PIXAR’S CARS 3 | SPECIAL SECTION: MADE IN CHINA ANiMATION JUNE 2017 © WORLD CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE ARRIVES SAMURAI JACK BACK FROM THE PAST LEGEND OF TOFU: AN ANCIENT TALE COMES TO LIFE DESPICABLE ME3 GRU AND CREW MAKE A NEW DEBUT Animation World AWN .com Network a f animation is film ANiMATION WORLD © MAGAZINE June 2017 • SPECIAL ANNECY EDITION 4 Publisher’s Letter 56 Raising the Bar: GKIDS Aims High with a Passion 6 Annecy Spotlight: for Indie Animated A Chat with Marcel Jean 27 Made in China: Feature Distribution by Dan Sarto Annecy 2017 Spotlights Chinese Animation by Dan Sarto 45 FoxRenderfarm 7 MIFA at 31: A Chat 60 My Life Provides Exceptional with Mickael Marin as a Zucchini Support to Productions by Dan Sarto Celebrates Around the Globe Love and By William Welte 9 Gru and Resilience Crew Make 28 Chinese Shorts By Scott Lehane a New Debut Highlight Seven at Annecy’s Decades of Artistry 62 ABC’s Hybrid Bonlieu and Experimentation Series Imaginary by Dan Sarto By Chris Colman Mary Unleashes Maximum 12 Director Brian Fee 33 Playfun Cuteness 46 Leads a Blends Chinese Features at By Scott Lehane Crack Pit Virtual and Annecy Reflect Diverse Crew in Actual in Takes on Culture, 64 Bix Pix Brings Cars 3 Themed Attractions Narrative and Style Handcrafted Approach to By Scott By William Welte By Chris Colman Amazon’s Tumble Leaf Lehane By Jennifer Wolfe 34 BigBigSun Has Big, 49 Ice Orange 16 Picture Me Big Time: Big Plans for the Future Offers Exceptional Daisy Jacobs’ By William Welte Production Support The Full Story By William Welte By Chris Robinson 36 Hongyao Brings Power of the 50 Xanthus 18 Steven Woloshen’s Bamboo Spirit to Breaks New Casino Gambles with Pange and Pakun Ground in Children’s Flux and Feeling by Raymond D. Neoh 66 Guillermo del Toro’s Animation By Sharon Katz Trollhunters Makes 38 Joey Zou and By William Magic for Netflix Welte 20 Captain Weying Technology By Scott Lehane Underpants: Realize a Dream 52 CGGE Brings China The First Epic by Raymond D. Neoh 70 Motor Away: to the World and the v Movie Brings Špela Cadež’s World to China Wacky Hi- Nighthawk by Raymond D. Neoh jinks to the By Chris Robinson Big Screen 54 Dongfang By Scott Lehane 72 Genndy Jucheng Tartakovsky Excels in 23 Michael Dudok de Wit 41 ‘China, Art in and the Children’s Expands Motion’ Showcases Return of and Family His Pioneering New Samurai Entertainment Horizons Chinese Animation Art Jack By William Welte with The Red Turtle By Chris Colman by Dan Sarto by Dan Sarto awn.com 3 June 2017 PUBLISHER’s LeTTER ANiMATION WORLD © MAGAZINE here’s been a year’s worth of creative ex- SPECIAL ANNECY EDITION cellence since we last gathered in Annecy, annual home of the world’s largest and CO-FOUNDERS & PUBLISHERS most prestigious film festival dedicated to DAN SARTO & RON DIAMOND the art of animation. Expertly shepherded and curated by the festival’s creative EDITOR IN CHIEF director, Marcel Jean, working alongside MIFA market DAN SARTO Tdirector Mickael Marin, Annecy continues to innovate, EDITOR each year expanding its scope and vision to host a truly JENNIFER WOLFE international celebration of everything animated in this uniquely beautiful lakeside town. And this year’s ASSOCIATE EDITOR program is bigger and more diverse than ever. JON HOFFERMAN From Pixar’s Cars 3 to DreamWorks Animation’s CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, animated CHRIS COLMAN features are taking center stage at Annecy, and our SHARON KATZ special festival edition of Animation World Magazine has them all. Our cover story SCOTT LEHANE on Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 3 discusses the evolution of the CHRIS ROBINSON blockbuster franchise and its Minions spinoff with directors Pierre Coffin and Kyle WILLIAM WELTE Balda, and producers Janet Healy and Chris Meledandri. We also talk to director Michael Dudok de Wit about his feature film debut, the Oscar-nominated The Red CONTRIBUTING WRITERS (China): Turtle, produced with Studio Ghibli, which premiered at Annecy last year. And RAYMOND D. NEOH director Claude Barras provides a wealth of interesting background on his Oscar- SOPHIA ZHU nominated My Life as a Zucchini. ADVERTISING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT This year’s guest country is China, whose animation industry continues to grow in DONNA M. BULFORD size, technological sophistication and storytelling prowess. Annecy’s celebration of CHRISTINA HALSTEAD China centers around a major month-long art exhibition presented at the Château [email protected] d’Annecy Musée lacs et montagnes, with classic film materials from the famed ADVERTISING & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Shanghai Animation Film Studio on display alongside a number of installations by (China): artists and filmmakers, including Sun Xun, Haiyang Wang, Wu Chao and Weilun ZOE WONG Xia, who are working at the frontiers of contemporary art and animation. The trib- STAN TIAN ute to China also includes a dozen retrospective programs, including a screening of SOPHIA ZHU China’s first animated feature Princess Iron Fan (1941), by brothers Laiming and CLOUDY POON Guchan Wan; three programs of historical short films; retrospectives of the work of RACHEL CHAN Sun Xun, Xu An and Xi Chen; a program of short films from contemporary artists; and the best shorts from Chinese schools. CREATIVE DIRECTION & DESIGN The past 12 months have seen a record number of high-quality animated shorts LESTER GOODMAN by filmmakers from around the globe, and we’ve spotlighted three of them here: U.K. ANIMATION WORLD NETWORK director Daisy Jacobs’ The Full Story, the follow-up to her Oscar-nominated The Big- 13300 Victory Blvd. Suite 365 ger Picture; Croatian animator Špela Čadež’s stop-motion Nighthawk, produced by Van Nuys, CA 91401 Bonobostudio; and Canadian animator Steven Woloshen’s latest project, Casino. (818) 786-5402 We also take a look at the rise of independent animation distributor GKIDS, the www.awn.com • [email protected] return of Genndy Tartakovsky’s gorgeously animated Samurai Jack, Oscar-winning director Patrick Osborne’s new hybrid television series Imaginary Mary, Guillermo del CG GLOBAL Entertainment CO., LTD. Toro’s Trollhunters, Amazon’s stop-motion preschool series Tumble Leaf, and more. Room 1801-2, Jubilee Center, So grab a tight-fitting café chair, order a double espresso and plat du jour brimming 46 Gloucester Road, with cream, butter and something easily cut with a fork, and enjoy AWN.com’s Wanchai, Hong Kong celebration of all things Annecy and the art, craft and industry of animation. (852) 2580 8168 www.cggemedia.com See you by the lake, Dan Sarto © AWN, Inc. 2017. Co-Founder & Publisher, Animation World Network All rights reserved. No part of the periodical may be repro- duced without the prior consent of Animation World Network. The copyrights and trademarks of images featured herein Animation are the property of their respective owners. Animation World World Magazine acknowledges the creators and copy- Network right holders of the materials mentioned herein, and does not seek to infringe on those rights. June 2017 4 Animation World Magazine The 18th Annual 17 ALL-NEW ANIMATED INTERNATIONAL SHORTS ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS “This feature-length animated shorts program showcases the most astounding animation of all kinds from around the world. The Animation Show of Shows is like a mega-flight of the best spirits in the world, representing a broad range of human experiences, from the dramatic to the comedic, from the sentimental to the macabre.” - Elijah Davidson, Reel Spirituality THEATRICALLY RELEASED IN OVER 70 NORTH AMERICAN CITIES AVAILABLE IN ALL INTERNATIONAL MARKETS - CONTACT [email protected] ANNECY SPOTLIGHT: A CHat WITH MARCEL JEAN Annecy’s artistic director discusses the importance of providing a showcase for the entire landscape of animation. After serving as a guest programmer at Annecy (and many other festi- vals) throughout the early 2000s, in June 2012, Marcel Jean was appointed Annecy’s artistic director, succeeding longtime director think Serge Bromberg. From the every film start, Jean sought to shake “ things up, giving the festival I that is a more international orien- selected for tation, programming more live events, and hosting Annecy must more world premieres. have a Jean spoke to AWN pub- spotlight lisher and editor-in-chief PHOTO BY L Dan Sarto about his on it.” tenure, the state of world animation, and how the 2017 festival will offer yet O U SCRAM more innovations. Dan Sarto: So how are BL you enjoying being An- E. necy’s artistic director? Marcel Jean: I have a lot of fun. When I was appointed five competition before, so now they will have the opportunity to years ago, the first thing that was important for me was to be awarded. find a place for films that were at the edge of animation. So I think every film that is selected for Annecy must have a one of my first moves was to create the “Off-Limits” section. spotlight on it. We will continue to work this way. I’m very proud of that. I’m very happy that we will have this competitive category for our fourth year. DS: For me, one of the main focuses of Annecy has always Another move that we made at the very beginning was to been the incredible selection of short films.Y et there has been create an annual Honorary Cristal. I think it’s important to this growing emphasis, internationally as well as with the give a recognition to important people in the world of anima- festival, on independent animated features. What are your tion that didn’t have the opportunity to be in competition or thoughts on this? to receive the Cristal.