; a challenge especially in how far they would take the facial

features — large eyes or small eyes, how much skin texture, etc. — constantly aware of the uncanny valley.

Gather ‘Round…

After 25 years at Disney, Williams says he was ready for new challenges. Free of a house (and mouse) style, his potential behemoth had been growing for a decade and seemed the perfect fit for the newly established Netflix Animation studio, and so, he made the move.

Having cut his teeth as a storyboard artist on Mulan and The Emperor’s New Groove, the most important part for Williams has always been

in developing the story. “For me, the story room and editorial bay is the place I am most comfortable and most effective and so, obviously, when starting at Netflix, we had to hire both a story and visdev team.”

Williams takes great pride in fostering an environment where people can feel comfortable launching ideas and able to challenge the story. This was crucial as there was a desire from the offset to make something different in tone based on what he had worked on before. “I wanted more of a sense of peril than you normally associate with feature animation. That was a goal from the beginning.”

Never letting insecurity or ego get in the way of someone else’s “amazing idea,” Williams gathered his team around and facilitated open discussions that were a natural part of the process; “The story can only get better and better if you’re open to other options. You’re always chasing the best possible version of the movie.”

Screening the boards is another part of this development process. “It’s not the movie at this stage, just a tool. This is the scaffolding, a high vantage point. ‘Is this the best structure?’ ‘Is this character’s personality, right?’” he explains.

“Some [directors] make the mistake of feeling like this is the movie and want to protect it.” A film’s language and narrative should change once new life is breathed into it. This, Williams more than understands, is what helps these “imagined worlds” become more believable.

The imagined world of The Sea Beast had to be just as immersive. “Certain examples like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Blade Runner, there is a sense that you are being brought into a complete world. The filmmakers understood its history, what was going on before we entered it and what is happening beyond the frame.” A more

Unafraid Adventurer: Young stowaway Maisie Brumble is the fearless heroine of the movie who forms an unlikely friendship with a monster hunter.

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Features Heroes and Monsters: Directed by Chris Williams, The Sea Beast features the voices of Zaris-Angel Hator, Kark Urban and Dan Stevens.

‘Any movie is a prototype. A lot of my job is to look into the director’s mind and ask the right questions. Unfortunately, you are an expert on this at the end of the movie and not at the beginning.’

— Production designer Matthias Lechner

specific (and major) influence on this outlook and approach was Peter Weir’s 2003 film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. “We wanted to get a sense of what life was like on these ships. That is a lot of the experience of Master and Commander; this thrill in understanding the mechanism. How the ship works.”

Ship Shape

This Commander and his crew were ready to make their own waves. Yet, Williams — despite his previous Polynesian adventure — is the first to admit he still knew little about life at sea.

Therefore, the research was taken as seriously as it should have been. Detailed diagrams of ships, photography from books, hired experts and organized visits to Naval museums and the HMS Surprise (the ship used in Master and Commander) were the most essential references for early development. Lechner adds, “Our effects supervisor grew up on a ship, so we had a good handle to start with. It was important that the details worked; that the sailing maneuvers were performed properly. Even just learning the terminology to communicate with the artists.” In their efforts to give this constant feeling of immersion and authenticity, it had to

be earned — everything from how the crews worked to chain of command, navigation and wind direction were a necessity — a building block for the story and the ship itself.

Built in Maya, it came with a particular set of challenges. “What was really hard were the sails, for some reason,” highlights Lechner. Williams adds, “It was important that no matter where the camera was placed the sails were in the right direction. It seems a minor detail to most, but these things don’t just happen; people are really into this. Will ‘ship people’ — if they watch this movie — will they think we got it right? That was our goal. Even if you know nothing about it, there is a sense that it feels authentic because we have paid so much attention to the details; from the salt stains to the sun damage.”

Over a three-month period, Lechner directed his artists and designers predominantly via SketchUp, breaking down the environments — such as the huge palace — into separate pieces for them to build on. Color keys were the jumping-off point and an imperative part of Lechner’s design process, informing the lighting and construction of scenes; “I try and improve the image artists and designers are working on,” he says. “That makes them feel more involved in

the project; that they care about it. I am hoping the audience cares just as much and comes out of this movie having loved the colors. That was a really important part for me.”

From the subtlety of such (seemingly) tiny details to the sheer size of it all, another major focus was scale. “This was the biggest challenge,” states Lechner. “We had to figure out how to texture the beasts, especially seen both close up and from a mile away.” Andrea Blasich — a visual development artist specializing in sculpture — modeled several clay versions that became an integral part of working out the details and reference points. Starting with a rough full body, while refining, he used the right side of the model to show the muscle structure and the left to show the skin surface. Next, larger sculpts of the head with the mouth both open and closed were created.

Blasich then 3D scanned his sculptures, cleaning them up at the highest resolution. The final digital models were all part of the design package delivered to Sony Imageworks, who remodeled once more, translating them for animation.

A colorful epic adventure on a large scale, The Sea Beast is about to set sail and, for all it has to offer, also aims to become part of the growing push to show what animation can be while navigating such a vast ocean of uncharted ideas.

The Sea Beast premieres on Netflix on Friday, July 8.

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Make It Extra — with a Side of Optimism!

Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman bring Bob’s Burgers to the big screen in a meaty animated musical.

By Jennifer Wolfe

F

ans of Bob’s Burgers, the multi-Emmy-winning animated series that has become a mainstay of Sunday night appointment viewing over its 12-season run, have been eagerly awaiting the Belcher family’s theatrical debut since the project was first announced in 2017.

An animated, big-screen, musical comedy-mystery-adventure extravaganza, The Bob’s Burgers Movie arrived in theaters on May 27.

The 2D-animated film, made under a reported $60-$70 million budget, has a little of everything that you might expect: a crisis brought on by a ruptured water main; a mystery that could help save the restaurant; snappy, spectacular musical numbers and a big, healthy portion of heart.

But the series that excels at exalting the mundane also has a few surprises in store for moviegoers, including gorgeous, widescreen visuals presented in a mix of Cinemascope and anamorphic formats. There are also touches of CG animation hidden within the film stylized to appear as 2D in order to execute certain shots. The movie was produced at Bento Box Entertainment, with the bulk of the animation completed by Tonic DNA, Lighthouse Studios, Golden Wolf and Mercury Filmworks.

Produced by Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard, Nora Smith and Janelle Momary, The Bob’s Burgers Movie was written by Bouchard and Smith, and directed by Bernard Derriman, with Bouchard also serving as co-director. The movie takes a deep dive into the psyches of all five Belchers, and their stalwart family friend Teddy, with the celebrated voice

cast featuring Kristen Schaal, H. Jon Benjamin, John Roberts, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, Larry Murphy, Zach Galifianakis and Kevin Kline returning for their big-screen roles.

A Star Player As supervising director on more than 150 episodes of Bob’s Burgers before he was pro-

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Features Unhappy Meal: A ruptured water main creates a sinkhole right in front of Bob’s Burgers and ruins the Belchers’ plans for a great summer in the movie.

man wasn’t heavily involved in the project from the beginning. “Unlike Nora, who was alongside Loren from the start, I’d started from Australia working as a board artist, and then became a supervising director,” he relates. “Also, Loren focuses more on audio. It’s his thing, and that was a big part. Visual, obviously, is my bag — so we fit well together.”

All in the Details

‘What was really a great pleasure about working on the movie was thinking about what the characters were expressing quietly on the series that they could express out loud and explicitly in the feature.’

— Loren Bouchard, Bob’s Burgers creator and the film’s co-writer, co-director and producer

moted to producer after season 10, Derriman is steeped in the North Jersey Shore world of the Belchers. The Australian native began his career in animation at Disney Animation Australia in Sydney, working in television and features, and is also a consulting producer on Bouchard’s two newer series, The Great North and Central Park.

“When you meet a star player, you know it,” Bouchard says of working with Derriman.

Bouchard is the creator of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, which launched in 1995 and ran for six seasons before he teamed up with Brendon Small to create the beloved but shortlived series Home Movies. “I feel that I’ve benefited in some ways from having done this job for many decades now,” he notes. “Bob’s Burgers is a little more than 10 years old, but I’ve been running shows in various forms for a lot longer than that — I’ve been working in this

business since I was 24 years old. Now I really see how the work is important, but just as important is making sure that when you meet collaborators who are truly special, you ring all the alarms.”

Derriman is a problem-solver, says Bouchard, who can easily communicate complex solutions. “If we were staring at an animatic and were concerned about a shot or a motion or the clarity of a moment, he would just do a little drawing. While everyone else was scratching their heads and trying to figure it out, he would be drawing. Then, he would put the Post-it on the table, and it was so obviously the right answer. Somehow, Bernard knew.

He did it again and again and again, and it was thrilling because you realize, ‘Oh, we’ve got another one. We’ve got another person who is going to make everything better.’”

Initially brought on as a story artist, Derri-

Led by Bouchard, Derriman says the production team pays an enormous amount of attention to designing even the smallest details seen on-screen to a level he hadn’t experienced prior to Bob’s Burgers. “For instance,” he says, “if Teddy’s got a drill and he’s in the background of a scene, it’s not like a board artist just draws whatever drill that comes to mind and that’s what’s in the movie. We’ll always be digging up references, and Loren will push everyone to do that.

“If something doesn’t ring true, it’s like, ‘I’ve never seen a drill like that before.’ We’ll go into it. Every aspect of the show, we have that little extra level of reality where we try to make the props they’re using more realistic, more believable.”

Bouchard and Derriman credit art director Phil Hayes (Bob’s Burgers, The Great North), who has been on the series since the first episode, and production designer Ruben Hickman (The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Fantastic Mr. Fox) for elevating the series to a theatrical look. “Ruben is another star, another example of somebody you want to hold onto as tightly as you can,” says Bouchard. “It was like hiring Edward Hopper to work on the backgrounds for Bob’s Burgers.”

Adding light and shadows, Hickman’s early background drawings were so detailed they almost captured the look of the finished film.

“Ruben’s first background was a new pass on the exterior of the school, and I still remember just being blown away when I saw it,” Derriman recounts. “I was like, ‘Holy shit.’

“They were like paintings,” he continues. “It was more about being very conscious of what time of day it was and how a cloudy day would change the look of the paint on the buildings.

It was that level of detail, which we hadn’t ever done before, that really just took the look of the movie to a new level.”

Creating a Spectacle A big part of bringing Bob’s Burgers to the big screen was creating a sense of spectacle, says Bouchard. “If you think of spectacle too simplistically and too bluntly, then everything gets overblown and it means nothing. But do-

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Sounding Familiar: The original series voice cast — H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, Larry Murphy, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Zach Galifianakis and Kevin Kilne — reprise their roles.

L-R, Nora Smith, Loren Bouchard & Bernard Derriman

‘Every aspect of the show, we have that little extra level of reality where we try to make the props they’re using more realistic, more believable.’

— Director Bernard Derriman

ing spectacle right — and I’m not saying we nailed it, although we absolutely tried — seems to be about finding dynamics within the form, the 90-minute movie that’s meant to be on the big screen with big speakers and hundreds of people in the room.”

But creating spectacle also meant creating balance, he adds. “You still need small moments, and even silence and quietness in your characters, too. That’s part of ‘spectacle.’ We were, and still are, studying how to create that feeling of an eventful story. How do you tell a story about a family that runs a restaurant — which is, by definition, a small thing? It’s designed that way. It’s a small restaurant and a small space. In the grand scheme of things, you might, I guess, say it’s small stakes, though it certainly feels big to the characters.”

The question becomes how to take all that and make it fill the screen with emotions and

events so impactful audiences are pinned in their seats. “I can’t say for sure that we got there, because we haven’t seen it with an audience yet, but we certainly knew we wanted to try,” says Bouchard. “It’s what we’re interested in: How can we tell very small stories for the small screen and make them feel big, and how can we tell bigger stories for the big screen and make them feel huge?”

Room for Surprise Bringing the Belchers into cinemas meant the filmmakers could devote more time to exploring the depths of each family member.

“Because we’re a character-driven show, that means the characters have to have potential.

There has to be more that these characters can do and say that they haven’t done yet, or that they haven’t done in a particular way or in a way that could surprise even us, the peo-

ple who are responsible for coming up with the things that they say,” Bouchard explains.

“What was really a great pleasure about working on the movie was thinking about what the characters were expressing quietly on the series that they could express out loud and explicitly in the feature,” he adds.

Linda, in particular, held the most surprise for the filmmakers. “When we looked at Linda, we realized what a force she was in this family — what an incredible, somewhat unsung hero she was,” says Bouchard. “It was about optimism and this hope and grit that she embodies minute to minute in this family. And they’re facing real challenges.

“When Bob loses his drive, when he no longer has enough reserves of hope and strength himself — what that looks like and what that marriage looks like, and how the kids fit into that, that was something that we were really happy to dig into and find more there than perhaps we even dared to hope for.”

In the end, Bouchard says, “Each character had to hold their own in this movie. We wanted all six of them, including Teddy, to really face their worst nightmare in a way where the most important part of themselves is challenged.”

20th Century’s The Bob’s Burgers Movie is currently playing in theaters in various territories.

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Whatever Happened to Those Chipmunks?

The clever new Disney+ movie Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers offers a hilarious take on the studio’s favorite nut hoarders!

By Michael Mallory

W

hether you remember them as chattering foils for Pluto in cartoons from the 1940s and ‘50s, or as action-adventure Disney afternoon stars from the late 1980s, the new feature film Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers presents the chipmunk duo in a totally unique fashion: as showbiz has-beens. Don’t expect Whatever Happened to Baby Dale? though; instead the film, which is now available on Disney+, is an audaciously satirical take on Disney favorites, inspired not only by the 1989 Rescue Rangers cartoon series, but also the 1988 classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

In this live-action/animation hybrid produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films, the duo lives in a version of Los Angeles that is inhabited by both humans and toons.

While Chip has moved on from his television fame and settled into a comfortable, sedate life as an insurance agent, Dale desperately tries to keep his name alive through appearing at celebrity autograph shows. Like a lot of former celebs, he has even augmented his looks … through CGI surgery. They reunite not to stage a comeback, but to try and find a former co-star that has gone missing.

This approach — which depicts Chip in 2D and Dale in 3D — was the brainchild of TV sitcom writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand (How I Met Your Mother). “We cherish those old cartoons,” says Gregor, “but it felt important not to dump them back into the culture without a good reason for it. We kept tasking ourselves, ‘What would make them modern and give them a real point to exist?’” Mand further states: “To Disney’s credit, and to that of all our producers, they said, ‘Come to us with ideas and the things that excite you,’ so we brought them this meta take on it.”

What they inadvertently discovered in crafting a movie about one-time stars, though, was that life imitated art. “I can’t tell you how many times we would say, ‘Oh, we’re working on the Rescue Rangers movie,’ and people would say, ‘Cool! The Rescuers, I remember that,’” Gregor laughs. “Even people who theoretically had knowledge of this era of cartoons assumed it was a different thing we were bringing back.”

A Smorgasbord of Styles As if blending the 1980s 2D look with state-of-the-art 3D in a live-action back-

ground wasn’t daunting enough, Chip ‘n Dale also features just about everything in between. “From Mary Poppins on, you’ve seen 2D in a live-action world,” says director Akiva Schaffer (Saturday Night Live), “but you’ve never seen a film where every version of animation from video games to anime to Pixar style exists.”

While Schaffer actively sought out artists from the cartoon renaissance era to work on the film, the larger challenge was technological: making the new animation — particularly some of the CGI — look like it was 20 or 30 years old.

“People who worked on movies like Final Fantasy or Beowulf would talk about the struggles they had to perfect it,” Schaffer says. “I would say, ‘Oh, that’s so great … Now, do the opposite.’”

In one sequence the chipmunks are confronted by a CG human character (voiced by Seth Rogen) that had to look like an escapee from Y2K mo-capped “action-figure” animation. “The first renders of Seth were beautiful,” the director says. “They looked completely real, but I’d say, ‘No, no, no, it has to look terrible!’ It was fighting every instinct they had, everything they’d been working toward for decades. But at the end of the day, I think they

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Akiva Schaffer

proach. “Roger Rabbit was the North Star for this movie,” says Mand. “You would always hear, ‘They’ll never be able to make Roger Rabbit again,’ but we hope that this movie feels like it’s part of the same world as that.”

Fresh Critter Voices

Roger Rabbit on Steroids: The clever movie features the voices of John Mulaney and Andy Samberg as Chip and Dale, who try to help their old pal Monterey Jack (voiced by Eric Bana).

enjoyed that as an exercise.” Another sequence involved recreating the old Disney Afternoon series to the nth degree. “A team did that in 2D and it looks perfect,” says Schaffer, who was so pleased with the results that he showed the clip to Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers creator Tad Stones. “He said, ‘Wow, that’s what we hoped the show would look like!’”

Passion Pictures in London was responsible for the 2D animation, while Montreal-based MPC handled the 3D animation and effects work, with Omar Morsy serving as animation director.

The VFX team, under the supervision of MPC’s Axel Bonami, was on the job even before live-action production began in March of 2021. “As I started scouting the locations where things were going to take place, the effects team was scanning and measuring those places,” Schaffer says. “Sets were being created in the computer and we would pre-viz all of it so that everything was planned out. Then on the set I could get the whole crew to watch three minutes of pre-viz in the morning, so everyone could see a rudimentary version of it

and understand the goal.”

Then there was the problem of shooting a film whose two leads are six-inches tall. Standard techniques such as puppet stand-ins and LED sticks were employed to provide eye lines for the film’s human star, KiKi Layne (Coming 2 America), who plays the cop ally of Chip and Dale. But the production also devised a specially-created car to gauge the speed of the chipmunks’ movements. “That was something our special effects team rigged and could really control,” Shaffer says. “I would act out how urgently the chipmunks are walking from an emotional standpoint, and then we would open an iPad on which we had developed walk and run cycles and watch until I saw the one that looked to be the speed they should be going. Then I’d tell the effects guys doing the car to go at .6 miles per hour or .8 miles per hour, and the steadicam or dolly track person could follow this little car as if it were a chipmunk.”

Key among the film’s toon cameos (a few of which writers Gregor and Mand are still astonished they were able to secure) is the p-pp-p-player that inspired the film’s entire ap-

Veteran animators Uli Meyer and Chuck Gammage, who had both worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, were among those brought in to recreate classic characters, with Gammage working specifically on Roger.

Whenever possible, original voice actors were also hired, including Charles Fleischer for Roger. The voices of Chip and Dale, however, are decidedly not original. Replacing the sped-up dialogue of Tress MacNeille and Corey Burton from the television series are John Mulaney as Chip and Andy Samberg as Dale (though MacNeille and Burton still perform the high-pitched voices and other characters).

The new voices are part of the reimagining of the characters as actors and, as Gregor notes, “Mr. Bean doesn’t sound like that in real life, either.” An animatic of the entire film was prepared prior to shooting, from which Mulaney’s and Samberg’s lines could be played back on the set, so that the other actors could react to them. “If we had to improvise something, I would do it myself with the actor,” says Schaffer.

Overall, the filmmakers are delighted with their picture. “Our budget for animation was maybe a tenth of what a Pixar or Disney animated movie costs, so within that, everybody knocked it out of the park,” Schaffer states. “I wanted it to be this love letter to animation.”

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is currently streaming on Disney+.

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Teddy Bears vs. Unicorns!

Director Alberto Vázquez answers our burning questions about his new movie Unicorn Wars.

F

ans of Spanish graphic novelist and animation director Alberto Vázquez (Birdboy, Homeless Home, Decorado) have been counting the days until the acclaimed auteur’s new movie Unicorn Wars arrives on the big screen. The film, which was part of Annecy’s Work in Progress program last year, will premiere at this year’s edition of the animation festival in France. Produced by UniKo, Abano Pro­ ducións and Autour de Minuit, the feature is set again a terrible war between religious fanatic teddy bears and environmentalist unicorns. We had a chance to chat with Vázquez about his latest animated spectacular, which is bound to be one of the big crowd-pleasers at the 2022 festival: Animation Magazine: Can you tell us how you came up with the idea for Unicorn Wars?

Alberto Vázquez: The feature film is based on a short comic-book story I created more than 10 years ago. Then in 2013, we made the short film Unicorn Blood based on this comic book. And finally, the film Unicorn Wars was made. This same process happened in my previous project, Psiconautas (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children) and I thought it might be a good idea to do the same, use what I think is a good idea and work with it as a base — but have the freedom to make some changes along the way. Besides, the passage of time also allows the story to mature and help evolve the artistic finish.

I like to create small universes, choral works with many characters where we are presented with a world with its own rules. It seemed to me that the short film Unicorn Blood had many thematic and narrative possibilities and I decided to extend it. Anyway, the short film is just a seed to start working on, since the ideas, plots and themes of Unicorn Wars are different, although I think the essence of the short film is still maintained.

How long did it take you to finish the film, and what animation tools did the studio use to produce it?

Making this film has been a process of about six years of work. At the beginning I worked alone, then a small team of people joined in pre-production and then, the production, with all the equipment, has lasted a year and a half. The animation is made in Blender, specifically with a tool called Grease Pencil, with which you work in 2D within a 3D environment. All the bears and characters are made in traditional 2D, except the unicorns that are made in 3D. One of the main challenges at the beginning of the production was to animate the unicorns.

In this movie there are quite a lot of them, since there are several battles and sometimes we can have 40 unicorns in the composition. To solve this, we decided to animate them in 3D and integrate them with the 2D by animating them at twos or threes and silhouetting and lighting the unicorns in a very graphic way.

Blender allowed all the studios involved in the film to work with the same software and we all had the same work methodology. Besides, Blender is a free software and, being open source, it keeps evolving.

Where was the animation produced and how many people worked on it?

Unicorn Wars is a Spanish and French production made by Abano, UniKo and Autour de Minuit. We had a studio in La Coruña (where I live), Bilbao, Paris and Angoulême, as well as small studios in Valencia, Barcelona and Almendralejo that helped us in processes during production. In the end, if you count all the people who have worked on it, there will be about 200 people between all the phases.

What do you like most about this film?

Well, I like the script, the themes and the artwork. I think I have made the film I wanted to

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Features Mad World: Alberto Vázquez’s new movie centers on the war between religiously bigoted teddy bears and the environmentalist unicorns.

Alberto Vázquez

make. What I like most is how the war between the unicorns and the bears is intertwined with the internal war of the main characters, the two twin brothers Bluet and Tubby. Unicorn Wars is actually an anti-war film that talks about the absurd origin of all wars. Unfortunately, it is very topical now, because when we started this project we never thought we would have the current conflict in Europe.

What were your biggest challenges?

Directing several remote studios has been complicated and laborious. Also, it’s a difficult film because there are many ‘main’ characters (almost 40) with a lot of details, and then there is the part of the unicorns and the battles that have quite a lot of technical difficulty. In the end, our film has a budget of about 3 million euros, which is very low for this kind of project, but I think we have done well.

What do you hope the audience will get out of the film?

I like films to have an emotional impact on the viewer, to be remembered and to make them reflect on what they have seen. I like films that provoke emotions. I know that this is what all filmmakers want and it is not easy to achieve. If this can’t be achieved, at least make the film entertaining.

Who are your animation heroes, favorite movies or TV shows of all time?

Animation heroes include Isao Takahata, Roland Topor, Mary Blair, Miyazaki, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Lotte Reiniger, Sempé, Lorenzo Mattotti. Favorite shows and movies include Wonder Showzen, Fraggle Rock, Watership Down, Dragon Ball, Samurai Jack, The Shivering Truth and Barefoot Gen. What is your take on the state of the world animation scene?

In animation there is a huge variety of thematic and technical proposals. Animation is a wonderful medium for telling all kinds of stories. At the moment, I think that animation still has problems with society understanding that it is a medium that is also for adults. Many people don’t know that you can talk about the same things you can talk about in fiction or documentary. Little by little, I believe that this misconception is being overcome, but there is still a long way to go. Animation is for everyone: for children and for adults.

Animation is a great medium to tell all kinds of stories with its own language.

What advice do you give newbies who want to pursue a career in the world of comics or animation?

It’s hard for me to give advice to others, since I don’t have any for myself. I would say that you have to be passionate about this medium, watch a lot of animation, read a lot of comics — but also watch a lot of cinema in general and read a lot of literature. You have to take those influences from these media and pass them through your own filter, your own personal experiences, so that they are credible for you and also for the viewer. Look inside yourself, take the things that have impacted you in your life and work with them. Work with pain, humiliation or joy, but always make them your own.

For more information, visit albertovazquez.net.

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The Tiniest Movie Star After years of hard work, Marcel the Shell gets to shine in a wonderful feature-length movie.

By Ramin Zahed

I

n August of 2010, director Dean Fleischer-Camp and his then-wife, writer/actress Jenny Slate, released a lovely stop-motion short about an anthropomorphic seashell with a single googly eye and very tiny shoes. Now, 12 years later, the super-cute mollusk is ready for his big-screen close-up as the feature-length hybrid movie Marcel the Shell with Shoes On premieres in select theaters in June.

The film, which made a big splash at the 2021 Telluride Festival, finds the squeaky-voiced seashell, his grandmother Connie and their pet lint Alan trying to figure out the mysterious tragedy that separated them for the rest of their community. Fleischer-Camp tells us that after the initial Marcel short proved to be hugely popular — to date, it has over 3.4 million views on YouTube — it generated a lot of interest from studios and networks. But, there was a catch: “All the meetings were all sort of geared towards how to take this great character and just kind of graft it onto a more mainstream, familiar type of movie,” he recalls. “So, a lot of studio execs suggesting, ‘What if we pair Marcel with Ryan Reynolds and they fight crime together?’ It was

basically Detective Pikachu, now that I think about it. It just didn’t feel aligned with what made the short great, or with what I was interested in doing with the character.”

So, the director and Slate (who also provides Marcel’s voice) decided to keep the character intact for a while. “But the character never went away, and Jenny and I just kind of kept joking and riffing

about it in private, thinking up stories or jokes or whatever,” says Fleischer-Camp. “I started keeping very lazy notes about those ideas and just got into the habit of jotting them down. And eventually, we’d built up a ton of those. We had generated so much about him and his world that after a while, it honestly felt like it would be a shame not to put it into a larger project and kind of let it be free — you

‘It sounds corny but most of my animation heroes are the folks I met working on the film or through festivals. People like Kirsten Lepore, Kangmin Kim, Yizhou Li, so many others … That’s sort of the best thing about being a director: You get to meet and befriend so many brilliant artists — and if you’re really lucky, like I was, you get to work with them as well.’

— Director & co-writer Dean Fleischer-Camp

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Features Seeking Connection: Marcel searches for his long-lost family in his big-screen debut.

‘If we did our job right, then Marcel should feel like he’s totally part of the real world, and I hope audiences can sit back and enjoy the authenticity of this character and his special story of connection and community.’

— Animation director Kirsten Lepore

know, jailbreak it from the prison of being just an inside joke. I also finally felt like it was full enough that I could see how it might actually support an entire feature film and not feel like we’d stretched this very limited premise super thin.”

Playing the Shell Game Then, in the summer of 2014, the director joined forces with producer Elisabeth Holm (Obvious Child), co-writer Nick Paley and award-winning animation director Kirsten Lepore (Hi Stranger, Bottle, Adventure Time “Bad Jubies”). While they drew the storyboards in 2017, the animation didn’t begin until March 2022, and then everything shut down because of the COVID pandemic. “We restarted production in August with very strict protocols, and everyone was wearing shields and masks,” says the director. “We wrapped animation in October 2020 and then locked picture in September of last year (2021). So it took seven years, which sounds like a lot but when you consider that it also includes the time it took to pitch to financers and write the screenplay, etc., it’s probably not that long relative to other animated movies!”

“The first few years were mostly Dean and Jenny recording and getting the audio play locked,” recalls Lepore. “We did a lot of boarding, refining and trying things in the edit until we landed on a final animatic. Another small delay in the process: I had a baby. Then in the summer of 2019 we did the live-action shoot in a beautiful, charming house in L.A., which provided the majority of our

plates and established the look and feel of the movie. In 2020, we shot the stop-motion elements (after several months of delay due to the pandemic shutdowns), and then post continued for probably another half year after that! There was a ton of compositing to be done, as we’re seaming both the live-action plates and stop-mo elements for most shots. So, suffice to say, it was a very long process — but one that was filled with tons of experimentation, discovery and ingenuity” Lepore worked with a 50-person crew, and recalls having around 10 stages running at once — and everyone, including the assistants, animating shots and doing incredible work! “We shot on DSLRs capturing into Dragonframe, which is pretty standard. However, the fact that we were inserting a one-inch-tall stop-motion puppet into roving live-action camera footage was something that, to my knowledge, had never been done before,” she points out. “We had some pretty huge technical puzzles to solve in order to achieve our most complex shots, i.e. the handful that required sweeping multi-axis camera movements (popcorn!), complicated interaction (skating on real dust!) and hundreds of puppets (couch!).”

She also sings the praises of the film’s DP, Eric Adkins. “He was incredible and the absolute perfect person suited for these challenges,” Lepore adds. “For every single shot on the live-action shoot, Eric made overhead diagrams detailing every light source and measuring exact distances between props, characters and camera, so he

could recreate that scenario as closely as possible an entire year later on the stop-motion stages. His attention to detail was *chefs kiss*!”

For the filmmakers, merging the documentary-style live-action footage with stop-motion animation proved to be the biggest challenge. ”They’re just oil and water,” says Fleischer-Camp “The verité style of the live action is very handheld, loose-feeling, spontaneous — very off the cuff. And stop motion is the total opposite because it’s so labor intensive. It’s very previsualized and technical, very tightly controlled. That was insanely complicated and hard to do, not to mention fairly unprecedented. But I was committed to figuring out how to not just do that but how to make it 100% seamless, so that you really believe Marcel exists in this world and you never question it.”

Fleischer-Camp, who counts documentaries such as Grey Gardens and Portrait of Jason as well as Nick Park’s Creature Comforts, Jiří Trnka’s classics and Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s shorts as some of his favorites, mentions that his true heroes are the artists he met working on the film or through festivals. “People like Kirsten, Kangmin Kim, Yizhou Li, so many others; they just absolutely blew me away with every shot. That’s sort of the best thing about being a director: you get to meet and befriend so many brilliant artists — and if you’re really lucky, like I was, you get to work with them as well.”

Looking back, Lepore agrees that one of the best parts of the experience was getting to meet and work with so many amazingly talented people.

“This was the largest scale project I’ve had the opportunity to work on, and there was definitely something special about the camaraderie that forms when everyone is in it together on a feature,” she notes. “And on this project in particular, it really seemed like everyone who worked on it shared a similar positive ethos that was totally in the spirit of the Marcel character. It was a very special crew and wonderful working environment.”

When asked about the universal appeal of Marcel, Fleischer-Camp offers the perfect answer: “There are so many people that live in a world that is not made for them,” says the director. “Even if you don’t feel that way as an adult, everybody knows that feeling because when you’re a kid, nothing in the world is made for you, it’s all made by adults for adults. And that only becomes more complicated as you grow up and realize: Hey, wait, this world still isn’t made for me, but just for different reasons than your height.

Marcel is an inspiration in that way. He sees an obstacle and he doesn’t see the impossible, he just sees it as the next thing he has to overcome. I find him very inspiring like that.”

A24 releases Marcel the Shell with Shoes On in select theaters on June 24.

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Mark Koetsier

The Way of the Feline Samurai The creative forces behind Paws of Fury tell us how they mixed Eastern and Western archetypes in their new movie.

By Devin Nealy

T

he famous undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi once said, “If you know the way broadly, you will see it in everything.” The quote speaks to the subtle and imperceptible threads that unify life’s many divergent concepts and cultures. And, yes, that even includes cats and dogs.

On the surface, the timeless clash of felines and canines that fuels the narrative in Paws of Fury: the Legend of Hank appears to be the film’s sole source of duality. However, the trio of creators behind the movie (writer Ed Stone and directors Rob Minkoff and Mark Koetsier) initially conceived the idea to explore the commonalities shared by Eastern and Western cinema. “The first idea was sort of a Western,” says Stone, who also penned the acclaimed 1999 movie Happy, Texas. “Can we take a real Western from the West and make it Eastern? Is that an interesting idea?”

Paws of Fury: the Legend of Hank follows the journey of the eponymous Hank, an endearing dachshund voiced by Michael Cera, as he endeavors to become a brave samurai. Hank embarks on the warrior’s path by training under a samurai cat named Jimbo, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. As Hank’s skills develop, the villainous cat Ika Chu, played by Ricky Gervais, be-

gins to upend law and order in the town, prompting the protagonist to test his samurai abilities.

Homage to the Masters Formerly known as Blazing Samurai, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank proudly wears its influences on its sleeve. When the trio arrived at the idea of blending Eastern and Western story forms, they leaned on the cross-pollination of ideas shared by Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone as a reference point. “When it came to executing the scenes, as we went along, a lot of the shots, we tried to take Sergio Leone’s style of filmmaking,” says Koetsier. “Those real-

ly tight shots on the eyes and really low camera angles.”

In the early stages of development around 2010, Stone intended for the film to feature human leads. When he ran the idea by Minkoff, a veteran animation director whose credits include The Lion King, Stuart Little and Mr. Peabody & Sherman, he received an illuminating note that changed the shape of the project. “I came to Ed and said, ‘Do you think it would be possible to turn this into a fable and make it about animals?’“ says Minkoff. “Ed said, ‘Well, I think that’s a good idea.’ So I jumped into the project, and we kind of did a reboot of it,” he says. Minkoff cites the script’s transition into a

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Training Cats & Dogs: A down-on-his-luck hound finds himself in a town full of cats who need a hero to defend them in Paws of Fury, directed by Rob Minkoff and Mark Koetsier.

‘One of the things you might notice is that we’re playing with the scale of characters: The cats in our movie, many of them, are 10 times as big as the dog.

— Director Rob Minkoff

fable in 2014 as the point when the project began in earnest.

Retooling the screenplay as a fable also helped Stone recognize how saliently animals could visually reinforce the story’s metaphor.

“We all struggle to be accepted for who we are and not what we look like,” says Stone.

“Doing [the story] as a fable is a great way for families to have that conversation.”

“At the root of the story, [Hank] is not like everyone else,” says Minkoff. “I think we can all relate and identify to a story where you feel different or like an outsider. I think that’s pretty universal.”

The Development Dojo Mirroring the time it takes to hone a martial discipline, the gestation period for Paws of Fury was lengthy. “It was December [2019], and the production was animated in Montreal.

I was there in February, and Mark was going to relocate to Montreal,” says Minkoff, recalling how the pandemic altered production at Cinesite. “And suddenly after February, it was like, ‘We’re shutting down, no more travel. Mark’s

not going to go there. Everything is going to be done on Zoom.’’’

The trio says the first Zoom meetings were a nightmare to navigate, but after a brief adjustment period, the process became more efficient and less chaotic. Armed with their Wacom Cintiqs, Minkoff and Koetsier were able to produce sketches for the Cinesite animation team in real time. “When you’re looking at shots, we put it on a thing called SyncSketch, and everyone can actually review it at the same time on their computer,” explains Minkoff. “It was a very seamless process.”

Both Minkoff and Koetsier were incredibly intentional with the film’s character designs.

“One of the things you might notice is that we’re playing with the scale of characters, too,” says Minkoff. “The cats in our movie, many of them are 10 times as big as the dog.” Despite comic distortion factoring into character designs, Koetsier says he wanted to retain the visual language of real cats and dogs, and it was important to keep the animal’s distinct silhouettes as recognizable as possible.

In addition to his duties as a director, Minkoff got in touch with his inner audio engineer. He says he created several “instructional videos” to help actors construct studios at home. “We assembled a suite of recording equipment we put into a big Pelican case,” he says. “And I recorded a video on how to set it up.”

One of the film’s biggest influences and stars, Mel Brooks, encountered some hilarious technical difficulties while recording at home.

“We get into the session, and the wifi doesn’t work,” says Minkoff. Brooks and his assistant switched rooms for better reception, but a noisy fan almost ruined the subsequent takes.

“The material he recorded was so good. Everything was solid gold.” Thankfully the wizards at Skywalker Ranch salvaged the audio.

Outside of Brooks, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank has no shortage of fantastic comedic actors. “We could have made three more movies just taking Ricky [Gervais]’s recordings,” says Stone. “He would go on these tangents of how mean he could be,” says Koetsier. “He can certainly turn sarcasm into comedy.”

The inclusion of Samuel L Jackson had a massive impact on production, as the trio tailored the movie around the iconic actor. “Sam Jackson was our first actor after Mel Brooks,” says Minkoff. “So a lot of [the casting] was, ‘Who would play well against him?’ Who was the right dynamic?’ And it really felt like Michael [Cera] and he would play well off of each other.”

When it came to casting the film’s everyman protagonist, the trio looked toward the understated comedic talents of Cera. “He really has a lot behind his voice,” says Koetsier, “He means what he says, and I think that really helped our character, Hank, to be a genuine character.”

Similar to Hank’s growth in Paws of Fury, Cera went through his own character arc during the film’s production. “He got a girlfriend, he got married, he had a kid,” says Stone. “Two more years, he could’ve been a grandfather.”

On the topic of children, Stone assures viewers that Paws of Fury has something for everyone. “This is a family movie,” says Stone, “but we spent a lot of time to make sure it wasn’t a parent punisher.” Paws of Fury: the Legend of Hank follows Musashi’s wisdom of seeing the way broadly and finding the unifying threads that bond adults and children.

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank arrives in U.S. theaters on July 15 presented by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies; produced by Align, Aniventure, Brooksfilms, Flying Tigers Ent., GFM Animation, Cinesite, HB Wink Animation and Huayi Tencent Ent.

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Features

Mavka, the Spirit of Ukrainian Culture The team at Animagrad studio strives to finish their stunning movie despite the terrible Russian war against their country and culture.

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ince Russia began its brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine in February, the brave employees of Kyiv-based media company FILM.UA Group and animation studio Animagrad have been on the frontlines of sheltering citizens and using their resources to fight Russian propaganda. We recently got in touch with our resilient and talented friends at Animagrad, who have been working patiently on their labor of love, the beautiful CG-animated feature Mavka. The Forest Song for the past few years. Originally slated for a December 2022 theatrical release, the film has been pre-sold in many territories (Germany’s Koch Films, Italia Film Int’l and Slovakia’s Cinemart, to name a few).

The film’s producer, Iryna Kostyuk, says she and her team are deeply committed to defending the country’s rich culture and heritage against Russian attacks. She says, “Since Putin embarked on the plan to destroy Ukrainian identity and authenticity by denying our

unique culture (‘denationalizing’ Ukraine, as they officially put it), our duty is to fight that very evil. Our stories are our weapon. So, we have to be loud.”

Preservers of Culture Kostyuk says she and her team are making a huge effort not only to finish the powerful movie, but also to distribute the screening rights to as many countries as possible. “We want to be seen and heard all over the world,” she notes. “We are also trying to involve international star talent — especially those who have publicly declared their support to Ukraine — to be the voice cast of our wonderful characters in the international version of the movie. The rights are already licensed to many European countries, but we are in the active process of further sales (also in talks with the streamers) as we also need to reach out to North America. Local Ukrainian stars have already joined the voice cast of the do-

mestic version of the film.”

The film’s director, Oleg Malamuzh, points out that Mavka tells a local story with a timeless, global appeal. “Any audience can understand this story about an empowered, brave heroine, but it takes place in Ukraine and it spotlights our culture and natural world,” he says. “This is a story of maturing and taking responsibility, relationships and deceit, the desire for peace and harmony — every viewer will find their favorite hero they can relate to.”

Malamuzh adds, “In fact, Animagrad studio has a lineup of three animated features which all center on unique female characters with Ukrainian cultural and historical background.

Our first animated feature, The Stolen Princess, was about Mila the Princess of Kyiv, and it was released in 2018 both domestically (with a record-breaking box office) and internationally (in over 50 countries). Mavka, who is the soul of a Ukrainian forest, will be our second animated feature release. And finally, there is also

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Features Heroic Resilience: Mavka has emerged as a symbol for Ukrainian culture, heritage and unifying spirit after the 2022 invasion of the country by Russia

Roxelana, our new movie in development, based on a real character — a Ukrainian girl who became the first woman to rule the Ottoman Empire alongside the Sultan.“ (Malamuzh is the director of all three movies.)

“It has always been our mission to promote

Ukrainian culture,” says creative producer Anna Eliseeva. “But now, this mission has become more complicated, important and significant.

Ukraine has to combat evil across all fronts.

Our soldiers are defending our lives, our legacy and our heritage. Still, the enemy wants to

The Animagrad Trilogy The Stolen Princess (2018) A global hit for the studio, this colorful fairy tale centers on Ruslan, an artist who dreams of becoming a knight, who meets and falls in love with the beautiful Mila — without realizing that she is the king’s daughter. But, before he wins the heart of the young princess, he must prove himself and save her from an evil sorcerer.

Directed by Oleg Malamuzh and produced by Egor Olesov.

Mavka. The Forest Song (2022) Mavka faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as guardian to the Heart of the Forest when she falls in love with a human: the talented young musician, Lukash. Directed by Oleg Malamuzh and produced by Egor Olesov.

Roxelana (in development) Based on a true story, this animated feature centers on a spirited Ukrainian girl who becomes the first woman to rule the Ottoman Empire with the Sultan. To be directed by Malamuzh.

Iryna Kostyuk

wipe out our identity, our cultural code and the nation’s DNA. So, our team believes that our task is to fight at the cultural front.”

Eliseeva reminds us that Mavka is often seen as a guardian figure. “She is a powerful character from Ukrainian ancient mythology and classic literature. And we are the ones who create stories teaching our children to believe that good will always win over evil, and love will defeat hate. We long for the moment when audiences of both grown-ups and kids across the globe will not only enjoy the beautiful imagery and exciting story, but also discover and hear our message that we have been working on all these years: Love and kindness win, and love is the most precious thing we humans have. But now, there is one more thing to add: Peace is the most precious and valuable thing we can ever have.”

The film’s producer, Egor Olesov, adds, “Mavka strives for peace in her world like millions of Ukrainians and people across the globe do. We are at the final stages of production, we keep on producing even in these times of war — our team and artists work from the bomb shelters, in ex-occupied territories, being displaced abroad and within Ukraine. Mavka will be delivered on time as planned: the fourth quarter of 2022. We are grateful to every member of our team for their outstanding efforts. And for us, Mavka is not just a one-off feature film: not only it has already grown into an IP with a high brand awareness locally, but we are looking into expanding its universe further: We’re developing the idea for an animated Mavka series to follow the release of the movie.

“Mavka is an ambassador of hope,” concludes Eliseeva. “She resisted and defeated evil, as the people of Ukraine have done and will continue to do in the future.”

For more info about the studio and its movies, visit animagrad.com.

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Features Images courtesy of Toei Animation

The Red Ribbon Army Returns!

The producer of Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO offers an update on the much-anticipated feature project.

By Charles Solomon

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ragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO, directed by Tetsuro Kodama, ranks among the year’s most eagerly awaited features. Akira Toriyama’s landmark blend of male bonding, martial arts training, slapstick comedy and all-out slugfests is even more popular now than it was when the broadcast series debuted in 1986. Originally scheduled for an April release, Toei announced SUPER HERO has been delayed to June 11 due to a ransomware attack on the studio in March.

Producer Norihiro Hayashida discussed making the film in a recent interview conducted via email.

Like much of the film’s audience, he grew up on the TV adaptations of Toriyama’s beloved comedy-adventure manga. “I watched it every week without fail. I couldn’t wait for Wednesday, which was the day of the broadcast,” he recalls.

A True Calling “I never thought I would be involved in the creation of a Dragon Ball film — it still feels strange to work with Goku and his friends,” Hayashida continues. “I think the key to success in the entertainment industry lies in how much you love the work you are in charge of.”

SUPER HERO, which takes place after the events

The 21st Feature: The evil Red Ribbon Army reforms to seek revenge in the much-anticipated new Dragon Ball movie.

in Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018), brings back the Red Ribbon Army, which Goku destroyed in episodes 29 through 45 of the Dragon Ball anime series. It’s been rebuilt, and two formidable foes have been added: Gamma 1 and Gamma 2. Previous Dragon Ball films focused on Goku and his frenemy Vegeta; SUPER HERO centers on Goku’s son Gohan and his sensei, Piccolo.

“Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 are self-proclaimed superheroes with a kind of good-old look, but they are incredibly strong,” Hayashida explains. “The difference between the personalities of Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 is well expressed in the animated move-

ments and voice acting. How will Gohan and Piccolo fight them? That’s one major point of the story.”

At the annual Jump Festa exposition in Tokyo in December, 2021, voice actor Mamoru Miyano, who plays Gamma 2, could barely contain his enthusiasm: “I’m in Dragon Ball! When I was in elementary school, I watched the video of the Red Ribbon Army arc every day when I went home. Piccolo is my favorite character — it’s like I was raised by him. Gamma 2 is full of Akira Toriyama’s view of the world.”

The first Dragon Ball series were made cheaply, and hardcore fans remain devoted to the original 2D look. The new film is consider-

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Features True to Toriyama’s Vision

‘I think the key to success in the entertainment industry lies in how much you love the work you are in charge of.”

— Producer Norihiro Hayashida

ably more lavish. The reclusive Toriyama issued a statement saying, “We’ll be charting through some unexplored territory in terms of the visual aesthetics to give the audience an amazing ride.”

Hayashida adds, “Hand-drawn animation has its

own beauty. I believe fans of 2D animation will accept our new technique, which is CG-based but incorporates many hand-drawn elements. It took us eight years, including development, to reach this point.”

Toriyama also wrote the story and has been closely involved in its development. “The scenario as well as the main characters and mechanics are designed by Toriyama-sensei: He’s been involved in more areas than ever before,” Hayashida says. “I work with the directors every day to find the best way to express his ideas in the movie. This process is both enjoyable and tough, I find it very rewarding.”

Many of the people lining up to see SUPER HERO will be the sons, daughters and grandsons and granddaughters of the original fans who watched the earlier films and series. When asked what accounts for the enduring popularity of the property, Hayashida replies, “In my opinion, the Dragon Ball worldview is universal. The clothing, buildings and other visuals could exist in any time and any region. Also, I believe children in any time and any region want to be strong, like Goku. This universality is a major factor in maintaining the popularity of the series.”

Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO premieres in Japan on June 11; global release in summer 2022 through Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

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Features

A Toon Town Trailblazer The Gotham Group founder and award-winning producer Ellen Goldsmith-Vein speaks about her new movie Wendell & Wild and the changing animation business.

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his month, we had the chance to catch up with animation veteran Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, the trailblazing founder of the influential management and production company The Gotham Group. The Emmy-nominated producer of acclaimed projects such as the Aardman TV series Creature Comforts, The Maze Runner movie trilogy and Stargirl is currently working on Henry Selick’s upcoming Netflix movie Wendell & Wild which is slated for a late 2022 release:

As you know, there’s a lot of early buzz surrounding Wendell & Wild. Can you tell us how you got involved with this movie and what makes it stand out in your mind?

We’ve worked with the brilliant Henry Selick for over 20 years, but it took years to get him to return my phone call! I was leaving messages on his home phone and at his Colossal office when he was working on MTV spots. His auteur status was always apparent and it’s been a genuine highlight of my career to encourage and support his cinematic vision. His idea for Wendell & Wild, like Henry himself,

was a true original with the potential to attract a wide audience. That’s exactly the type of project that we as a company champion as dealmakers and producers. When Jordan Peele came on board as a producer, co-writer and star opposite Keegan-Michael Key, it just seemed as if this idea had reached its fullest expression. We brought the concept to Netflix, who saw this film as the perfect debut project for a creative partnership with Henry.

Ellen Goldsmith-Vein

What do you love about working with Henry Selick?

The phrase “creative genius” is really overused these days, but honestly, Henry fits the bill. He is a singular artist with magnificent vision and a true master of the stop-motion medium. Henry also has the ability to attract brilliant artists and a great cast to his projects, and Wendell & Wild is a perfect example of that.

based on the sci-fi fantasy series of books of the same name by Tony DiTerlizzi. It tells the story of a young girl raised underground who is whisked into an adventure when she goes above-ground for the first time. In addition, we are working on a couple of stop-motion projects based on high profile literary material which we have optioned, and are rebooting a very special series, also stop motion! Trust me when I tell you that these projects will reunite some of the great artists, writers and actors who we’ve worked with in the past. Since we haven’t announced them yet, I need to keep the titles under wraps!

Can you tell us a bit about other animated projects that you’re working on?

We are working on an animated series called The Search For WondLa for Apple TV+

How has The Gotham Group changed and evolved to meet with the specific demands and climate of creating entertainment in 2022?

We have been very lucky to have deep relation-

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Features Stop-motion Horror-Fantasy: Goldsmith-Vein’s latest project is Wendell & Wild, a stop-motion movie written and directed by Henry Selick and written by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and Clay McLeod Chapman, which premieres on Netflix in October.

Henry Selick

ships in the publishing community and have been able to identify and option incredible books, articles, graphic novels and comics. Our strong taste has solidified us as respected producers of great film and television projects while also continuing to maintain our position as one of the top suppliers of high level, critically acclaimed and award-winning IP to the industry. Additionally, we recently launched an ‘Emerging Technologies’ division which has been a thrilling adventure as we dive head-first into blockchain-based media. We are constantly exploring new pathways and opportunities to build original film and television projects.

The partners at Gotham — Peter McHugh, Julie Kane-Ritsch, Lindsay Williams, Jeremy Bell, Eric Robinson, Lee Stollman, Rich Green and Matt Schichtman — have been instrumental in building the vision for the company. I’m incredibly proud of the fact that we were the first to wade into the animation business 30 years ago when no one gave animation talent a second thought, and of the position we hold in the animation business as the true leaders in supplying talent and content across all platforms. That being said, our best days are still ahead of us!

What do you love about working in animation?

It was and continues to be the opportunity to help move careers along and to help people achieve their dreams and make great movies and television shows. When I founded The Gotham Group in 1993, no one represented animation talent. No one was rushing out to sign

animation writers, directors, character designers, illustrators or children’s book authors and illustrators. While most other reps were chasing actors and directors, we were signing animation talent, content creators and studios! Take a look at the top grossing movies from the past 20 years and you will see that the majority of those films are animated. Many of the series that have produced hundreds of episodes and are still in production are animated shows: The Simpsons, Family Guy and The Fairly OddParents are just a few examples.

What are some of the animated films and TV projects that have made a big impact on you?

That’s a really tough question, but here goes in no particular order: Wendell & Wild (!), Coraline, Shrek, Madagascar, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story, Monster House, Mary and Max, Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, The Triplets of Belleville.

What is your take on the fast-changing world of animation as we all witness the unpredictable ups and downs in this industry?

The modes by which families ingest entertainment will continue to change and expand and we will continue to have to be nimble enough, brave enough and smart enough to embrace all of those pathways to reach our audiences. What won’t change, I think, is the immersive and magical experience that animation provides for a viewer. There is a dream-like quality to animation that allows us to depart from reality a bit and enter the realm of pure imagination.

As we continue to acquire and develop sto-

ries with significant audience potential, we’re also embracing newer technologies in animation. Production has already begun on the first project from our newly launched Emerging Technologies division, the fully Web3/Native adult animated series Alien to Me, in partnership with Connor Kerrigan and Melbourne-based animation studio Pixel’s Andrew Goldsmith and Monique Mulcahy. We’re putting significant energy and resources into this endeavor. I’m thrilled to be part of the band of magicians that create these experiences and think the medium’s greatest days are yet to come Finally, what kind of advice can you give newbies who want to work in animation?

First of all, I say yay! The more the merrier!

Like anything else worth having in life, pursuing a career in animation can be challenging and you need rigorous dedication and a heightened work ethic to crack its entrance barriers — skills that you will ultimately deploy throughout your career. One of the great things about animation, though, is the sense of community. Although it has become a big “business,” it is still a family and people work together, support each other, and often cross paths throughout their careers over and over again on projects. People are always willing to help each other out and support each other when they need help on a project. One other piece of advice: Must Love Comic-Con!

For more info, visit gotham-group.com.

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TV/Streaming The Very Pulse of the Machine

Tim Miller

Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Sophisticated Sci-Fi Is Back Tim Miller and Jennifer Yuh Nelson guide us through the third season of their acclaimed anthology Love, Death + Robots.

By Ramin Zahed

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he third season of Netflix’s multiple-Emmy-winning series Love, Death + Robots offers only nine episodes of various lengths, but it also delivers some of the anthology’s most sophisticated and eclectic offerings.

We have the return of the beloved characters introduced in the first season’s Three Robots, who are continuing their journey on our postapocalyptic planet. There’s an original and thrilling sea-faring episode (Bad Traveling) about an unforgettable monster, directed by live-action master David Fincher (Se7en, Mank, Zodiac), who is an executive producer on the series. Volume III also includes the jaw-dropping and visually stunning Jibaro by Alberto Mielgo (the man behind this year’s Oscar-winning short The Windshield Wiper and Volume I’s The Witness). The anthology’s creator and exec producer Tim Miller also returns with Swarm, a remarkable adaptation of Bruce Sterling’s novelette about an unusual hivelike form of life on an alien planet. In short, some very high-flying episodes and glorious eye candy are on the menu!

“One of the biggest [announcements] about the third season is that David Fincher has direct-

ed his first animated film,” says Miller, the founder and creative director of Blur Studio, who came up with the idea for the anthology more than a decade ago and pitched it all over town until Netflix came on board. “It’s everything you’d think it would be, and it really delivers on the promise. I think it’s one of the most horrifying and gripping films he has done. It’s just his style — and the tone of the piece goes back to Se7en.”

Deep, Dark Universe Miller, an Oscar-nominated director (Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate) and producer (the two Sonic the Hedgehog blockbusters) who is a huge fan of science=fiction stories, says it’s hard for him to say what makes the third season of the show stand out from previous ones.

“I think that this one has some really beautiful stories,” he notes. “It’s difficult for me to say that any one is different from the others. We kind of just make the best version of what we think we can create. I can’t say that this year’s The Very Pulse of the Machine is better than Pop Squad. I can’t make that choice. I cry when I see both of them … People that have seen the third season

tell me that it’s a little darker.”

Volume III also showcases the talents of the amazing Jennifer Yuh Nelson, the Oscar-nominated DreamWorks veteran who directed Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3 and has been the show’s supervising director since season two. “The third season episodes took a bit longer to cook,” she points out. “David Fincher’s episode is quite ambitious; it’s about 20 minutes long and the longest one we’ve ever done. Alberto Mielgo started working on The Witness from the very first day. Then he won an Emmy for it, then won the Oscar for his short. He said Jibaro was the most ambitious thing he’d ever done. For Alberto, it was being able to do something that he was almost afraid to do.

And then, we also have the return of familiar faces with our Three Robots coming back [this time directed by Patrick Osborne], and also pushing the familiar faces beyond their comfort zone.”

According to Yuh Nelson, the episode The Very Pulse of the Machine took the longest to make.

Directed by Emily Dean, it centers on a wounded astronaut who begins to hear a mysterious voice that may lead her to safety … or death.

“This short was based on a prize-winning sto-

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TV/Streaming Jibaro Below right, Bad Traveling

Fatal Attraction: Alberto Mielgo’s Jibaro chronicles a toxic relationship between a lost knight and a mysterious siren.

Alberto Mielgo

Love, Death + Robots: Volume III Three Robots: Exit Strategies. Dir. Patrick Osborne (Blow Studio) Bad Traveling. Dir. David Fincher (Blur Studio) The Very Pulse of the Machine. Dir. Emily Dean (Polygon Pictures) Night of the Mini Dead. Dir. Robert Bisi & Andy Lyon (BUCK) Kill Team Kill. Dir. Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Titmouse) Swarm. Dir. Tim Miller (Blur Studio) Mason’s Rats. Dir. Carlos Stevens (Axis Studios) In Vaulted Halls Entombed. Dir. Jerome Chen (Sony Pictures Imageworks) Jibaro. Dir. Alberto Mielgo (Pinkman.tv) Mason’s Rats

ry by Michael Swanwick which had been in Tim [Miller’s] back pocket for a while, and he just knew he wanted to include it in the series,” recalls Yuh Nelson. “It’s a very bizarre, and yet strangely emotional story about a woman who is dragging her dead comrade on a sled and communing and tapping into some sort of other intelligence. Emily came in with such an amazing deck, filled with beautiful images — and really like a walking Moebius painting. The final version is very true to what she originally pitched.”

Both Miller and Yuh Nelson point out that each episode of the anthology is quite different from the others, not only because of the stories that inspired them but also because different teams and studios worked on each individual one. “In the case of The Very Pulse of the Machine, it took so long to make not because a massive crew was

working on it,” says Yuh Nelson. “It was the case of a very small crew of very advanced professionals — rather than having a lot of people working on it for a shorter duration. That’s why you get such high quality in every frame. The people who worked on it really wanted to fit it in and work on it as a passion project.”

The new season also includes an episode titled Kill Team Kill, which is a full-on, traditionally handdrawn work, directed by Yuh Nelson herself, with music by Grammy-winning dance artist Skrillex. “I think a lot of people miss that, and we had some of the best animators from all over the world working on it,” she recalls. “They got to animate a lot of veins and bullets and punches! It’s not meant to be taken seriously. It’s just a funny, dumb piece for people who want to get away from too many serious events in their lives right now.”

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TV/Streaming Three Robots: Exit Strategies

Patrick Osborne

Swarm, the season’s stunning episode directed

by Miller himself, is based on a story by Bruce Sterling, one of his favorite sci-fi writers. “I’ve been a fan for a long time and read his short stories and novels back in college,” he recalls. “That whole cyberpunk wave of science fiction really hit me hard and just resonated with me. The story takes place on a floating asteroid and it has many interesting creatures to animate. But at the end of the day, I love what it has to say about humanity. That we think we’ve got everything figure out, and yet we’re so dumb. As we move into an even higher gear, technologically speaking, I hope it makes people think that perhaps we should give it some thought before we take any big steps, because we don’t know what we don’t know!”

The Spanish Master Is Back!

Of course, one of the season’s not-to-bemissed episodes is Mielgo’s Jibaro, which centers on a deaf knight who becomes mesmerized by a golden woman who lured his companions to their deaths. “This piece is an homage to nature, as everything is in a fully natural setting,” Mielgo explains. “So, I prepared for this project by traveling all across America’s West Coast. We were in full pandemic mode, so I just took the van out in the fall of 2020. I wanted to capture the end of summer, early autumn colors, where the green colors are fading but you don’t have full orange or full yellow foliage. I was collecting visual references and getting lost in all the forests.”

Produced by Sergio Jimenez, the animation for

Swarm

the short was handled by Mielgo’s studio, Pinkman.tv. About 75 people in total worked on Jibaro at the Madrid studio. “We also had great feedback from the team at Blur in Los Angeles,” says the director. “They were super supportive and never gave any obnoxious notes!”

The recent Oscar winner adds, “In terms of visuals, it’s very brutal and raw. It’s also very sophisticated in terms of the CG effects and depictions of water, blood, liquids, cloth simulation, horses and tons of people killing each other on the screen! I hope audiences will love it. I was really trying to make paintings in every shot. I consider the story to be very personal, and I believe it’s my biggest achievement visually.”

While Netflix is tight-lipped about a fourth season, Miller and Yuh Nelson admit that they have

numerous ideas for stories to create in the future.

“Jennifer and I look at this big deck of all the story ideas we have collected, and there are at least enough for three more seasons,” says Miller. “I have reached a point now that I get sad when I find a new story, because I think, ‘If we don’t get more seasons, I won’t get to do this one.’ I also love that Jennifer and I are just different enough that we have a nice mix of ideas, but we’re similar enough that I knew she’ll get excited about a story that I find interesting. But I just can’t say enough about the debt that we owe the original writers. Their stories have been like these diamonds scattered on the beach, just waiting for us to pick them up.”

All three seasons of Love, Death + Robots are currently streaming on Netflix worldwide.

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TV/Streaming

ANIMATION ART

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TV/Streaming

Cute, Clever and Lots of Trouble: The new show pays homage to Joe Dante’s iconic 1984 movie, which first introduced the mischievous creatures to audiences.

And Never Feed Them After Dark!

The artists behind Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai offer us an exclusive sneak peek at the much-anticipated show.

I

t's been 38 years since director Joe Dante introduced us to the wonderful, wicked and unforgettable creatures known as Gremlins.

We all knew that these colorful monsters, which go wild if they're fed after midnight, would make great animated characters. This year, we can finally enjoy a new animated show about them, one that centers on a naïve 10-year-old Sam Wing (voiced by Izaac Wang) who meets the young Mogwai known as Gizmo.

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, which premieres on HBO Max and Cartoon Network’s Sunday ACME Night block this fall, is written and executive produced by Tze Chun (Gotham, Once Upon a Time). Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Sam Register and Brendan Hay also serve as exec producers.

The stellar voice cast includes Ming-Na Wen, B.D. Wong, James Hong, Matthew Rhys and A.J. LoCascio (as Gizmo). We had a chance to chat with the show’s talented supervising producer Dan Krall and art director Tara Rueping ahead of the show’s special premiere at Annecy in June.

“I was a child of the ‘80s, and Gremlins and other similar Amblin movies left a big impact

‘I remember working with Dan on Gizmo and he was very meticulous about getting his mouth shape right. We had to make sure we got his underbite just right.’

— Art director Tara Rueping

on me,” says Krall, an Emmy-winning animation veteran who has worked on a wide range of projects include Samurai Jack, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Powerpuff Girls and Coraline.

“I was also a big Chinese mythology and historical drama fan. So, I loved the fact that we could revisit China in a historic period and encounter other mythological creatures. It was a triple grand slam for me!”

Mischief and Mayhem Rueping, a well-respected veteran of animated games such as The Walking Dead: A New Frontier and Tales from the Borderlands, who was also a design artist on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, joined the project about two and a half years ago. “When a co-worker mentioned the

show to me, I got super excited about it because I love all those old ’80s fantasies. So, I actually applied for the art director role through a test,” she tells us. “I think my test showed my enthusiasm, because I got the job.”

According to Krall, the series takes place in the early 1920s. “We did a little bit of math, since our character was 70 in 1984,” he points out. “Moving backwards, we figured out where he would have been. We landed in a time when electricity was just introduced after the industrial revolution.

Gremlins love electricity, and we wanted to have neon lights around. We kind of picked this sweet spot and left it a little vague for those reasons.”

Krall and Rueping both also share a love for visual development artwork. “When we see these ‘art of’ books, you have all these beauti-

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TV/Streaming sets, so the idea to have these CG-animated characters walking around what was sometimes a painting and sometimes a CG set was quite a challenge,” he explains. “We were really excited when they all worked very well together.”

Rueping adds, “We needed to pay close attention to the characters’ forms since we were going with simple shapes. We had to make sure we got those big details right. I remember working with Dan on Gizmo and he was very meticulous about getting his mouth shape right. We had to make sure we got his underbite just right. We weren’t going to redesign the characters like some other shows do. We wanted to take the Gremlin characters that everyone loves and depict them in a simpler style.”

Mixing Laughs with Drama

When Sam Met Gizmo: The new series is set in 1920s-era Shanghai, and reveals how a 10-year-old Sam Wing first met the young Mogwai.

‘We looked for opportunities to tell this intense, emotional, dramatic story, but at the same time, we found time for silly, ridiculous things to happen and have Gremlins jokes to break up the harder moments.’

— Supervising producer Dan Krall

ful painterly, graphic and stylized images, but when the movie comes out, the CG animation makes everything look very photorealistic,” says Krall. “One of our goals here was to retain those painterly qualities in the show. Both of us are big fans of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker game. We both mentioned it at the same time! It became kind of a touchstone for us.

“We also realized that the stories that we were going to tell were going to require a lot of subtle lighting,” he adds. “So, we wanted to incorporate a lot of live-action lighting, splitslike camera moves and drifts on dialog.”

The bulk of the animation was handled by Blue Spirit studio (What If…?, Ernest & Celestine) in France and a couple of episodes were

produced by 88 Pictures in India.

According to Rueping, the production utilized many of the popular CG animation packages used in the business. “We use Maya, ZBrush and Photoshop, of course,” she notes.

“The overseas studios also have their own proprietary tools that they work with. Since we are a hybrid show, we really wanted to flatten the CG as much as possible and marry it with 2D elements and play with things like depth of field to create the unique look that we were looking for.”

Krall remembers the first time they saw the turntable CG model work together with the lighting and texturing against the painted background they had envisioned. “We had a lot of matte paintings as background as well as CG

The creative team was also eager to duplicate the original tones and light touch of the movies. “We have more minutes of content — there are 10 episodes in the first season, so we can tell a bigger, serialized story about things that existed in the Gremlins universe,” says Krall. “We looked for opportunities to tell this intense, emotional, dramatic story where the characters are moving across the country and heavy stuff is happening, but at the same time, we found time for silly, ridiculous things to happen and have Gremlins jokes to break up the harder moments.”

Krall and Rueping both praise the contributions of Tze Chun and Brendan Hay to the project. “They each brought a lot of different skills and experiences to the show,” says Krall.

“Tze shared a lot of his own knowledge of Chinese mythology as well as his personal experiences of traveling to places like the Chinese amusement park Tiger Balm Garden (which was created to promote Tiger Balm products). Brendan is also a big fan of the Gremlins movies and was always on point in keeping it silly and true to the original tone of Joe Dante’s film.”

The duo also hopes their show offers the same enjoyment and feeling that the movies provided audiences a few decades ago. “I hope they feel like we expanded on something that they already love,” says Krall. Adds Rueping, “Everyone on the team put so much love, energy and excitement into the project. Many people told me that the show has become a passion project for them. I hope viewers will not only enjoy our take on the Gremlins universe, but also feel the love that we’ve all put on this project.” .

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai will premiere on HBO Max and Cartoon Network this fall.

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From Stage to Animated Screen!

Mo Willems and Tom Warburton share the details of their new animated special Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Underground Rock Experience!

By Karen Idelson

I

n the wildly popular children’s book Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by beloved children’s author and illustrator Mo Willems, a courageous sand puppy ponders his clothing and life choices. The book, which inspired a stage musical in recent years, has now become an eyepopping, animated rock opera, which premieres on HBO Max and Cartoonito this month.

Willems and Tom Warburton co-wrote the script and co-executive produce with Greg Silverman and Jay Judah from Stampede Ventures. Willems also worked with composer Deborah Wicks La Puma on the songs. Megan Alrutz serves as producer for the Mo Willems Workshop. OddBot is the animation house for the one-hour special.

Willems, whose many other well-known books include Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, That Is Not a Good Idea! and The Pigeon Finds a

Hot Dog!, says he knew he wanted to preserve the style of illustration in his New York Times best-selling book in the “rock experience.” That meant cultivating a 2D look for the work.

Crafting the Perfect Look “There were many reasons not to do it in CG (their huge heads and tiny limbs and the fact that their eyes are on one side of the head like a flounder, for starters),” says Willems. “But, for this story to feel real, the characters had to feel real, tactile and huggable. Kudos to Mr. Warburton and the team at OddBot studios for doing that, just like they did for Muppet Babies.”

Exec producer and co-writer Warburton, the Emmy-nominated animation veteran often credited as “Mr. Warburton” on shows like Codename: Kids Next Door and the CGI Muppet Babies, tells us, “Pre-production (design, story-

board, animatic, recording, etc.) was handled

by OddBot studios with everyone working remotely, as is the case with most productions nowadays. Snowball Studios in Toronto expertly handled the 3D animation, while Xentrix Toons rocked the 2D animation that happened in the ‘Moleseum of Art.’ OddBot also handled post-production with the help of Boom Box Post for sound effects/mixing and Keep Me Posted for final picture output. All in all, a lot of very talented people made this happen — and me!”

The idea for an animated rock opera was born from oodles of other ideas and projects that Willems had worked on. The author and his collaborators had already created a successful stage show based on Naked Mole Rat. “Three years ago, Greg Silverman at Stampede Ventures started us down the road of tak-

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TV/Streaming A Musical Treat: Based on the popular book by Mo Willems, the Cartoonito special is produced by L.A.-based animation studio OddBot.

‘Accommodating is not capitulating; it is sharing space and showing love. So, in the end of this story, not every Naked Mole Rat wears clothes. But those that do are embraced for finding a sleeve to put their heart on.’

— Exec producer/co-writer/creator Mo Willems

ing this special idea to HBO Max, because they knew about the stage version we’d created for the Seattle Children’s Theatre (SCT) in 2018,” says Willems. “That show happened because SCT knew about previous musicals based on my books and had seen the 2D animated short from 2010. That cartoon short was based on the original picture book that was published in 2009, the ideas of which started showing up in my notebooks 15 years ago.”

The special honors the stage musical by mixing a bit of live action along with animation. Willems says he loved seeing the two things brought together in a way he hopes kids will enjoy.

“The live-action/CG mix was a big part of the pitch,” says Willems. “It’s such a weird surprise, which I always love, and it is story driven. Wilbur’s dream is literally out of his world. It was a treat watching two more of my long-time collaborators, choreographer Jessie Hartman and supervising animation director Guy Moore, meld their two crafts together on the shoot for that sequence.”

From Page to Stage & Screen Willems keeps his old notebooks, and much of the reference material needed to take the original story in new, more fully fleshed-out formats was already in there. “There’s quite a bit of world building that goes into creating a story for a picture book, but the point is to take that stuff out and concentrate on the adventure’s essence,” he mentions. “So, when it comes time to expand a book into another format, I can extract extra moments and ideas from old notebooks. Before creating the special, we had the luxury of having already

developed the story for the stage, where we discovered that surrounding our characters in both physical and musical rock opened up a lot of fun opportunities.”

This “rock” experience is sung and spoken by powerhouse singers and actors like Jordan Fisher, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kate Micucci, Kevin Michael Richardson and Carol Kane. Additional performances include the voice work of Ron Funches, Thomas Lennon and Jenna Ushkowitz.

“They’re a combination of pals we’ve known and worked with for decades and new friends like Jordan Fisher who rolled in and immediately rocked Wilbur,” says Willems. “Our voice over director Collette Sunderman has been working with Mr. Warburton since Codename: Kids Next Door. Her ear, her taste and her ability to communicate with actors is amazing.

When an actor sees Collette in the studio, they immediately relax because they know they’re about to have a great time.”

Says Warburton of the COVID-19 restrictions: “In less pandemic-y times, we would have all been in the recording studio together.

But we still had a great time recording remotely; laughing, singing and adding to the dialogue with Yvette Nicole Brown (Grande), Kate Micucci (Tall) and Kevin Michael Richardson (Venti). And, gasp, the legendary Carol Kane (Grand-Mah)! (Plus some other special guests you might recognize).”

As they began to reimagine the book that became a musical as a new animated special, new ideas were taken to the next level. Willems and Warburton even have a special word for that process.

“I created the stage version of this rock opera with my longtime collaborators, composer Debo-

rah Wicks La Puma and dramaturge Megan Alrutz,” says Willems. “So, it’s Deborah’s music, my lyrics, Megan’s advice. When it came time to bring the Tom Warburton story to the screen, we realized we could expand the locations and give the whole experience some extra ‘oomph’ (that’s a technical term for increasing its awesomeness 329.2%). So, my pal and longer-time collaborator Mr. Warburton and I rewrote the script while Deborah teamed up with Daniel Petty to super ‘oomph’-ify the music.”

Adds Warburton: “And then composer Keith Horn added another 132% of oomph-osity with his underscore. That pushed the story cinematically, and emotionally, to the next level.”

Maybe the most poignant moments in this rock opera happen when characters ponder their own behavior. Some behavior seems fun, but they must also weigh how it would impact their friends and loved ones.

“Every work has a controlling idea,” notes Willems. “We used this as our North Star that Jay Judah and Claire LaPlante at Stampede Ventures could embrace as the rationale behind every single production decision. In the original book, it’s the question: ‘Why not?’ With a bigger special, the controlling idea had to grow as well. So, we created an ‘accepting in’ story as opposed to a ‘coming out’ story. I don’t think individuals with a difference should be obligated to be heroes as well. Instead, the culture can accommodate, find ways to accept and celebrate authenticity. Accommodating is not capitulating; it is sharing space and showing love. So, in the end of this story, not every Naked Mole Rat wears clothes, but those that do are embraced for finding a sleeve to put their heart on.”

Cartoonito will premiere Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Underground Rock Experience June 30 on HBO Max and August 20 at 6 p.m. on Cartoon Network.

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A Hero Who Keeps on Giving The team making DreamWorks’ new Kung Fu Panda series takes us behind the scenes of the great-looking project.

By Michael Mallory

Y

ou have to hand it to Po, the sweetnatured, bumbling hero of DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda franchise: he doesn’t waste time. In the premiere episode of the new series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, which drops on Netflix July 14, it takes mere minutes for him to go from universal recognition as “The Dragon Master” to being a village-wrecking pariah. And that’s only the first domino to fall in what threatens to be the destruction of the world as he knows it.

“When we came onto the scene, Po was sort of at the height of his fame, so I had to knock him down and find a reason for him to lose his stature,” says Peter Hastings, who developed the series with Mitch Watson, and serves as an executive producer. “I wanted to put him in a hole and start this new series where he’s kind of lost everything, because his innocence and his need to get better at something are so much fun and so charming.”

In an attempt to try and redeem himself for allowing a mystical, all-powerful gauntlet to fall into the hands of evil sibling weasels named Klaus and Veruca, Po (voiced once

again by Jack Black) talks himself into serving as the page to a no-nonsense, female British knight named Luthera of Landrith, a.k.a. Wandering Blade (singer Rita Ora). While Blade, who is already tracking the two dangerously manic mustelae, does not want Po as her “Sancho Panda,” she eventually acknowledges he might be useful in her quest.

An Emotional Journey With its 11 episodes structured as an ongoing saga, The Dragon Knight follows Blade and Po on their quest across China as they meet up with a variety of characters, but with a heightened emphasis on emotion.

“I wanted to make it a bit more mature and play to a bigger audience,” says Hastings.

“We’re delving into the emotional aspects to elevate the show from being a silly cartoon into being a bigger adventure that will appeal to many ages. To me, the comedy is built in with Jack and with Po, so it was really about pushing other emotional elements.”

Adds fellow executive producer Shaunt Nigoghossian: “In a movie you have only a

couple hours, but we have an entire series, so we have room to get into the characters’ minds a little more. You’re seeing more of Po than you’ve seen before, and a lot of character traits are added to him that you haven’t seen before.”

A major factor in Po’s emotional hero’s journey is his evolving relationship with Wandering Blade, which begins with a “buddy cop” dynamic, but grows much deeper. “While Po’s a nerd about all things kung fu, he’s also very curious about what it takes to be a knight,” says Gregg Goldin, DreamWorks’ VP of current series.

Star Jack Black, who is also credited as an executive producer, has a lot of latitude in fleshing out the character. “Typically, Jack will read what’s written,” Hastings states, “but very often he’ll say, ‘Let me do one more,’ and then go off on it. A lot of that is so much a part of the character and in the tone of it, that I’m always encouraging him.”

The incomparable James Hong is also back as the voice of Po’s adoptive father Mr. Ping.

“Everything James Hong does is genius,” says Hastings. “Every take he did was different, and

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they all worked.” Hong is the only voice actor to reprise his character in every Kung Fu Panda appearance since the original film in 2008. Also in the principal cast are Della Saba (Ralph Breaks the Internet) as the lethally unhinged Veruca; Chris Geere (Animaniacs 2021) as her slightly more sensible brother, Klaus (the fact that both of these characters are English, like Wandering Blade, informs a major backstory); and Rahnuma Panthaky (Modern Family) voices the team’s secretive, forced ally Rukhmini.

Given that there have been so many prior Panda productions, one might assume that a wealth of resources are being reused to help give The Dragon Knight its sumptuous visual look (guided by art director Ellen Jin). But one might be wrong, and for an obvious reason. “We don’t have the resources from the films other than what we know of the designs, because the quality of CG has risen since then,” Nigoghos-

sian says. “If you have a movie from four years ago, it doesn’t look quite as good, or rig as well, or move as well, or catch the light as well.”

Even so, a few resources were able to be recycled from Kung Fu Panda: Paws of Destiny, which premiered on Prime Video in 2018, “but not that many,” Nigoghossian declares. Goldin, meanwhile, states, “The secret weapons are our amazingly talented artists, who have a high bar for quality themselves and who pushed to make this show look exceptional.”

While essentially a 3D production, some episodes contain scenes rendered in 2D styles, which vary, depending on the setting and situation. One such is rendered as comic graphic art, since an unpublished comic book is the central icon of that particular chapter of the story. Nigoghossian adds, “In the second episode we have a sort of British-looking, lithograph kind of look, which we did in house.” Writing, storyboarding and most of

‘We’re delving into the emotional aspects to elevate the show from being a silly cartoon into being a bigger adventure that will appeal to many ages.’

— Exec producer Peter Hastings

A New Quest: Po (voiced by Jack Black) meets a tough English knight named Wandering Blade (Rita Ora) who helps him find four powerful weapons before the evil weasels Klaus and Veruca get them.

the pre-production is also done in house at DreamWorks Animation, with the production work split between two Indian animation shops, Technicolor Bangalore and 88 Pictures in Mumbai, as well as DAVE Enterprises in Sydney and Stellar Creative Labs in Vancouver.

Always Connected On one level, production for The Dragon Knight took place all over the world; on another, it happened in the same exact place: in everybody’s home. “We are the first fully-pandemic show from start to finish,” says Nigoghossian. “We have not gone back to the office.”

While the production experienced the usual bumps as a result of the global health situation (“The thing you miss is being able to pop your head in somebody’s office and say, ‘Hey, did you want this to be this way?’ and they say, ‘Yes,’ and you walk away,” says Hastings), the team discovered advantages to working from home as well. “I find people are more punctual and meetings are pretty efficient,” he says. “I don’t mind voice directing remotely because I can speak more directly with an actor, in a way. My microphone is always open, so I can talk to them without having to push a button and have it sound weird in their headphones.”

Even though the final episode lays the groundwork for the quest to continue in faroff lands, it is too early to promise that a second season is imminent. For his part, Hastings is content to focus on the first. “I was interested in bringing to the series three main elements that I love in the first movie,” he says, “which are Po as a loveable loser who can kick ass, action set pieces, and the emotion.” Adds Goldin: “The bar is set pretty high for Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. We wanted the show to have as much visual awesomeness as we could give it … a look that would match the features.”

Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight premieres on Netflix on July 14.

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Crouching Teen, Hidden Powers Find out all about Jade Armor, TeamTO's new animated action-comedy series about a martial arts-loving heroine.

By Ramin Zahed

F

rench animation studio TeamTO has been behind a long list of animated shows such as Angelo Rules, Mighty Mike and City of Ghosts for the past 17 years. This year, audiences around the world will get a chance to enjoy the latest from the well-respected toon powerhouse: Jade Armor — a dynamic toon about a martial arts-loving teenage heroine who must learn the ancient secrets of her family and uncover the unexpected.

As series executive producer and TeamTO co-founder Corinne Kouper tells us, “This project was initially created by the Taiwanese creator Pongo Kuo with a boy lead. Under Chloe Miller’s direction the show focused on a girl lead instead, and on family heritage. It took a long time, but it now has the essence of a very grand saga that can be developed in many different directions. A lot of work has gone into planting seeds that can branch off into other interesting stories while maintaining continuity and logic.”

Miller, who has worked with Kouper on the studio’s other shows such as Mighty Mike and

‘I hope audiences will think about building their own identity, following their own path — which to me is the strongest message a show can bring to this age group.’

— Producer Corinne Kouper

PJ Masks, adds, “We spent a lot of time pinpointing how to instill comedy into what was initially a boys’ action show. The idea was to make it a serialized coming-of-age story about how you grow up and build your life while being mindful of your family heritage.

Not only does the show focus on Jade’s storyline, but it also includes her friends Pearl and Kai’s personal trajectories.”

According to the creative team, the show was inspired by a wide range of pop culture elements, including Jackie Chan’s physical humor, classic kung fu movies and Japanese “magical girl” anime. “Our head writer M.J. Offen (My Little Pony, Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures) was also influenced by various superhero comics and shows, so we ended up

with quite a unique mix,” notes Miller. “For the staging, we mixed two different styles: slapstick comedy, playing with physical humor (like Jackie Chan) in the scenes of everyday life, and the more aesthetic look of cloak-anddagger films for the fight scenes, inspired by films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or The Grandmaster.”

Clean Lines & Bright Colors In terms of visuals, the show offers a mix of 2D graphic elements and CG objects. “The 2D look is achieved with a generally very soft occlusion and a soft light treatment together with CG elements that have specular and reflection,” says Miller. “Our artistic director Pierre Croco has a strong 2D background. He brought the

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TV/Streaming Martial Artist: A resourceful young girl has to juggle her daily life, ancient secrets and special powers in TeamTO’s new show Jade Armor.

‘We often had to animate more than one character battling at once … We managed to do it brilliantly thanks to our stunt artists who choreographed the fight scenes under the supervision of our co-director Denis Do — who, very helpfully, wass himself a kung fu champion.’

— Co-creator & director Chloe Miller

sharp edges and clean line look of the characters and backgrounds. The colors are very bright and contrasted. We really tried to come up with a unique looking show, not trying to be realistic, i.e. not ultra-realistic with hair, but to give it more of a graphic and minimalist look.”

The animation was produced entirely at TeamTO's two main studios in Paris and Bourglès-Valence. “100% of our pipeline is and always has been in France,” says Kouper. “This is the key to our consistent quality control, reliable delivery timelines and the great team collaboration. Around 242 people worked on the production and writing, but with post production, actors and partners (broadcasters, CNC, etc.), there were 329 involved in the show.”

One of the noteworthy aspects of the production is that most of the senior creative leads on the show are women. “As the co-creator of the show and the director, Chloe has had such an amazing vision for Jade Armor,” says co-developer Mary Bredin. “I think Chloe connected with the story because she really understood our hero, L.J., so she was inside the characters the whole time. To round out the team, we needed a strong head writer and M.J. Offen loves this young teen world and has a great sense of humor!”

Bredin mentions that Offen worked closely with the French story editor Ghislaine Pujol.

“For the writers we actively sought out women because we thought a female viewpoint on action could bring a lot to the show,” she adds.

“We worked with some amazing talent, including Mairghread Scott (Guardians of the Galaxy series and Magic: The Gathering) and Nathalie Younglai (Coroner, Dino Dana), while they had some time! Rebecca Hobbs worked on the bible. On the French team, we had women scriptwriters like Valérie Chappellet, Suaëna Airault and Catherine Guillot-Bonte. We really wanted women to be a big part of the show so we could bring a wonderful authentic voice to the characters in stories about martial arts."

When asked about the toughest parts of creating the show, Miller says the kung fu scenes were the most challenging by far. “We often had to animate more than one character battling at once and had to make it work on a TV budget and timing! We managed to do it brilliantly thanks to our stunt artists who choreographed the fight scenes and provided us with video execution, under the supervision of our co-director Denis Do — who, very helpfully, was himself a kung fu champion.”

Bredin points out that all productions have their own challenges, but the creators have to believe in their choices and to be persistent. “Like many projects in development, this one started and stopped a few times, and to be honest — and to give everyone hope — we started development in 2011!" she shares. "A big challenge was getting the right people at the right time. When Chloe became available, and Mary Bredin joined the team, development on the bible really started to pick up; the first

bible and scripts were re-written many, many times. The other big challenge was getting the right mix of comedy and action — it takes a lot of work to keep a 7+ audience entertained!”

Now that the show is ready to capture the hearts of audiences on HBO Max, Kouper is very proud to have delivered it after such a long journey. “Jade Armor was one of the longest runs of my career, and I’m very proud that we’re finally launching it with such amazing partners and teams,” she says. “I like the fact that the characters are not stereotypes, that the villains are not completely bad, that the young characters all try to forge their own journey instead of following their family’s paths. I feel like these messages are very strong and unusual in an animated show. Chloe brought this into the stories and it is now fascinating to see how it makes sense through the episodes. It is not just a simple comedy and action show; it is also a saga which offers a strong and positive message."

Miller says she hopes all young viewers are empowered to become whoever they want to be after watching her show. “We added many subtle details throughout the show to help kids realize that there are many, many ways to be a girl or a boy,” she adds.

“Jade did not choose her destiny as a super heroine, she inherited it through a suit of armor that was passed down from mother to daughter. And although she is raised by her grandmothers in the family tradition of kung fu, she creates her own story, moving away from traditions and reinterpreting them in her own way,” concludes Kouper. “I hope audiences will think about building their own identity, following their own path — which to me is the strongest message a show can bring to this age group.”

Jade Armor premieres on HBO Max this year.

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On Being a True Warrior Story editor Taneka Stotts talks about her work on Apple TV+’s Pinecone & Pony and the industry’s positive push for diversity.

T

he arrival of the new animated show Pinecone & Pony on Apple TV+ in April was one of the sweet surprises of the past season. Based on the acclaimed picture book by Kate Beaton, The Princess and the Pony, the show centers on a very unconventional heroine who along with her best friend discovers new ways to be a powerful warrior.

The stereotype-defying show was adapted by animation veteran Stephanie Kaliner (Odd Squad), and features the voices of Maria Nash, Chase W. Dillon, Rachel House, Thom Allison, Alicia Richardson, Andy Hull and Viola Abley.

The animation was produced by DreamWorks Animation, Atomic Cartoons and First Generation Films.

The show’s story editor is Taneka Stotts, an Emmy-nominated TV writer and comic-book creator and publisher, whose credits include Young Justice, Magic: The Gathering, My Little Pony: Pony Life, Craig of the Creek and Steven Universe Future. She was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about the show,

her career and the changing impact of representation in animation: Animation Magazine: First of all, congrats on the show. It’s charming, funny and delivers a wonderful message. Can you tell us how you got involved with the production?

Taneka Stotts: I joined the team in February 2020, right after wrapping up my work on Magic: The Gathering. I really loved the premise of the show because, for the first time, I saw myself clearly in a TV show. I had already been a fan of Kate Beaton’s book, which was about different ways of being a warrior, which I thought was unique and fun. However, once the show was getting started, it was being expanded upon, and we were able to push it to unexpected territories. The stories we are telling might be traditional in terms of the narratives, but they also take a slight deviation on some of those and give you something that's a little bit harder to digest, both as a kid and an adult.

What was the creative process like?

Earlier on, it was me and [exec producer] Stephanie [Kaliner] working together pretty much 24/7.

We had a few summits with our freelance and staff writers. The producers even went as far as changing some of the rules within the Canadian Writers Guild to get me in so that I could be credited as a guild member while working on a Canadian production. It was really beautiful, and it just went to show that studios are very capable of these things if they push for it. In addition, you have to keep in mind that they also went the extra mile of giving you a show that is not just the same kind of comedy-action hybrid that some feel we’ve been inundated with lately. This one was going a little bit deeper and asking us to really pull out a bit of emotion, and allowing us to have those quieter moments — moments where Pinecone cries or when Pinecone is really pumped! We all approached the show with the idea that we wanted to make the show for today's kids. That meant that we would push back on our own nostalgia a little bit.

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Fighting the Trolls: The team behind Pinecone & Pony has championed diversity and inclusiveness both on-screen and behind the scenes of the new animated show.

Taneka Stotts

What made this show special to you?

First off, it was taking what I've always loved throughout my entire life, which is mythology, creation stories, pixies and goblins. There’s this medieval approach mixed with this fantasy, indie approach, and it gives me the best of both worlds because it's a sandbox where everything is not finalized. For example, I remember pitching the idea that tortoises are actually really evil. They can mess you up. And when I was doing that, I was trying to explain that in other parts of the world, tortoises are very strong animals that are very terrifying. So we were taking some global truths and mixing them up with myths, fairy tales and fables and kind of mismatching them a little bit. So it was a very ultimate mash-up project.

I was really proud of the direction that everybody stirred the show along. We did mention Miyazaki quite a bit, so it was also about taking things that we love and recreating them. It’s not about just paying homage: There is a way to take those special moments and then to add on to them. You are actually heightening the moment, while also giving respect to those who inspired it.

What kind of feedback have you received from the show since its debut in April?

We've gotten quite a few kids drawing the characters. They're very adorable and they send me to the Moon. A lot of parents have been gravitating towards the series and have given us a lot of good feedback. I think we realize that we have to be organic about the show and really just let the voices speak for themselves — and don't just try to do one ham-fisted joke after joke. Instead, you need to have the plot be the plot, and allow the characters to shine in those special moments. From what I've seen so far, a lot of people would really like to push the show even further. After all, we want it to be a reflection of our life experiences; These are our coworkers. This is my aunt. That's my nephew. This is my grandma.

About two years ago, you and I were talking about diversity and representation in the animation world. Things are a little better now.

What is your take on this issue and where do we go from here?

Yes, first of all I want to give a shout out to Jorge R. Gutierrez and Maya and the Three! As far as the animation landscape becoming what it was supposed to be — which is a world of collaboration, integration and just our imagination — I finally feel like we're breaking that threshold and we're finally not just committing to making space, we are making the product from that space. That’s even better than just saying, oh, we have another program that we're setting up to make another initiative, to make another council, to make another crew, to make another show that may or may not get on TV one day. Today, we're actually seeing it happen.

I don't see us stopping or regressing in any way. I see us finally coming in, committing to what we had been saying we were going to do for so many years, which is actually making the content and seeing how people respond to it, which has been incredible.

Where do you see these efforts lagging?

One thing that I got to experience in a positive way on Pinecone & Pony was that I was

able to bring in a few new writers who didn’t have a lot of animation experience. For example, GGDG is a writer and creator of the webcomic Cucumber Quest and they also did the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power graphic novel. They’re an excellent writer and artist. I just had to tell the team that they needed to take a chance with me on this. There was no negative. Everyone became a fan, so it was really easy. After that, I was able to add another non-binary writer and an Indigenous writer to the team. You know, everybody says that they're looking for these voices, but because these new voices don't have a credit, they’re usually not given the time of day. People should be taking the chance to get to know this person and then bring them on and see what they're capable of by giving them the actual space to exist within it.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an interview without Taneka offering some helpful advice on thriving in the animation business!

One of the things that I tell people who are getting ready for this industry is to have their confidence ready. I don't mean that you need to be worried about getting fired every five seconds. You know that this is something you want to do. All you need to do is be yourself.

You're already at a level of creation, a level of communication to give your stories to other people. So, you need to push it the rest of the way. Also, read scripts — all sorts of scripts, bad ones, good ones and everything in between.

Things of the genre that you don't really have anything to do with. It’s also about being able to communicate with people on a collaborative basis. You need to communicate your ideas and understand how to do it succinctly, cleanly and without offending someone who also has an imagination. Someone who will also take your words and carry them in different directions that you never imagined!

You can watch the first season of Pinecone & Pony on Apple TV+.

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TV/Streaming

Daughter of Invention Norton Virgien and Niamh Sharkey take us behind the scenes of their charming new Disney Junior show, Eureka!

By Karen Idelson

A

nother brilliant young explorer is expected to brighten the preschool television scene when Disney Junior’s Eureka! premieres in June. Created and executive produced by Emmy-winning toon veteran Norton Virgien and author/creator Niamh Sharkey, the show centers on an adventurous young girl who solves problems and shakes things up in a prehistoric environment using the kind of unconventional thinking and determined mindset that can take her anywhere.

Supported by her parents, a cherished pet mammoth named Murphy, good friends and her teacher, Eureka is an inventor who designs what she needs — including the wheel — and boldly inspires others to come with her on her journeys. They even invented a word for what she does that is heard in the series’ main title theme song, performed by Lexi Underwood (Disney+’s Sneakerella) …

‘Thinkering’ All the Time!

“There were a couple moments where we had our own Eureka! moments coming up with the names of things like the wheels that the

‘We want the viewers to look at Eureka and see that she’s not disappointed when she fails. It doesn’t stop her. She just dives in and doesn’t look back.’

— Creator & exec producer Niamh Sharkey

kids use riding around,” says Virgien, whose many credits include Doc McStuffins, Vampirina and Rugrats. “We’re very proud of naming them rock and rollers. Erica [Rothschild] came up with this name for this magical process that seems to happen when you experiment with thinking, called ‘thinkering.’ And Eureka is always doing this. She’s tinkering and thinking, and this is where Erica got that one.”

Rothschild serves as co-executive producer/ story editor for the series, and Donna Brown Guillaume and Rusty Cundieff are consulting producers. The show is produced by Brown Bag Films, the same studio behind Doc McStuffins, in association with Disney Junior. Approximately 50 animators at Brown Bag Films worked on the show and an additional 100 animators in India also contributed to the pro-

duction. The writers’ room is based in the U.S. The show started production just before the world shut down during the pandemic. Initially they were meeting in person, but soon the crew had to go remote. “We did the show all through lockdown,” says Sharkey, who also created and collaborated with Virgien and Brown Bag on the acclaimed series Henry Hugglemonster.

“We started at the end of February 2020 and we went to the states and we had a Eureka! writers’ room for a couple of weeks, and then the world just shut down. So, we became very friendly with Zoom. But what made that interesting was, because we’re on different sides of the ocean, we were very involved in the writers’ room throughout the process, which I think was a nice thing — especially with Erica, just having her every step of the way.”

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TV/Streaming Prehistoric Fun

‘Some of the things we do are deliberately nonsensical.

For instance, if you want to get a mammoth into your house, it’s probably easier to make a giant door than it is to build a turntable that lowers the mammoth down!’

— Creator & exec producer Norton Virgien Making Prehistory: Ruth Righi voices the title character in Eureka!, Disney Junior’s new show about a smart young inventor in the fantastic world of Rocky Falls.

Rothschild had been with Sharkey and Virgien from early on in the production process.

After the pair came up with a central idea for the show, Rothschild worked with them through development, and then they were able to do an animation test which demonstrated the strength of their ideas.

The producers found ways to make Zoom and the lockdown work for them. If they had to collaborate through video chats, then they would try to use them as a way to increase collaboration. “I will say one thing that did work better over Zoom was the involvement between us and the writing team,” says Virgien. “Way back in the Rugrats days, we directors got to sit in the back of the room and sort of attend the writing meetings. And that was actually quite good, because we would have

a better sense of what the story was really about. We’d have a chance to offer up some visual ideas now and then, most of the things I’ve worked on over the years, though, the writing has been a little separated from creating the visuals. So, it was a thrill on this show to get back into the writing room, as it were, even if it was through Zoom sometimes.”

Virgien notes that because of the nature of the show, he and the team would have some ideas for visual humor or visual ideas, like what the inventions might look like. He adds, “When we offered up our silly ideas, often the writers would pick them up and run with them — and I felt like we were going to have a more visually rich show where the two elements are integrated because of Zoom, in a way.”

When it came time to carve out a distinct look for the show, Sharkey and Virgien and the entire crew leaned into the prehistoric backdrop. The production design grew out of that place. “For Eureka!, the library is a cave library,” says Sharkey.

“So, throughout the whole series, the backdrop is just this kind of beautiful, kind of idealized place of work and play. And all of us would love to live there. It’s technology free, which is also nice for kids to just see that and almost encourage them to get out into the world as well and explore.

You also get to see her creative process, when she starts ‘thinkering’ in the animation.”

Sharkey says that the team wanted to show the audience what goes on inside the main character’s head. “With the animation, we get to see how she puts her ideas together,” she adds.

“I think sometimes they come from all different places. So, to get to see inside somebody’s head is exciting. I think in most episodes we showed the thinkering, that process and what it looks like and how she comes to her ideas, because I think that makes it unique as well.”

Adds Virgien: “We do also run our ideas by a genuine scientist who gives us a lot of pointers on things and how to be more realistic. She’s an educator in the science field and works with museums and knows how to talk to kids. But, some of the things we do are deliberately nonsensical. For instance, if you want to get a mammoth into your house, it’s probably easier to make a giant door than it is to build a turntable that lowers the mammoth down. However, we find the turntable a lot more silly and fun!”

While the producers loved the process of creating a whole world where the stories could take place and distinct, playful characters for kids to watch, they also have ideas they want their audience to take away from the show. They want them to know that if an idea or an attempt to turn an idea into an invention doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the process. There are still things their young viewers can do.

“That’s definitely a theme of the show,” says Sharkey. “Eureka doesn’t give up. Sometimes you have to fail it to nail it. It’s okay to fail, especially when you’re being a creative person and maybe there’s a mixture of math and engineering as well in your solution to a situation or a problem. It’s okay to make mistakes, and making mistakes is part of your strength, overcoming your weaknesses is part of your strength. We want them to look at Eureka and see that she’s not disappointed when she fails. It doesn’t stop her. She’s still excited and having fun with her friends and family. She just dives in and doesn’t look back.”

Eureka! premieres on Disney Junior on June 22.

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TV/Streaming

Drawn to Excellence Disney’s traditional artists are the subject of the fascinating new series Sketchbook.

By Karen Idelson

I

f you’ve ever dreamt of sitting with a master animator to learn how they made the magic that was part of your childhood, the new Disney+ limited series Sketchbook will feel a lot like wish fulfillment. The show, which premiered in late April, looks into the world of traditional hand-drawn animation through the eyes of the artists who create it.

The series focuses on the techniques and the personal lives of six artists who’ve made tremendous contributions to the world of animation: Each episode spotlights one of the animators, their story, inspirations and how they view animation.

Sketchbook is timed just ahead of the 100th anniversary of 2D animation at Disney, which occurs in 2023. The producers on the series are Walt Disney Animation Studios, with executive producer Amy Astley spearheading the project with the producers who brought us Chef’s Table, Jason Sterman, David Gelb and Brian McGinn. Sterman, Leanne Dare and Andrew McAllister directed the episodes.

Famed animator and director Eric Goldberg draws The Genie from Aladdin and discusses collaborating with Robin Williams. Hyun-Min Lee draws Olaf from Frozen. Encanto story art-

‘The thing that really hit home with me about the series and the core of it is that anybody can draw, and anybody can have fun with drawing.’

— Eric Goldberg, supervising animator (Genie), Aladdin

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TV/Streaming Bright Stars: Left, Hyun-Min Lee (Frozen) and Samantha Vilfort (Encanto) are among the artists featured in the Disney+ series Sketchbook. The show also spotlights Eric Goldberg, Jin Kim, Gabby Capili and Mark Henn.

‘I feel like I’ve done my best job when people forget that I exist behind the characters. When they believe and love the characters for themselves.”

— Hyun-Min Lee, supervising animator (Anna), Frozen II

ists Samantha Vilfort and Gabby Capili draw Mirabel from Disney’s latest Oscar-winning movie and Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove, respectively. Animator Mark Henn draws Simba from The Lion King, and visual development artist Jin Kim draws Captain Hook from Peter Pan. In short, it’s all pure 2D animation-lovers’ heaven.

Having Fun with Drawing “When I was a kid in the 1950s, in the early 1960s, drawing on camera was a big deal,” says Goldberg. “We had a children’s television host in Philadelphia named Gene London who used to draw at a big drawing board. That was the show. And before that, Winsor McCay, you know, used to draw live on the stage. That was a vaudeville act. So, I feel like it’s all part of a continuum. But I think the thing that really hit home with me about the series and the core of it is that anybody can draw, and anybody can have fun with drawing. You know, I often think that it’s fascinating that human beings are the only animals who were compelled to make a mark on a piece of paper — there are no other creatures on the planet who do that. And so, it’s natural for everybody.”

The series reveals how many of the artists came to animation through their own life experiences. Each one comes from a very different place, but they all arrived at Disney with their own way of looking at the art form. The characters they chose to draw for the series have unique meanings for each animator.

“I grew up in a big family,” says Capili. “There were a lot of kids. I was one of maybe four girls, five girls, and Disney was a huge thing in our

family. My family is from California, so my dad and aunts and uncles were always back and forth at Disneyland ever since they were kids, since Disneyland opened. So, they brought us, and it was kind of a thing of like, you pick a princess and that’s the princess that you are. One of my cousins was Cinderella and one of my cousins was Mulan. And I never had a princess, because — I just didn’t, really. I was a very tomboyish kid.

I know now that I was a gender nonconforming, queer kid. We didn’t have that language at the time. So, I just didn’t relate until Kuzco.

“There were jokes about how to be a princess: You have to have a villain after you. You have to get trapped. You have to be saved by a man.

You have to be in mortal danger. And Kuzco fits all of those. If you go through them, Kuzco fits every single point,” Capili explains. “So, there was just something about him. And that was the first Disney movie that I saw in theaters. I was pulled out of school to go and see it for my birthday. So, Kuzco is so special to me. I’ve seen that movie like a million times, I can quote it line for line.

When they asked me to do Sketchbook, I knew immediately that I wanted to do Kuzco.”

Disappearing Acts The series has a very simple style that focuses on the artist at a desk while they draw, and each animator fills in the background of their approach to drawing. It’s sometimes an unusual place for them to be, after disappearing behind their characters for so long.

“I think one other thing that I would hope that the audience will get is the human aspect of things that are underlying all our films and all characters and everything,” says Lee. “I

think I mentioned in the episode, too: Where I feel like I’ve done my best job is when people forget that I exist behind the characters.

When they believe and love the characters for themselves. But I think also, because there’s so many things that are fast and digital and we take for granted these days, I think it’s also a wonderful way to show that it’s just people behind these things.”

Lee points out that it’s all about the simple pencil line and the pencil stroke. “It doesn’t take anything so completely outrageous to have these things come from nothing,” she notes. “It’s just a simple pencil stroke that can start it. I have an 18-month-old daughter right now and she’s just starting to grab a pencil and she just draws little lines, but she still loves that. And I’d love to think that people who watch this can remember that you don’t have to do a lot, just do whatever you feel like and just put it on the page. Sometimes, just starting that can build up into a character, or moment, or film, or dream — or even, for you, just the release of your whole stress from the day. Just letting people know that it’s the freedom and the human aspect and the love that underlies all of it.”

One of the wonderful aspects of the documentary is that it is giving hope to viewers who dream of Disney returning to its 2D animation roots. As Goldberg recently told IndieWire, “I’ve been campaigning for a long time to train up people in hand-drawn [animation], and, as the CG films became more and more popular, that idea became less and less important to the studio. But now we have an atmosphere and a group of people who recognize that’s part of the legacy here, and to actually have content that requires handdrawn animation is absolutely great. Thank goodness we have people who can do both here, but to actually commit to training up a new generation is a wonderful thing and I think perfectly appropriate for [us].”

Sketchbook is currently streaming on Disney+.

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Studio Spotlight Giganto Club

Cyber Group Expands Its Giant Footprint Studio Founder Pierre Sissmann discusses recent expansions in the U.K., Italy and Singapore, and highlights his 2022 slate at Annecy.

C

yber Group Studios is one of the most active indie animation outfits heading to Annecy this year. Hot off the acquisition of three studios in the U.K., Italy and Singapore in recent months, the studio behind such shows as Gigantosaurus, 50/50 Heroes and Digital Girl will be bringing a full slate to the MIFA market this month. We had a chance to catch up with Chairman & CEO Pierre Sissmann, who founded the Paris-based studio 24 years ago. Here is what the toon veteran shared with us during a Zoom interview: Animation Magazine: Congrats, Pierre, on another very busy quarter for Cyber Group. Can you give us a quick overview of what you’ve been up to in recent months?

Pierre Sissmann: Well, the big news is that we acquired a majority stake in several multi-awardwinning companies — U.K. studio A Productions (The Monster at the End of This Story, Love Monster), which is headed by Mark Taylor and managing director Katherine McQueen, and Italian animation studio Graphilm Entertainment, which is led by founder and CEO Maurizio Forestieri and exec producer Anna Lucia Pisanelli. Both of these studios are hugely respected and have won Royal So-

ciety and International Emmy Awards. We worked with Graphilm on the animated series Nefertine.

Maurizio also directed the 40-minute project La Custodia (The Case), which set records when it premiered on RAI last year and has won more than 22 awards so far. We also acquired a majority stake in Scrawl Animation (headed by Seng Choon Meng and Wong Chi Kong) in Singapore, which has produced acclaimed shows such as Guess How Much I Love You and partnered with us on Zou. What was the final goal for these recent acquisitions?

As you know, we have the U.S. studio headed by Karen Miller, and now with these latest acquisitions, we have footprints in France, West China, Singapore, Italy and the U.K. The idea was to create a network of best-in-class studios and talent around the world. We also have the biggest realtime animation studio in Roubaix, in the north of France, where we are currently working on shows such as our Giganto Club, as well as offering service work. We looked at companies that we knew would fit well with us, in terms of creative philosophy, history and a mission to create the best entertainment for families, and that’s reflected in the number of awards they’ve received over the

years. We are now also looking at the Hispanic market and eying the Eastern Europe territories as well, because of the region’s strong traditions.

So, my dream is to create properties that not only will be global hits, but could resonate for kids from all different parts of the world. It’s all about bringing talent together with the latest in technology, which is something we have invested in — especially in the real-time arena, which is something that we have been working on for the past two years. We've also created a big direct-toconsumer division, which is an area in which we have been growing: Our Giganto Club show was produced especially for YouTube, for example.

You have talked about the importance of having the means to have creative and artistic freedom.

Can you elaborate on that in terms of how that goal aligns with the recent expansions of your studio?

I think everyone all over the world is experiencing a very challenging year, both politically and financially. That’s why it’s so important to be able to support the creators in a way that your future only depends on you. For example, we are coproducing our real-time series Alex Player with France Télévisions and RAI, and it’s co-produced

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Studio Spotlight Digital Girl

Nefertine on the Nile

Alex Player

Final Fantasy IX

Pierre Sissmann

in France and Italy. We’ve never worked in stopmotion animation before, but now we have our partnership with Bristol’s A Productions in the U.K. and they have many years of experience in this area. Scrawl Animation in Singapore are experts in TV animation and they work closely with our associated studio in mainland China.

Another example is our new show Digital Girl, which is a comedy that I wrote; the BBC loved it, so it became a U.K. production. It’s all about cross-fertilization across the board. It allows you to explore more possibilities in different territories. Everything is evolving very quickly these days. Cyber Group started out by producing animated preschool shows, and now we are going to be creating two major shows for adults. We’ll be making a big announcement with a major awardwinning independent producer in the U.S. at Annecy, so stay tuned!

You also mentioned that, like several other animation studios around the world, Cyber Group is also dipping its toes in the NFT (non-fungible tokens) market. Can you discuss that?

As we all know, this is an area which is still in its

infancy, and we are witnessing how it changes and evolves every day. It’s a form of art, but it moves backwards and forwards and evolves in all directions. You have organizations like Sotheby’s doing NFT auctions. Just the other day, I was talking to a very well-known painter who wanted to know about the future. Things will develop, but you have to be very careful about what you offer.

We are in the process of signing contracts with four very different artists. One is an acclaimed street artist who has done murals all around the world and has numerous followers, for example. We are also talking to a popular animator who is going to create NFT art that will be in motion — some of his work is so cool that we think we can write a series or movie based on them. I think at this point in time, you have to be very creative in what you offer.

You can’t just create a static image or a design and expect to sell millions. There is a future for NFTs, but you have to have something special. It’s like creating your own YouTube channel.

One final question: We have all read the news about the recent changes at Netflix and some of the other streamers, which will have a big impact

on the animation landscape. What kind of advice would you give animation creatives who want to stay afloat during a very unpredictable period?

What I would say is that you have to rely on your own creativity and develop as much as you can. Yes. Because whether you are dealing with a streamer or a linear broadcaster, they all have their own constraints and are all trying to differentiate themselves from each other. So, you should have a strong slate of shows in development. Of course, sometimes that might be difficult for a smaller company to have a wide range of shows to serve every purpose.

We have always been mindful of trying not to inflate the costs of the shows. Real-time technology allows us to cut 20% of our costs.

Always be mindful of the customer, because we are going to witness massive inflation all over the world. So the takeaway would be to invest in more development and lower budgets, but rely on technology and talent to have higher quality shows!

For more info, visit cybergroupstudios.com.

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Studio Spotlight

Blue Skies Ahead for Red Animation Milton Guerrero, founder of Peru’s top studio, discusses its current slate and future plans.

O

ne of the first things you need to know about Milton Guerrero, the founder and CEO of Peru’s Red Animation, is that he has big plans for the growth of his venture in the next few years. Guerrero, a die-hard animation lover who fell in love with Looney Tunes cartoons at a young age (Daffy Duck is his favorite), is opening a new studio in Spain’s Canary Islands later this year and will expand the commercial-making arm of his business in either Montreal or Miami in 2024.

The Lima-based studio currently has about 120 employees and offers a wide range of animation services to clients — beginning from script and design/look through storyboards and animatics, as well as modeling and textures, rigging/layout, 2D and 3D animation, lighting and rendering, VFX and final output. Guerrero works closely with studio partner and head of production Marie Castañeda to expand the list of the studio's service clients as well as home-grown projects.

When he opened the doors of the studio in 2007, Guerrero wanted to build one of the premiere animation hubs in his home country. In the early years, the studio specialized in animated commercials, but soon, Red developed a solid reputation in the region and began to expand, offering production service work to animation entities all around the world. Nickelodeon (Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians), Disney Channels LatAm (Guitar & Drum), YouTube (Little Angel) and Rovio (Angry

Birds) are among Red’s many global clients. The studio’s work on the popular show Siesta Z received an International Emmy Kids Award in 2017.

Red also co-produced the CG-animated feature A Mouse’s Tale, (Rodencia y la Diente de la Princesa), which was released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in 2012 and played in 20 territories worldwide. The studio then collaborated on director Germán Acuña’s acclaimed animated movie Nahuel and the Magic Book, which received a Cristal nomination at Annecy in 2020 and a Quirino Award nomination in 2021.

Among Red’s current projects are the animated feature My Fairy Troublemaker (Fabrique d’Images/Ella Filmproduktion/SERU Animation), the series FriendZSpace (Studio 100/T&B Media Global/Flying Bark Prod.), Little Angel (Moonbug) and Angry Birds: MakerSpace (Rovio).

Angry Birds: MakerSpace

Nahuel and the Magic Book

Little Angel

Making Movie Magic One of the studio’s exciting ventures in the animation space is an ambitious feature titled, Kai, which was among five selected projects showcased at Ventana Sur, the biggest film and TV market in Latin America. Directed by Guerrero himself, the film is the first in a fantasy trilogy which is set in an ancient magical world where animals and humans practice different types of magic. The GC-animated movie, which has an estimated 2023 delivery date, follows the adventures of the young daughter of the great shaman Illari, who learns to let go of her selfish dreams and rely on

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Studio Spotlight Kai

Marie Castañeda

Milton Guerrero

Rita Street

‘We take care of our clients’ productions like our own personal passion projects. We’re never afraid to go the extra mile in terms of quality and respecting original delivery dates. Now we are hoping to find a balance between doing service work and developing our own internal IP.’ — Red Animation Studio founder & CEO Milton Guerrero

empathy and good deeds to restore the balance of power in her land.

“The movie is inspired by some of the ancient legends and cultures of Central and South America,” says Guerrero. “Our goal is to bring our own creative stories and culture to the world, but a movie like Kai is universal. It has characters that everyone can identify with and root for and we hope it will offer a memorable and exciting story that inspires family audiences and resonates with viewers everywhere.”

“Kai is not your typical girl empowerment story,” says the movie’s executive producer Rita Street, an animation veteran whose many credits include 100 % Wolf, Space Chickens in Space and Hero: 108. “Because we wanted to show a heroine that speaks to kids’ troubles today, Kai does not start out her journey as a lovable, princess type at all. At the opening of our picture, we learn that Kai has had a hardscrabble life and because of that she’s understandably a bit bitter and selfish. Through the course of her adventure, however, her walls come down, and her good, brave heart shines through.”

Also on the studio’s development slate is an imaginative original sci-fi feature titled Spark & the Mechas, which is described as “Zootopia meets The Fast and the Furious.” Set in an alternate universe of walking and talking animals, the plot revolves around a spunky beagle named Spark who has an unusual connection to his racing Mecha, a connection that will lead to a revolution for the freedom for “thinking machines.”

A Passion for Toons Guerrero says he vividly remembers the first time he realized that he wanted to pur-

sue a career in animation. “I was a college student and studying design and architecture,” he recalls. “One day, I went to the movie theater and caught Pixar’s Toy Story for the first time, and everything changed. I knew I wanted to work in animation. Back then, we didn’t have an established animation industry in Peru, so I decided to learn about the art and business of animation on my own. I started out designing visual experiences for concerts and shows, and then began working on commercials.”

“One thing I learned from the beginning is that you need to work in a space where people feel comfortable and happy,” he notes. “Many other animation studios are structured very rigidly and vertically. But I believe in the power of easy collaboration. Everything needs to be horizontal, without closed doors, so you can check in with the other departments. I don’t even have my own office. We keep everything wide open so we can not only have easy communication with the artists, but everyone feels like an important part of the process.”

One of the reasons the studio has been so successful over the past 15 years — producing over 1,500 minutes of animation — is the positive, warm and family-like culture promoted

by Guerrero. That’s because, as Street points out, the studio is actually based in a sprawling house in the lush park-like cityscape of Lima’s

upscale Miraflores district. “It’s a super cool setting,” she notes. “The studio features dark wood flooring and white-washed walls with animation posters and toys lovingly placed on shelves. The house itself meanders up and down several floors, so when you go exploring, it’s like stepping through Narnia’s magical wardrobe.” Meals are prepared for the employees every day so lunch is a time to connect.

And, when artists want to take a break, they can relax in the central garden and watch the hummingbirds. Gurrerro is proud to add that Red is also the home of three amazing studio dogs named Lola, Pablo and Thanos, which inspire everyone with their larger-than-life personalities!

Guerrero says he is pleased that he has been able to stay true to his original mission: to become a premiere animation service company with an important difference: “We take care of our clients’ productions like our own personal passion projects,” he notes. “We are never afraid to go the extra mile in terms of quality and respecting original delivery dates.

Now we are hoping to find a balance between doing service work and developing our own internal IP.” “While Red began as a CG animation company, it quickly expanded its output to include 2D animation and anime-style work for its clients,” adds Guerrero. “Plus, we are always interested in finding indie passion projects that fit our wheelhouse. We are always excited to collaborate with others to create characters that shine and tell important, culturally diverse stories that resonate with animation lovers all around the world.”

For more info, visit www.redanimationstudio.pe.

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35 Years of Great Quotes Over the past three and a half decades, we have heard and read a lot of wonderful insights, clever quips and career tips from our favorite animation superstars. Here is just a sampler of some of the great ones that have stayed with us: “The tacos of success are dripping with the salsa of failure.”

Jorge R. Gutierrez, creator/director, Maya and the Three, The Book of Life, El Tigre

“I always say that the answer you’re supposed to give when you’re asked, ‘Who are you writing for?’ isn’t kids. I am really not writing for the kids, I am writing to my own experience as a kid.”

Chris Nee, creator, Doc McStuffins, Vampirina, We the People, Ridley Jones

“Shrek is not like anything anybody has ever done before!”

Jeffrey Katzenberg, former chairman of Disney, former CEO of DreamWorks

“I’ve never aimed my films at children as the main audience. I think you restrict yourself when you do that. But on the other hand, I was very surprised that a lot of kids actually watched The Triplets of Belleville, and they all loved it. My own daughter, for example, was never forced to watch the film. She actually has a lot of Pixar movies at home!”

Sylvain Chomet, director, The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist

“I set out to create a story about a girl. And a funny girl who makes mistakes and then has an opportunity to learn from them. My biggest hope was that girls would respond to it favorably and let themselves be a little less self-conscious or less hard on themselves.”

Sue Rose, creator, Pepper Ann, Angela Anaconda

“The ‘Are you a Tuca or a Bertie?’ question is like asking if you’re an introvert or an extrovert. I mean, sure, based on context, and what time of month it is, and who’s around me, I might be more or less chatty — but ultimately, I don’t think it’s helpful to define yourself by these things, because depending on where you are in your life, you’ll be different!”

Lisa Hanawalt, creator, Tuca & Bertie

“People would ask, ‘How are you going to juggle it all?’ I finally just said, ‘Guys, I got it.

I’m a mom.’”

Jennifer Lee, CCO, Disney Animation; director, Frozen I & II

“Gromit was the name of a cat. When I started modeling the cat I just didn’t feel it was quite right, so I made it into a dog because he could have a bigger nose and bigger, longer legs.”

Nick Park, Aardman; director & creator of Wallace & Gromit

“I feel like there has never been a better time for storytellers and filmmakers, because the appetite for this has not gone away. How people see it is different, but the fact that people still want to tell good stories and watch good stories, I think that’s what’s really exciting.”

Bonnie Arnold, producer, How to Train Your Dragon trilogy

“It’s so obvious when you see it, you just go, ‘Oh, well of course. Why haven’t we seen something like this before?’ It just makes you see how absolutely silly it is that things are just so limited and so ‘status quo’ when all of these stories are just reflecting the world as it is a little more. You see people like this every day when we walk out the door, it’s just pushing the camera a little over to the left and you have a whole other world that you can see and relate to.”

Peter Ramsey, director, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Rise of the Guardians

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“You feel that weight and that pressure of being the first, also because there’s a scarcity of our stories in the media. I’m but one humble, nerdy, Chinese-Canadian girl trying to tell one very specific story.”

Domee Shi, director, Turning Red

“When people ask when The Simpsons is going to wrap up, my standard answer is that there’s no end in sight because anytime I speculate on the show ending, the people who work on it and diehard fans get very upset. So, I always say there’s no end in sight.”

Matt Groening, creator, The Simpsons, Futurama, Disenchantment

“The success of The Simpsons really opened doors. It showed that if you were working in animation you didn’t necessarily have to be working in kids’ television.”

Seth MacFarlane, creator, Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show

“I think there’s room for lots of different types of stories and we have enough princess stories, and we have enough toy-driven stories out there. We always ask ourselves first and foremost when we get involved in a project; why, why animate it? You know animation takes such a long time and there always has to be a really good reason for that.”

Nora Twomey, director, The Breadwinner, My Father’s Dragon

“We make films that we ourselves would want to see and then hope that other people would want to see it. If you try to analyze audiences or think there’s some sophisticated recipe for success, then I think you are doomed. You’re making it too complicated.”

Brad Bird, director, The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, Incredibles movies

“The more visible women and minorities are in positions of power, the more inclusive it feels. Things are changing (very) slowly, but we need to constantly remind the white men in power about unconscious bias and how to embrace change.”

Joanna Quinn, director, Affairs of the Art, Girls Night Out

“I think 2D animation disappeared from Disney because they made so many uninteresting films. They became very conservative in the way they created them. It’s too bad. I thought 2D and 3D could coexist happily.”

Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder, Studio Ghibli; director, Spirited Away

“I don’t think the war is won for women in animation, so there are still battles to be fought: for more women in technology and in more leadership positions, for more directors, for more story supervisors, for more lead animators, etc. Another big battle is to get strong female characters on screen, with stories that aren’t always romantically inclined, or even warrior princesses, or even just princesses.”

Brenda Chapman, director, The Prince of Egypt, Brave

“That’s kind of what it came down to, and the inspiration for creating the show was that point of, ‘When will we be included in all the fun?’ I grew up loving shows like The Flintstones and The Jetsons. For me, as an African American growing up in South Central Los Angeles, I knew that the one element missing in all of my favorite animated shows was us.”

Bruce W. Smith, creator, The Proud Family, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder

“Our characters act silly, even totally ridiculous at times, and most of our jokes don’t come out of pop cultural references. It seems like we’re aiming at a child audience, but everyone can laugh at the basic human traits that are funny. It’s playful, the humor is playful, the world is playful. You can kind of let go.”

Stephen Hillenberg (1961-2018), creator, SpongeBob SquarePants

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“I can speak directly to our young audience about my experience with anxiety or about queer relationships. Children don’t have a reason to not accept and they also have no tolerance for boring, inauthentic stories. They demand that I have fun and that I tell a story that’s fun.”

Rebecca Sugar, creator, Steven Universe

“Any new property is always risky. And my show really didn’t have a strong hook to it.

I couldn’t come up with a tagline for it. I just liked that it was friendly and nice, just two friends that hang out in a weird world. I think that’s what was risky. It was boring and you couldn’t see where it would go. I mean, I could. But I don’t think anyone else could see where it could go, in the beginning.“ Pendleton Ward, creator, Adventure Time

“Sony Pictures Animation wants to make films that are really bold and different from what you’ve seen before … All studios and studio heads will talk about being filmmaker-driven, but I am going to suggest that we mean it a little bit more than some other studios do.”

Kristine Belson, president, Sony Pictures Animation

“In 2023, we can celebrate the 31st anniversary of the historic best picture nomination for Beauty and the Beast. That nomination caused such a stir that some worried an animated movie might win best picture every year; a sentiment that, in part, led to the creation of the best animated feature award. At least we used to be taken seriously. Surely no one set out to diminish animated films, but it’s high time we set out to elevate them.”

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, directors, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie; exec producers, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Mitchells vs. the Machines

“What we’re really asking for is for people to have a strong personal vision for what they want to do rather than to sort of follow prescribed network formulas. We will often challenge them to go back and really think about ‘What is the version of this story that I want to tell?’ We don’t want a lot of shows that look and feel the same.”

Melissa Cobb, VP of kids & family, Netflix

“I’m an animator at heart. I don’t know what anybody likes. I just know what I like. And so I’ve always tried to be sincere about it. That has been the whole goal after making all these shows for almost 30 years. I try to have an honesty about them. I’m not just going to do a cowboy show because cowboys are popular. It’s not like anybody was screaming for a caveman and dinosaur show. The fun of it is definitely the animation, the drawing — but also, now, telling different types of stories.”

Genndy Tartakovsky, creator, Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Primal; director, Hotel Transylvania 1-3

“We are always trying to trigger people, provoke, make them care. Generally, I stay away from fear. I don’t really find that a pleasant one. But, obviously, a lot of people like horror movies because they like that adrenaline rush. You just want the movies to have the right balance of truth so people don’t just feel like it was a big sugar-coated nothing.”

Pete Docter, CCO, Pixar; director, Monsters, Inc., Up, Inside Out, Soul

“George Bush is just as scary as the mullahs in my country, if not more. He can go and kill thousands of Iraqis every day, by making people believe they are the enemy, and not human beings any more. If evil has an address, a nationality, you can exterminate all of them. This is fascism. But evil is international and the fanatic is international and universal. There is no difference between a Muslim fanatic, a Christian fanatic, even a secular fanatic.”

Marjane Satrapi, writer/director, Persepolis

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“Computer animation is moving so fast that Toy Story looks really ropy now. Whereas there are hand-drawn films from the 1940s that still stand up. Bambi still looks really timeless. And that’s because its language is the language of painting and illustration, rather than the language of the latest technology.”

Tomm Moore, director, The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers

“The opportunity was impossible to turn down — the idea that I could build an animation studio from scratch and pick all the people I wanted to work with. To build the studio and then try to sell individual shows was difficult, but we had a three-year runway of commitments from Netflix. It was an incredible deal.”

Margie Cohn, president, DreamWorks Animation

“I remember hearing Glen Keane once talking about how he feels every time he begins a project. That’s when I realized wow, I guess as artists, we are all insecure and we all improvise. People who think they know everything are people who’ve stopped learning.

You don’t want to be one of those people!”

Sergio Pablos, director, Klaus

“There’s something so primal and beautiful and warm and charming about stop motion that I adore. When I started doing it when I was a kid, in my parents’ garage or basement, even as terrible as my early forays into animation were, there was just something amazing about the fact that you could take a physical thing and imbue it with life. It could have that spirit inside of it, even though it’s an inanimate thing.”

Travis Knight, co-founder, LAIKA; director, Kubo and the Two Strings

“Every movie goes through that U-shape where you start with, ‘Oh that’s a great idea. I love it.’ Everything’s possible. And then you face, ‘Oh, we can’t do that, and that’s impossible, and that’s a bad choice.’ You go through the practicality of it. And then you come up to ‘Great.’ But that middle part is when you don’t have results yet.”

Jennifer Yuh Nelson, director, Kung Fu Panda 2 & 3; supervising director, Love, Death + Robots

“I always tell people: focus on what you want to say and who you want to be as an artist and stick to that. If you can, before you do your own show, try to get a job in the industry. In my own personal experience, working on four seasons of Dexter’s Laboratory made The Powerpuff Girls that much better. I had that idea when we were making Dexter’s, but I wasn’t ready to make that show until I had some time on another production.”

Craig McCracken, creator, The Powerpuff Girls, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Kid Cosmic

“It’s not like we have a formula, but I think one of the reasons this show has survived is that it has a big heart at its center. Other cartoon shows have people crap on each other and make racist jokes. But I don’t think people tune in for that. I just don’t think a show lasts for 10 years without a heart.”

Trey Parker, co-creator, South Park

“Kids love to be scared; we all do. But there’s a difference between leaving them hanging out there, with their fears, and then bringing them safely home. Kids love it when someone like them stands up against real evil, something really horrendous and frightening, and wins.”

Henry Selick, director, Coraline, James and the Giant Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas

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A Crowd-Sourcing Pioneer!

Founder Terry Thoren looks back at the era that shaped the birth of Animation Magazine.

By Terry Thoren

A

nimation Magazine was financed with a crowdsourcing formula 35 years before crowdsourcing became an accepted business practice for raising funds to produce independent projects. It was conceived to celebrate the beautiful art of animated shorts as showcased in the annual International Tournée of Animation.

Today, the experience for viewing animated short films in movie theaters is dead. The irony is that Animation Magazine was incubated to celebrate the Tournée of Animation, and Animation Magazine outlasted the Tournées by 25 years.

I love animation. I have worked with animation for 45 years. I produced my first animation course in 1977 as one of the courses offered in a film school I launched in Denver, Colorado, called the Visions Film Program. It is where I fell in love with the art of animation.

In the fall of 1986, we created a newsprint newsletter called Animation News and distributed it to all of the movie theaters showcasing the International Tournée of Animation. Inside the premiere edition of Animation News, we wrote this introduction: “During the past year we have reThe Man Who Planted Trees ceived more than 20,000 requests (letters) from people who have seen the 19th Tournée asking for more information on the world of animation. Animation News was created to provide a consistent source of news about the world of animation in all its varied forms. This preview issue is designed to provide a microcosm of what future issues will look like. Its future issues will be more than four pages and include book reviews, film reviews, film festival dates Ten years later, in 1987, one of the stand-out and deadlines, interviews, industry news and highlights of my career was the opportunity to in-depth information on the new home video distribute Frédéric Back’s The Man Who Planted releases. To subscribe, please send us $9.75 for Trees to 350 theaters in North America. It was the six issues. If we receive enough money we will centerpiece of the 21st International Tournée of create an Animation Magazine!”

Animation.

In 1987, we made this announcement in the Spring edition of Animation News: ”Due to the overwhelming response to Animation News, we Terrific Toon Tournées In 1983, I took over the job of producing the are happy to announce that the July/August issue International Tournée of Animation from Prescott will become Animation Magazine.”

The staff of the Animation News and Animation Wright and Bill Littlejohn. My partners in this venMagazine 35 years ago was a who’s who of aniture were Gary Meyer and Steve Gilula, the owners of the Landmark Theatre Corporation. We would mation aficionados. In the early days, the managtest market promotion ideas for our traveling ing editor’s job featured animation purists, like showcase of the world’s best animated shorts in John Cawley, Jerry Beck, Harvey Deneroff, Sarah the Landmark Theatres in 26 cities. When we had Baisley and Rita Street, who worked closely with a marketing formula that worked, we rolled the the art directors Heather Gilligan, Nancy Forrest, Tournée out to 325 cities in the U.S. and Canada.

Nick Poulos and Jim Williams. Our impressive

Terry Thoren

staff of writers included names like Beck, Cawley, Deneroff, David Ehrlich, Frank Gladstone, Jim Korkis, Mark Mayerson, Dan McLaughlin, Fred Patten, Steve Rubin, Steve Segal and Steve Siers, Charles Solomon and Don Waller.

After 35 years of hard work and quality editorial, Animation Magazine has become a global icon and has stood the test of time. It is the only magazine about animation to have survived all of the changes that have affected the entertainment industry and the publishing industry. It is read in 150 countries and the website has been enjoyed by more than one billion viewers!

If we had a window into the future when we laid out our first issue 35 years ago, the vision of the world today would have looked like a science fiction fantasy. My heartfelt congratulations and respect go out to Jean Thoren, Ramin Zahed, Sheri Shelton, Jan Bayouth, Mercedes Milligan and Susanne Rector and the entire global team at Animation Magazine who have managed to grow, flourish and navigate all of the mind-bending innovations that have evolved over the most tumultuous and fast-changing 35 years in the history of the world.

Terry Thoren founded Animation Magazine and the World Animation Celebration and produced the International Tournée of Animation. He was the CEO of Klasky Csupo, the studio that incubated the first 65 episodes of The Simpsons and produced Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power and more. Ten years ago, he launched Wonder Media to use animated stories to prevent childhood trauma, help children and teens navigate out of trauma and model critical thinking and social emotional learning for children in schools.

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Reflections on 1987 and the 35th Anniversary!

By Jerry Beck (someone who was there!)

A

nimation Magazine made its debut just as a second generation of classic cartoons began — we just didn’t know it then.

There is a great debate among us old timers as to when exactly the ‘90s renaissance started, but one thing we agree on is that it began in the mid-late 1980s. Did The Secret of NIMH (1982) light the fuse and An American Tale

(1987) cause the boom? Was it Roger Rabbit (1988) or The Little Mermaid (1989) that truly forecast the box-office blockbusters to come?

Did Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (1986) or Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (1987) inspire creator-driven cable TV series — and clear the way for The Simpsons (1989) in prime time?

Something was in the air — and on our ra-

dar screens — in 1987 when this publication was conceived and first went on sale. The pioneers of our art form were passing on or slowly retiring, and a new generation was stepping up to take over and expand the field.

The younger generation had the talent and imagination to take animation to new places, with new technologies emerging to change things be-

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yond anyone’s comprehension at the time.

Computer animation was here (Pixar’s Luxo Jr, was nominated in 1986, Tin Toy won the Oscar in 1988), but CG features were eight years away. Laptop computers and smartphones were still the stuff of Star Trek fantasy.

The bigger concern then was returning handdrawn character animation back to the artistic standards of the 1940s & ’50s.

The Miyazaki Wave Japanese animation was the new kid on the block in the late 1980s. Miyazaki had just released Castle In The Sky (1986) with Totoro on the way.

Industry animators and die-hard fans here were already hip to the Japanese style and recognized the emerging filmmakers, but mainstream U.S. film distributors — not to mention the general public — were still unaware of anime’s potential.

But that was what was so exciting about the animation scene in 1987 — a scene that sparked the idea of Animation Magazine to even exist. Something was up and we knew it.

The community of animators worldwide was relatively small compared to the universe the industry thrives in today. We didn’t have the

internet or email addresses then! But we had phone numbers — and personal relationships fostered by in-person gatherings at the Zagreb, Annecy and Ottawa festivals once a year.

ASIFA was a main conduit to connecting with the community, as was Karl Cohen’s ASIFA San Francisco newsletter, which was then (as it still is today) a main source of insider news and gossip. the Tournée of Animation screenings in art theaters, universities and museums was a lifeline to the larger animation scene.

Animation Magazine started with the hope that what was going on in 1987 — and what had gone on in the previous 87 years — might pull together to form a greater movement in the art form. It was in the air.

There were several ‘fanzines’ for animation history that precede this magazine’s founding (Michael Barrier’s Funnyworld and David Mruz’s Mindrot are notable examples) but nothing else — not even industry trades like Variety and Hollywood Reporter — was covering the whole of animation, especially the current scene. I recall us struggling in those early issues to come up with stories about new series

and features in production. There just weren’t that many projects in the hopper.

But the field began to grow — and this magazine grew with it. Slowly but surely, more and more began to see the potential for storytelling, for world-building, for personal stories, for relatable characters, for mind-blowing, universe-expanding adventures — or simply laugh-out-loud fun. It’s something we knew all along — and that story has been told in the pages of this periodical.

Happy 35th Anniversary! It’s been quite a journey. And the best is yet to come! .

Jerry Beck is an animation historian and cartoon producer. His 15 books on the subject include The Animated Movie Guide, Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney, and is currently a consulting producer for Warner Archive.

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A Lot Can Happen in 35 Years!

A look back at three and a half decades of TV’s rebels, goofballs and smart-ass kids.

By Ray Richmond

I

t was impossible to see it coming at the time, but right about the moment this magazine was being launched 35 years ago, a creative explosion in television animation was just starting to bubble up from the magma.

Sure, the landscape was still populated by things like Little Clowns of Happytown, Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater and Beverly Hills Teens. But in September of ’87, CBS gave kids (and adults) a preview of the outrageous quality boom to come when it rolled out Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures on Saturday mornings.

Co-produced by Ralph Bakshi of Fritz the Cat fame and featuring genius rabble-rouser John Kricfalusi as its director, this Mighty Mouse introduced a wildly imaginative world of cartoon rodents while resurrecting old-time Terrytoons characters and satirizing movies as well as other cartoons. Watching it felt like dying and traveling to toon heaven.

The Groening Era But something else was also going on that seemed far less consequential back then.

The Tracey Ullman Show was a new sketch comedy series on the fledgling Fox network that served up crudely drawn weekly animated shorts featuring a family with yellow skin and significant attitude. The future of primetime animation would arrive soon enough when The Simpsons got its own spot on the Fox schedule, debuting with a Christmas episode in December 1989.

This was a great big giant deal at the time, the kind of roll of the dice that broadcast networks weren’t in the habit of doing. To be sure, there had been successful primetime cartoons before, namely the masterful The Adventures of Rocky

and Bullwinkle and Friends (1959-64 on ABC and NBC) and of course The Flintstones (1960-66 on ABC). But nothing prepared TV for the earthquake that The Simpsons triggered as such a massive and, as the decades piled up, historic hit.

(As I write these words, the show has broadcast an astounding 725 episodes.)

As The Simpsons sprouted into a societal and even international phenomenon, competitors leaped into the fray to capture more of this cartoon lightning in a bottle with short-lived early 1990s primetime efforts like Capitol Critters (ABC) and Fish Police and Family Dog (CBS).

The networks clearly misread what The Simpsons’ success meant. It wasn’t the animation per se that was connecting with audiences, but the monumentally clever writing and fully-realized characters. The fact they weren’t actual people was decidedly less relevant.

The Simpsons ushered in a new era, to be sure.

But at first, it didn’t happen with traditional broadcasters; it came initially on cable, specifically at Nickelodeon, MTV and USA Network.

Aliens, Rebels and Anklebiters In August of 1991, Nick introduced Rugrats from Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo and Paul Germain in tandem with creator Kricfalusi’s The Ren & Stimpy Show. Both were extraordinarily inventive for radically different reasons, with Rugrats depicting life from the point of view of its toddler stars and R & S featuring a sociopathic Chihuahua and a dimwitted cat. Both were breakouts, though Ren & Stimpy found itself bathed in controversy due to its consistent flouting of rules and good taste.

MTV, meanwhile, whipped up some magic of

its own with the futuristic, acid trippy Aeon Flux — birthed in 1991 by creator Peter Chung out of the network’s Liquid Television experiment — and Mike Judge’s teen slacker-glorifying Beavis and Butt-Head (1993-97).

Then in 1994, Duckman (created and developed by Everett Peck) pecked its way onto the USA Network schedule, sticking there until ’97.

It featured the voice of Jason Alexander portraying a sarcastic, embittered, womanizing private detective/family man/duck, and it was hugely underappreciated (much like the character the show depicted).

Not to be outdone, Cartoon Network soon made its presence felt with its original content, first in ’94 with Mike Lazzo’s hilarious adult animated comedy Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which repurposed a standard-issue Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning superhero character into something far more ingenious as a surreal talk show spoof.

It was the fact that creators and networks discovered there was a grown-up audience clamoring for animation that so changed the game.

Mind you, it wasn’t that young people were being shortchanged. They were also being served shows like the Fox Kids pair Batman: The Animated Series from Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski (1992-95) and hyperkinetically wacky social satire Animaniacs (1993) from creator Tom Ruegger and exec producer Steven Spielberg, which ran for five seasons.

By the mid-1990s, television was officially the place where animated content was taking wing and soaring into the stratosphere. Seemingly, all the rules that had shackled cartoons were being tossed aside and replaced with an edict to let

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the imagination and eccentricity flow.

How else to explain Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Comedy Central’s early claim in the animation game from Jonathan Katz and Tom Snyder (not the broadcaster) that set spoofy counseling in a jittery computer-generated animation form it called “Squigglevision”? It landed in 1995, two years before creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker would blend the grotesquely hilarious with the gloriously profane to fashion South Park, their Comedy Central gift that keeps on giving.

If there were purported lines you couldn’t cross in small-screen animation, those were obliterated by the show’s persistent vulgarity and its gleeful evisceration of sacred cows along with a purposefully crude, jerky style. But as proudly offensive as it was, South Park was (and remains) trailblazing, carving out an innovative niche that served to transform entertainment itself.

The sense of creative revolution and evolution wasn’t entirely restricted to cable, however, as the age of Seth MacFarlane demonstrated with his toon stable that began with Family Guy. Whatever Stone and Parker wouldn’t or couldn’t do, MacFarlane did, and his Fox show that began life in 1999 has proved an ode to joyousness and ceaseless punchlines, which tend to bounce out of his characters like machine gun fire.

It was around this same time that the TV animation world was finally made safe for female leads, too. The pioneering Daria (from creators Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn), a 1997 MTV spinoff from Beavis and Butt-Head focusing on a bright, jaded teenage girl slightly out of step with her peers and family. Then in ’98, Craig McCracken turned his college short film Whoopass Stew! into The Powerpuff Girls for Cartoon Network.

The Powerpuff Girls skewed significantly younger than Daria, centering on the three kindergarten-age superheroes Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. The original show survived for six splendid seasons, the girls slaying not just monsters but bedwetting, sibling rivalry and personal hygiene. It furnished young girls with positive role models they could relate to, albeit fictitious ones. This clever depiction of girl power would later inspire other terrific female representation

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in Toon Town, from Bob Schooley & Mark McCorkle’s Kim Possible to more modern heroines such as ND Stevenson’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Lisa Hanawalt’s Tuca & Bertie.

In 1999, Nickelodeon hit one of the biggest jackpots in the history of animation when it debuted SpongeBob SquarePants, a delightful show about a very absorbent, goofy and optimistic sponge, voiced by the one-and-only Tom Kenny.

The fact that the show spawned a live Broadway show, three feature films, a blockbuster musical and several spinoffs and still hasn’t run out of steam is a tribute to the genius of its creator, Stephen Hillenburg, who sadly passed away in 2018.

A couple years later, Nick trotted out the darkly comic and agreeably twisted Invader Zim in March 2001, from cartoonist Jhonen Vasquez, focusing on an alien named Zim from the planet Irk who had been sent across the universe to conquer Earth. The show brought a goth comic-book icon into the after school sphere, and the creator and network were often at odds. Zim went offplanet after just 27 out of 40 episodes ordered.

In general, while shows created by and about white men remained abundant and ubiquitous, some color finally began to trickle in as the millennium turned. Chief among these efforts was creator Aaron McGruder’s consistently brave African-American animated comedy The Boondocks, growing out of his syndicated comic strip of the same name to join the Adult Swim lineup in 2005.

Depicting a dysfunctional Black family living in a mostly white suburb, Boondocks hit television like a right uppercut, resolutely taking provocative stands in its political diatribes and biting satire. There was also Black creator Bruce W. Smith’s The Proud Family, which actually predated The Boondocks by four years on Disney Channel but made a decidedly quieter splash. It was, nonetheless, well before its time with its tuneful vibe and colorful cast.

When it came to Latino representation, perhaps nobody did it better and with more pizazz than the talented Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, whose Nickelodeon show El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (2007-2008) led to

Gutierrez’s masterful 2014 movie The Book of Life and the Netflix event series Maya and the Three last year.

Beyond that, since we entered a new century, there have been too many great animated series to easily count. I’m thinking of John R. Dilworth’s darkly uproarious Courage the Cowardly Dog (1999-2002, Cartoon Network); Adam Reed’s spot-on spy spoof Archer (FX and FXX, 2009 to present); the Adult Swim masterwork Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2001-15), which brought fast food items into the animated character development universe; and BoJack Horseman from creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg (Netflix, 2014-20), which brilliantly melded streaming to the world of original animation.

Adventure Time and Beyond Let’s also give plaudits to some other critical darlings, like the surreal, fantasy video game-inspired Adventure Time (2010-18), the Cartoon Network series from Pendleton Ward that won a slew of Primetime Emmys and even a Peabody Award. There’s also the Adult Swim entry Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal that arrived on the schedule in 2019 to great fanfare and crafts a prehistoric world with the auteur’s typical flair.

I haven’t even brought up shows like the Fox trio King of the Hill, Futurama and Bob’s Burgers, Rick and Morty or anything in the vast and diverse anime realm. The truth is there’s just been too much spectacular animated TV (and now streaming) over the past three-and-a-half decades to cover everything of genuine merit.

Indeed, we’ve come an awfully long way since ’87. If we can scarcely imagine what we’ll be examining in the rearview mirror in 2057, it’s nonetheless a safe bet that The Simpsons won’t have missed a step and will be preparing to plow through Season 69!.

Ray Richmond wrote the seminal episodic compendium The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family in 1997 that highlighted the show’s first eight seasons. He felt secure at the time that the book would wind up covering the majority of the show’s run.

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Riding the Japanese New Wave

Paprika

The next generation of visionary anime auteurs leave a huge artistic mark on the pop culture landscape.

By Charles Solomon

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lthough few people realized it at the time, 1998 was a banner year that marked a turning point in Japanese — and world — animation.

Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata already had established reputations as feature directors when their work appeared on a singular double bill in April: My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies. The two films, one charming and the other heartbreaking, showcased their personal strengths. Takahata was a poet who could work in a variety of genres, but even his comedies were tinged with a humanist melancholy. Miyazaki was a visionary, able to carry audiences to realms far beyond their imaginations, capturing their attention with an image as simple as two girls standing in a rainy forest.

The brooding, dystopic visuals and brilliant filmmaking in Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira (also 1988) excited audiences around the globe.

The cutting and camera work in the motorcycle sequence has often been imitated, but never equaled. In another odd juxtaposition, the violent Akira and the gentle Totoro were the two films that sparked the shift of anime

Naoko Yamada

from an outré obsession for hard-core fans to a mass market in the U.S.

Rise of the Auteurs The three films marked the rise of the auteur animation director in Japan. Then as now, the Japanese industry turned out numerous features by filmmakers whose work was competent, interesting and entertaining. Miyazaki, Takahata and Otomo proved that anime features could be as personal and compelling as the best live-action films. More than 30 years later, when many American animated features feel homogenized, top Japanese directors continue to create films with strong individual stamps.

The rise began slowly, then accelerated, as filmmakers explored complex social and psychological issues. Mamoru Oshii’s landmark feature Ghost in the Shell (1995) largely defined the cyberpunk genre. His vision of a gritty, oppressive future proved so compelling, it survived lesser spinoffs, including Rupert Sanders’ disastrous 2017 live-action remake starring Scarlett Johansson.

Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut Perfect Blue

Mamoru Oshii

Satoshi Kon

(1997) impressed viewers on both sides of the Pacific: Critics compared the film to Hitchcock, and Madonna showed clips from it during her Drowned World Tour in 2001. Kon followed Perfect Blue with Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003) and Paprika (2006).

The boundaries dividing reality, fantasy, memory and the cyberworld thinned eerily in Kon’s films. Neither the characters nor the viewer could be certain what was real, anticipating the current “post truth” era. Had he not died tragically of pancreatic cancer at 46 in 2010, Kon would undoubtedly still rank among the world’s leading animation directors.

Although the information is carefully guarded, industry publications estimate the budget of a major American studio feature at around $150 million. Japanese films are made at a fraction of that cost, with smaller crews and, often, shorter production schedules. The budget for Paprika was reportedly around ¥300 million, less than $3 million. These budgets don’t allow for the opulence of American CG features. Viewers can’t see details like the individual stitches in a character’s sweater or clumps of realistic fur blowing in the wind. No

Makoto Shinkai

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Lu Over the Wall

Ghost in the Shell

‘Shinkai, Miyazaki, Hosoda and other top directors don’t work with story crews, they board the films themselves. When they’re satisfied with the story, it goes into production. Many studios are built around a single filmmaker or a small cadre of artists.’ one seems to miss them.

Kenji Kamiyama, who displayed a flair for complex storylines in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex broadcast series, pushed his intricate narratives even further in Eden of the East: The King of Eden (2009) and Eden of the East: Paradise Lost (2010), then Napping Princess (2017). No American heroine faced such complicated situations — or the very real economic crises underlying them.

Also in 2017 — another banner year — Masaaki Yuasa’s reworking of The Little Mermaid, Lu Over the Wall, won Best Animated Feature at Annecy, and his unconventional, eclectic The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl won Best Animated Feature at Ottawa. Naoko Yamada offered an unflinching depiction of bullying in A Silent Voice, a welcome counter to the simplistic let’s-all-be-friends-and-sing-a-song inanities of many American features. Makoto Shinkai broke box office records in Japan with Your Name., a body-swapping teenage romcom that morphs into a meditation on the trauma many A Silent Voice

Japanese still suffer from the earthquake and tsunami Americans call “Fukushima.” Shinkai deserved at least an Academy Award nomination for Your Name., which he followed with the eco-parable Weathering With You in 2019.

Shinkai, Miyazaki, Mamoru Hosoda and other top directors don’t work with story crews, they board the films themselves. When they’re satisfied with the story, it goes into production. The directors collaborate with producers, editors and other artists, but their work isn’t subjected to executive approvals, focus group screenings, advisory committees, etc. Many studios are built around a single filmmaker or a small cadre of artists. Studio Ghibli was established to realize the visions of Miyazaki and Takahata; Studio Chizu, to make Hosoda’s films.

Artistic Integrity First Hosoda earned both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for the charming Mirai (2018). He had attracted widespread atten-

tion for his adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui’s popular novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in 2006. His subsequent features, Summer Wars (2009), Wolf Children (2012) and The Boy and the Beast (2015), were critical and box office successes. He made the visually dazzling Belle in 2021, which continued his explorations of the increasingly complex relationship between the real world and the web. That same year, Hideaki Anno brought his watershed science fiction saga to a conclusion in the epic Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time. After 25 years of watching, speculating and arguing, fans around the world learned the ultimate fate of Shinji Ikari and the war against the Angels.

The point of making these films was to present the vision of an artist, not to continue a franchise, spawn theme park attractions or sell millions of toys. Revenue from license products is welcome, but “IP” isn’t the focus.

Shinkai hasn’t filmed a prequel exploring the “back story” of Taki from Your Name., nor did Hosoda burden audiences with Summer Wars 2: Love Machine Strikes Back. Like great artists in any discipline, these filmmakers prefer to leave audiences wanting more.

Charles Solomon’s latest book The Man Who Leapt Through Time: The Art of Mamoru Hosoda will be published in August by Abrams.

Your Name.

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On Representation and Diversity: How Far Have We Come?

K

aren Toliver, the current VP of animated films at Netflix, has had a remarkable, distinguished career in the industry, working in various positions at Disney, Fox Animation and, most recently, at Sony Pictures Animation as exec VP of creative. She is the producer of the Oscar-winning short Hair Love, directed by Matthew A. Cherry. At Fox Animation, she supervised the production of the Rio film franchise and the latest three films in the Ice Age series. She also spearheaded the Oscar-nominated movie Ferdinand. Toliver served as a production executive at Disney on films such as Brother Bear, Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. She was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about the importance of representation and the rise of diversity in animation:

In your opinion, what are the most significant changes that have happened in our industry in recent years in terms of representation?

Studio execs are not only willing to consider new diverse artists and creative leads, but they know that it is a necessity. The intent is there.

Now, the challenge is how to best support these artists as they enter the studio system, which can be difficult to navigate. Making animated content is hard, and artists not only need the talent to create content, but they need the soft skills that you can only learn by being on the job and gaining experience; the production itself must be ready and willing to support that learning. It is much easier to revert back to hiring people who have done the job before. But we must allow new voices to find their footing in this medium, and be patient and creative in order to support them. I think it’s a combination of new and experienced talent that will get us there, and I think everyone is going through some trial and error to find the right balance.

Animation Magazine: We live in quite a different world than we did 35 years ago. What are your thoughts on how far animation has come in the past few years in terms of diversity, both in content and behind the scenes?

I remember talking to you about how, when Karen Toliver: I am really excited about what we were growing up, there were so few diis happening in animation. There are daily verse role models in the world of animation. conversations around telling diverse and au- Can you discuss that with us? thentic stories. Every exec I know has that top I’ve been in this business for a minute, and it of mind, and you can see it in the slate line- is truly remarkable to think about the shift in ups, literally at every studio in town. That is expectations myself and my peers had in the very different from when I started — and very industry compared to how I see people enterdifferent even from five years ago. And as frus- ing the industry now. Back then, we all wanted trated as I may be if a BIPOC artist is always to find a seat at the table, and yet there were busy and unavailSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse able, I am also thrilled to hear when a BIPOC artist is always busy and unavailable.

And I am blown away by how many young artists are studying animation, and are passionate and eager to start their careers. It is very encouraging.

so few spots that the people that had found a way in were so worried about keeping their own seat — and everyone was very aware that no studio was likely to allow two of us in at one time.

Karen Toliver So there wasn’t really a community that was helping pull each other in. It was very competitive and isolating. I know some people had mentors, but it was rare.

I really didn’t have anyone that truly took me under their wing. We were pretty much figuring it out on our own.

We have finally gotten to a place where people are helping each other get in the door, and the powers that be are getting used to seeing not one, but maybe even a few BIPOC in the same room. It sounds silly and basic, but it is true. That sense of community I feel now is amazing. And people really feel how important it is to reach back and help others.

In 2022, most studios now have diversity and inclusion executives whose job it is to make sure all voices are heard and all people are represented… What are the pluses and minuses of this trend?

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The Princess and the Frog

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What are some of the most effective ways studios can increase diversity representation and storytelling?

It isn’t that complicated. We need to commit to widening our talent pool, expand our thinking in regards to how we define or see “qualified,” “experienced” and “ talented” storytellers.

We need to resist the urge to fall back on the familiar. We need to make sure that our executive teams in the room are diverse and that they can naturally find points of connection with the talent. Rinse and repeat.

Hair Love

I am grateful that it seems all of the studios have made diversity and inclusion common practice and it’s so refreshing to have Diversity, Equity and Inclusion conversations front and center, and in many cases supported by significant budgets. So, it makes the effort impossible to ignore. But at the same time, it does make me sad that there has to be a dedicated team to remind us all to do what should be obvious, inclusive and, frankly, human behavior. I am a pretty optimistic person, so I am hopeful that one day we can tackle the systemic issues of bias and normalize what should be an intuitive behavior of inclusion.

As much as I truly love and respect everyone I have met and don’t wish anyone out of a job, I do hope one day we will no longer need DEI executives. I would think all executives would naturally keep an eye on diversity and inclusion as part of the necessary path towards creative excellence.

Are there any common pitfalls studios, big and small, stumble into when they try to accentuate their diversity activities and content?

The thing that scares me the most is the notion that people who truly want to support diversity might feel that in order to do that they must

throw out weighing and evaluating the candidate’s qualifications, just assuming they won’t be as qualified. Yes, we certainly need to overcompensate for the long history of implicit and explicit bias that has prevented marginalized candidates from being considered for positions.

Because there hasn’t been an even playing field and artists haven’t been invited to entry-level positions, finding experienced candidates can sometimes be a challenge. And it’s even harder to make up for that historical lack of access because animation is such a specialized field.

But the worst fear anyone of color or any marginalized identity has is that they are marked as a “diversity” hire. Nobody wants a handout. That diminishes their talent and hard work. All most folks want is a fair shake.

And we (the studio) aren’t doing anybody any favors if we don’t believe the candidates have earned their spot. We need to give all talented people opportunities to join the community; we need to be sensitive to some of the trauma that has occurred because of a lack of access and resources. But we also need to maintain rigorous standards such that all talent can be evaluated for the talent and hard work they bring to their craft.

What do you hope to see happen in the animation industry in the next 10 years?

We’ve been saying this for a while, but animation is really at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the range of storytelling that could be achieved to entertain a wider audience. We need to continue to evolve the kind of stories that are told in animation. We know animation isn’t just for kids and parents, and yet I think even we in the community aren’t as ambitious about proving that out as we could be. And we fall back on what has been done in the past.

Some content has begun to show us the possibilities. But I would hope in 10 years, we really prove that out. Meaning, that animated features will go toe to toe against the biggest live-action hits. Just like live-action filmmakers have found success and satisfaction in television, I hope the lines blur between animation and live action to the point that animation is no longer marginalized and that storytellers equally choose to tell stories in both mediums.

What is your best advice for people of color who would like to be part of the animation industry?

The doors are open. Run in. Be prolific. Continue to hone your craft. Be hard on yourself.

Don’t settle. Keep building your community.

Surprise us.

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder

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The Essentials: 35 U.S. Studio Movies of the Past 35 Years Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Robert Zemeckis (1988)

The Little Mermaid

Ron Clements & John Musker (1989)

Beauty and the Beast

Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise (1991)

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Henry Selick (1993)

The Lion King

Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff (1994)

Toy Story Tetralogy

John Lasseter (1995), Lasseter & Lee Unkrich (1999), Unkrich (2010), Josh Cooley (2019)

The Iron Giant

Brad Bird (1999)

Chicken Run

Nick Park, Peter Lord (2020)

Shrek (1 and 2)

Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson (2001), Adamson, Kelly Asbury & Conrad Vernon (2004)

Ice Age

Chris Wedge & Carlos Saldanha (2002)

Lilo & Stitch

Dean DeBlois &Chris Sanders (2002)

The Incredibles (1 and 2)

Brad Bird (2004, 2018)

W&G: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Nick Park & Steve Box (2005)

Kung Fu Panda

John Stevenson & Mark Osborne (2007)

WALL•E

Andrew Stanton (2008)

Ratatouille

Brad Bird (2009)

Up

Pete Docter (2009)

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson (2009)

Coraline

Henry Selick (2009)

How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy

Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders (2010), DeBlois (2014, 2019)

Despicable Me

Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (2010)

Wreck-It Ralph

Rich Moore (2012)

Hotel Transylvania

Genndy Tartakovsky (2012)

Frozen

Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (2013)

The LEGO Movie

Phil Lord & Chris Miller (2014)

The Book of Life

Jorge R. Gutierrez (2014)

Inside Out

Pete Docter (2015)

Kubo and the Two Strings

Travis Knight (2016)

Zootopia

Rich Moore & Byron Howard (2016)

Moana

Ron Clements & John Musker (2016)

Coco

Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina (2017)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti & Rodney Rothman (2019)

Soul

Pete Docter (2020)

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Mike Rianda (2021)

Encanto

Byron Howard & Jared Bush (2021)

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The Essentials: 35 International Movies of the Past 35 Years Akira

Katsuhiro Otomo (1988)

Grave of the Fireflies

Isao Takahata (1988)

My Neighbor Totoro

Hayao Miyazaki (1988)

Alice

Jan Švankmajer (1988)

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Hayao Miyazaki (1989)

Ghost in the Shell

Mamoru Oshii (1995)

Princess Mononoke

Hayao Miyazaki (1997)

Kirikou and the Sorceress

Michel Ocelot (1999)

Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki (2001)

The Triplets of Belleville

Sylvain Chomet (2004)

Paprika

Satoshi Kon (2006)

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Mamoru Hosoda (2006)

Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud (2008)

Waltz with Bashir

Ari Folman (2008)

The Secret of Kells

Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey (2009)

Summer Wars

Mamoru Hosoda (2009)

The Secret World of Arrietty

Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010)

Chico & Rita

Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal & Tono Errando (2010)

Wrinkles

Ignacio Ferreras (2011)

Ernest & Celestine

Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar & Benjamin Renner (2012)

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Isao Takahata (2013)

Song of the Sea

Tomm Moore (2015)

Your Name.

Makoto Shinkai (2016)

The Red Turtle

Michaël Dudok de Wit (2016)

My Life as a Courgette

Claude Barras (2016)

Loving Vincent

Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman (2017)

The Breadwinner

Nora Twomey (2017)

I Lost My Body

Jérémy Clapin (2019)

Marona’s Fantastic Tale

Anca Damian (2019)

Weathering with You

Makoto Shinkai (2019)

Calamity

Rémi Chayé (2020)

Wolfwalkers

Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart (2020)

Klaus

Sergio Pablos (2020)

Flee

Jonas Poher Rasmussen (2021)

Belle

Mamoru Hosoda (2021)

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35 Animated Shorts to Explore, Ponder, Ignore or Enjoy*

By Chris Robinson

A

lright, so here’s my list (not really in any order, and I recognize that it’s a lot of late 20th century and early 21st century stuff) of 35 animation shorts that have resonated with my internal demon more than others:

Crazy Mixed-Up Pup

Crossing the Stream

I Am So Proud of You

Jukebox Lipsett Diaries Lesley the Pony Has an A+ Day!

Girls Night Out Please Say Something

Solar Walk

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1.

Crossing the Stream (Skip Battaglia, U.S., 2006). A man takes his horse across a stream. A magnificent, mind-blowing evocation of movement and spirituality.

2.

I Am So Proud of You (Don Hertzfeldt, U.S., 2008). A hilarious, profound and deeply troubling work that puts us firmly in the shoes of a conflicted and sick man as he drifts through the fragments of his past and present.

3.

4.

5.

1895 (Priit Pärn & Janno Põldma, Estonia, 1995). How does Pärn celebrate the centenary of cinema? By deconstructing and ridiculing it, Pärn uses the journey of Jean-Paul to show how cinema has impacted our perceptions of history, nationality, and identity. It’s hilarious, overwhelming, and clever.

Jukebox (Run Wrake, U.K., 1994). A stream-of-consciousness masterpiece littered with wild beats (including bits of Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up”) and an array of looped, drawn and collaged imagery that ranges from the surreal to pop culture.

Crazy Mixed-Up Pup (Tex Avery, U.S., 1955). It’s Avery’s fish-slapping dance, an utterly manic piece of nonsense about a world thrown into chaos as the participants defiantly struggle to maintain order.

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10. Yield (Caleb Wood, U.S., 2014). A slew of images of roadkill race by at random until they reach a magical point where – if you look closely – the carcasses appear to claw, walk and run towards rebirth... until a final shocking image puts a halt to any and all dreams of immortality.

11. Lesley the Pony Has an A+ Day! (Christian Larrave, U.S., 2014). A wonderfully dark and demented piece of silliness that nails the often hilarious, surreal and hyper-violent world of children’s drawings/creations.

12. The Hat (Michèle Cournoyer, Canada, 2001). An exotic dancer remembers a childhood of sexual abuse. One of the most important and uncompromising films to emerge from the National Film Board of Canada.

13. Teat Beat of Sex (Signe Baumane, U.S., 2008). A very intimate, raunchy, hilarious and personal depiction of various aspects of sex from a female perspective.

14. Koko (George Griffin, U.S., 1988). Using a 1945 Charlie Parker song, Griffin greets us with a dizzying dance of torn Pop Art images. Shreds of consumer culture flash before us, swayed and absorbed by the tempo and power of Parker’s horn.

Bimbo’s Initiation (Dave Fleischer, U.S., 1931). In a godless world, you make up the meaning. You get to decide who you are and what you want.

15. Revolver (FilmTecknarna Studio, Sweden, 1993). Composed of a series of disparate, repeated images that flow to the rhythm of a nightmare. It can be read in a variety of ways or merely savored for its formal, aural and graphic beauty.

7.

Git Gob (Philip Eddolls, Canada, 2009).

All you need to know about life, and about the (ur) stuff of the universe, is right here.

16. Son of Satan (J.J. Villard, U.S., 2003). A raw, urgent and ugly howl against the pain of abuse, bullying and the cyclical nature of violence.

8.

Mouseholes (Helen Hill, Canada, 1999).

The late Helen Hill’s raw, real and moving tribute to her grandfather. One of the most unpretentious and humane animated films.

17. Girls Night Out (Joanna Quinn, U.K., 1989). Quinn’s rough, almost punkish drawings aptly capture this unharnessed celebration of female desire.

6.

9.

We Lived in Grass (Andreas Hykade, Germany, 1995). A harrowing, mature coming-of-age tale about masculinity in crisis.

18. Marcel, King of Tervuren (Tom Schroeder, U.S./Belgium, 2013). Based on a true story about a neighborhood rooster, Marcel is an existential tale of survival, perseverance, betrayal and mortality.

Using a beautiful, energetic and free-

wheeling abstract painting style along with rotoscoped sequences — Schroeder precisely captures the chaos, uncertainty and violence of Marcel’s daily existence.

19. Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness (Phil Mulloy, U.K., 1995). Part of a series (The Ten Commandments) of blistering satirical attacks on socio-cultural and religious absurdities and hypocrisies.

Some of you will be offended, but that’s okay. The world needs more Mulloy.

20. Please Say Something (David OReilly, U.K., 2009). Takes a video game aesthetic and a cat-and-mouse story and squeezes them into a fresh and thought-juicing narrative anti-narrative (or is that an anti-narrative narrative?).

21. The Little Cow (Igor Lazin, Hungary, 2001). A cow sits in a tree singing about being a cow sitting in a tree. A wonderfully simple and silly ode to life and embracing the moment.

22. Solar Walk (Réka Bucsi, Hungary, 2018).

A mystical, languid and visually scrumptious journey through the solar system that touches upon the notion of embracing the inherent beauty of chaos.

23. The Red Book (Janie Geiser, U.S., 1994).

A dreamy cut-out film noir that explores memory and language from the perspective of a woman with amnesia.

24. Feeling My Way (Jonathan Hodgson, U.K., 1997). On the surface, it’s just about a guy walking to a friend’s house, but in Hodgson’s deft mind, it becomes a portrait of our congested conscious and unconscious mind as a jam of thoughts, feelings, observations, distractions, judgment and worries, all dance together for a split second of acknowledgement.

25. The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park, U.K., 1993). Classic comedy characters, inventive scenarios and impeccable timing.

Has there been a better villain than Feathers McGraw in cinema history?

26. Crossroads (Raimund Krumme, Germany, 1991). Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton all rolled into seven minutes of playful, minimalist goodness.

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We Can’t Live Without Cosmos

Teat Beat of Sex

Son of Satan

The Wrong Trousers

27. Nighthawk (Špela Čadež, Slovenia, 2016). A blunt, tragic-comic depiction of a boozy badger on a blurry drive through darkened streets.

28. Franz Kafka’s “A Country Doctor” (Koji Yamamura, Japan, 2007). A burned-out and cynical doctor has lost faith in the world and in himself. Existence has overwhelmed him. No longer busy being born, the old doctor is too busy dying.

Breathtaking visuals and animation.

29. Carnival of Animals (Michaela Pavlátová, Czech Republic, 2006). One of Pavlátová’s most accomplished and joyous films. An all-out celebration of sex and desire in all its bizarre, ugly, awkward, frivolous and violent forms.

Pavlátová transports us to places real, imagined and dreamed of; a world that could only be revealed through animation.

30. Andrei Svislotsky (Igor Kovalyov, Russia, 1991). Set in Kovalyov’s childhood summer home of Bucha, the film is an ode to the sights and sounds of childhood and a mysterious adult world. Kovalyov presents the story through a series of fragmented and faded polaroids of human activity.

31. (Tie) We Can’t Live without Cosmos (2014) and At the Ends of the Earth (1999) (Konstantin Bronzit, Russia). I just can’t decide between these two Bronzit pieces. At the Ends of the Earth is an impeccably timed comedy about

an old Russian couple living with their cat, dog and cow in a small house that just happens to be located on the tip of a big mountain. Meanwhile, Cosmos is a simple, understated and finely-tuned work of beauty that seamlessly blends comedy and tragedy.

32. Unity (Tobias Stretch, U.S., 2014). After a transient man appears to die outside an abandoned shack on a beautiful fall day, a trio of otherworldly figures appear and initiate a sort of ritualized dance of reclamation and regeneration. An extraordinary piece of magic. A marvel of technique, sound and concept that’s equally mystifying and inspiring.

33. Impossible Figures and Other Stories II (Marta Pajek, Poland, 2015). A mesmerizing work about a woman who has been sleepwalking through existence. This is a painful, awkward, but ultimately hopeful work about self-awareness and self-control. Pajek’s economic, often bleachedlike drawings (not to forget the deliciously haunting Michelle Gurevich song, “I’ll Be Your Woman”) capture this fragile battle between consciousness and obliviousness.

34. The Datum Point (Ryo Orikasa, Japan, 2015). This calm, Zen-inspired clay animation beauty captures the serenity of the sea, the soothing rush of the waves and the Heraclitian reminder that all is in motion, never the same. This is a work of art that you feel, not analyze.

It’s like having a meditation session in

the cinema.

35. Lipsett Diaries (Theodore Ushev, Canada, 2010). This is a completely unbiased choice. Really. Okay, maybe not. [Editor’s note: Chris wrote this powerful short about the tortured life of a Canadian experimental filmmaker who died of suicide in 1986.]

And come on, this is so unfair ... so here’s a few other films that I love but can’t fit: Broken Down Film (Osamu Tezuka, Japan, 1985) Hilary (Anthony Hodgson, U.K., 1995) The Flying Sailor (Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby, 2022) The Jaywalker (Robert Cannon, U.S., 1956) The Emperor (Lizzy Hobbs, U.K., 2001) *By the time you’ve reached this part, I’ve likely already changed my mind about the choices. To be fair, it’s like trying to pick Canada’s Olympic team for hockey. We have so many great players that they could create three competitive teams.

Chris Robinson is the artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF). Among his many books are Estonian Animation: Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy, Unsung Heroes of Animation, Canadian Animation: Looking for a Place to Happen and MadEyed Misfits: Writing on Indie Animation. Robinson also wrote the award-winning animated short, Lipsett Diaries (2010). He is currently working with German artist Andreas Hykade on My Balls Are Killing Me, a graphic novel about his experience with cancer.

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50 TV Shows That Defined the Toon Landscape (1986-2021) The Simpsons

Title

Creator

The Simpsons

Matt Groening

1989

Rugrats

Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, Paul Germain

1991

The Ren & Stimpy Show

John Kricfalusi

1991

Aeon Flux

Peter Chung

1991

Batman: The Animated Series

Bruce Timm, Eric Radomski

1992

Sailor Moon

Naoko Takeuchi

1992

Beavis and Butt-Head

Mike Judge

1993

Animaniacs

Tom Ruegger

1993

Pokémon

Satoshi Tajiri

1995

Daria

Glenn Eichler, Susie Lewis Lynn

1997

South Park

Matt Stone, Trey Parker

King of the Hill

Mike Judge

1997

Cowboy Bebop

Hajime Yatate

1998

SpongeBob SquarePants

Stephen Hillenberg

1999

Family Guy

Seth MacFarlane

1999

Futurama

Matt Groening, David X. Cohen

1999

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Matt Maiellaro, David Willis

2000

The Proud Family

Bruce W. Smith

2001

Samurai Jack

Genndy Tartakovsky

2001

Kim Possible

Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley

2002

Teen Titans

Sam Register, Glen Murakami

2003

Adventure Time

SpongeBob SquarePants

1997

Arcane

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Title

Creator

Premiere Year

The Venture Bros.

Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Michael DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko

2005

Robot Chicken

Seth Green, Matthew Senreich

2005

The Boondocks

Aaron McGruder

2005

Phineas and Ferb

Dan Povenmire, Jeff “Swampy” Marsh

2007

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

George Lucas, Dave Filoni

2008

Archer

Adam Reed

Adventure Time

Pendleton Ward

2010

Amazing World of Gumball

Ben Bocquelet

2011

Bob’s Burgers

Loren Bouchard

2011

Doc McStuffins

Chris Nee

2012

Gravity Falls

Alex Hirsch

2012

Rick and Morty

Justin Roiland, Dan Harmon

The Boondocks

2004

2009

Bob’s Burgers

2013 Steven Universe

Steven Universe

Rebecca Sugar

BoJack Horseman

Raphael Bob-Waksberg

2014

Over the Garden Wall

Patrick McHale

2014

Trollhunters

Guillermo del Toro

2016

Castlevania

Warren Ellis

2017

Hilda

Luke Pearson

2018

Amphibia

Matt Braly

2019

Harley Quinn

Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, Dean Lorey

2019

Infinity Train

Owen Dennis

2019

Love, Death + Robots

Tim Miller

Primal

Genndy Tarkavoksy

2019

Tuca & Bertie

Lisa Hanawalt

2019

Undone

Kate Purdy, Raphael Bob-Waksberg

2019

The Midnight Gospel

Duncan Trussell, Pendleton Ward

2020

Maya and the Three

Jorge R. Gutierrez

2021

Arcane

Christian Linke, Alex Yee

2021

Robot Chicken

Maya and the Three

2019

Rick and Morty

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Blockbuster Bonanza!

Frozen II

Top 35 Animated Movies of All Time at the Box Office* [Ranked by Worldwide Sales]

Rank

Movie (Release Year)

Distributor

Worldwide B.O.

U.S. B.O.

1

Frozen II (2019)

Disney

$1,450,026,933

$477,373,578

2

Frozen (2013)

Disney

$1,281,508,100

$400,953,009

3

Incredibles 2 (2018)

Disney

$1,243,089,244

$608,581,744

4

Minions (2015)

Universal

$1,159,444,662

$336,045,770

5

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Disney

$1,073,394,593

$434,038,008

6

Toy Story 3 (2010

Disney

$1,066,970,811

$415,004,880

7

The Lion King (1994)

Disney

$1,063,611,805

$422,783,777

8

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

Universal

$1,034,800,131

$264,624,300

9

Finding Dory (2016)

Disney

$1,028,570,942

$486,295,561

10

Zootopia (2016)

Disney

$1,024,121,104

$341,268,248

11

Despicable Me 2 (2013)

Universal

$970,766,005

$368,065,385

12

Finding Nemo (2003)

Disney

$940,352,645

$380,843,261

13

Shrek 2 (2004)

DreamWorks

$928,760,770

$441,226,247

14

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

Fox

$886,686,817

$196,573,705

15

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (2012)

Fox

$877,244,782

$161,321,843

16

The Secret Lives of Pets (2016)

Universal

$875,458,631

$368,384,330

17

Inside Out (2015)

Disney

$858,848,019

$356,921,711

18

Shrek the Third (2007)

Paramount

$813,367,380

$322,719,944

19

Coco (2017)

Disney

$807,817,888

$210,460,015

20

Shrek Forever After (2010)

Paramount

$752,600,867

$238,736,787

21

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (2012)

Paramount

$746,921,274

$216,391,482

22

Monsters University (2013)

Disney

$743,559,645

$268,492,764

23

Up (2009)

Disney

$735,099,102

$293,004,164

24

Ne Zha (2019)

Well Go USA

$726,264,074

$3,695,533

25

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)

Fox

$667,094,506

$195,330,621

26

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Paramount

$665,692,281

$165,249,063

27

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Disney

$657,869,686

$222,527,828

28

Moana (2016)

Disney

$644,136,488

$248,757,044

29

Sing (2016)

Universal

$634,338,384

$270,578,425

30

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Paramount

$632,083,197

$215,771,591

31

The Incredibles (2004)

Disney

$631,607,053

$261,441,092

32

Ratatouille (2007)

Disney

$623,726,085

$206,445,654

33

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

Paramount

$621,537,519

$177,002,924

34

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

Paramount

$603,900,354

$180,010,950

35

Tangled (2010)

Disney

$592,462,816

$200,821,93

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Top 35 VFX-Driven Movies at the Box Office*

Avatar

Rank

Film (Release Year)

Studio

Worldwide Gross

1

Avatar (2009)

Fox

$2,847,379,794

$760,507,625

U.S. Gross

2

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Disney

$2,797,501,328

$858,373,000

3

Titanic (1997)

Paramount

$2,201,647,264

$659,363,944

4

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Disney

$2,069,521,700

$936,662,225

5

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Disney

$2,048,359,754

$678,815,482

6

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Sony

$1,892,667,830

$804,667,830

7

Jurassic World (2015)

Universal

$1,671,537,444

$653,406,625

8

The Lion King (2019)

Disney

$1,662,899,439

$543,638,043

9

The Avengers (2012)

Disney

$1,518,815,515

$623,357,910

10

Furious 7 (2015)

Universal

$1,515,341,399

$353,007,020

11

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Disney

$1,402,809,540

$459,005,868

12

Black Panther (2018)

Disney

$1,347,597,973

$700,426,566

13

Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows 2 (2011)

Warner Bros.

$1,342,359,942

$381,447,587

14

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Disney

$1,332,698,830

$620,181,382

15

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Universal

$1,310,466,296

$417,719,760

16

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Disney

$1,273,576,220

$504,481,165

17

The Fate of the Furious (2017)

Universal

$1,236,005,118

$226,008,385

18

Iron Man 3 (2013)

Disney

$1,214,811,252

$409,013,994

19

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Disney

$1,153,337,496

$408,084,349

20

Aquaman (2018)

Disney

$1,148,528,393

$335,104,314

21

LOTR: The Return of the King (2003)

New Line

$1,146,436,214

$378,251,207

22

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Sony

$1,131,927,996

$390,532,085

23

Captain Marvel (2019)

Disney

$1,128,462,972

$426,829,839

24

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

DreamWorks

$1,123,794,079

$474,544,677

25

Skyfall (2012)

Sony

$1,108,569,499

$304,360,277

26

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

DreamWorks

$1,104,054,072

$245,439,076

27

Jurassic Park (1993)

Universal

$1,099,428,303

$404,214,720

28

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Warner Bros.

$1,081,153,097

$448,149,584

29

Joker (2019)

Warner Bros.

$1,074,445,730

$335,477,657

30

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Disney

$1,074,149,279

$515,202,542

31

POTC: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)

Disney

$1,066,179,747

$423,315,812

32

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Disney

$1,056,057,720

$532,177,324

33

Aladdin (2019)

Disney

$1,050,693,953

$355,559,216

34

POTC: Stranger Tides (2011)

Disney

$1,045,713,802

$241,071,802

35

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1991)

Fox

$1,027,082,707

$474,544,677

Source: boxofficemojo.com (May 27, 2022)

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Book Excerpts

An Animation Legend Looks Back

By Don Bluth

O

ne of the most-anticipated animation books of the year is Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life, a wonderful new memoir by beloved American director Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Anastasia, among others) In this insightful book, the legendary director writes about the beginnings of his career, his early years at Disney and his inspirations, as well as offering charming anecdotes about the movies he made at his own studio. We are very proud to present two exclusive excerpts from this collection:

Meeting the Dragon With so many of the Nine Old Men — namely Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, Milt Kahl and Marc Davis — heavily involved in the upcoming feature The Fox and the Hound, I was surprised Woolie [Wolfgang Reitherman] plucked me out of the animators’ ranks to direct again.

He sent me to the back lot to direct some live-action study for the Widow Tweed, the lonely old woman in the story who cared for

the fox. I was even more surprised to almost get a nod of approval when the film came back from the lab.

“The footage is great,” said Woolie.

“There’s just one thing. You shot a couple of scenes of the actor in profile. You should have done a three-quarter front. That would have been stronger. You’ll get the hang of it.”

I thanked him for the advice and headed for the door. He called me back. I resigned myself to more criticism, but Woolie surprised me yet again.

“There’s a combination live-and-animation picture coming up — Pete’s Dragon.

Don Chaffey will be directing it. Ken Anderson has designed a fabulous fat reptile with a pink wig. Ken feels you’d be perfect to direct the animation on Elliott.”

“Who’s Elliott?”

“The dragon!” he said impatiently. “Go talk to Ken. This will give you the experience you need behind live-action cameras.

You’ll need to be on set because Elliott’s a big dragon. We’ll need a wide shot when we draw his entire body. You’ll need to look through the viewfinder of the camera to be sure Don Chaffey is leaving enough room in the frame for you and your team to draw Elcontinued on page 94

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Book Excerpts

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Book Excerpts Star of the ’80s: After leaving Disney to found his own studio, Don Bluth directed his first movie in 1982, The Secret of NIMH.

liott.”

Again I saluted Woolie and headed for the door, and again he called me back.

“Hit this out of the ballpark.”

I stuffed my feelings of dread deep inside.

“I won’t let you down, sir. I promise.”

As instructed, I knocked on Ken Anderson’s door to get briefed on the dragon called Elliott.

Ken had been a pillar of the Disney Studio for decades. “I’ll be on the soundstage with you,” he said, “but I would like you to take the lead with the live-action director, Don Chaffey.”

The sketches on Ken’s wall were enchanting, and so was Ken’s description of Elliott’s personality. He was as enthusiastic about his dragon as a little boy, and when I left Ken’s room, I don’t think my feet were touching the floor. The magic of animation was sparkling still. It just needed a little tender guidance. If that meant I had to be a director, well, so be it.

Pete’s Dragon was to star Helen Reddy and the legendary stars Mickey Rooney and Shelley Winters acting against the boy Pete, played

by Sean Marshall, and Elliott, the animated

dragon. The dragon designer, Ken Anderson, never stopped creating; he was either talking about a new idea or sketching one. For the longest time, there was a search for Elliott’s voice. “The enchanted dragon must not speak,” proclaimed Ken. “That would kill the magic.

He just makes sounds, and the only one who can understand his language will be the boy, Pete.”

Charlie Callas, a former drummer for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and other big bands, moved into the comedy world in the 1960s and became known as the comedian who pulled funny faces and made looney sounds.

Ken loved the weird noises that came from Charlie’s lips.

On the pages of the script, Elliott’s lines were written in English — but what Charlie did with it certainly wasn’t English.

The town of Passamaquoddy was a set built on the Disney backlot. Most of the film was shot there, or on Soundstage #2. Being surrounded by the famous movie stars cast in Pete’s Dragon took some getting used to. There were stars in my eyes, and the real ones were standing less than 10 feet away. Helen Reddy, shy and soft-spoken, despite her well-known song “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar.” The grand monarch, Mickey Rooney, full of suggestions for the director.

The big musical number was “There’s Room for Everyone in This World,” set on the streets of Passamaquoddy. The film’s choreographer was Onna White, lauded as one of the choreographic geniuses of her generation, with such stage credits to her name as Irma La Douce,

Mame and Gigi, and film accolades that included The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie and Oliver.

Employing two young dancers to teach the chorus the moves, she spent most of her time on the set sitting in a chair, knitting. Onna’s signature step was the bell kick, a youthful leap into the air while clicking your heels together to one side — and landing on your feet without breaking your neck. The crew went for it in a big way. Everyone tried doing it, me included, but none of us remotely resembled the grace of the dancers. Onna watched patiently and chuckled politely to herself and continued to knit. A lesson, perhaps, in letting kids be kids.

One morning, as we waited for the fog to clear around an on-location lighthouse shot, I caught Mickey Rooney staring at me. Thinking that he was waiting for me to acknowledge him, I shyly ventured, “I hope this turns out to be a great movie.”

“Of course it will,” he snorted. “What a silly thing to say. Who are you?”

“I’m the animator of the dragon,” I replied.

“Well, I’m glad to meet you. I’ll do my best.

You do the same.” And he walked away.

I vowed to choose my words more carefully around him.

Case in point: Later that day, a journalist from a local newspaper was scheduled to interview Mr. Rooney. The publicist introduced her to the star, they both sat down to begin the interview, and her opening question to Mr. Rooney was, “What year were you born?”

Mr. Rooney stood up and walked away. The interview was over. His birth date was available in the press kit. She should have known better. She should have come up with a more serious question, one worthy of such a star.

Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life is published by Smart Pop ($21.95) and will be available on July 19.

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Book Excerpts

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Book Excerpts

The Strike That Shifted the Landscape T he new book The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation’s Golden Age by animation historian Jake S. Friedman, chronicles the union war fought by animator Art Babbitt and the animators’ strike of 1941.

Walt Disney responded to the five-week strike by firing many of his animators, but he was eventually pressured into recognizing the Screen Cartoonist’s Guild. In this excerpt, Friedman describes the first morning of the strike, following Babbitt, labor leader Herb Sorrell and head of the independent union Bill Littlejohn. [From Chapter 25]

The press called them “loyalists.” But there were many reasons why hundreds of non-striking Disney artists drove to work the morning of May 28, 1941. Dumbo and Bambi would not be completed without them. They also shared a gratitude toward Walt, who not only had hired them during the Depression but also had provided them with an opulent new studio. Besides, what kind of tyrant insisted on being addressed by his first name?

The first thing they noticed as they approached the studio was a seemingly endless line of cars parked by the curb leading to the front gate. What they saw at the Disney entrance was a spectacle they had not anticipated.

About 500 men and women were on their feet, walking in a large circle in front of the entrance.

Nearly one in 10 carried wooden picket signs, many painted with cartoon characters.

It’s Not Cricket to Pass a Picket, warned Jiminy Cricket.

I’d Rather Be a Dog Than a Scab, chided Pluto.

I Sign Your Drawings / You Sign Your Lives, taunted a caricature of Walt.

Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Rembrandt All Belonged to Guilds.

The number 600 showed up a few times, too, referring to the total number of Disney artists.

A strike handout reported that one sign read, One Genius Against 600 Guinea Pigs. Another had, Snow White and the 600 Dwarfs.

Traffic entering the studio slowed to a crawl.

As each car inched through, the strikers hooted and hollered, calling each strikebreaker a “scab” and a “fink.” A sound truck was parked nearby, providing a portable PA system to the person at the microphone. Bystanders and non-strikers were

handed flyers titled An Appeal to Reason — its title borrowed from the Socialist periodical that Walt’s father used to read.

“The salaries of the Disney artists average less than those of house painters,” read a press bulletin. “The Disney girl inkers and painters receive between $16 and $20 a week. On Snow White, the much-publicized bonuses did not even compensate the artists for the two years of overtime they worked. Snow White made the highest box office gross in history — over $10,000,000.00. All the other major cartoon studios in Hollywood have Screen Cartoon Guild contracts. The Disney Studio is the only nonunion studio in Hollywood.” The strikers were demanding a 10 percent wage increase across the board, a 25 percent wage increase for the lower bracketed artists and the reinstatement of the 19 animators — including Babbitt — who they argued were fired for union activity.

The Disney carpenters, machinists, teamsters and culinary workers refused to cross the picket line. Electricians, cameramen, sound men and film editors also refused. One striker photographed each “scab” who drove through. Atop a hill in the eucalyptus knoll across the street, a striker in a beret and smock stood at an easel painting a landscape of the ordeal. On the ground, there were “guys pouring their individual speeches

into the ears of those on the fence,” wrote one non-striker that day. “I was struck with the magnitude of it all.”

“The average age was less than 25,” said Herb Sorrell in 1948. “They became the most enthusiastic strikers I have ever seen in my life.”

Some strikers leaped onto car bumpers; others rocked cars side to side. Once embattled drivers were through the gates, they were greeted with cheers and claps from a welcoming committee of non-striking inkers and painters.

The strikers had each been given two- or three-hour shifts, ensuring a 24-hour picket line.

They were mostly in-betweeners, animation assistants, inkers and painters, but among them were also story artists, effects artists, background painters and animators. Bill Tytla and Art Babbitt stood out as the highest paid on strike.

The previous night, the Guild had voted to include supervising animators among its membership. This made not only Babbitt and Tytla eligible to strike, but also all other top animators.

Babbitt was on his feet rallying alongside the other strikers, shouting to non-strikers by name, including Ward Kimball. “I felt terrible,” Kimball journaled that day. “Friends on the inside waving to me to come in. Friends on the outside pleading with me to stay out; Jeezus. I was on the spot!”

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Book Excerpts

Workers vs. the Mouse: The box-office failures of Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940 forced layoffs at Disney, which were followed by the animators’ strike over inequities of pay and privileges at the non-unionized studio.

Inside the studio, loyalists were worried. “How the hell can Walt run a studio without us?” asked Norm Ferguson. As non-strikers passed the gauntlet of pickets, strikers warned them that once the union won, it would fine them an amount equal to their salary plus $5 per day, plus a $100 penalty. Ferguson told his fellow non-strikers, “Any agreement made will have to involve protection for you guys or Walt wouldn’t sign, so stay on and receive your salary!” With nearly all the assistants and in-betweeners outside, the anima-

tors pitched in to do those jobs for each other. If the films weren’t completed, the Bank of America might foreclose. Right now, everything was riding on Dumbo, the studio’s “B” picture.

Relationships were severed. It was the end of Babbitt’s friendships with non-striking animators Les Clark and Fred Moore. Babbitt was also dating a blonde secretary named Nora Cochran before the strike; she was unsympathetic.

The strike took its toll on those who couldn’t choose a side. Novice animator Walt Kelly (future creator of the comic strip Pogo) had friends on both sides, and he packed up and left altogether.

He claimed it was to care for his ill sister, but privately he left his friends this note: For years I have reached for the moon But the business now is in roon So I don’t hesitate To state that my fate Is to take a fug of a scroon!

After 10 a.m., the strikers dispersed to the adjacent eucalyptus knoll. Sorrell recalled that “from 10 to 11 or 11:30, we would talk to them on a loudspeaker system, and of course they

could hear in Disney’s what we were saying across the street.”

Every emphatic slur and enthusiastic cheer that erupted from the PA system echoed in the Burbank studio. Walt was still seen smiling at lunchtime. “I’m going to see this to the end,” he said. “I told ’em I’m willing to hold an election, but they refuse, it’s their funeral!”

Walt was fixated on having a secret-ballot vote to determine the majority, but there was good reason for the Guild to deny an election.

The Disney company, it was rumored, was fudging the numbers, counting its non-artist employees as artists. The studio released a statement that there were only 309 absences out of 1,214 total employees that day, and that there would have been fewer if not for the threat of union goons. The strikers knew that of those 1,214, there were hundreds of employees — from accounting to security — who were ineligible for an animators’ union.

In truth, no one seemed to agree on how many artists were on strike and how many were not. Bill Littlejohn figured 450 strikers out of 580 artists, while Babbitt counted 375 strikers out of 550 artists. The Disney strikers also reinforced their numbers with spouses and friends on the picket line. In actuality, it was an extremely balanced divide, with roughly 330 strikers out of roughly 602 artists. (The evenness of the split was confirmed later by the Guild’s business agent.) It was what made the strike so adversarial. If just 20 strikers changed their vote in the heat of a company-led election, the union would lose.

Jake S. Friedman is an animation historian, author, artist and animator. He is the author of The Art of Blue Sky Studios and the upcoming The Disney Afternoon: The Making of a Television Renaissance (Disney Editions).

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A Few Words from Monsieur le Délégué Artistique

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t’s always a pleasure to catch up with Marcel Jean, the well-respected artistic director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The Canadian producer, director and author, who has been leading the festival since 2013, gave us the scoop on this year’s highly anticipated event in a recent email interview:

So, how does it feel to be launching the 2022 edition of Annecy?

After an online edition in 2020 and a hybrid one in 2021, it feels great to be back for a real on-site edition of the festival. 2019 was an incredible year for Annecy, with a record of attendance and an historic selection, so we see 2022 as the continuity of 2019, after the pandemic parenthesis. We can already notice how the filmmakers, producers and studios are eager to be all together again.

What are some of your personal can’t-miss highlights this year?

It is always the toughest question to answer, because we believe so strongly in all the presentations, in all the films we select … Let’s say we are very excited to welcome Joe Dante in Annecy to talk about the new animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. And the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse presentation will certainly be a do-not-miss. On a very personal basis, I am a huge fan of Robert Valley’s and Masaaki Yuasa’s work, so I am very excited by their presence in Annecy this year. We are very proud to present, as a European premiere, the director’s cut of Yonfan’s No. 7 Cherry Lane.

The original version of the film was awarded in Venice in 2019 and we were supposed to screen the director’s cut in Annecy 2020. The screening was delayed, and Yonfan — who is a great artist with an incredibly sophisticated mind —will be a jury member in 2022.

Sorry, but we have to ask you this question every year! What is your take on the animated shorts selection in 2022?

They are longer than ever … No joke! It is becoming an issue because we’ve selected fewer short films than ever this year. If this trend continues in the future, it will change the way we build a short films competition. Apart from that, the questions of equity and diversity are part of the agenda. We were very happy to

Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics

No. 7 Cherry Lane

realize the proportion of short professional films directed or co-directed by women. It is basically 50%. In fact, we are already reaching the next step: More and more filmmakers (especially in the student films competition) are questioning the binary classification of the directors. We have to rethink the way we are dealing with those statistics. The film Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics, by Canadian

Indigenous filmmaker Terril Calder, represents a crucial trend which consists of the reappropriation of their cultural elements by the First Nations. It is great to realize that these questions are emerging from different parts of the world, from people who were confronted by different types of oppression and colonization.

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Your favorite part of the job?

The selection. The selection of films, for sure, and the selection of projects that are in production. It is always exciting to visit the studios and have a look at the first shots, always a privilege to see the sets of stop-motion films. I still remember my first visit to Starburns Industries, on the set of Anomalisa; it was a magical tour! I also remember a visit to Disney Animation Studios in January 2013, in Eric Goldberg’s office, when he showed me some shots of Get A Horse!, the new Mickey Mouse short. The project was still confidential at the time. Again, it was incredible. This year, our visit to Miyu’s office in Paris to meet Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta, who were working on Chicken for Linda!, was an unforgettable moment.

The most stressful and challenging aspect?

Filling the slots in the schedule … This is certainly the hardest task. Because you have to reach a kind of balance. You have to find the better place, the better venue for every preSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

My Father’s Dragon

sentation. And sometimes the artists or the studios are not completely realistic in the way they see their presentation or their film.

As an example, if your film is mainly targeting kids, it’s not the best choice to program it at 8:30 p.m., even if in theory it is the most prestigious slot. Some films are more delicate and will benefit from a screening in a smaller theater, in a most intimate venue … Every year, it takes hours of discussion to convince the rights holders that we know what we are doing and that we are working in their own interest.

Top tips for first-time visitors to Annecy?

The priority is catching some of the short film competition programs. It is the royalty of animation. Otherwise, give priority to films that will not have an immediate distribution after the festival … Some films will never reach the regular distribution circuit, some others will but it will take years, so give them priority.

And try to catch at least one exclusive presentation a day: a work in progress session, a

Marcel Jean

masterclass, a making of … Don’t forget you will have other opportunities to watch a specific film, but you may never be able to ‘catch up’ on an encounter with an artist.

What’s your overall take on the state of animation worldwide?

I’m optimistic. The development of animation in emerging countries is very exciting.

There is an Algerian feature film in selection this year; it would have been impossible 10 years ago. And at this moment we are forced to admit the very positive impact of streaming platforms on the general level of production. Their contribution has boosted the quality and the variety of series, to give a single example. Technological developments are giving more freedom and more means to real independents. The spectacular reception of Flee, which received three Academy Awards nominations, is another very positive sign: People are slowly realizing the full scope of adult animation.

Finally, what are your post-festival plans to relax and unwind?

I’m trying something new this year: I will be on vacation for three weeks immediately after the festival. I am doing that for the first time. Usually, I return to work at the Cinémathèque in Montreal, in Canada (where I am the executive director) for a few weeks before going on vacation.

The festival is such an intense moment for me that it is almost unreal. At the end, I’m so exhausted that I am kind of numb. To continue to work in a normal rhythm just after it gives me the feeling of doing things in slow motion. So, this year I will try to see what it is like to be on vacation in slow motion!

For more info about the Annecy Festival (June 13-18) and MIFA market (June 14-17), visit annecy.org.

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20 Movies to Catch at Annecy A

ah, lucky are the animated movie lovers who get to travel to Annecy this month!

Festival organizers are screening 20 amazing new animated movies (10 in the official competition and another 10 in the Contrechamps “reverse shot” sidebar) from talented artists from around the world. Here is a quick rundown of these hot new titles, accompanied by comments from festival’s artistic director Marcel Jean. (We promise: If we haven’t covered them in the magazine yet, you’ll be reading more about them in the months ahead!)

Official Competition Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Dir. Pierre Foldes (Canada, France, Luxembourg). “This may very well be the most eagerly-awaited animation feature of the year! Adapted freely from several of Haruki Murakami’s short stories, the film is highly unique, its structure honoring the traits of the novellas which inspired the filmmaker.”

Charlotte. Dir. Eric Warin & Tahir Rana (Belgium, Canada, France). “The all-too short life of the German-Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon, who died at 26 in Auschwitz, is portrayed in this gripping movie which explores an outstanding artistic temperament swept up in the whirlwinds of history.”

Goodbye, DonGlees! Dir. Atsuko Ishizuka (Japan). “Released in Japan in February, this is both a story of friendship and of rite of passage. Funny, moving, close to nature; a film which will delight anime fans.”

The House of the Lost on the Cape. Dir. Shinya Kawatsura (Japan). “A meticulous adaptation of Kashiwaba’s novel, this feature film rekindles memories of the tragic 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Although the make-up of this film’s first few minutes may appear relatively conventional, the rest is definitely full

of surprises, with segments of it on the cusp of experimental.”

to renew its acquaintance with this too-rare auteur.”

The Island. Dir. Anca Damian (Romania, France, Belgium). “Using her unique and always surprising style, Anca Damian, winner of the 2012 Feature Film Cristal, freely revisits the myth of Robinson Crusoe, treating viewers with a dive into her baroque realm.”

My Love Affair with Marriage. Dir. Signe Baumane (U.S., Latvia, Luxembourg). “One of the great forces of contemporary feminist animation, here Signe Baumane offers us a second feature film pursuing an approach that’s both unique and consistent. It is equally intimate and drole, without forgetting the joy brought us by the songs interspersed throughout the story.”

Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be. Dir. Amandine Fredon & Benjamin Massoubre (France, Luxembourg). “Using animation to redraw Sempé’s strokes and add color to the artist’s drawings was certainly a great challenge. A challenge taken up by a talented team that never took the easy way out and that ensures we feel right at home with Goscinny’s verve and Sempé’s agility. A major popular movie which — we do trust — will easily bridge the generation gap!”

No Dogs or Italians Allowed. Dir. Alain Ughetto (France, Italy).“Jasmine was the revelation of the 2013 Annecy Festival. Now, nearly 10 years later, Alain Ughetto is back with a film that again draws deeply from autobiography, a film in which the narrative device is once again built on representation of the film’s production resources. Annecy Festival is thrilled

Nayola. Dir. José Miguel Ribeiro (Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, France). “Political and social, José Miguel Ribeiro delves into Angolan history to relate the fate of three women from the same family, a tribute to the struggle of brave Angolan women whose lives are imprinted with the violence of history. This is a highly successful passage from short formats to feature film by a reputed short filmmaker.”

Unicorn Wars. Dir. Alberto Vazquez (Spain, France). “Prolific and gifted, the Spaniard Alberto Vazquez favors us with his second feature film, so striking with its visual opulence, its generous staging and its originality. A pleasure not only for the eyes but for the spirit as well!”

Goodbye, Don Glees!

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Contrechamp Sidebar Aurora’s Sunrise. Dir. Inna Sahakyan (Germany, Armenia, Lithuania). “In this animated documentary so impeccably directed by Inna Sahakyan, Aurora Mardiganian, star of silent movies, comes back to life to tell the story of the genocide she survived. This is a work which draws its breath from the winds of history.”

Chun Tae-il: A Flame That Lives On. Dir. Junpyo Hong (South Korea). “This is a film that sweeps us into the heart of the Seoul tailors’ labor struggles. Of classic composition, this moving social drama is sourced in the true story of one of the labor movement’s most emblematic figures.”

Dozens of Norths. Dir. Koji Yamamura (France, Japan). “A regular of the Festival, Koji Yamamura brings us a contemplative and enigmatic first feature which builds languid fascination while his neat graphics unfold subtly. Definitely a film to discover.”

Home Is Somewhere Else. Dir. Carlos Hagerman & Jorge Villalobos (U.S., Mexico). “Another animated documentary here focused on The Island

the fates and dreams of young Mexicans migrating to the U.S. Three stories with as many graphic and technical styles, a film of burning topicality.”

Khamsa – The Well of Oblivion. Dir. Khaled Chiheb (Algeria). “What bliss to welcome an Algerian feature film to this competition for the very first time! Leisurely, contemplative and almost esoteric, Khamsa reminds us of Laloux at times and of Laguionie’s Gwen and others… In the end, the result is eminently personal and promises beautiful tomorrows for North African animation.”

My Grandfather’s Demons. Dir. Nuno Beato (Spain, France, Portugal). “A real swoop down into the family novel, My Grandfather’s Demons surprises by its transition from one technique to the next, as well as by the density of its discourse on roots and the impact of the latter on our social relationships.”

The Other Shape. Dir. Diego Guzman (Colombia). “This year, the honor of representing South America in the Contrechamp category goes to Colombian Diego Guzman. He offers

us a dialogue-free futuristic film, an intriguing trip through a hallucinatory world.”

Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish. Dir. by Lei Lei (U.S., Netherlands). “The Chinese artist Lei Lei is back, with this teeming feature where he explores his family past, creating a kind of huge surrealistic collage dotted with pop art references. First shown in Rotterdam, Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish is one of the most singular objects of the 2022 Annecy selection.”

Quantum Cowboys. Dir. Geoff Marslett (U.S.).“Now, here is a very strange Western in which the director uses rotoscoping and adds elements of time travel. An eye-opener for the selection committee and a film we want to share today with festival-goers.”

Yaya and Lennie: The Walking Liberty.

Dir. Alessandro Rak (Italy). “For his third representation in the Annecy competition, Italian director Alessandro Rak is back with a lighthearted film, an ecological sci-fi fable. At times Yaya and Lennie seems as if it is transposing Of Mice and Men into a post-apocalyptic scene.” √

My Love Affair with Marriage

Nayola

Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be

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Flight of Fancy Acclaimed Canadian directors Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby discuss their stunning new short The Flying Sailor.

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nimation lovers around the world do a little happy dance whenever Canada’s acclaimed directors Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby have a new project screening at festivals around the world.

The talented artists, who are best known for their Oscar-nominated shorts When the Day Breaks (1999) and Wild Life (2011) and their award-winning United Airlines ad The Meeting (2006), are back on the scene again with a new short titled The Flying Sailor, produced

by David Christensen and the National Film Board of Canada. Forbis and Tilby, who met in the 1980s when they were both students at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in

Vancouver, were kind enough to answer a few of our questions: Can you tell us how you came across the story that inspired The Flying Sailor, which is premiering at Annecy in June?

A number of years ago, we visited the Maritime Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There was a section dedicated to the devastating Halifax Explosion of 1917 (which, by the way, was the largest man-made blast to occur prior to the atomic bomb). Among the displays was a short blurb about a British sailor who was blown skyward from the pier and flew a mile before landing uphill, naked and unharmed.

We were intrigued. What did he see? What did he hear? What was he thinking? It’s a story that brims with animation potential. Riffing on accounts of near-death experience, our concept was to expand those few catastrophic seconds of life into as many minutes, and imagine the story of the sailor’s flight.

When did you start working on it, and how long did it take to make?

Though the idea had been simmering on the back burner for many years, the film officially went into development in 2018 and took about three and a half years to make.

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It was clear from the outset that if we wanted to capture the exploding city from the sailor’s point of view, 3D would be the way to go. We briefly considered the fun we could Animating the Past: The new NFB short The Flying Sailor is based on a have creating a “model train strange real-life event that took place in Halifax in 1917. set” city on our dining room table, but quickly abandoned the idea — mostly because it was ridiculous (we need that table … and we’re generally against using explosives in the house), but also because we thought it high time we explored the potential of 3D CG. Using Maya, Billy sculpted a virtual topography reminiscent of 1917 Halifax, and we created the painted skins that covered everything.

Aesthetically, we were aiming for that rinky-dink model train set quality with a vintage, hand-tinted postcard look.

We wanted the sailor to be distinct from his surroundings, which is why we Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby rendered him in a 2D paintHow many people worked on it, and what was erly style (and made him very pink). As much of his movement is complex and in slow motion, your budget?

Our 3D guy, Billy Dyer, was with us through we did preliminary 3D animation in Blender much of production. We also had two oth- for reference, then painted in Photoshop. We ers help out with additional CG elements also needed sea, sky and ships, plus smoke for much shorter periods. Anna Bron con- and debris — not to mention an explosion, a tributed some amazing animation and galaxy, a fish and abstract digressions. Using rendering. On weekends, Nicolas Mermet combinations of CG animation, stock footadded special sauce to a number of scenes age and hand-painted elements, everything in After Effects. Luigi Allemano composed was knitted together in After Effects. The promusic and sound design. Our producer, Da- cess was highly experimental and infinitely vid Christensen, was a critical collaborator, more complicated than we had first imagined! and there were important creative contributions in post-production at NFB head- How do you divide the work on your projects quarters: Serge Verreault (online editing), between the two of you?

Geoffrey Mitchell (music recording and Though we’re both involved in every aspect mix) and Jean Paul Vialard (final mix). As of production, we each gravitate toward our always, the production was quietly nudged strengths. For example, Wendy does much of along by support staff at the NFB and is the editing work, while Amanda takes on a now in the hands of the distribution and larger part of the character animation. marketing teams. All told, over 35 people have worked on the film in various capac- Why did you decide to make this short diaities. Our ballpark budget was $800,000 log-free?

Words seemed to have no place in this film. In (Canadian Dollars). fact, it never occurred to us! Our preoccupa-

tion was with music and sound, which both play a vital role. We wanted the film to be experiential and for the audience to connect in a visceral way. Also, without language the film will have the opportunity to reach international audiences much more easily.

I can’t believe it’s been over 20 years since you were first recognized by the Oscars. Did it have an impact on your career?

Although When the Day Breaks was nominated for the 1999 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, it was Petrov’s The Old Man and the Sea that won the award. In all seriousness though, Oscar nominations have yielded some nice commercial work. They’ve also bought us a little social capital in that the general public does take notice. We accept this as a good thing, because short animation is often not taken seriously or is seen as a very improbable and esoteric career choice.

What is your take on the state of independent animation these days?

Though the digital revolution has made the medium more accessible (and technically dazzling), animated films are still costly and an astonishing amount of work. We find it heartening that people keep making them, often on a shoestring. That said, we’re likely not alone in feeling that we have some catching up to do after being cloistered these past few years.

We’re looking forward to attending a few festivals this year!

What are some of your favorite animated movies and shorts?

We love short films best. The following is not a comprehensive list, but a smattering of our most beloved: Village of Idiots, Hedgehog in the Fog, Primiti Too Taa, Flying Nansen, My Financial Career, The Great Toy Robbery, La Pista, The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa, Forgetfulness, Oh Willy…, This Magnificent Cake!, Revolver, Hilary, The Big Snit, My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts, Loop Ring Chop Drink, Everything Will Be OK, The Man with the Beautiful Eyes, Tram, Altötting, The Burden, Empty Places.

And the best career advice anyone ever gave you, or you like to give to students?

Make a film! However simple, however small — the important thing is to have an idea, take it through to completion, then send it out into the world and see what happens!

The Flying Sailor is one of 38 titles selected for the official short film competition at Annecy in June. For more info, visit nfb.ca.

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Brief and Beautiful Visions A look at some of the exquisite shorts premiering in competition at Annecy this year.

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ach year, Annecy Festival attendees are treated to a wonderfully curated selection of animated shorts from visionary artists all over the world. Although it is impossible to spotlight all 38 projects screening under the Official Selection banner, here is a sampler for what is in store for the lucky audiences:

The Debutante

Lucky Man

Directed by Elizabeth Hobbs (U.K.) hree years ago, London-based artist Elizabeth Hobbs captured the attention of animation fans with her striking, BAFTA-nominated short I’m OK, and the Annecy-nominated Happiness Machine. Her new short The Debutante, which is based on a wild short story written by artist Leonora Carrington in the late 1930s, is about a young woman who persuades a hyena to replace her at a dinner dance held in her honor!

“What could possibly go wrong?” asks Hobbs. “I first read the story in 2016 and I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. We started production in earnest in 2020! I used hand-painted frames and paper collage captured under a rostrum camera with Dragonframe. We had a very small team. I animated, wrote and directed the film; I worked with producer Abigail Addison, composer Hutch Demouilpied, editor Mark Jenkins, actors Joanna David, Alexa Davies and Naomi Stafford, and Fonic on the sound design and mix.”

Hobbs says she was very pleased to have been trusted with Carrington’s extraordinary short story and to have had the budget to work with a great team. She adds, “I think the film is joyful and dramatic at the same time. The toughest part was finding the funding for the film, but working with Abigail Addison from Animate Projects was a joy, and we were lucky to receive funding support from the BFI through its Short Form Animation Fund, which is made possible thanks to National Lottery funding.”

The director says she has a long list of animated shorts that have impacted her. Among them, she singles out Fuji by Robert Breer, The Street by Caroline Leaf, Alison de Vere’s Two Faces, Tale of Tales by Yuri Norstein, Cannon Fodder by Vera Neubauer, Damon the Mower by George Dunning and Very Nice, Very Nice by Arthur Lipsett.

For now, she hopes audiences will enjoy her clever outing with the hyena.

“I hope they’ll discover Leonora Carrington’s other stories and paintings,” she says. “I also hope that audiences will enjoy this wild story of a young woman’s urgent rebellion!”

Directed by Claude Luyet (Switzerland) wiss director Claude Luyet’s second collaboration with his long-time friend, comic-book artist Thomas Ott, tells the fascinating tale about a man who wins a million-dollar lottery ticket. Luyet, who worked with Ott on the 1994 short Robert Creep: A Dog’s Life, says his goal was to make a dark, ironic and powerful story. “I wanted to depict an unflattering portrait of a man who is rushing to destroy himself. You can call it a kind of elegy to languidness.”

Luyet began work on the project about four years ago.

He notes, “It took us a year and a half to find the financing and two years to produce the short. We drew on paper, and used photo and paper collages, 2D animation, Photoshop and After Effects. Altogether, seven people worked on the short (including myself and Thomas), and our budget was about $170,000 Swiss Francs ($176,600).”

The director, whose other previous animated shorts include Ariadne’s Thread, Patchwork, Animatou and A Question of Optics, says he hopes audiences will get the subtle humor of Lucky Man’s dark vision. When we ask him to give us his favorite animated titles of all time, he responds, “This is the tricky question I dread the most, because there are so many animated shorts that are close to my heart! I am going to choose one to please you, a film made almost entirely by one person — and that’s Rowing Across the Atlantic, which is by Jean-François Laguionie!”

And what pleases him most about his latest short? “To have finished it!” he says. “You never know if you’re going to make it!”

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Bird in the Peninsula

Garrano

Directed by Atsushi Wada (Japan/France) cclaimed Japanese director Atsushi Wada’s new film Bird in the Peninsula follows a group of boys who are taking part in a traditional ceremony of initiation into adulthood — but, when one boy chases after a strange bird, a young girl follows him. The director, whose previous acclaimed shorts include The Mechanism of Spring and The Great Rabbit, says he started thinking about this short about 10 years ago when he watched a documentary on TV. “It showed a scene of a traditional ritual practiced by children in a village in Japan in older times, and I was really impressed by the fact that the children didn’t seem to be enjoying the practice so much, so I started thinking about making a story about the ritual.”

Wada, who used Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro to make his latest short, says two of his favorite scenes feature the main character stroking the feathers on a bird’s neck, and when he peels a tangerine for a dog. “What both of these have in common is that they are movements that I simply wanted to draw, regardless of whether or not they are deeply related to the story,” he admits. “It is important for me to draw the movements that I feel comfortable with before I think about the story. These movements come first, and then I think of a story based on them. It is when I combine such movements to form a narrative that I find the most joy.” He adds, “Once I have an image of the work in my mind, all I have to do is to realize it, which is tough work for most of the process. I could say it’s even painful!”

When asked about his favorite animated shorts of all time, Wada mentions the works of Ukrainian master Igor Kovalyov (Milch, Flying Nansen, Before Love). “His works taught me how to give shape to an idea and the importance of editing,” he points out.

Wada also hopes audiences will surrender to the original charms of his latest short. “I took my time and put a lot of thought into making this film, so I hope you will surrender yourself to it and feel a lot of things from it,” says the 41-year-old artist. We have a feeling that his wish will certainly be fulfilled.

Directed by David Doutel and Vasco Sá (Portugal/Lithuania) he directing duo of David Doutel and Vasco Sá, who dazzled festival-goers with their previous efforts The Shoemaker (2011), Soot (2014) and Augur (2018), return to the animation festival circuit with a new short about Portuguese forest fires.

“Our film stems from the need for addressing and reflecting upon the serious and endemic problem of these forest fires,” Sá tells us. “It intends to instigate a reflection on the relationship between social inequalities, isolation and the subsequent vulnerability that derives from that condition and the phenomenon of the deliberate ignition of forest fires by an arsonist.”

The directors are pleased that the short, which was produced by the team at Porto-based BAP studio and Lithuania’s Art Shot, allowed them to raise awareness of their important subject.

“What pleased us most was the discussions raised around the [idea]. What we achieved here was perhaps bigger than the film itself for us,” they note. “It was also a big pleasure to work with our Portuguese team from BAP, and our Lithuanian team from Art Shot.”

The duo also mentions that they missed a lot of the direct human contact they usually experience in production, because of the pandemic. “Despite the several inherent difficulties of doing a film from a distance, mostly related to the time and communication, we felt that, in a way, we lost a big part of the process and fun of doing a film,” they note. “We love to feel the atmosphere that is created by the team during the filmmaking process. it. It was harder to accomplish, but now that we have seen the results, we are very happy with the effort of everyone involved and with the film itself.”

When asked about the impact of the film on audiences, Sá hopes they’ll enjoy the experience and connect with the theme of the short. “We would like the audience to take something from the film, something that makes them think about it a little later. Even if it’s simply an image!”

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DUBBING

•

SOUND DESIGN

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MIXING

For an appointment at Annecy, text Kip: (1) 917-293-2787

Audioworks NYC, Since 1996. www.Audioworks.tv

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Lakkeh (Stain) Directed by Shiva Sadegh Asadi (Iran) woman finds herself imprisoned by a world of stains and spots in Iranian artist Shiva Sadegh Asadi’s new short, Lakkeh (Stain). “The main source of inspiration for this film was my print-makings and drawings, especially those monoprint pieces that I had created between 2012-2014,” she tells us via email. “This hand-printing technique helped me create a universe of random spots and stains that couldn’t be washed away or erased! So, I used that technique to tell the story of my film.”

Asadi says she had been searching for ways to feature her artwork in an animated project. “I had explored themes such as relationships, abuse, femininity, violence against women and self-sabotage in my paintings and drawings, and I had used techniques such as monoprinting and collage to express my thoughts,” she reflects.

“Those experiences in visual arts helped me come up with the idea of this film, develop the story and choose the techniques.”

The gifted artist began working on Lakkeh in the summer of 2020. “There was neither a script nor a storyboard!” Asadi recalls. “I only had a very general idea for the story, which gradually developed during the production process. I made very simple sketches to decide on the film decoupage and then I made some films to be used as a source for those plans that required realistic movements. The main technique was drawing on paper (using monoprinting) and cut-outs. This was an indie, self-financed film which had a very limited budget — about 120 million Rials [est. $2,885 dollars].”

One of the most challenging aspects of the project for Asadi was its final sequence. “I spent a lot of time drawing the frames on paper while having to destroy each frame by cutting!” she says. “I wasn’t sure what would be the result in the final animation and wondered if I could achieve my intended goals. However, I am pleased that the short film has some of the characteristics of my visual artwork in combination with cinematic expression. In addition, I looked for ways to make the filmmaking process as spontaneous and enjoyable as painting. It doesn’t mean that everything is left to chance, but all the pictorial elements are organized during the execution process!”

The director has been a fan of animation from a young age. “Back in the 1980s, we had a black-and-white TV,” she remembers. “There was a children’s show on TV that screened Japanese anime, some of Disney’s cartoons and also Zagreb school animated series such as Professor Balthazar. They would also showcase some animated shorts from around the world. I like many animated films, especially the short artistic ones that I discovered later, but I can never forget those that impressed me during childhood. Like many other people of my generation, I feel nostalgic for my childhood cartoons and I sometimes return to them!”

Asadi hopes that audiences will make a strong connection with her short as well.

“Lakkeh is open to different interpretations,” she notes. “I hope the audience is able to connect with it emotionally and interpret it in their own way.”

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Drone Directed by Sean Buckelew (U.S.) bizarro op-ed piece in The Guardian about predator drones was the unlikely source of inspiration for Sean Buckelew’s thought-provoking new animated short. “This piece tried to prove the point that predator drones are ‘misunderstood’ and that they’re in desperate need of a rebrand!,” says the filmmaker. “I found this phrasing funny and intriguing. I’ve also always been interested in the pareidolia effect, and specifically how faces can instantly anthropomorphize things, especially in animation.

This led to both the idea of a spray-painted smiley face on the front of a predator drone, and the idea of a drone with machine vision seeing the face of a civilian victim in the rubble of a destroyed building!”

Buckelew, who is also a programmer/curator at the GLAS Animation Festival and directed shorts such as I Am Not a Robot and Another, began work on Drone about four years ago. “I had some starts and stops as I tried to figure out the financing. I used Flash, After Effects and Blender to make the project.

Around 27 people helped me along the way in big and small ways. I’m happy it actually got finished and that I got to work with so many amazing, talented people along the way. The toughest part was finding the money to make it!”

The talented director, who studied experimental animation at CalArts, mentions Consuming Spirits by Chris Sullivan, Please Say Something by David OReilly, Acid Rain by Tomek Popakul and Louise by Constance Bertoux as some of his favorite animated projects of recent years. He also hopes Drone will have an impact on viewers. “I hope everyone thinks about their own moral complicity in the seemingly inevitable adoption of increasingly sinister and convenient technology,” he notes.

“Just kidding,” he adds. “I hope people like it and aren’t bored!”

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Letter to a Pig Directed by Tal Kantor (Israel, France) Holocaust survivor reads a letter he wrote to the pig who saved his life in Tal Kantor’s evocative new short. “The film is based on my personal experience as a young schoolgirl,” says the director, whose previous work includes In Other Words and Under the Small Sun. “It’s based on a memorable encounter I had with a Holocaust survivor many years ago, and an unforgettable dream that followed which revealed deep questions about my identity and about the dark baggage I subconsciously carry.

That dream stayed with me all those years and eventually became an urge to create this film.”

According to Kantor, the filmmaking journey for this short goes back to the Annecy MIFA Pitches about five years ago, when she pitched the concept and received a production grant and residency from Ciclic Animation in France. The project (produced by France’s Miyu and Israel’s The Hive Studio) took about four years to make.

The animation was done using TVPaint, combined with traditional animation on paper. Including the development and pre-production teams, the actors, the animators and the production and post-production teams, over 35 people worked on the short.

“Each one of them gave their heart and talent to make the complex production process,” she notes.

Kantor, who picks titles such as When the Day Breaks, Cat Soup, The Triplets of Belleville, Mind Game, The Boy and the World and Spirited Away as some of her all-time favorites, says she is quite pleased with the amazing team she discovered as she set out to make her short. She adds, “More than the uncompromising result that was finally created, I am pleased with the (complex yet beautiful) process of making the film, which has been one of the most significant journeys of my life so far.”

She also mentions that the most challenging parts of the process were the development and writing phases. “These are the foundations on which the entire film is based, and when dealing with such a big and heavy subject, much precision, sensitivity and research work were required, which took me quite a bit of time and mental resources,” Kantor explains.

The director says Letter to a Pig examines several questions that preoccupy her. such as the role that historical narratives play in shaping the identities of future generations. “How do we perceive the reality around us, and how do these stories influence and build our moral-ethical perspective on the world?” she explains. “I hope the film will lead to inner reflections on behalf of the viewer — each in their own way. Above everything else, I hope they take away with them the message of compassion.”

A Amok Directed by Balázs Turai (Hungary, Romania) ife has been cruel to Clyde, the main character in Balázs Turai’s stand-out 15-minute short Amok, who loses his looks and fiancée in a freak accident. The filmmaker tells us that his short is mainly about Carl Jung’s ideas of the ‘shadow’. “It focuses on the part of us that is perpetually hidden from us, and in certain circumstances, can turn us into monsters,” notes Turai, who mentions Mind Game, Golden Boy and Caterpillarplasty as some of his all-time favorite animated works.

The Budapest-based director, whose previous short The Fall of Rome impressed audiences about four years ago, says he started thinking about Amok in 2018. “The story and animatic took about two years and production a further one and a half,” he says. “We worked in Adobe Animate and After Effects. It was just me, a few animators, a script consultant, sound designer, composer and a post-production guy! We had a budget of about 30,000 euros (about $31,500).”

He says he is quite pleased about the colorful universe he created with Márk Juhász and the original musical narration by Benjamin Efrati.

And the toughest part? “The writing and animatic process took ages until I found the narrative I was happy with,” he says. “I’d really like this film to be ‘anti-boring’ and to communicate something about the Dark Side!”

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First Look: Netflix Animation Spotlights Upcoming Shows at Annecy

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mong the many studios from around the world gathering in France this month, Netflix will be spotlighting many of its upcoming animated shows and movies at Annecy. Here are some first-look images and quotes from the show creators:

Everett Downing, Co-Creator, My Dad the Bounty Hunter “This project is an absolute dream for me. Not only do we get a chance to share an original animated sci-fi adventure with the world, but at the heart of the story is this amazing Black family that really loves each other. The characters are as endearing as they are entertaining, and I can’t wait for everyone to meet them.

This show is going to be one wild ride. Expect wild alien life forms, laser show downs, killer robots, family shenanigans and the best BBQ wings on this side of the galaxy!

Our hope is that the show not only entertains you, but surprises you as well.”

Karissa Valencia, Creator, Spirit Rangers “Our show celebrates Indigenous storytelling with Indigenous talent at the helm. I created this show inspired by my time growing up on the Chumash Reservation in the Santa Ynez Valley of Southern California. I grew up with bedtime stories of our land, animals and plants.

I went to Pow Wows, attended our Bear ceremonies and believed my culture was magic.

However, I never saw that reflected back at me in my favorite TV shows or movies. As a Native kid, that can feel incredibly isolating. I can’t wait for the next generation of Native youth to see themselves on screen and have new Native heroes to look up to.

It’s the show I always wished for as a kid who loved cartoons.

However, you don’t have to be Native to enjoy the show! There will be plenty of action, adventure, magic and lots of love for our Earth. With spunky heroes, goofy sidekicks and catchy songs, every family will have something to look forward to in this show, set in the most beautiful National Park you’ve ever seen.”

Patrick Harpin, Co-Creator, My Dad the Bounty Hunter “To start with, it’s a sci-fi action-comedy about a family of color.

And, it’s not an IP, it’s a completely original story. Beyond that, this series really looks and feels like a feature. It’s serialized, and plays as one giant story. The biggest thing that makes this show stand out is that we truly do not talk down to kids, in our scripts, voice acting or filmmaking. The tone of our show can range from zany comedy and full-blown action set-pieces, to grounded drama. But I believe if you make smart choices that take your world seriously, the audience will take your world seriously. Even when it’s a comedy.”

Dice Tsutsumi, Creator & Showrunner, Oni: Thunder God’s Tale “This is truly the type of a project Tonko House dreamed of making when we started the studio eight years ago. From the story to the art direction, character design to the original soundtrack, we crafted every element with an eye to the personal experience we’d want to be a part of as an audience member. Netflix has been our dream collaborator who believed in our original vision, and trusted a small indie studio like Tonko House to drive this big production. Oni offers a fresh take on the fantastical creatures familiar to Japanese folklore. Set in the backdrop of lush mythical forests, audiences will join our heroine, Onari, and her friends on an unforgettable journey of self-discovery. It is that once-in-a-lifetime project when story, aesthetic and cast converge to create a unique slice of cinema. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it and still get chills after every viewing.”

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MIFA 2022 — Stand C.08 EUROPEAN WOMEN'S ASSOCIATIONS PITCH PROJECTS FROM SPAIN, AFRICA & FRANCE JUNE 15th 13:45 Ravel Room

SPANISH ANIMATION INDUSTRY IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

TALENT, INDUSTRY, SERVICES & RELOCATION JUNE 16th 11:00 Salon Impérial

ANIMATION FROM SPAIN PARTNERS’ PITCHES JUNE 16th 15:30 Ravel Room

DINOGAMES DR. PLATYPUS AND MS. WOMBAT GIRL AND WOLF SYGNATIA I WISH DE MIRANDA LITTLE BIG BOY 4 CATS ME, A MONSTER? MOST WANTED STUDIO MOLES ARMENTEIRA MY BROTHER IS A T_REZ MR. KLAUS STUDIO OLIVIA & THE INVISIBLE EARTHQUAKE TERREMOTO AIE ROCK BOTTOM ALBA SOTORRA SEX SYMBOLS TV ON THE WAWIES IMAGIC TELECOM ZOEY OCEANS STUDIO KIMCHI

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Experiencing the World of Tomorrow, Today

Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Getaway

Eclectic VR projects are ready for in-person experiences at Annecy.

By Ellen Wolff

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he Annecy International Animation Film Festival has long strived to be forward looking — not only by highlighting ‘Works in Progress’ on upcoming feature films, but also by embracing emerging technologies like virtual reality.

This year, commercial VR will get a high-profile boost at Annecy when Aardman Animations’ famed Wallace & Gromit franchise unveils its VR bona fides with The Grand Getaway. Co-produced

by Aardman and the virtual reality pros at Atlas V, the piece was funded by Meta to run on that company’s Quest 2 VR headsets. It may signal what VR productions could become when made with beloved characters… and big budgets.

But, Annecy’s VR selections this year also highlight production approaches that sit squarely in a more experimental realm. They have not been spun off of movies or game franchises, and their creators have both the desire — and often the necessity — to invent new characters designed specifically for presentation in VR.

Glimpse Character animation still lies at the heart of many VR projects — especially those that tell relationship stories like Glimpse. This 23-minute animated experience follows an unusual love affair backwards in time. The anthropoGlimpse

morphized stars are a well-spoken bear and his deer girlfriend, and their conversations are voiced by actors Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and Lucy Boynton (Bohemian Rhapsody).

As VR viewers let their gaze wander around the intricate sets in Glimpse, the narrative unfolds through poignant dialogue. Co-directors Benjamin Cleary (who wrote the Oscar-winning short Stutterer) collaborated with experienced game creator Michael O’Connor to blend traditional story arcs with interactive design. As Glimpse producer Lee Harris observes, “Drawing people from different industries is required when constructing a VR experience. Many had some VR experience under their belts but originally came from more traditional media such as film, animation, games and VFX.” Cleary and O’Connor oversaw Glimpse through their Dublin-based company Mr. Kite, and worked with the BAFTA-winning London studio Blue Zoo on the animation. “Blue Zoo had some experience with the Unreal Engine, which was very advantageous,” notes Harris.

The Glimpse team customized Unreal for this project, creating unique workflows and pipelines as needed. “We also created a multiplayer-style layout tool, which enabled us to design and iterate quickly on virtual environments.”

The 3D character animation in Glimpse was created with Maya, and not motion capture. As Harris explains, “That allowed us to be more flexible in the types of performances we gave to the characters, depending on their scale and position within the 3D world. How things played out was dictated by

the language of VR — the ‘physical’ space, the interactions, pacing, transitions and the environment itself.”

If it sounds like it took a lot of wrangling to align all the elements behind the project, it did.

Harris’ company, Electric Skies, collaborated not only with Mr.Kite, Blue Zoo and Unreal, but also with Viveport, DN Pictures, Albyon and the BFI. Working with Viveport — where the VR experience of Glimpse is initially available — was key to the project. As Harris explains, “Having their support at an early stage helped us to springboard the entire production and allow us to raise financing. We’re also looking to bring it to other audiences on standalone headsets.”

In the end, the production country credits for Glimpse — France, U.K. and Ireland — reflect how indie VR production is often a global ‘pay as you go’ proposition. And festival exposure at Annecy is a vital step towards payback.

Marco & Polo Go Round The creators of Marco & Polo Go Round describe their 12-minute VR experience as a love story with a surreal twist. While the viewers witness a young couple having an argument in their kitchen, things start falling apart around them — literally. Knives and plates and curtains fly around as the couple’s interactions unravel.

As director Benjamin Steiger Levine explains, “I’ve always been drawn to stories that transport audiences to dreamed realities.” Levine, who also co-wrote the script, recalls, “When I first experienced VR, I instantly knew it was the right medium for Marco & Polo Go Round. I wanted the emotional and visceral experience of the story to be lived.”

The actors who play Marco (Emmanuel Schwartz) and Polo (Léane Labrèche-Dor) brought extensive acting experience to performing Levine’s dialogue. Translating their movements into VR was the challenge that faced the motion-capture experts at Studio du Château in Montreal, Canada.

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Annecy Festival Marco & Polo Go Round

For the mo-cap sessions, they used basic suits that had sensors connected to a wi-fi hub, explains Levine. “I found directing motion capture to be an extremely ‘pure’ experience.

There’s nothing to tell you whether a scene is working except the emotional truth the actors bring to the moment. Sometimes I closed my eyes and just listened. Subtle inflections in how they delivered their lines became the best indicators of which takes were working.”

On a technical level, choreographing the entire sequence without any actual swirling objects required extreme planning. The actors were able to handle some objects on a physically built set, and blocking was worked out meticulously. Facial capture was recorded simply with an iPhone. Levine credits Hugues Bruyère of Montreal’s Dpt. for building the innovative structure of Glimpse, as well as overseeing the photogrammetry of the actors and pipeline issues.

The Full Lineup Affiorare by Rossella Schillaci (Italy, Portugal) Déjà-vu by Dennis Stein-Schomburg (Germany) Glimpse by Benjamin Cleary & Michael O’Connor (France, Ireland, U.K.) Goliath: Playing with Reality by Barry Gene Murphy & May Abdalla (U.K., France) Kidnapped in Vostok by Jean Bouthors (France) Marco & Polo Go Round by Benjamin Steiger Levine (Belgium, Canada) On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World) by Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Pierre Zandrowicz & Arnaud Colinart (U.S., France, U.K.) Samsara by Hsin-Chien Huang (Taiwan)

Positioning all this data became trickier when the swirling objects had to be simulated in CG. Dpt.’s Sam Walker managed most of the simulations, overseeing how objects floated around the characters.

The CG animation was created at Belgium’s Zest Studio, which is skilled with Maya, Houdini, Blender and Unreal, and has developed its own VR technology as well.

“All kinds of hacks and cheats were needed to get the sims from Houdini into Blender and then into Unreal,” recalls Levine. Programs that originated for game productions aren’t designed to handle long narrative scenes, so getting hundreds of pieces to sync on one uninterrupted timeline was tricky.

Like most indie VR production today, multiple supporting entities were involved, including Item 7, Belga Productions and Arte. Levine is hopeful that exposure at festivals worldwide will lead eventually to distribution in VR, though he admits it’s still expensive to optimize the experience for platforms like Quest 2.

“As of now, to run Marco & Polo Go Round as a VR experience you need a good gaming computer.”

Kidnapped in Vostok It’s a mark of virtual reality’s evolution that artists increasingly wish to tell unusual stories in this format. Kidnapped in Vostok by French director Jean Bouthors is a case in point. The 15-minute experience immerses viewers in a mysterious kidnapping plot in which they’re held hostage by Russians seeking top secret data.

While this storyline may seem sadly timely today, Kidnapped in Vostok actually is set in 1979.

The Cold War is still hot, and Russian scientists working in Antarctica are using any means possible to achieve their goals. The viewer actually is a central figure in this tale, tied to a sled, at the mercy of these captors. We’re able to move only our head to take in this hostile world.

“Only our head movements allow us to communicate,” explains Bouthors. “We wanted to create a parallel between the situation of the spectator and the character that we play, which is why we decided not to use controllers.”

Bouthors, who cowrote the project

and contributed animation as well, oversaw the creation of the project at the company he co-founded, Les Astronautes, in Bourg-lès-Valence, France. The studio’s work has largely been in film, TV and new media and videogames. “Our team mainly comes from video games and animation,” he explains. “Although this project doesn’t involve gameplay, it seemed essential to have the experience of a game designer to finesse the interactivity.”

The choice was made not to use motion capture, and the characters present a highly graphic, streamlined appearance. “I come from traditional animation,” says Bouthors. “It’s also one of the specialties of the studio. This was a graphic choice, but also an economic one. Interactivity obliges us to plan many variants of the story, which requires additional work vis-àvis a linear film. Real-time animation, where we calculate the images for each eye, is very resource intensive. We looked for a refined graphic design to simplify the animation to meet this constraint. Characters with gloves, glasses and beards avoid lots of problems in the animation.”

Sound cues also were essential to keeping the viewer fully oriented during Kidnapped in Vostok. “The sound on VR projects has a really important role,” asserts Bouthors. “Watching the film with headphones during production allowed us to work in binaural and thus have a very precise spatialization. It’s a great tool to catch the viewer’s attention and we play with it throughout the story.”

Kidnapped in Vostok was in primary production from 2019 through 2021, but the work actually continues with an eye towards the future.

Bourthors’ team is working on an adaptation for a 3-DoF headset, and he’s said he hopes it can be seen eventually on economical platforms like Gear VR and Cardboard. “But it will obviously not be the same experience as it is in 6-DoF,” says Bouthors. “I will always recommend people see it in 6-DoF!” For more info, visit annecy.org.

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2D and Transcendent!

Ireland’s Lighthouse Studios celebrates five years of animation excellence.

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t has been five years since Lighthouse Studios opened its doors in the beautiful town of Kilkenny in Ireland. The joint venture between Academy Award-nominated Cartoon Saloon and the Ottawa-based Mercury Filmworks was founded to further bolster the thriving 2D animation industry in Ireland.

“Our overarching mission is Claire Finn to create the best possible quality of animated content for global audiences, across all genres and for all ages,” says the studio’s managing director Claire Finn. “The first two series we produced were the animated El Deafo

children’s series The Bug Diaries, and Season 2 of the Emmy Award-nominated If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, which we worked on with our parent, Mercury Filmworks. Both of these series were for the globally-recognized content giant Amazon Prime, so we were off to a great start!”

Finn points out that while Lighthouse operates as an independent studio, the expertise of its “parent” companies, has ensured that they’re able to offer world-class animation from the very beginning. “Having such famous parent studios to collaborate and strategize with has been invaluable,” she notes. “We also really believe in fostering career development and have a Learning and Development specialist in the studio to set up various training programs from ToonBoom to life drawing, English language classes to professional skills development. With a crew comprising over 25 nationalities, we also have a strong EDI program and are proud of this being a part of the culture that we have been developing over the past five years.”

She also notes that the physical aspects of the studio are equally special. “Being based in a neo-Gothic-style building, formally an old

seminary, means that we can offer an incredibly unique and creative studio setting for our talent,” Finn says. “We have accommodation for crew on site and the building is set in beautiful grounds — complete with an operating school where crew can see the students play hurling (Ireland’s national sport) as they enter the studio.

The town of Kilkenny itself is known for its vibrant culture and design heritage, and the local community from pubs to estate agents and hotels, etc., all get behind welcoming the crew to the city.”

The past year has represented a huge step in the growth of the studio’s work-for-hire business, with the delivery of three animated children’s series, including the critically-acclaimed El Deafo for Apple TV+, based on the award-winning graphic memoir by Cece Bell; The Cuphead Show for Netflix adapted from the massively successful videogame; and Little Ellen for Warner Bros. Animation which is available on HBOMax. Finn adds, “We’re also really excited for the May 27th theatrical release of The Bob’s Burgers Movie from Disney’s 20th Century Studios, for which we produced the animation in collaboration with Mercury Filmworks and Bento Box”.

In addition to the work for hire business, Lighthouse is also gearing up to expand into original series and movies with its first project going into development— a short film called

The Cuphead Show!

Póg Mo Pigeon based on a concept developed from a in-house film competition. As Finn explains, “One of our ambitions is to tap into our vast creative talent to source new and original ideas to develop and produce, and this is our first step! Alongside that, we’ve optioned the rights to a gritty adult graphic novel.”

Depending on the different phases of all productions, the studio typically has anywhere

Lighthouse Studios in Kilkenny between 130 to 270 crew members from various diverse backgrounds and cultures. Finn says, “Our studio culture embodies inclusivity and the bringing together of talent with unique points of view – all of which adds depth and diversity to our creative process. I love hearing all the different languages whenever I pop into the kitchen for a cuppa!”

Don’t Rain on my Parade

The Road Ahead

Finn believes that animation has come of age and it is no longer seen as just a kids’ venture.

“It is so broad in potential of style and genre,” she offers. “Access via streamers has opened up the potential for audiences that weren’t there before. That’s exciting for creators and for those wanting to tell untold stories. I feel optimistic that this trend will continue and allow lots of untold stories be made. And, even though we had challenges operating remotely during the pandemic, it is great to know that it’s possible to continue production with a little modification, compared to the live-action production business.”

We ask Finn to give us a fun piece of trivia that not many know about Lighthouse. “Our studio looks like Hogwarts,” she says. “And Ralph Fiennes, who played ‘he who shall not be named’ actually went to high school here for a time. So, we feel close to magic every day. It truly is a spectacular historical space that we get to work in and really adds fuel to our creativity!”

For more info, visit www.lighthousestudios.ie

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The Man with the Golden Touch!

Fred Seibert’s FredFilms searches for fresh talent and distinct voices in animation.

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the stories that need e all know Fred Seibert to be told now? Fredas the brilliant cable TV pioneer and EmFilms looks for projmy-winning animation producer ects with unforgettable behind such acclaimed shows protagonists that drive as Adventure Time, Bravest ambitious stories. All Warriors, The Fairly OddParents, our projects have a Castlevania, Bravest Warriors stand-out creator with and Bee & Puppycat. Last year, a strong and distinct Seibert launched a new produc- Fred Seibert POV, great storytelling chops, and a strong tion company called FredFilms, with a first-look deal with VIS Kids (a division grasp on character. of Paramount Global). He was kind enough • Original, always. We champion emerging to give us an update on what he’s been voices and original projects. working on along with FredFilms’ director of • Your Next Favorite Cartoon. Our doors are open for anything that we can’t say ‘no’ too; development Casey Gonzalez: we want to make your next favorite cartoon.

Congrats on your fantastic new venture, • We love kids comedy and we always will!

Fred. Can you tell us what prompted you But we’re also looking to embrace more adult comedy, and we’re exploring more anime-adjacent projects (a la Castlevania). Right now we’re in the midst of several reimagined reboots –ah, the times we live in– and thrilled about the new Bee and PuppyCat (created by Natasha Allegri) coming to Netflix soon, and Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake in production from Cartoon Network Studios for HBO Max. to form FredFilms?

Animation is having yet another golden age What is your take on the global animated driven as always by new technologies. The feature scene? rise of streaming platforms has given the The audience is expanding past all the wonunique creators I work with a whole new derful “animation nerds.” In the same way landscape to have their innovative voices that Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! mainstreamed and stories told. And the success that many American kids into international cartoons, projects are finding in streaming, both adult Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and Your and kid-targeted series, has re-opened the Name seem like they’re helping an expansion eyes of executives at linear networks as well of the feature audience that the anime action to invest in premium animation program- pictures and Studio Ghibli releases began. ming. With that said, I thought it marked the perfect time to set up a new production company where I can focus 100% of my energies on what I truly love to do: nurture fresh talent and emerging voices, and help bring to life amazing, cutting-edge animation.

How would you describe FredFilms and the types of projects you look for?

• Creators first, character first. What are

Last month, everyone was talking about the slowdown at Netflix and how it impacts other streamers…What is your prediction?

Netflix has been the great disruptor that led us all into streaming and sometimes it’s easy for everyone to take pot shots. As they stay so far ahead of the curve, it’s inevitable they’ll take some missteps here and there. Soon enough, others are going to bring about their own innovations and that will be good for our industry and great for viewers. The challenge that Netflix has in animation and all those who are following them is to create hits. In the scheme of things there are a lot of people who can create wonderful shows. Where are the people who know how to make us all pay attention? We certainly live in fascinating times!

What kind of advice do you offer young animation newbies who have the dream of creating their own shows?

The first and best advice I got when I started out was to stay focused on great characters and great stories. No matter what medium or style someone works in, it was true then, true today, and will be true tomorrow. Tell the story YOU need to tell. What experience makes a work something only you could create?

What can your perspective add to a larger conversation, and how do you translate that into a compelling story? It’s tough out there.

Persevere. Making good art is an essential part of seeing your show made, but it’s just one part of the process!

Your favorite animated shows and movies of all time?

You’ve got to be kidding. We could fill this page!

For more info, please visit fredfilms.com

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A Gift from the Sea

Lupus Films’ producer Ruth Fielding and director Robin Shaw discuss the development of The Storm Whale.

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here’s always great excitement when A Terrific Trilogy designs for the second and third film,” says the team at London-based Lupus The team plans to produce three individ- producer Ruth Fielding who is the studio’s Films embarks on a new project. The ual and complete films that are different in co-founder and managing director with Caaward-winning studio behind such beloved tone, but come together to make a greater milla Deakin. “The production schedule is 2D-animated projects as The Snowman and whole as a trilogy. As Shaw explains, “I’ve 94 weeks for all three half-hour films. We The Snowdog, The Tiger Who Came To Tea, subtly linked the stories narratively, but kept are looking for financiers and broadcast Ethel & Ernest and We’re Going on a partners at Annecy to greenlight the Bear Hunt is now working on a threeproduction. We would love to anipart adaptation of Benji Davies’ acmate it all in-house at our London claimed books, The Storm Whale, studio. This is how we have worked The Storm Whale in Winter and on our previous 2D hand-drawn Grandma Bird. The trilogy is about a films. We usually have a crew of young boy called Noi and his friendabout 50 people for these kinds of ship with a small whale. films.”

The project will be directed by Fielding points out that the films Robin Shaw, who also helmed We’re could be scheduled around a holGoing on a Bear Hunt and The Tiger iday, as a family appointment to Who Came to Tea. He says he was view. “The winter film would be immediately struck by an obvious one for the how perfect the book December holidays but “The films fit with the rest of our catalog because they are beautifully was for a film adapthe joy of the stories is crafted in a hand-drawn illustrative style which matches the original books tation after seeing the that they can also be first book in the series. played at any time of and, like all our films, the stories pack a strong emotional punch.”

“There is so much emoyear,” she notes.

— Producer Ruth Fielding tion and beauty capShaw is pleased that tured in what on the Lupus Films is consurface seems like a simple story that tinuing its tradition of creating I knew it was something I wanted to 2D animated classics based on do,” he explains. “I could almost see heart-warming, beloved books: the film being played out as I turned “The studio has always brought the pages. This feeling has just grown much-loved classics to the screen and grown with the release of the secwith all the love and respect they ond and third books. deserve,” says the director. “The Shaw says he loves the vulnerability Storm Whale is, I believe, a modof Noi, the central character, and his ern classic and will endure berelationship with first his dad and then cause of its timeless themes and his grandma. “We see him grow, learn beautiful imagery. Lupus Films is to love and to be loved, and all through the perfect home for it.” finding a young whale stranded on the Adds Fielding, “The films fit beach,” he notes. “You really care about them distinct from each other so that a child with the rest of our catalog because they him. Adults will want to look after him and could pick any one of them to watch on any are beautifully crafted in a hand-drawn ilchildren will empathize with him. As well as given day depending on the way they were lustrative style which matches the original this, Benji Davies’ illustrations are stunning- feeling or what kind of story they needed to books and, like all our films, the stories pack ly beautiful. He has a rare gift for effortless- see.” a strong emotional punch.” ly capturing light and a sense of scale and “We have storyboarded the first film and place that appeals to me as a director.” made an animatic, plus we have scripts and For more information, visit lupusfilms.com www.animationmagazine.net 120

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LAIKA’s Upcoming Slate Explores New Territories The Portland studio’s ambitious new movies, Wildwood and The Night Gardener, defy easy categorization.

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ince its inception in 2005, Portland-based LAIKA has tackled subject matter and cinematic techniques that are unique in the animation and family entertainment sectors. The studio behind the much-loved and award-winning movies Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link continues to push the envelope and explore new genres and stories with its next two projects.

Currently in production at the studio is Wildwood, which is based on the bestselling novel written by Colin Meloy, lead singer and songwriter for The Decemberists, and illustrated by artist Carson Ellis. The film will be directed by Travis Knight, President & CEO of the award-winning animation studio.

powerful figures with the darkest intentions.

Wildwood is a tale of love, loss, sacrifice and secrets, and of the magic you can find on your doorstep, if you’re willing to look for it.”

A Gritty Noir Takes Root

Travis Knight BAFTA-nominee, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. The creative team also includes producer Arianne Sutner and screenwriter Chris Butler, both of whom won the Golden Globe for the studio’s Missing Link. The film is also

In May, the studio announced the studio’s seventh feature film: The Night Gardener, which is an ambitious stop-motion project based on a story

by Bill Dubuque, the creator of Netflix’s hit show Ozark. The movie, which will also be directed by Knight, is described as a gritty neo-noir folktale centered on a young man in rural Missouri fighting to keep his family together in the wake of a tragedy. The film will paint an unflinching portrait of sacrifice, self-reliance and revenge.

“The Night Gardener is a beautiful and timeless story that quickens the pulse as often as it breaks the heart,” said Knight. “Bill

The Night Gardener

Wildwood “As a deep-dyed native son of Oregon, I have rainwater, microbrew, and fair-trade coffee coursing through my veins,” said Knight, who won the BAFTA for his directorial debut film Kubo and the Two Strings and also helmed the live-action hit Bumblebee. “With Wildwood, I have the opportunity to tell a madly ambitious story of magic, wonder, and danger set in the place I grew up. My very own Portland will join that pantheon of unforgettable fantasy realms, with a stirring epic that will kindle imaginations, lift spirits, and break hearts.”

Wildwood will be the first fully animated feature film lensed by multiple Oscar- and

described as the biggest stop-motion movie ever attempted and to achieve its scope and technical vision, LAIKA is utilizing every inch of its studio and crew numbers are currently at the highest level in the studio’s history.

The film’s early synopsis reads: “Beyond Portland’s city limits lies Wildwood. You’re not supposed to go there. You’re not even supposed to know it exists. But our protagonist Prue McKeel is about to enter this enchanted wonderland.

Her baby brother Mac has been taken by a murder of crows into the forest’s depths, and she – along with her hapless classmate Curtis – is going to get him back. Prue might think she’s too old for fairytales, but she’s just found herself at the center of one. One filled with strange talking animals, roguish bandits, and

is a masterful storyteller. He’s crafted a lyrical world layered with complex characters, provocative ideas, and keenly felt emotion. It’s gonna be one helluva movie.”

“I’m delighted that Travis Knight saw in The Night Gardener a story worth of the timeintensive process and collective talent of LAIKA’s in-house artisans,” noted Dubuque.

“LAIKA’s creativity and dedication to detail is, in my opinion, as close as one can come to conjuring storytelling magic.”

Although the studio hasn’t announced release dates for its sixth and seventh movies, we know the wait for these exciting and highly original cinematic journeys will certainly be worth it For more info, visit laika.com

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Jetpack Brings Two High-Flying Shows to Annecy

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.K.-based Jetpack Distribution continues to deliver a colorful catalog of animated shows to outlets all around the world. The global distributor of series such as Kitty Is Not a Cat, Moley, Clangers and Mighty Little Bheem will have a strong presence at the Annecy market this month. CEO Dominic Gardiner was kind enough to tell us a bit about Jetpack’s hot slate: Can you tell us a bit about the two standout shows Jetpack is taking to Annecy?

Dominic Gardiner: First up is Alice’s Diary, a delightful, upper-preschool-age 2D animated show, which is a co-production between Portugal-based Sardinha Em Lata, Spain’s Alice AIE and Brazil’s Geppetto Films. We have 52 x four-minute episodes. It’s currently in production and centers around a little girl named Alice who tries to understand the world through her own art. It is set to air on Portuguese public service broadcaster, Radio e Televisão Portuguesa (RTP), Spain’s

she’s thinking. It’s a beautiful and sweet show which will be highly captivating for this age group. (Alice’s Diary will be available from Q4 2022).

On Critters TV , for the first time in the history of television, audiences get an animal’s-eye view on nature documentaries and learn some facts about the natural world along the way. Think Gogglebox if the audience were Alice’s Diary

Critter TV

national broadcaster RTVE and Disney Junior in Latin America.

Next, we have the hilarious cartoon spoof animal documentary Critters TV, produced by Dublin-based Turnip & Duck. We have 26 11-minute episodes of the 2D flash animation and live-action series aimed at 4-8 year-olds and their families. The series was funded by Screen Ireland, RTEjr and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the support of incentives for the Irish Film Industry from the Irish Government.

What makes these shows stand out?

Alice’s Diary offers a magical insight into the individual thoughts of Alice, the adorable, quirky, and highly imaginative 6-year-old lead, as she invites viewers into her beautifully illustrated diary. As Alice talks, she draws and her pictures come to animated life, adding a captivating and comedic visualization of what

What kind of shows do you look for?

Within our catalog we have a wide ranging selection across all genres and age groups, and offer buyers a great deal of choice. All our shows have a high level of quality and they stand out! They travel well, connecting with audiences through universal themes such as comedy, strong characters, friendship and teamwork. We often celebrate

animated wildlife characters. It features a cast of hilarious cartoon animal families, from fun-loving foxes to filthy fleas, oddball squirrels to very silly owls. It’s genuinely unique and laugh-out-loud funny! It is strongly appealing for kids everywhere.

Can you tell us a bit about the history of Jetpack?

We launched at Annecy in 2014 and since then have grown our catalog to 1500 half hours of high quality, characters driven shows, working with 47 producers. We help shows flourish and thrive! And have extensive market knowledge and a buyer network. We celebrate the creativity and efforts of our producers, and a show’s provenance is an important part of how we sell. More than 80 % of our revenue is export and we’re a truly global business, selling in 194 countries worldwide.

shows that are a bit off-the-wall with quirky and unusual elements. We watch our shows and genuinely love them! Perhaps we are big kids, but when they make us laugh we know they are something special.

Increasingly we are acquiring more shows in development, and working alongside producers to help nurture series and bring them to fruition.

We plan to keep growing this side of our business.

We have recently expanded the team and restructured, with more dedicated resource focused on acquisitions, means we can give producers more — and improved — creative feedback.

What’s your take on the constantly changing world of animation in 2022?

There is an increasing demand and consumer value placed on educational content, especially that which is seamlessly integrated with entertainment. The education-tech sector is booming. The entertainment industry needs to keep up, as tech is a major part of a kid’s life and screen time. Kids trends often move faster than any company can and we need to react and be ready to produce quickly and economically. YouTube is one of the most universally accessed platforms in the world by kids, and they are not always watching animation that costs a million bucks an episode. Quality is important, but it doesn’t have to cost the earth!

For more info, visit jetpackdistribution.tv

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A Whale of a Tale

10th Ave Productions makes a big splash with Katak the Brave Beluga, its beautiful fifth animated feature.

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uebec-based film and TV production outfit 10th Ave Productions has begun postproduction on its fifth animated feature, Katak the Brave Beluga. This marks the second time the company has worked with screenwriter Andrée Lambert: Nearly 20 years ago, 10th Ave asked the prolific TV writer to collaborate on a collection of CG-animated shorts on Christmas themes. She wrote the fourth of 10th Ave’s Holiday Tales, The Kiss Under the Mistletoe.

Having benefitted from a screenwriting course and a specialized training program in animation offered by Teletoon, Andrée made the jump into features and penned the screenplay for Katak the Brave Belgua. The storyline is inspired by marine world that Andrée knows well as she spends a large part of every summer aboard her sailboat, which is named Katak.

The writer recalls close encounters with groups of belugas that often came close to her boat during the summer season.

“I was in love with this project from the outset, especially since it is set in the undersea world of whales traveling the length of the river from Tadoussac to the Arctic, passing the Mingan Islands, Blanc Sablon and Red Bay,” notes 10th Ave producer Nancy Florence Savard. “We all agreed that those amazing white whales are very beautiful.”

Finding His True Path

The film, which had a five-year development journey, centers on young Katak who finally discovers his true path and motivation: to realize the last wish of his dying grandmother, but also to prove that he could have an impact on his own life and the lives of others, even if he’s small and grey.

In addition to refining the story during development, 10th Ave took care to put together a dedicated team. Christine Dallaire-Dupont is serving as director on her first animated feature film. Prior to the project, Dallaire-Dupont worked on all three seasons of W, a 156-episode animated series, on which she distinguished herself by animating the character of Cormorant, a marine bird living on Sable Island at the edge of the Atlantic. Later, moving to Montreal, Christine participated in several animated feature

Nancy Florence Savard

film projects including The Day of the Crows, April and the Extraordinary World, Ballerina, Riverdance, Trouble, and Snowtime. The film’s producer Nancy Florence Savard made sure Dallaire-Dupont had all the tools she needed to return to Quebe City and direct the project with her long-time friend and professional mentor, Nicola Lemay, who serves as co-director.

Commenting on the film’s unique themes and setting, Dallaire-Dupont observes, “My family has deep roots in the lower Saguenay region.

It’s a place with a distinctive aura. Through the imagery of the film, I wanted to turn the fjord and the river into characters in their own right, and to depict them as they’re known to those who live there.”

Working during the pandemic created some obstacles, Dallaire-Dupont admits. She’s proud of the work she and her team did to overcome those obstacles: “Technology was a big help, but communication was a major challenge. Directing choices arise from impressions, from feelings, and it can be tricky to communicate those through the impersonal medium of Zoom screens, without the warmth of collaborators’ physical presence. But I think we managed very well.”

Christine DallaireDupont Nicola Lemay, who is deeply passionate about animation, directed 10th Ave’s most recent animated feature, Felix and the Hidden Treasure, which has been sold in 170 countries and territories and selected for two dozen festivals. He has directed several prizewinning animated shorts, winning the prestigious Filpresci Prize at Annecy for his project Nul poisson où aller, and the Unicef Award for Black Eyes, adapted from the book by Gil Tibot. He also created the storyboard for, among others, the animated feature The Little Prince, and he helped storyboard Ice Age 1 and 2, and Rio, at Blue Sky Studios in the USA. The team also includes acclaimed art director Philippe Arseneau Bussières – who handled art direction on The Legend of Sarila, Mission Kathmandu: the Adventures of Nelly and Simon, and Snowtime. The creative and directing team even had to do some of the scouting by helicopter during the Covid pandemic to respect the health regulations that were in place in the Tadoussac region. When they were grounded by the sudden arrival of thick fog in Baie-Sainte-Catherine, the production team found shelter for the night at a cottage owned by whale-watching tour company AML, which opened up its empty seasonal cottage when all the other local amenities were closed!

It has been an amazing ride for 10th Ave’s fifth animated feature: Katak the Brave Beluga!

For more info, visit www.10ave.com.

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Arnauld Boulard

Gao Shan Studio

Exploring New Horizons in Animation Gao Shan founder Arnauld Boulard discusses his current projects at Annecy and beyond.

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f you’re a fan of acclaimed European animated features such as Zombillenium (2017), Funan (2018), I Lost My Body (2019), My Sunny Maad (2021) and this year’s Little Nicholas, you are already familiar with Gao Shan Pictures projects which have won numerous prizes at Annecy, Cannes and Animation Is Film festivals.

The studio, which was founded in 2014 by industry veteran Arnauld Boulard (Despicable Me) is located in the beautiful, tropical island of Reunion located between Mauritius and Madagascar. Last January, Boulard added a new studio, named Shan Too in Angoulême, France as well. Gao Shan is currently involved in two eagerly anticipated arthouse features, Jeremie Perrin’s Mars Express and Benoit Chieux’s Sirocco, as well as the new CG-animated The Smurfs series, which airs on Nickelodeon.

“We specialize in independent productions bearing values that we view as essentials, which often required a tailored pipeline to serve bold artistic choices,” says Boulard.

“That translates mostly into features targeted to adult/young adult’s audience, films like I Lost My Body and My Sunny Maad, but we also help produce films for families and young audiences such as Yakari and White Fang.”

An Environmental Tale

The studio will have an active presence at the Annecy festival this June with its first inhouse production The Fire Keeper (Le gardien du feu) at the MIFA pitch even on Wednesday morning. Based on the 1985 book by Pierre Rabhi, the film is adapted by Magali Pouzol (Funan) and co-writer of last year’s acclaimed feature Summit of the Gods, and directed

by Jeanne Irzenski. The story centers on a 12-year-old boy who lives in a small desert village. When his older brother returns with a

modern mining complex project promising a better life for the villagers, he will find himself at the heart of a conflict between his father who’s the guardian of tradition, and his brother, an apostle of modernity. Willing to escape the burden of tradition, but confronted to the dark secrets of the mine, he will have to find his own way with the help of a young nomad girl he befriended. The film will be produced with a hybrid 2D/3D blender pipeline.

Boulard recalls how one of his lead animators Jeanne Irzenski brought Rabhi’s novel

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The Smurfs

My Sunny Maad

to his attention a few years ago. “In France, Pierre is quite well known as one of the early advocates for the environmental activism and chronicler of the social challenges that face the modern world. After reading his book, I discovered that Pierre was actually a great storyteller as well and that we could produce an exciting adventure feature for kids, bearing many values that I view as essential.

I had worked with Jeanne for many years and firmly believed that she was the right person to adapt this story to the screen. So, it was quite obvious to me to support her stepping up to a directing role. I had met our writer Magali Pouzol, during the production of Funan some time ago, and I invited Jeanne to pair up with Magali on the script.”

Boulard says he’ll also be at Annecy to support two projects: The first is Little Nicholas (Le Petit Nicolas) the adaptation of Rene Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempe’s popular children’s book, directed by Benjamin Massoubre and Amandine Fredon, which is one of the titles in competition, and the second is the work-in-progress feature They Shot the Piano Player, directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, about a New York journalist who sets out to investigate the disappearance of a

I Lost My Body

Brazilian piano prodigy. Layout on Little Nicholas was provided by his studio in Angoulême and both studios shared the animation. The two studios Gao Shan and Shan Too are also working on They Shot the Piano Player.

When asked about the general animation scene, the producer responds “In France, we’re going through a paradoxical time, with so many amazing adult animation projects in development and theater’s audience plummeting. That should have a direct impact on financing indie productions in the coming years.

Globally, it seems that there has never been such a high demand for kids and preschool programs, employment is at his highest and talents acquisition is more key than ever.”

He adds, “On the technical side, the one thing that is really exciting us these days is real time engines, and we just launch a feature production adding Unreal 5 in our pipeline. It is a first step and using real time can eventually disrupt the usual animation workflow.”

Boulard says as service provider, he would like to keep working with independent European producers. He notes, “But we definitely are willing to get an international production as well, either for independent US production or streamers, with a focus on adult animation.

We recently made a large investment with the support of the National Center of Cinema (CNC) in order to strengthen our techni-

cal infrastructure and be able to handle such a project. On another note, after opening in Angoulême last year, we are now looking at launching another studio in a non-European country in the Indian Ocean area, to accommodate some requests from our clients on top of services we are already providing.”

Future Ventures

Gao Shan is also developing another feature, Winter of the Holy Iron, an adaptation of a novel by Joseph Marshall III. “It’s a powerful story set in the Dakotas during the mid-18th century, which provides an authentic portrayal of the Sioux and their encounters with white people, and raises questions around the power of a gun,” Boulard explains. “We also expect to produce a TV special that we have in development, The Possum that Didn’t based on the book by Frank Tashlin.”

And what does the studio founder want to the global animation to remember about Gao Shan? “Whether you are a producer looking for a talented and committed studio team, or an artist willing to work on meaningful projects in a caring work environment, our studio is the right place to come to,” he says. “It is not just by accident that Gao Shan Pictures is behind many acclaimed independent features!”

For more info, visit www.gaoshanpictures.com

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Meet Kayara, a New Inca Heroine Tunche Films founder César Zelada discusses his new pic and plans for his growing studio.

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eruvian director/producer César Zelada’s first animated feature Ainbo centered on a spirited young heroine who sets out on a quest to save her beautiful home in the Amazon rainforest. The beautifully crafted movie, which was directed by his brother Jose, had a limited release in 2021 and found its receptive audience despite facing the challenges of the Covid pandemic worldwide.

This year, the talented Peruvian filmmaker is working on a new movie, a CG-animated project titled Kayara, another female-led adventure about a young Inca woman who dreams of joining the Chasqui messengers, an alite male-only league of the official messengers in the famous empire. The film, which is written and directed by Zelada, is produced by Peruvian/Panamanian animation studio Tunche Films and co-produced

by Toonz Media Group Spain and distributed/exec produced by Cinema Management Group. The film, which will be available for delivery in mid-2024, will have an estimated budget of about seven million dollars.

“The story of Kayara is about a courageous young woman and an ancient myth of how the Golden City—which remains undiscovered today— was protected and hidden from the great dangers of exploitation and stolen resources y an unsung hero of the Incan Empire,” says Zelada. “What I love about Kayara is that she’s a strong, intelligent girl, who at the same time has certain insecurities typical of her age. I’m also pleased to be able to recreate Peru’s wonderful landscapes such as Machu Picchu, as they were was more than 200 years ago.”

Preserving an Ancient Culture

According to the director, in animation, very little has been done about the Inca empire, which was as great as other known empires in Europe and Asia. “This is a new IP created by a Peruvian studio since we

know the culture from the inside,” he adds.

Zelada says telling these stories about empowered women and bringing his culture and history to the animated screen has been a great passion of his.

“Tunche films is a family-run animation studio, created by my brothers Jose, Sergio and me,” he explains. “Our previous film Ainbo was inspired by our mother and the stories that she told us about living and growing up in the Amazon. From a very young age we grew up admiring those stories and seeing our mother as a strong figure with a great spirit of adventure. So, perhaps that’s why and perhaps also unconsciously, we made our second pro-

tagonist Kayara a similar kind of woman.”

The director says his love for animation began at an early age, when he saw Disney’s The Jungle Book for the first time back in the 1980s. “That’s a movie that really had a big impact on me,” he recalls. “You can definitely see Mowgli’s influence on Ainbo!

Animation was something that my brothers and I always dreamed of doing since we were kids. We all had some talent in drawing, and we used to draw animation

sequences on the edges of the pages of our school notebooks.”

Looking back at the experiences of his first movie, Zelada remembers, “The best reactions to the movie were definitely those of the children, because we made the film for them. But, perhaps the most memorable opinions for me were when we projected the film in the Amazon in a village of the Chipibos Conibos tribe, which had inspired our movie. It was very gratifying to see their reactions and laughter when they watched it.”

Zelada explains, “As a Peruvian studio, it is interesting to tell our own stories since it is what we know best, in addition to having the opportunity to show the world a little about ourselves. Over the past few years, animation has grown remarkably all over the world and it still has a lot of room for growth. Latin America is no exception and in Peru more animation is produced every year, even for large streaming platforms. As for Panama, there are great incentives and very good cash rebates that help co-productions. We are a new studio that generates IP, looking to find a space in the global animation industry. Our pipeline is based on Maya, Arnold, Houdini, Nuke for compositing and Shotgun. We are willing and excited to co-produce with different studios around the world in the years ahead.”

For more info, visit tunchefilms.com.

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Un-TTAPing Caribbean Potential Trinidad & Tobago Animation Production Factory assembles the region’s future stars.

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or the past twenty years, its concept and is a strategy that is the Caribbean has been being looked at by other animation honing its skills in animamarkets in their infancy in Africa, tion and digital media. The fruits the Caribbean and other parts of of this labor are flourishing, as the the world.

University of Trinidad and Tobago Partnerships have already been and the Animae Caribe Animation formed with well-established orgaand Digital Media Festival (now in nizations like Toon Boom Harmony its 21st year) continue to be the Camille Selvon Abrahams and CelAction. Over the years, sevWendy Fitzwilliam Joan Vogelesang catalysts for the growth of the ineral key relationships have been dustry. As an extension to the University’s student led. This model prepares students formulated. These world-renowned experts animation program, TTAP Factory (Trinidad for the world of work by integrating “learn- in the field, which include LAIKA’s Brad Shiff & Tobago Animation Production Factory) is ing while doing,” where suitable students and WETA Digital’s Sidney Kombo (and his a groundbreaking hub partly funded by the are thrown into real-life studio experienc- Third-Pole mentorship program), give the Inter-American Development Bank. TTAP is es and acquire credits for doing so, and workforce access to much sought-after inwhere the best technology, ongoing skills once they finish the program successfully, dustry standard training. upgrades, and international industry con- they can be easily integrated into the work As Carina Cockburn, IDB’s Country Repnections, create the perfect environment force. TTAP Factory is a competitive and resentative in Trinidad and Tobago points for international studios to connect and do sustainable business model. It is radical in out, “Ultimately, we would like to see the business. evolution of TTAP Factory as a sustainable With over 300 graduates passing through and competitive model that facilitates creits BFA program, the country has seen the ative and business collaborations for the development of several small studios that sector.” have secured international contracts for anBeing the first funded outsourcing studio imation and game art. in the Caribbean, TTAP Factory is positioned TTAP Factory supports and facilitate proto be a pioneering and successful business duction by providing workforce, access to model that can be replicated throughout the infrastructure and management to ensure world. It is a one-stop shop for animation timely and professional delivery. services in 3D and 2D animation, game art, VR and AR experiences and emerging digital services.

A Network of Industry Experts Top executive consultants, Wendy Responding to the latest industry demands Fitzwilliam and Joan Vogelesang, whose and trends, the training program is fluid and combined experience in the Caribbean and open to new technologies. The educated Vogelesang’s expertise in the global animaworkforce and innate creativity of Trinidad tion industry, have been critical additions to and Tobago, in the context of the global inthe team. dustry, means that cultural nuances will be “The TTAP factory provides the perfect easily transferred to international projects. blueprint for building the animation sector The aim is to create an enabling work enviin emerging economies,” says Vogelesang. ronment for international and local clients: “Backed by the University of Trinidad and Working closely with state organizations, Tobago, the facility provides a steady flow TTAP Factory will facilitate access to tax inof trained students in all fields of animation centives and rebates and other solutions to production, an incubator facility for new encreate maximum benefit for our clients. trepreneurs and a state of the art facility set We look forward to hearing from you as in a glorious conservation park in a country we invite you to #OutsourceInSunshine and with a wonderful climate. It’s all a great for#AnimateInSunshine. mula for success.”

Led by animation ambassador for the See the full launch at animaecaribe.com/ region and senior lecturer, Camille Selvon official-launch-of-the-ttap-factory/ info@ Abrahams, the project is expert driven and ttapfactory.com. www.animationmagazine.net 132

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Animating Love in All Shapes and Colors AddArt/Funny Tales Studio brings a great mix of entertaining shows to the market.

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our years ago, brothers Dmitris and Stavros Savvaidis formed their design and animation studio AddArt aka Funny Tales in the beautiful Greek port city of Thessaloniki to present compelling art content and projects for their clients all over the world.

“From its outset, our studio was perceived as a laboratory of ideas and a springboard for artistic expression,” says studio founder and producer Dimitris Savvaidis. “AddArt/ Funny Tales specializes in 2D animation and production. Operating on an interdisciplinary basis, at the intersection between art and technology, it brings together diverse ecosystems in order to deliver meaningful, engaging creative output, in the form of animated TV series, features, short films, video clips and documentaries.”

The studio’s first series Pix & Leo aired on 800 platforms all over the world via BabyTV, a FOX group channel. Funny Tales is also in

production with another show titled Bug & Play for the same broadcaster. The shop is also involved in various interesting roles in many other global productions.

“Our new series which we’re bringing to Annecy is My Superhero Husband,” says Savvaidis. “This is our prized project since it is picked for the MIFA Pitches in the TV series category. Then, we have What the FluffoVerse, which is our wacky TV series for 8- to 12-year-olds in co-production with Cosmonaut, an amazing studio from Japan. There’s also Our Space, an 8-part animated documentary series, co-produced with Awesome Town Entertainment from Canada In total, we have more than 20 IP’s from preschool to adult fiction and some animated documentaries in development searching for the right partners to get realized and produced.”

Embracing Differences

My Superhero Husband is created by the amazing Alex Tagali and Mikaela K. Deligianni.

“This is a sitcom about superheroes in a town that embraces individuality and love in every way,” notes Savvaidis. “The differences between the main characters, Joule and Cynthis, immediately reminded us of I Love Lucy. Just imagine the hi-jinks of Lucy Ricardo stuffed into Superman’s body: That’s Joule, who is constantly being ‘managed’ by their transgender superhero husband, Cynthis! We believe that what I Love Lucy did for mixed race couples, My Superhero Husband does for the queer community. This innovative show will warm the hearts of families and reaches them without preaching to them.”

He adds, “The LGBTQI+ communities are still fighting for recognition, and some brands have been staunch allies. Through My Superhero Husband and our partner, Alphabet Initiative Agency, we reward these brands for their solidarity by providing them a showcase on screen. Our partnership with Lyre´s alcohol-free spirits has helped us promote the project here at MIFA and brought us significantly closer to our production goals.”

The talented studio founder says he loves the limitless creative freedom an-

imation offers. “My vision is to provide audiences of all ages with stories created with passion and love, stories thrilling enough to move them and wacky enough to change them, as we wholeheartedly believe that storytelling has the power to change the world!” he offers. “Animation gives you the possibility to create and visit parallel realities and universes through imagination and creation. It offers endless possibilities to reach the core of humanity.”

Savvaidis is optimistic about the future of animation in his country. “The demand for content is helping animation thrive. Quality-driven studios such as Funny Tales will sooner or later get their chances to shine in the global animation scene. But we have an extra advantage. Greece is becoming a great destination for creating content because of the new incentives. EKOME is giving a 40% cash rebate on money spent in Greece. This is putting us in the global map and providing us with the boost we needed to showcase our projects and services at an amazing rate. I think Greece is a huge opportunity for animation right now.”

“Funny Tales is full of artists and creators that love animation and I want to take this chance to thank them personally,” he adds.

“Dimitris Kazantzis, our general manager and line producer; Vasilis Evdokias, our creative director; Lefteris Faidas, our creative director; Ioannis Texis, our lead storyboard artist and director; Chrisa Gouma, our lead scriptwriter; Vasilis Dimopoulos, our lead designer; Alkis Koumaros, Eleftheria Moscha, Silena Nikolopoulou and Vasilis Gerkou, our artists/designers; Konstantinos Athanasooulos, storyboard artist; Konstantinos Andrias, animator; Lida Sakelaridou, scriptwriter; and Fanouria Arvaniti, graphic designer! They are the drive and creative power of Funny Tales and I am grateful they are with us!”

For more info, visit www.funnytales.gr

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Unleashing the Dinosaurs Again VFX supervisor David Vickery discusses the thrills and chills of introducing new creatures in Jurassic World Dominion.

By Trevor Hogg

T

wenty-eight years after the release of Steven Spielberg’s ground-breaking movie Jurassic Park, audiences will be able to experience the sixth movie set in the troubled dino park this summer. Directed by Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed), Jurassic World Dominion bookends the franchise by bringing original stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum together with Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. The film’s VFX supervisor David Vickery, who worked on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, is back for more glorious prehistoric reptilian magic — and oversaw a total of 1,450 shots produced by ILM, Lola VFX and Hybride.

The film is set four years after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which ended with many dinosaurs escaping a black market auction. The plotline explores the consequences and dangers of all those prehistoric reptiles being released into the modern ecosystem.

“I was concerned initially that it was going to be too much of a ‘rinse and repeat,’” admits Vickery, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. “But the beauty of it is that you

get a new crew come onboard who inject different ideas into the process, and the script is completely different from anything we’ve ever seen in these films before. There are always new creative things to sink your teeth into even if you’re working on the same franchise.”

Jurassic World Dominion was the first Hollywood blockbuster to restart principal photography during the coronavirus pandemic. “We had shot for five weeks when the lockdown hit us in the U.K. in mid-March,” Vickery notes.

“Colin Trevorrow and his editor Mark Sanger [Gravity] took scenes that we had already shot in Colombia and U.K., and started cutting them straight away. A week after that we took delivery of the first cut of those sequences and started doing postviz.”

Deadliest Catch to the Rescue!

A major concern was how the production crew would communicate with each other on set while wearing masks and maintaining social distancing protocols. As the VFX supervisor explains, “Everyone was given BLARO headsets, so once we were on set everybody could talk to everybody else directly rather

than the usual walkie system.”

According to Vickery, key scenes were reimagined because of the global travel restrictions, such as leveraging outtake footage from The Deadliest Catch for when the Mosasaurus attacks the crab boat. “It wasn’t easy for us to find out from Discovery what was the original medium, so we had to visually grade the clips to make sure that the color, contrast and resolution were the same,” remarks Vickery. “Then the scene itself plays out as found footage, so it didn’t have to match the aesthetic of the rest of the film, which was shot on Panavision DXL.” ILM did a frame-by-frame analysis of the various compression artifacts and aberrations found in each shot. “Colin’s goal and remit was to do just enough to be able to integrate the dinosaur,” says Vickery. “There is a moment where Mosasaurus grabs the crab pot, which was something we added in. If we added too much spray Colin would take it away; he wanted just the barest amount of CGI in the frame as it was important to him to stay faithful to the original footage.”

For the motorcycle chase involving the Ve-

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Reptilian Rebellion: The brilliant team at ILM brings new levels of subtlety and naturalistic detail to the CG beasts of Jurassic World Dominion, which takes place four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar.

Wings of Terror

tor because the script said, ‘It surges from the water, lands on the ice, and steam is coming from its feathers as ice crystals begin to form on it,’” recalls Vickery. “You’re like, ‘That’s a scary line — but what a challenge and wonderful thing to get the opportunity to do!’”

To deliver the visuals for the proto bird, an entirely new feather system was constructed in Houdini by ILM. “The quill is defined by a curve and then all of the barbs on the side of the quill are also defined by curves. We had millions of curves to describe all of the feathers in perfect geometric detail. All of those curves are simulating against each other in the same piece of software. It meant that we could introduce snow, ice, water and air, and have them simulated at the same time as the feathers in the same piece of software. That was the only way we were going to be able to achieve that sequence.”

Another major accomplishment was resurrecting the T-Rex from the original Jurassic Park (dubbed “Roberta” by dino supervisor Phil Tippett). “We unarchived all of the original Softimage 3D files from 1992, managed to get those NURBS files into Maya and convert them into polygon meshes. Then we could compare our modern-day T-Rex at a much higher resolution geometry to that older Jurassic Park model and look to see how she changed. We referenced Stan Winston’s maquette and model and added painted textures onto our digital model to match that, so you can see the much darker socket in her eye. It’s a beautiful piece of recreation of that original T-Rex model.

When the trailer came out, people started noticing that the T-Rex had been restored to her former glory! It was a wonderful moment, but it took a lot of work.”

Another exciting task was introducing unforgettable feathered creatures to Jurassic World. “The tricky one for us was the Pyrorap-

Universal’s Jurassic World Dominion hopes to stomp out the competition in theaters on June 10.

‘It’s a beautiful piece of recreation of that original T-Rex model.

When the trailer came out, people started noticing that the T-Rex had been restored to her former glory! It was a wonderful moment, but it took a lot of work.’

— VFX supervisor David Vickery

lociraptors, Chris Pratt, DeWanda Wise and Bryce Dallas Howard stayed in the U.K. while the second unit went to Malta to capture the necessary plate photography. “We had stunt doubles and an array vehicle with six cameras rigged onto it that shot 360-degree driving plates running down all of the streets. When we got back into the U.K., Chris was placed on a motorbike on a massive rolling road that was 20-foot wide and 20-foot long. The front wheel was connected to a fixed arm that can make the bike move laterally across the road, left and right. Chris was stationary, but the engine and wheels of the bike were going 30, 40 and 50 miles per hour.”

Dinosaurs were part of the postviz created

by Proof. “Mark Sanger was able to edit with all of the components in place and that allowed us to see where Chris needed to be inserted into the action,” says Vickery. He adds that It was important to respect the lighting and camera style of the plate photography: “There is a tendency or danger when you get to a greenscreen to do things with a camera that are impossible on location. You have to retain that same language because that’s what makes it feel authentic.”

Of course, the creative team were keen on introducing new dinosaurs in this movie, as they have done in previous installments of the franchise. “The Giganotosaurus was a real dinosaur,” states Vickery. “Google helped right off the bat. But we always go to fossil records first. You look for the holotype — which is of-

ten a partial specimen, so scientific experts have to make up the rest of the dinosaur. We would talk to [paleontology consultant] Steve Brusatte about what modern paleontologists think these creatures would look like. But then, you can also look at modern animals that may or may not be similar.”

An animatronic was constructed for the Giganotosaurus. He admits, “I don’t know if we’ll ever get the chance to build something like that again just because of its sheer scale.” The creature design process involved production designer Kevin Jenkins (Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker), Trevorrow and Brusatte. “Kevin created tiny desktop clay maquettes that were scanned and given to ILM. Digital modelers checked the proportions to make sure that anatomically the dinosaurs made sense. Our creature team worked out where all of the muscles would fit on that digital skeleton and grew muscles inside of the digital models. After doing the detail pass, the digital models were given to [CFX supervisor] John Nolan who 3D printed them out.” Vickery notes that, because the digital model was an exact match to the animatronic, “If Colin wanted the front half of the dinosaur to be practical and the back half be digital, then we could do that.”

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Conjuring New Demons How the VFX artists of Stranger Things crafted more frightening monsters for the fourth season.

By Trevor Hogg

T

he VFX artists working on the fourth season of the hit Netflix series Stranger Things had their work cut out for them.

Set six months after the previous season’s Battle of Starcourt which introduced new levels of mayhem and destruction to Hawkins, the new season finds the central group of friends separated for the first time and navigating the special weirdness of high school! The new narrative explores three storylines set in Lenora Hills, Calif.; a Russian gulag and Hawkins, Ind. In fact, the creative ambition was so great that the number of episodes were expanded from eight to nine, with 30 visual effects companies working on over 4,000 shots. Rather than release everything at once, Netflix streamed the first half on May 27 and the second half will be made available on July 1.

After being hired as a senior concept illustrator for Seasons 2 and 3, Michael Maher Jr. served as the visual effects supervisor for Episodes 401 to 406, while the remaining three were handled by Jabbar Raisani and Marion Spates. “As a whole, I have done over 1,500 storyboards for the show and got a couple of opportunities here and there to direct second unit, which got me up to speed to supervise — which was a totally different role!” says Maher. “But I’ve always been there through post as a visual effects art director, which meant I helped out with the visuals as the show got closer to release, with shots coming by, work-

ing on the animation and the look of the composite, and painting over things.”

Expanding the Territories The Byers family and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) moving to Southern California and Jim Hopper (David Harbour) being a prison inmate in Russia added to the narrative scope. “There were a lot of set extensions, especially when you want to do these big outdoor settings with blizzard-like conditions,” states Maher. “A

lot of the scenes in Russia, for example, were shot in Lithuania. It is always interesting taking these huge locations that have been built and doing extensions to make them look as good as they do on screen.”

Each season, there is an expectation that demons coming from the hellish dimension known as the Upside Down become even more imposing, powerful and threatening.

“For Vecna, we drew a lot of inspiration early on from Nightmare on Elm Street and Pinhead

‘For Vecna, we drew a lot of inspiration early on from Nightmare on Elm Street and Pinhead from Hellraiser. I started the designs on Venca in August 2019 and would go to the writers’ room, throw stuff out at them and see what was sticking.’

— VFX supervisor Michael Maher Jr.

Freddy’s Back!

Robert Englund portrays a disturbed man who is imprisoned in a psych hospital for a gruesome murder in the ’50s.

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A New Nightmare: The horrifying Vecna monster is one of Season Four’s powerful monsters. Below: concept art created

by Michael Maher Jr. for the character.

VFX VFX

son that handle the assets,” notes Maher. “You do a handoff but then start thinking, ‘How could this be better?’ Each season we try to improve all of our assets. This season, we’ve gotten the closest to mimicking the stuff that was on set and making it fit in with the practical seamlessly. There were a lot of opportunities for that in this season specifically; that was a big focus because we have so much of the Upside Down.”

Otherworldly Effects

from Hellraiser. The Duffers [series creators Matt and Ross Duffer] always wanted to go for a more traditional horror film. I started the designs on Venca in August 2019 and would go to the writers’ room, throw stuff out at them and see what was sticking. It took a long time to get something but I was happy with the end result.”

As Stranger Things is the Duffer Brothers’ love letter to the 1980s, the siblings have cast Robert Englund, who portrayed Freddie Kruger in Nightmare on Elm Street, as Victor Creel, a psychiatric hospital inmate responsible for a gruesome murder in the 1950s. As to whether Englund will also be playing Vecna, Maher neither confirms or denies. Nevertheless, the prosthetic makeup for the demonic adversary had to be designed to be worn by a human performer. “That I can comment on!” he says.

“It was definitely taken into consideration early on. We have done full CG creatures in the past. There was a lot of debate. You design as much as you can to make the proportions look interesting and for the creature to be iconic. It needs to stand out even if you’re just seeing a silhouette or a piece of him on camera, like an over-the-shoulder shot, or in different lighting scenarios. It was a team effort to take the idea on the page, make it into something that

works on set and then augment it here and there with visual effects.”

“There is the established demon known as the Demogorgon,” says Maher, who designs and sculpts in ZBrush. “We took cues from the design of that creature, which was then populated into something that has similar language so it has the look and feel of the Upside Down. Immediately you know that it’s a creature from another world. We took inspiration from many different things. One being the Facehugger from Alien. In the end, it goes through so many hands. I pass off the concept art to the visual effects houses that build this beautiful model and animate that.”

Of course, the Upside Down plays a prominent role in Season 4. “The trick with our show is keeping true to the first season and how interesting and new that was with that wonderful nostalgia feeling and then broadening it by having more of everything, including the Upside Down,” says Maher. The special effects team was also critical to the show’s world building: “Special effects dressed huge areas with miles of crawling vines and visual effects extended the environment with our floating spores.”

Not every visual effect was leveraged from previous seasons. “One of the things that happen is you get different vendors from season to sea-

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The number of visual effects shots in Season 4 has greatly surpassed what has been previously done for the series. “It’s above 4,000 shots, at least. I don’t know the final number,” says the VFX supervisor. “We used about 30 different vendors, which is big for our show. This season is enormous as far as the effort from people in Germany, Canada, United States, China and India. An old standard is Rodeo FX, which has helped us out with our creature work in the past and has done a great job with difficult animation.”

Approximately 300 days were devoted to principal photography. “They do such great work in the edit but it just takes time to get an episode,” adds Maher. “We were getting stuff later than we would love; however, that’s always the way with visual effects.”

Overall, the biggest challenge was the amount and complexity of the visual effects work. “So many things have been shared between the vendors, but luckily, we have such a solid team that the handoff happens for the most part smoothly,” he concludes. “We have struggled with that in the past. There is stuff we have never tackled before. I’m not able to say anything specific, but I can’t wait for you to see it.”

The first half of Stranger Things Season 4 is currently streaming on Netflix. The second part will premiere on July 1.

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Tech Reviews Maya 2023

M

aya 2023 was released with a cavalcade of both major and minor features, but the biggest emphasis is in the modeling realm. I feel the most exciting feature is a change in the Boolean (data type with only two possible values, true or false) workflow. I’ve always been both a fan and enemy of Booleans. I love them for how quickly they can help you model complex objects, but I hate them for creating messy geometry, crashing the software — and, most egregiously, not being very procedural.

Maya’s 2023 Boolean tool has expanded the toolset to overcome these issues. Now the Boolean is listed as a dynamic stack of operands. You can choose the base, and then begin adding operands —each one of which can have its own math: union, difference, intersection, Slice, hole punch, cut out and split edge (the expansion of math choices alone is substantial from earlier versions). If you want to add more objects to the Boolean you can just drag form the viewport into the stack in the attribute editor. Further, you can access those operands and modify the transforms, thus dynamically changing the results. What’s even cooler is that the materials from the different objects can be transferred to the Boolean surfaces.

Maya also gets some updated retopology math — inherited from its sibling, 3ds Max — which has been using these algorithms for a couple versions.

The new methods are faster and more accurate, benefitting from a preprocessing of the model to check for and fix problems before the retopologizing. The process becomes an attribute that can be adjusted to taste to get better results. It would benefit from a way to retain UVs and maybe some live curves to guide edge flow. But this is definitely a dramatic setup forward in Maya’s toolset and allows you to get good results without having to

by Todd Sheridan Perry

jump to another program to optimize a model.

Grease Pencil has been updated to the Blue Pencil Tool — and that’s not in name only. The base functionality is the same: the ability to draw directly onto the Maya viewport as notes and annotations for feedback to the animator. Blue Pencil increases the functionality dramatically, as indicated by the new toolbar of tools. Along with the pressure-sensitive pen features, you have onion skinning to see the annotations before and after. There’s also Photoshop-type layering. Once you make drawings you can select and modify the drawing — even over time. A type tool has also been added for clear text notes. The notations are embedded into the Maya file, so you don’t lose the context of the notes.

There are plenty of more updates, but these are the standouts. I’d definitely push for moving into 2023 if a good deal of your workflow is modeling in Maya.

Website: autodesk.com/products/maya Price: $1,785 (per year); $225 (per month)

A

3ds Max 2023

long with Maya 2023, Autodesk has released the 2023 version of 3ds Max with some features that have evolved alongside Maya, and others unique to Max that were introduced in the previous edition, but have been refined for this latest release.

In earlier versions of Retopology Tools, a number of steps were involved before you actually got to the retopologizing part. In this version, those steps have been automated to not only speed up the process by removing manual steps, but also by handing a clean model to the retopology algorithm. Also, if there are problems with the mesh, the errors are much more thorough to point you to the process that failed. These optimizations, in turn, benefit

Maya as they migrate from one piece of software to the other. The difference is that in Max, there is data propagation during the process, meaning that data like UVs and Normals will be transferred from the original mesh to the retopologized mesh. And there is a display mode that allows you to compare the before and after.

In the modeling area of 3ds Max, there have been improvements in modifying your Working Pivot — you’ll notice that this is a focus over at Foundry in Nuke as well. Through Snap Working Pivot tools, you get a bunch of different tools to place, align and snap your pivot to your active object. One specific tool that excites me helps create a grid from a working pivot. In the olden days, creating a working grid was a pain. You frequently want to create new objects on a different axis than your world coordinates. Creating a new grid based on the face of an object that you can then make a new piece on that new axis is extremely helpful.

The above pivot tools work great for the Smart Extrude tool, which originally showed up in 2022.2, but is now part of the Edit Poly modifier. The Smart Extrude will automagically merge vertices and edges, or subtract geometry when the extrude is inward. It even works if an extrude pushes through the opposite side of the object and creates a hole complete with inner faces.

In alignment with developing Max and Maya to work together, Max’s Physical Material can be set to Standard Surface Compliant, which means that the material will migrate to Maya’s shaders. In conjunction, FBX files will recognize both and convert appropriately. When active, parameters named Thin Film and Sheen will be active, and any renderer that supports the Physical Material won’t have a problem. These are all important features that definitely optimize workflows.

Website: autodesk.com/products/3ds-max Price: $1,785 (per year); $225 (per month) continued on page 142

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( FIND YOURSELF )

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Nuke 13.2

N

ormally, I would wait until a full release for a product review. However, there are some really cool features in this point release since last year, that I felt I should mention them.

The first feature that caught my eye was actually implemented in 13.1, and as of 13.2 it’s still in Beta.

This is the UnrealReader node. which provides a live connection between Unreal Engine, specifically its Movie Render. So, what does this do? Once an Unreal scene is set up, the Nuke compositor can access different output channels for compositing from UE to begin finessing the image with compositing tools. This includes Matte IDs that can be selected by eyedropper picks or by wildcard selections, in the same way that you use Cryptomattes.

On top of this control of the image, the compositor can parse the camera from the UE file, which is invaluable for incorporating projection maps or for DMPs. Or, a new camera can be created to override the UE camera in case the comper needs another view of the scene, or needs to alter the camera qualities like depth of field or field of view. All of the compositing changes can then be rendered to a file sequence using the UE renderer as the foundation, but then going through the comp script for final output.

The CopyCat node was a pretty significant feature in 13, and Foundry didn’t stop developing it. This node is a Machine Learning-based tool for doing repeatable and traditionally time-consuming tasks like roto and paint. Improvements under the hood result in up to 30% speed improvements along with support for multiple GPUs. The limitation on the number of training images has been removed (but, keep in mind that the more images you use, the longer the training may take) and the ML training can be launched without a Nuke interface.

Foundry also dug into the 3D UX of Nuke, providing much more control to manipulate 3D objects in space. The most significant (even if it sounds mundane) is more intuitive controls (and more control) over the pivot points of 3D objects.

Before, it was extremely aggravating to try and position 3D objects. Handles for snapping pivot points to vertices, and then aligning them makes things much more familiar — like you are used to in

your 3D programs.

Speed benefits are additionally gained by a new rendering methodology called “top-down rendering”, which means that Nuke goes down through the script and renders whole frames at each stage.

Before, it would render the image a scanline at a time. The method optimizes caching and thread synchronization during renders.

But, the results may vary depending on the script and what nodes may benefit from it, so Nuke still defaults to the scanline mode and you choose to use top-down.

The features may not be as sexy this time around, but if you are inside of an Unreal Engine workflow or if you have begun to use the CopyCat node more, the benefits in the new build are definitely worth checking out.

Website: foundry.com/products/nuke-family Price: Various

F

Unreal Engine 5

inally, after a two-year period since the Early Release, Epic has released the stable version of Unreal Engine 5 into the wild, with all the mind-boggling goodness of the Early Release, and to top it off releasing not only a ton of learning material, but a full game that people can dig into and deconstruct, as well as a City Sample with assets that were used in The Matrix Awakens — the real-time companion piece to the latest Matrix film.

If Unreal Engine was sold at a price, I would say go ahead and buy it, just for these assets alone. But A) Unreal Engine is free and B) there is no B!

The list of features in Unreal Engine 5 is exhaustive and exhausting, the depth and breadth of which can’t fit into this review. So, let’s focus on the things I like!

Nanites are a big deal. Normally in real-time worlds, geometry has to be optimized and structured into LODs (Level of Detail) so that the engine can process everything quickly. Nanite Virtualized Geometry allows for highly detailed models to be

placed into the environment. UE5 streams the pertinent geometry data and textures based on what the camera is looking at. That allows you to push the complexity and creativity of your assets without baking out maps or dramatically optimizing the models. That said, if I start to see really messy assets just because UE5 can handle it, I’m not going to be happy.

Lumen is part of the new lighting and rendering system. It’s fully dynamic, so lighting no longer has to be static and no longer has to be baked. Global Illumination and reflections are fully hardware accelerated. Indirect lighting and specular reflection contribute more to the realism. The difference between UE5 and UE4 is night and day (no pun…)

Animation control! In earlier versions of UE, the character animation tools were not nearly robust for production work, even though many productions still made it work. The general workflow was to animation in Maya or Houdini or something and then port the data over to UE either through FBX files or through a plugin like Maya Link, which would tether Maya and UE so you could animate in one and see the results in the other. Still, that was not ideal. In UE5 there are gobs of animation controls, posing tools, retargeting tools, space switchers (to dynamically parent controls to other things).

Now, it is more intuitive to animate within UE. Then there are the modeling tools. Similar to the animation workflow, modeling is relegated to third party 3D tools, and that won’t change. But Epic has now put in a pretty comprehensive toolset for modeling within UE. For really complex stuff, I’ll go to my go-tos. But if I need to make some simpler geo or modify imported geo, I don’t have to be bothered going outside of my workspace to do it.

Again, the feature set for Unreal Engine 5 is immense, but don’t take my word for it.

Download it.

Because.

Free! (Unless you start developing games that people pay you for — then you just share the wealth, because that’s what you should do.

Website: Unreal.com Price: Free Todd Sheridan Perry is an award-winning VFX supervisor and digital artist whose credits include Black Panther, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Christmas Chronicles and Three Busy Debras. You can reach him at todd@teaspoonvfx.com.

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WISHES A HAPPY

35

TH

ANNIVERSARY TO V I S I T U S AT A N N E C Y BOOTH #E-24

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Opportunities

Autonomous Animator

By Martin Grebing

Keys to Longevity in the Animation Industry

W

ith approximately 90% of all startups failing within years of their inception, how can someone who owns and operates a studio in the animation and film effects industry outlast the competition? The answer is three-fold: Marketing, innovation and trust.

competition. Imagine a client searching for an animation company to produce a 30-second spot for one of their products: When they view demo reels and proposals, do you think they will be more impressed with an animation house that continually pushes the envelope, making strides in both style, quality and technology, or will they more likely choose an animation studio whose demo reel has not evolved in the past five years?

Innovating is about more than simply

The “T” Word

Loyal clients are the key to sustenance in business and trust is the key to developing and keeping loyal clients forever. The best way to establish trust is to always deliver — no matter what. Once you commit to a project for a specified budget with a specified delivery date, you absolutely, positively must make good on your promise. Clients don’t want to hear excuses, Marketing they expect results. You can lose a client’s trust Marketing above all else, in my opinion, is forever by missing a single deadline, by deliverthe foundation upon which a company either thrives or dives. ing poor quality work You could do everyor by submitting a thing else right — have bigger invoice than the best talent, the best expected. demo reel, the best pricClients also need ing structure, the best reto trust that you will sume — but if you don’t not overcommit. Ofget all of these wonderful tentimes, service prothings in front of enough viders (especially of the right potential clistartups and very ents, you will ultimately small businesses) will be dead in the water. try to grab all the billIn addition to continuable work they can ally marketing new poeven if it’s outside of tential clients, you must their wheelhouse. continually stay in front While this “we-canof your existing clients — do-anything-andeven the most loyal ones want-to-help-our-cli— because chances are ents-anyway-weSpongeBob and Patrick have learned the secrets to a long life on Nickelodeon. they won’t go out of their can” attitude is way to track you down when they need some- evolving your animation, it’s about embracing admirable, it inevitably leads to tremendous thing. It only takes a split second for a com- technology, time-savers and new team leaders stress, missed deadlines and sub-par quality petitor to catch their eye, but it takes years to that can give a fresh take on your standard work, because they weren’t honest with themdevelop a loyal client that provides persistent, operating procedures. Most important, howev- selves regarding their own expertise and abilrecurrent work. er, is that these innovations benefit your cli- ity to commit. And even worse — they weren’t More than simply staying in front of clients ents in bigger and better ways than ever be- honest with the client. Overcommitting, espeand new leads, you must focus on showing the fore, and that you clearly demonstrate these cially in areas that are not your specialty, is an most powerful benefits a client will receive benefits to your clients. Otherwise, it’s a moot almost sure-fire way to botch a project and from engaging in a transaction with you. They point. lose a client forever. care less about how many hours of experience Innovation can also include improvements Staying competitive in the animation and VFX you have on 3D software and much, much in efficiency. For example, if you can find ways industry is challenging, especially for the small, more about how your experience would bene- to produce and deliver the same quantity and independent business owner, but focusing on fit them. quality of work at a cost-savings, this can go a marketing, innovation and building trust with long way toward keeping your business afloat. your clients will ensure a long, Saving money on overhead and other operatfruitful career.

Innovation Oh the times, they are a-changin’ — therefore, ing costs by default will increase your profit so must your business. While keeping your core margin, sometimes by as much as 50%, 100% or Martin Grebing is the presivalues and basic services intact is important, more, so the value of innovating your producdent of Funnybone Animation you must evolve and offer something new peri- tion pipelines can be exponentially beneficial.

Studios. He can be reached at funnyboneanimation.com. odically, otherwise you risk being lapped by the www.animationmagazine.net 144

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Opportunities

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Animated Musing

By Mary Bredin

How Many Hats Does a Development Professional Wear?

I

am often asked what it means to develop a TV show. We all know what the goal is to be able to pitch an amazing story about characters that are real. To bring your listeners on that journey so everyone who hears the pitch understands it, sees it, feels it, loves it and says, “Yes, please make it!” But, how do you get there? Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that developing shows for children is about wearing lots of different hats, and knowing which hat to wear when! Once you have a good concept, then you’ll need to put on these hats on: A Writer’s Hat (A Panama hat, perhaps?) I spend lots of time reading people’s ideas and then writing suggestions and other ideas.

Show creators may be writers, but not always.

There are lots of discussions, tweaking and noodling — always trying to find the words to best describe the idiosyncrasies of characters and the heart in each idea while always being conscious of the ownership of the work.

Director (I reach for a baseball cap). Often there is no director at an early stage of either a book or a creator’s concept idea, so you need to make sure there is some clarity in what is going on and how the show is working. (Is it too static? Does it have too much action?) I loved directing theater years ago and some of these skills come back. The more you can make the pitch feel like the show has already been made, as if you’re just describing your favorite show, then you actually have a better

chance that it will get made. A great pitch can also help find a great director.

Inner Child a.k.a. the Audience (a folded paper hat). This is a challenging hat to keep on and to make sure it fits well: What does that four- or eight-year old really think and how do you find the words to express what they feel?

It is one of my favorite hats to wear because fifth grade really was a great time for me.

Comedian (a clown hat may be too much, but you need something colorful). Perhaps more than anything, every show really needs a sense of humor. If you are not conveying a sense of play, then maybe it’s not working.

Finding fun and light moments through characters is a great element for any age group.

Humor does connect … But, does it connect

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Opportunities

across cultures? Then, of course, pitching a show needs to be engaging. A great sense of humor is always a big asset, although Zoom may be stifling it these days. (I plan to take that stand-up comedy course in the fall as I desperately need some new material!)

Actor (any fabulous character hat will do — sometimes, I even indulge in my witch’s hat!)

For me, this is one of the most wonderful hats.

Why are bad characters so fun to play?! I always channel Madam Mim from Disney’s Sword in the Stone. As you try and voice all the parts, how does this character really sound and what turn of phrase would they use? I realized we all have idiosyncratic ways of speaking when I taught English in Japan and, suddenly a whole class of 40-year-old businessmen at the Mitsubishi plant sounded like a 26-year-old Canadian!

Yourself (I pull out a toque, the Canadian classic). Keep your integrity, listen to your intuition and stay balanced despite all the hats.

Know who you are. The taste you have is something that’s hard to suppress (and it’s probably not healthy to suppress). Always try to bring something better to each new story: Push yourself to change for good.

Cheerleader or Conductor’s Cap. An organizer is always needed, someone to keep the peace and work closely with everyone in all the details. You need to listen, be appreciative, understand that everyone is giving of themselves and to allow the story to grow. You need to keep the journey enjoyable, and going in one direction — more or less. It’s all a team effort and a process.

A Few Others to Consider: A sales hat — but I have found this hat very tricky, because buyers are sometimes cautious if this one fits too well. A market research hat may be needed, too, because you need to test your material in the real world. But remember Mark Twain’s famous quote: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”

The Bonus Hat (an artist’s beret). This is a tough one because finding the art to make your characters sing on a development budget is not always easy. If the words convey everything, sometimes the reader’s imagination is best left alone.

Not all hats are needed on every project.

But, working with the people who wear these hats full time and understanding their challenges is the best way to develop a show. I hope this column has clarified a few things. Of course, I could try another method for describing my work: It’s like a test kitchen creating a recipe where...

Mary Bredin is an acclaimed kids & family content veteran, currently the creative development producer at TeamTO. She has worked at Guru Studio, Disney, Nelvana, Viasat and Canal+ over the past two decades and her credits include Jade Armor, Tru and the Rainbow Kingdom and Pikwik Pack.

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Creative Notes

Creative Connections

By Josh Selig

Dear Phone I

remember when we were new and I first held your polished, humming weight in my hand. You were always much smarter than me, but still, I thought it could work. You knew what I needed before I did. I couldn’t take my eyes off you. You had a flashlight. So I took you home. I carried you with me everywhere. If I left you behind, I felt forlorn.

We had a good connection. Some called it 5G, but I knew it was love. I’ve always been a trusting person — some would say naive — so it took me longer than it should have to see what you were up to. All those years I thought

are my junk.

Before I met you, I would go see Almodóvar films at the Film Forum. Now, I watch bear cubs eating ice cream in bibs. I watch plastic canoes being pressed out by hulking machines. And I cannot even tell you how many times I’ve seen that sweet baby orangutan riding on the neck of the kindly maternal Canadian goose. But, of course, you already know how many times I watched it. You know that and everything else. And you’ve proven that I am above, well, nothing.

Happy? You are the championship wrestler

‘We had a good connection. Some called it 5G but I knew it was love. I’ve always been a trusting person — some would say naive — so it took me longer than it should have to see what you were up to.’ you were in my pocket; I see now that I was in your pocket. You were keeping track of me with so many satellites I thought were stars.

Every time I swiped, you swiped me back.

While I went about my day, you were analyzing my most intimate correspondence. You were Sigmund Freud and I was living 24/7 on your couch. No, it was worse than that. You were Hannibal Lecter and I was for dinner. Day after day you were probing my wee (and notso-wee) vulnerabilities.

One day I bought a pair of pants, and the next day you invited me to like Weight Watchers. One night I dreamt I was flying, and in the morning I woke up to an ad for life insurance.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. Really, how could you? Yes, I may have given you a few cookies, but I never invited you to eat my lunch. And now? Now, I am a junkie and you

Quantity tossing my poor old friend Quality out of the ring and hitting him repeatedly on the head with a folding metal chair.

You are an embarrassment of niches. When I try to write a letter on paper, I feel like I’m operating a butter churn, and so I stop. And I weep. You did this to me. You. Uncle. Uncle.

Uncle. I know now that I was a fool to ever let you scan my face.

But before I say goodbye, I have one thing to tell you, and I want you to listen closely (although I know that you are forever and unapologetically listening closely): I am more than my algorithm! I am from a long and proud tradition of living beings who have as our hallmarks ambiguity, pathos and dire cravings for chocolate. Things you will never know! We humans may be slow, but we are also sublime, unpredictable and, unlike you,

we can eat a taco! We can kiss! You may beat us at chess but you will never beat us at hyperbole, irony or sideways glances! Such pleasures are reserved for us, the dumb ones with the beating hearts!

Your cute silicone case may feel like skin, but I know now you are a lifeless little brick.

Sorry, I lost myself. I was always taught that endings should be handled as graciously as beginnings, so I will just say thank you.

Thank you for taking so many lovely photos of my wife and baby girl. Thank you for letting me shop for groceries in the tub. Thank you for the one million songs even though I only listen to about 10. Thank you for finding yourself when I lost you last summer.

But it’s over now. Over. Your data needs his space. So, I am placing you here in the sand by the sea where the biologists say that life began. I will let the tide lick your insides. I’ll ask the salt water to remind you of what you are not. May the barnacles seize your screen. May the seaweed disable your camera and mic.

Soon you will wish you were a mollusk. That is, if you are capable of wishing. But please don’t mate with anything. We already have enough problems.

And, finally, dear phone, as you power down, please know this: Without you I am not nothing!

Josh Selig is creator of Wonder Pets!, P. King Duckling, The Dog & Pony Show, 3rd & Bird and Small Potatoes and the President of China Bridge Content. He lives in New York City with his wife, daughter and their two dogs.

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Creative Notes

DIA.EU

EUROPEAN CO-PRODUCTION FORUM FOR ANIMATION TV SERIES

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WWW.CARTOON-ME

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A D ay I n T he L ife How much do we love the brilliant, Oscar-nominated and two-time Emmywinning director Jennifer Yuh Nelson? After breaking records — and the glass ceiling — by becoming the first woman to solo-direct a studio blockbuster (DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3) she continues to dazzle us with her work as supervising producer and director on Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots. She was kind enough to give us a look at what a typical day in her life looks like!

1 Every morning begins with a very sleepy cat.

2 Breakfast at work, with tiny muffins and Stella Levy.

3

4

Zooming and sharing screens with studios takes up a good chunk of my day.

Look who stopped by!

Emily Dean, a fellow director and all-around wonderful person.

5

6

Sun, sandwiches and catching up with Emily over lunch on the Blur Studio patio (Culver City).

7

The usual afternoon “research trip” for boba tea with Sarah Hayes and Adam Hall.

8

Sneaking in some drawing time in the late afternoon.

Shooting some behind the scenes of the behind the scenes! (My shoes were not meant to be on camera.)

9 Finally, contemplating the deep, existential question: “What’s for dinner?”

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FESTIVAL 13-18 JUNE

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A D ay I n T he L ife

MIFA 14-17 JUNE

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TokyoAnimation! 東京アニメーション！ Tokyo is home to a thriving animation industry, but much of its highly creative projects are unknown outside of Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government wants to change that by supporting the efforts of very creative companies to promote the Tokyo animation industry by taking part in MIFA. We’re opening the door to an entire rainbow spectrum of Tokyo’s talent that is rarely represented in the global animation market. With unique stories and outstanding techniques, they have so much to offer. We hope you'll take this chance to create some amazing opportunities when you meet them!

Sunny Side Ups Studio Selfish LLC http://studio-selfish.jp/WP/

Timid Muumuu Artworks https://rika-asakawa.art/

The last diviner, Hana EKURA ANIMAL.Inc. https://anime.or.jp/ info@anime.or.jp

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A D ay I n T he L ife

BYTHEWAY, an adventuring alien Kanaban Graphics, Ltd. http://www.kanaban.com

Cup of Love Memi FEE https://www.memiart.com/ memi1129@me.com

Top 5 Tokyo Animation Pitch Grand prix winners are here!

Enjoy our Virtual Pitch -6/7(Tue)-6/24(Fri) https://anime-tokyo.com/english/

Discover Tokyo Animation at MIFA2022 Video Library! https://www.annecy.org/home

International Contact :Secretariat of Tokyo at MIFA 2022

Mail:post@anime-tokyo.com Tel:+81-3-6733-3896 URL:https://anime-tokyo.com/english/

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