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THE BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY & ART OF AND VFX

January 2013 ™

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0 74470 82258 5 www.animationmagazine.net

THE BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY & ART OF ANIMATION AND VFX

January 2013 ™

The Return of The Snowman and The Littlest Pet Shop + From Up on The Visual Wonders Poppy Hill: of Life of Pi Goro Miyazaki’s $7.95 U.S. 01> Valentine to a Gone-by Era 0 74470 82258 5 www.animationmagazine.net

4 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 Volume 27, Issue 1, Number 226, January 2013

Content

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Frame-by-Frame Oscars ‘13 Games 8 January Planner...Books We Love 26 10 Things We Loved About 2012! 46 Oswald and Mickey Together Again! 27 The Winning Scores Game designer spills the beans on the new The of some of the best animated Epic Mickey 2 release and tells us how much he loved Features of the year discuss their craft and inspirations. [by Ramin playing with older Disney characters and long-forgotten 12 A Valentine to a Vanished Era Zahed] park attractions. Goro Miyazaki’s delicate, coming-of-age movie From Up on Poppy Hill offers a welcome respite from the loud, CG world of most American movies. [by Charles Solomon] Television Visual FX 48 Building a Beguiling Bengal Tiger 30 The Next Little Big Thing? VFX supervisor discusses some of the The Hub launches its latest franchise revamp with fashion- mind-blowing of Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. [by Events forward The Littlest Pet Shop. [by Mercedes Milligan] Thomas J. McLean] 16 Whistle While You [Art]Work 32 The Return of a Seasonal Friend The inaugural show at The Family Museum’s Channel 4 and Lupus revive Raymond Briggs’ be- new special exhibit space celebrates the artistry of Snow loved characters in a new animated special The Snowman White. and the Snowdog. [by Ramin Zahed] Opportunities 18 The World Animation Feature & Visual Effects 34 Casts a Spell on SpongeBob 50 Adventures in 3-D Stereography Summit How the talented team at brought a famil- Savannah College of Art and Design leads the way in iar 2D toon to 3D life in the It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! offering courses on stereoscopic filmmaking and imaging. special. [by Ramin Zahed] [by Ellen Wolff] Shorts 36 Dive into This Fantastic Cartoon Lagoon 21 A New House of Horror Manny Galán and Pat Giles’ new DVD project offers a hi- Spanish helmer Raul Garcia pays homage to Edgar Allan larious mishmash of puppetry and public domain cartoons. 52 A Day in the Life of ... Poe in the CG-animated short, The Fall of the House of This month we join Genevieve Webster and Michael De Souza’s Usher. [by Ramin Zahed] chart-topping reggae rodent Rastamouse on his daily adventures 22 In the Beginning… Milestones thanks to producers Three Stones Media. Minkyu Lee discusses his Annie-winning, Oscar short-listed, 38 2013 Anniversaries Genesis themed short and Dog. [by Mercedes We celebrate the toon old-timers (and some fresh faces) Milligan] celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. 24 A Perfect Period Piece Ôtomo’s beautiful new short Combustible condenses a lifetime of events in a 12-minute format.

Take Home Ted for Free in December! Cover: GKIDS will wide release Studio This month, we are giving away five copies of MacFarlane’s Ghibli’s From Up on Ted on Blu-ray/DVD Poppy Hill in March. (available on Dec. 11, from Universal Home Ent., $34.98). For Your Check out our website for news, views and weekly prize giveaways. Consideration: Disney’s Wreck-It Visit www.animationmagazine.net every day for chances Ralph, Frankenweenie to win cool toon-related prizes and Disney-’s Brave.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 5 Editor’s Letter ANIMATION MAGAZINE January 2013 Vol. 27, Issue 1, No. 226 [email protected]

good friend always used to complain about her maddening schedule in December. One of her big gripes President/Publisher Jean Thoren A was that the studios waited until shopping season to unload all their biggest, brightest movie releases. “Why don’t they spread the goods evenly all year round, so that we can get our holiday shopping and Accounting Jan Bayouth entertaining done without having to worry about catching up with all the award-worthy releases playing in theaters?” EDITORIAL Of course, we all know that the award season logistics have made it a necessity for the studios to unleash [email protected] their top guns in November and December. Call it the year-end squeaky wheel gets the Oscar oil. The fresher the Editor-in-Chief Ramin Zahed movie is in the voters’ minds, the better its chances are of getting the nod when the numerous awards’ envelopes Associate Editor Mercedes Milligan are opened in January and February. Webmaster Steven Dietrich Having covered most of the big studio movies such as Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph and DreamWorks’ Rise of the Digital Reviews Editor Todd Sheridan Perry Guardians in previous months, we decided to devote our cover story this month to GKIDS’ From Up on Poppy Hill, which was released in Japan in 2011, but is getting an Oscar-qualifying run in the U.S. this month. Our sources tell us that Goro Miyazaki’s Contributors acclaimed movie will get its official theatrical release in March of 2013, so you can Thomas J. McLean, Charles Solomon, Ellen consider Charles Solomon’s excellent article on the making of the film a special Wolff sneak peek. Over this past year, we already covered GKIDS’ other hot Oscar con- tenders—The Painting, Zarafa and The Rabbi’s Cat—in the pages of our magazine, so if SALES you’d like to learn more about these beautifully crafted, handmade films, make sure [email protected] to visit our website and order our back issues at www.animationmagazine.net/shop. Sheri Shelton Adding to this issue’s festive holiday spirit are two pieces on TV specials that remind us why we all love to bundle up Tom Whalen’s poster for Event Director and stay home after a tough day of fighting A Christmas [email protected] crowds in shopping malls. We got a chance Kim Derevlany to chat with the team at L.A.’s own Screen Novelties, the creative team behind this year’s stop-motion special It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! We PRODUCTION also lucked out and managed to snag an interview with Camilla Dea- [email protected] kin, the co-founder of ’s Lupus Films, who produced the new Art Director/Production Manager British holiday special The Snowman and the Snowdog. Let’s hope that Susanne Rector U.S. broadcasters will jump on it and buy the rights for a holiday 2013 It’s a Wonderful Life airdate stateside. After all is said and done, it’s better to have an abundance of animated entertainment choices in December. CIRCULATION Just like smart chipmunks like Chip ‘n’ Dale, we can store the good finds for the future. Hang on to the good [email protected] DVDs, and pay-per-views for the first quarter of the year, when really awful movies haunt the theaters. Mean- Circulation Director Jan Bayouth while, don’t forget to use these final weeks of the year to share meaningful moments with your loved ones, savor the family meals and enjoy a nostalgic holiday movie or two on TV together. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to watch It’s a Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time and hear Clarence the angel tell George Bailey TO ADVERTISE: once again, “You’ve really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?” Phone: 818-883-2884 Fax: 818-883-3773 Email: [email protected] Website: www.animationmagazine.net

List Rental Quantum List Marketing 480-860-6036 ANIMATION MAGAZINE Ramin Zahed (USPS 015-877/ISSN 1041-617X) Editor-in-Chief [email protected] Published monthly except for combined issues of April/May, June/July and Dec/Jan, by: Animation Magazine 24943 Kit Carson Road Quote of the Month Calabasas, CA 91302 Periodicals postage paid at Woodland Hills Post Office CA, And additional mailing offices. “The two best animation studios in the world, DreamWorks and Pixar, are POSTMASTER: in a transition period where they are obliged to invent new things so that SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO MAILING ADDRESS: ANIMATION MAGAZINE they don’t repeat the same film all the time. More 26500 W. Agoura Rd. Ste. 102-651 Calabasas, CA 91302 than ever, even in its business aspects, animation needs TO SUBSCRIBE: inventiveness and artists. I’m very curious to find out For the U.S., the rate is $55 for 1 year or $90 for 2 years. Rates for and Mexico are US$70 for 1 year or US$115 for 2 years delivered by foreign airmail. Foreign rates are US$85 for 1 year or US$140 for 2 years delivered by foreign airmail. what will happen in the coming years. “ Please allow six to eight weeks for initial delivery. Also available in a digital version for $36 for 1 year or $60 for 2 years.

— Joann Sfar, co-director, producer and writer of The Rabbi’s Cat Animation Magazine © 2013 Animation Magazine Prior written approval must be obtained to duplicate any and all contents. The copyrights and trademarks of images featured herein are the property of their respective owners. Animation Magazine acknowledges the creators and copyright holders of the materials mentioned herein, and does not seek to infringe on those rights. 6 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 7 Animation Planner January

The Palm 2 The year’s first DVD 3 Keep an eye on 3-14 Nothing says the new Springs International Film 4 releases are a wild mix: Dino the news today as year is here like the release Festival features a fantastic Dan: To Catch a Dino, The Producers Guild of of Texas Chainsaw 3D, collection of films and shorts Cat in the Hat Knows a America announces its a new take on the classic from all over the globe this Lot About That: Hurray five Animated Feature Tobe Hooper week. (psfilmfest.org) It’s Valentine’s Day and nominations. about the homicidal Sawyer Being family. Human: The Complete Second Season.

The 7 VES Awards BAFTA noms 10 After months of 11 A Haunted House 11-20 8 Flickerfest Short Film nominations are announced are announced campaigning and guessing offers a new spoof on the Festival in Sydney, today. (visualeffectssociety. today. New DVD by so-called Paranormal Activity series, , offers a healthy com) picks of award gurus, starring Marlon Wayans and dose of animated projects. the week we finally get Cedric the Entertainer. (flickerfest.com.au) are Archer: The to find out Complete Season which five 3 and Tiny Toon animated Adventures: features make Crazy Crew the Oscar nomination list. Rescues.

13 Funny 15 The Amazing 17-27 New indie 18 18-24 If ladies Tina Fey and World of Gumball: The animated short filmmakers Schwarzenegger returns Sundance is way too host Mystery and Sponge- will find their way to the to the screen in The Last hip and crowded for the annual Golden Bob SquarePants: annual Sundance Film Stand, playing a tough-as- you, why not give Park Globe Awards at Extreme Kah-Rah-Tay lead the list Festival in Park City, Utah nails sheriff who takes on a City’s Slamdance the Beverly Hills Hilton. Yup, of this week’s cool animated DVD this week. (sundance.org/ notorious drug kingpin. Directed by festival a try this year? releases. Also avail- they give festival) Kim Ji-Woon. (slamdance.com) out a Best able today: Also opening today is Animated Merlin: The the supernatural thriller Feature Complete Mama, exec produced Globe, too. 4th Season. by Guillermo del Toro.

22 Iron Man: Armored 25 Need another kick-ass version of a 28-30 Miami 29 You can sink your Adventures Season classic ? How about Hansel and Beach’s Fontainebleau teeth into Genndy Tarta- 2, Vol. 3; Pokemon Gretel: Witch Hunters, directed by Tommy Resort hosts the 2013 kovsky’s Hotel Transylvania, Black & White Set 2 Wirkola and starring Jeremy Renner and edition of the NATPE content Sony’s blockbuster hit of the and Young Justice Gemma Arterton as the brother-and-sister market. (natpe.org) fall season which is available Invasion: Destiny team who are out to get today on DVD and Blu-ray. Also Calling, Season even with their former captor. available today: : The 2, Part 1 are all Statham and Jennifer Lopez—need Dark Knight Re- available for we say more? OK…they are starring turns, Part 2; Michel your at-home viewing in Parker, the new adaptation of the Ocelot’s Tales of the pleasure. best-selling crime thrillers by Donald E. Night and : Legend Westlake. of the Magical Hammer.

To get your company’s events and products listed in this monthly calendar, please e-mail [email protected].

8 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 9 Books We Love Imagination Illustrated: The Journal The Art and Making of By Karen Falk [Chronicle Books, $29.95] Animation: Celebrating Fifty Years of Although it’s been over 22 years Television Specials since the world lost Jim Henson to By Charles Solomon cancer, his legacy continues to live [Chronicle Books, $45] on with each passing year. In the new collection which is compiled from A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, archives, Charlie Brown are probably two of the most popular we get the rare chance to learn more and influential holiday TV specials in the history of about his genius and take in many animation. That’s why it’s such a huge treat to dive of his visual inspirations, drawings, into animation expert Charles Solomon’s beautiful photographs and evocative doodles. and extensively researched new book about the This scrapbook style collection offers creation of these important works by , notes about the important accomplishments and dates in his life and their team. The richly illustrated (compiled from Henson’s notes from 1954 to 1988), accompanied book tells the fascinating story of how Charles M. Schulz’s beloved comic- by very cool original drawings of characters such as Oscar the strip characters made the leap from the page to the TV and movie screen and Grouch, Snuffleupagus and Rowlf the Dog, as well as concept notes includes interviews with the directors and , voice actors and leading from World of Woozles, which became Fraggle Rock. Diehard fans animation stars of today such as , and can also take in early career trivia, and info about projects that Docter as they look back at how these seminal works influenced them and never came to fruition such as a Wizard of Id series and a Muppet other pop culture figures as a whole. “I never realized the impact our shows Broadway show. We can’t think of any true Henson fan or pop had on creators whom I admire so much,” writes Mendelson in the book’s culture connoisseur who wouldn’t be delighted to add this volume foreword. Thanks to this wonderful book and its rich collection of insights, to their collection. Pair this book with last year’s Doodling with Jim sketches, concept art, , storyboards and behind-the-scenes photos, the Henson (Walter Foster, $19.95) and the new anniversary DVD/ legacy of these animated gems is documented forever. It’s a fine, fine art book, Blu-ray of The Muppet Christmas Carol (Disney, $19.99) and you can Charlie Brown! have yourself the perfect Henson-themed holiday season.

The Art of Pixar, Volume II: The Storyboard Artist: A Guide to 100 Collectible Postcards Freelancing in Film, TV and Advertising By Giuseppe Cristiano By Pixar [Michael Wiese Productions, $24.95] [Chronicle Books, $18.95]

A few years ago, Chronicle came One of the most important lessons up with an awesome collection of animation and vfx professionals need postcards featuring storyboard art to learn is the importance of polishing from the studio’s earlier features one’s craft and increasing one’s flexibility such as , , and hirability in today’s ultra-competitive Monsters, Inc. and . Since market. Giuseppe Cristiano is a skilled that edition was a huge hit for the storyboard artist who has worked on publishing house, they are offering numerous TV and feature projects around a second collection this year—and the world. He has decided to share some of the key ways of landing jobs as a we couldn’t be happier. Don’t get us storyboard artist with readers in this informative, well-illustrated book. Some wrong—we love the finished, crystal- of the points he brings up land on the obvious side; for example, he says it’s a clear CG-animated movies as much as everyone else, good idea to sit in the emergency seats on airplanes because they offer more but come on, how can we resist the crisp lines, the color leg room and you can sketch more freely when traveling. But he also shares scripts and the lively sketches that practically dance in front valuable tips about how to use storyboards to figure out a project’s budget, of our eyes? The 2012 collection features 100 individual and stresses the importance of improving one’s drawing skills and polishing cards graced with art from Ratatouille, WALL•E, Up, Toy Story anatomy, perspective and framing crafts. He also does a nice job of explaining 3, 2, Brave and the 18 short films that were released movie terminology for beginners, but he is best when he is explaining the after 2007. It’s a good idea to buy two sets—one to use to nuts and bolts of landing a gig, working with producers and directors in the send friends and [nice] family members and the other to real world and dealing with contracts and budgets. decorate your office or cubicle walls!

10 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 11 Features

romance quickly develops between these likable teenagers. A Valentine to a Vanished Era Although Tales From Earthsea was the biggest hit of the 2006 summer Goro Miyazaki’s delicate, coming-of-age movie From Up on Poppy Hill offers in Japan, earning more than 7.3 bil- a welcome respite from the loud, CG world of most American movies. lion yen (about $61.4 million), it re- by Charles Solomon ceived a cool reception in America. Fans of Ursula K. LeGuin com- plained about the liberties the oro Miyazaki’s gentle new kohama in honor of her father, who volved in the efforts to preserve fledgling director had taken with film,From Up on Poppy Hill was lost at sea during the Korean “the Latin Quarter:” Plans are afoot her much-loved Earthsea novels. G (Kokuriko-Zaka Kara), was War. When she meets Shun Kazama to demolish the beloved but dilapi- Poppy Hill is a more assured film; its the top-earning animated feature in (Anton Yelchin), the editor of their dated building that houses the warmth and charm recall Yoshifumi Japan in 2011, grossing almost $54 high school newspaper, she gets in- school clubs. A believably awkward Kondo’s feature Whis- million and outdrawing two Poké- mon features. It also won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Animated Feature, and U.S. audiences will fi- nally be able to enjoy it on the big screen in the next few months. Set in early 1960s Japan, Poppy Hill is more intimate than Miyazaki’s directoral debut, Gedo Senki or Tales From Earthsea (2006). Every morn- ing before leaving for school, the industrious Umi Matsuzaki (voiced A Glance Through Time: Miyazaki and his team by Sarah Bolger) flies signal flags in strove for accuracy in representing ‘60s Japan; a time many in the country consider peaceful and nostalgic. the yard of her seaside home in Yo-

12 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 Young Romance: It was important for Miyazaki to avoid excess dialog, instead focusing on the characters’ subtle expressions to tell the story.

per of the Heart (1995). After an create a large-scale work.” “For Japanese people, the brief ko Niwa from a graphic novel illus- Oscar-qualifying run, indie distribu- From Up on Poppy Hill takes place period between the late 1950s and trated by Chizuru Takahashi and tor GKIDS will release the film next during preparations for the 1964 the early ’60s was an interval be- written by Tetsuro Sayama. “I did March in the , where it Olympics, an event that pro- tween a war overflowing with blood, not have an opportunity to work should find a receptive audience, as claimed Japan’s re-emergence after and an opulent economic era over- with the creators of the graphic it did in . the destruction of WWII and the flowing with money,” he explains. novel,” Goro says. “ Miyazaki talked about his new wrote the adaptation and I made film in a recent interview conduct- “I think it is best to show a situation or a the creative decisions as director. ed via e-mail, with help from trans- character’s inner feelings without the use However, I read the original work lator Anna J. Takayama. In contrast when I was young and really liked it, to the dragon-haunted fantasy of dialogue. I think animated films and live so I wanted to make sure that I realm of Earthsea, Poppy Hill unfolds action share this in common. I believe that a honored it.” in everyday reality, which posed Unlike many recent American challenges for Miyazaki. film is richer when expressing a character’s animated features, From Up on Poppy “I found it difficult to make a film feelings in scenes without dialogue. However, Hill doesn’t talk to the audience to that was set in an existing period death. The filmmakers often rely on and place,” he recalls. “When I ques- it demands a lot of capability on the Satoshi Takebe’s subtle jazz score tioned how I could show the reality creators’ part, so it is takes courage.” and the strength of the animation to of this story, I thought about creat- carry the story. Miyazaki praises his ing an animated film with a live-ac- — Director Goro Miyazaki collaborators: “Koji Kasamatsu, the tion film in mind. However, focusing sound designer, and Satoshi Takebe, solely on realism rendered the film period of rebuilding that followed. “Although there were many social who did the music, both did a tre- chatty. I found it difficult to find a Kyu Sakamoto’s cross-over pop hit problems, people felt that it was a mendous job answering my objec- balance, and make the film without “Ue o muite aruko,” known in the time of relative peace and calm. Not tive to express the characters’ - losing the sense of freedom and fun U.S. as “Sukiyaki,” plays in the back- only I, but many Japanese feel a kind ings not with dialogue, but with that is inherent in animation. I now ground. Although nostalgia for the of nostalgia for this period.” creative direction and acting. I can feel that it’s more my style to make era is almost palpable, Miyazaki The script for Poppy Hill was say the same about the work’s a relatable film with care than to wasn’t born until 1967. adapted by Hayao Miyazaki and Kei- sense of period and atmosphere.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 13 Finding His Niche: Goro, son of Without those two, the film would says. “I think we were able to por- on his next project. When the inevi- the famous studio founder Hayao give a very different impression.” tray the mountain of clutter in the table questions about the experience Miyazaki, took a wide departure from “I think it is best to show a situa- Latin Quarter only because we en- of working with his celebrated father his first movie Earthsea with this film. tion or a character’s inner feelings joyed drawing it. In each stage of the arise, he concludes, “Whether in a The budding director says he now feels more comfortable telling a without the use of dialogue,” Mi- process—from the storyboards, to tangible or intangible way, I learned realistic story. yazaki continues. “I think animated the layouts, to the background many things and I feel that it was a films and live action share this in art—the ideas of various staff mem- very meaningful experience. In par- common. I believe that a film is rich- bers built onto the clutter, so to ticular, his words: ‘Animation is not er when expressing a character’s speak. That’s how the setting was about portraying reality. It is about feelings in scenes without dialogue. created.” showing one’s intention,’ have left a However, it demands a lot of capa- At a time when American anima- mark on my heart. Those words bility on the creators’ part, so it tion is dominated by CG, Poppy Hill opened up my view of animation.” takes courage.” reminds the viewer of the singular Another challenge—which Mi- charms of hand-drawn animation. GKIDS will release From Up yazaki clearly enjoyed—was creat- “I’ve been watching hand-drawn on Poppy Hill in March of ing the Latin Quarter, with its de- animation since I was a child, so I 2013. The feature also re- cades of dust and clutter. Drawing a have more of a fondness for it than ceived an Oscar-qualifying believable mess is much more diffi- CG. I believe that hand-drawn ani- run in in No- cult than it sounds. In the U.S., Jim mation is better-suited for showing vember. Borgman of the Zits is a richness in expression,” Miyazaki master at depicting the mounds of explains. “However, it is unfortu- Charles Solomon is an ani- debris a high school kid generates. nately true that artists who create mation historian and teach- But the Latin Quarter overflows hand-drawn animation are aging and er whose most recent books with the accumulated detritus of decreasing in number. If we want to are The Art and Making of Pea- decades of high school students. continue creating animated films, nuts Animation: Celebrating Fifty “We worked with several art di- whether we like it or not, we will Years of Television Specials rectors for this film: This was partly probably have to work with CG. As (Chronicle Books) and The because we wanted to provide our CG animation is still developing, it Toy Story Films: An Animated younger talent the opportunity to offers possibilities and challenges Journey (Chronicle Books). Goro Miyazaki work, but also because we had we will have a chance to confront.” He first interviewed Goro strict time constraints,” Miyazaki Goro Miyazaki is already at work Miyazaki in 2006.

14 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 GKIDS Spreads the Wealth in 2013 Thanks to the hard work of Eric Beckman and his smart team at GKIDS (which stands for Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate!) audiences around the U.S. will be able to enjoy the best of global animation cinema all year round. Here is a quick look at what this innovative distributor’s tentative release schedule looks like in the next few months.

The Rabbi’s Cat. Based on Joann Sfar’s acclaimed graphic novel, this beautiful comedic fable centers on a cat living in 1920s Algeria, who gains the ability to speak Hebrew after swallowing a parrot and expresses his desire to convert to Judaism to his owner the Rabbi. Directed by Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux, the pic won the Annecy prize for Best Animated Feature this year. (Opens on December 7 in City and January 18, 2013 in Los Angeles and around the country.)

From Up on Poppy Hill. See article. (Opens on March 15).

The Painting. (Le Tableau) Directed by veteran French helmer Jean-François Laguionie, this allegorical work is set in the world of a 1930s artist’s atelier, where three races of painting beings—the completed Alldunns, the partially done Halfies and the roughly rendered Sketchies—battle each other for supremacy. Ramo, an Alldunn, and Claire, the Halfie he loves, join up with inquisitive Lola on a quest to find the artist who created them and find out his reasons for causing their differences. Co-written by Anik Le Ray (Eleanor’s Secret), the pic mixes CG animation, 2D and even a bit of live-action! (Opens in April 2013)

Zarafa. Based on the story of the arrival of the first giraffe from Sudan to Paris, this charming family feature marries the best of 2D animation and classical storytelling. Plot surrounds 10-year-old Maki who purses his beloved pet giraffe, through Alexandria, Marseille and the snowy Alps on an exciting journey full of adventures and odd characters. Directed by Remi Bezancon, Jean- Christophe Lie. (Opens in May 2013) . ’s inventive feature centers on a shy and imaginative 11-year-old girl who moves to a small island with her mom after her dad passes away. There, she encounters mysterious events and eventually encounters strange creatures unlike anything she has known before. (Summer of 2013) Wrinkles. (Arrugas) A dignified senior citizen faces the early signs of Alzheimer’s and forms new friendships at a retirement home in this poignant and humorous Spanish feature. Directed by Ignacio Ferreras and adapted from an acclaimed graphic novel by . (Summer of 2013)

Ernest & Celestine. A non-conformist mouse who wants to be an artist forms a strong friendship with a bear, although they both become outcasts in their own communities in this charming 2D adaptation of the book series by Daniel Pennac. Directed by Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner. (Fall of 2013)

Grave of the Fireflies () and My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki). GKIDS will offer a special theatrical release of these two landmark titles, both of which will celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2013. Also be on the lookout for the traveling Studio Ghibli retrospective series.

For more info, visit www..tv

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 15 Event Color Model Sheet of Dwarfs; Disney J.B. Kaufman, the author and film Studio Artist; Model sheet; graphite copy historian responsible for the concur- on paper; Walt Disney Animation Research rently published book The Fairest One of Library; © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All: The Making of Walt Disney’s and the Dwarfs (Weldon throne, and learned that at one point Owen, $75), shares that he was able to she was supposed to have a peacock interview Marjorie Belcher (Marge sidekick. One of the exhibits most im- Champion)—who as a teenager was pactful pieces was not from the Library, the live-action artists’ model for Snow however. “There is a magnificent White—about her memories of the setup of the Queen consulting the mir- film. While he regrets that none of the ror that was loaned by avid Snow White key artists behind the film are alive to- collector Steve Ison,” Smith explains. day, “30 years ago it was a different “The mirror is surrounded by the as- story, and at that time I was fortunate trological signs and the Queen is enough to interview a number of the decked out in an exquisite robe and major talents behind Snow White: ani- crown. Not only is the condition per- mators Grim Natwick, fect, but the regal appearance of the and , layout artist Ken scene is stunning.” O’Connor, background painter Maurice Whistle While You While very few of the incredible tal- ... Their memories were invalu- ents who created the film in the 1930s able in writing The Fairest One of All and [Art]Work are with us today, Smith shares that she the exhibition catalog,” says Kaufman. was able to meet the legendary Marc After spending years immersed in The inaugural show at The Walt Davis a few years before his death and these precious materials, Smith and Museum’s new special exhibit space celebrates the hear his thoughts on the film. “He told Kaufman have a new understanding of artistry of Snow White. me how the artists were faced with what has kept Snow White so popular his past November, The Walt derstand the planning and commit- new challenges in drawing the Snow for three quarters of a century. As Disney Family Museum in San ment that went into the film through White characters,” she recalls. “There Smith details, the film got off to a crack- T Francisco broke in its new carefully selected art pieces. was a new realism necessary that had ing start with over 20 million people special exhibition space—and celebrat- With the help of the Animation Re- not applied to Mickey, Donald or seeing it in its first months in theaters ed the 75th anniversary of Disney’s search Library’s hard-working staff of … ‘If Pluto fell off a cliff, he would get up and travelling to 46 countries by the first animated feature effort—with the 25, the months of research went and shake himself off and walk away, but following year; and in 2008, the Ameri- opening of Snow White and the Seven smoothly. “We were trying to repre- if Snow White fell off a cliff, she would can Film Institute named it the number Dwarfs: of a Classic. sent every element of the animation break her arm.’ The film could not be a one animated film of all time. “The Guest curated by Lella Smith, creative process, from concept art to story succession of gags. It had to be filled film’s success is due to its winning for- director of the Walt Disney Animation sketches, animation drawings, layouts with characters that the audience cared mula: Combine artful animation with a Research Library, the exhibit features and backgrounds and cel setups,” says about, so this new reality required the great story and add carefully thought- over 200 pieces of development and Smith. “When we made our first pass, artists to study how to draw convincing out characters,” Smith summarizes. production art from Snow White and there were nearly 400 pieces selected human figures infused with emotion.” “I think it’s just the sheer artistry of gives testament to the incredible vision and we only had room for the film, coupled with the care and at- of Uncle Walt and the dedication of his 200, so the most difficult tention to detail that Walt Disney and artists all those years ago. task was deciding what his artists lavished on it,” Kaufman adds. For Smith, this illustrated journey would remain.” “By all accounts, Walt was a tremen- through animation history began two Among the invaluable dous inspiration to the staff artists, and years ago when the WDFM contacted gems Smith and her archive- his enthusiasm was contagious. The her about curating the inaugural ex- miners dug up, the curator’s passion that they poured into their hibit. Smith and her Museum collabo- top pick is a story sketch of work became embodied in the film, and rators, including Walt’s daughter Di- the reading sin- I don’t think you can watch it without ane Disney Miller, decided to focus on ister recipes out of her po- feeling that excitement. It really is a the contrasts between the original tion book. The team also work of genius, perfectly realized in a Brothers Grimm fairytale and Dis- discovered several drawings polished gem of a film, and these are ney’s toon retelling—like Walt’s deci- of peacock feathers sur- qualities that can’t be mass-produced.” sion to name the Dwarfs and give rounding the Queen’s them unique personalities, or to use Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Clas- animals as a way to move the plot Witch with the Poisoned along—explain why these changes ; Disney Studio sic opened Nov. 15 and runs were made, showcase the artistry of Artist; Cel; ink and acrylic through April 14, 2013. Visit the animators who worked four long on cellulose acetate; Walt www.waltdisney.com for tick- years on the film and help visitors un- Disney Family Foundation; © ets and special event info. Disney Enterprises, Inc.

16 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 17 Event

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The Relaunch of a Classic Event! Highlights from last month’s World Animation Feature Films & VFX Summit in L.A. 1 ast month, the inaugural World Animation Feature Films and VFX Summit was launched in grand style at the Marina del Rey Yacht Club. During a memorable opening night cocktail party, sponsored by Disney Studios, L Animation Magazine president and event organizer Jean Thoren awarded Joan Vogelesang, president and CEO of Toon Boon Animation, a special Humanitarian prize for her tireless efforts to develop new markets in animation all over the world. New York-based indie company GKIDS was also awarded the Animation Magazine 2012 Distributor of the Year award for continuing to bring top-notch international art-house movies to U.S. audiences. Accepting the honor for studio founder and president Eric Beckman was publicist and Jamie Bolio. Among the event’s many highlights were insightful keynote speeches by co-founder Scott Ross about surviving the challenges of the VFX business, a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of DreamWorks Animation’s (with director and producers Christina Steinberg and Bernstein), an informative look at the development, production and distribution of Animation’s Hotel Transylvania (with director , producer Michelle Murdocca, Sony’s president of production Michelle Raymo Kouyate and president of worldwide distribution Rory Bruer) and a fascinating take on the effects and lighting of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph (with Cesar Velazquez, Scott Kersavage, Adolph Lusinsky and Brian Leach). Animation veterans Raul Garcia, Frank Gladstone, Jeffrey Scott and Dan Wicksman discussed the challenges and rewards of writing for international audiences, and Oscar-winning producer Max Howard delivered an eye-opening presentation about how to get your film qualified for an Academy Award. A timely look at the vfx survival strategies for indie houses featured Kevin Baillie (co-founder and vfx supervisor at Studio Atomic Fiction), Mike 2 Romney (pipeline supervisor at Zoic Studios), Danielle Plantec (co-founder of Scanline VFX) and Jeff Young (president and COO of Arc Productions). Anima Vitae CEO and Partner Petteri Pasanen and Tripod Entertainment’s exec director Joseph Pearson also led an interesting discussion about producing global animated projects. The list of 3 high-powered toon and vfx experts at the event included ’ president Christian Kubtsch, entertainment attorney Fred Fierst, The Foundry’s senior product designer Matt Plec, ZYNC VP Todd Prives, Rollman Entertainment’s Eric Rollman, Natural Talent’s Donna Felten, The Gotham Group’s Eric Robinson, Quattro Media’s Jim Strader, Van Duren Agency’s Annette van Duren and YEKRA’s co-founders Miles Romney and Lee Waterworth, who wrapped up the event with a peek at the possibilities of future distribution methods. “The Summit proved to be a wonderful way for animation and visual effects professionals from all around the world to meet, share their knowledge and spend time with their colleagues,” said Thoren. “We had an amazing response from our guests, so we’re planning an even bigger and more diverse program for 2013. We hope everyone puts the Animation Summit on their must-attend list for November of next year.” For more info, visit www.animationmagazine.net/summit

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11 counter-clockwise from top left:

1 - Harry Kim, Jean Thoren, and Troy Zafer, Zac Toons director (Australia). 2 - Sony’s dynamic Hotel Transylvania panelists director Genndy Tartakovsky, producer Michelle Murdocca, president of production Michelle Raymo Kouyate and Sony’s president of worldwide distribution Rory Bruer. 3 - DreamWorks Animation’s Rise of the Guardians panel featured director Peter Ramsey, and producers Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein. 4 - VFX Survival for Indies panelists featured Jeff Young, president and COO of Arc Productions; Danielle Plantec, co-founder of Scanline VFX; Kevin Baillie, co-founder & vfx supervisor at Atomic Fiction and Mike Romey, 10 supervisor at Zoic Studios (not pictured). 5 - Animation writing pros Raul Garcia, Frank Gladstone, Jeffrey Scott and Dan Wicksman share their knowledge on the Toons Beyond Borders panel. 6 - Event keynote speaker, visual effects veteran Scott Ross, one of the founders of Digital Domain. 7 - Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph panel featured effects supervisor Cesar Velazquez, vfx supervisor Scott Kersavage, director of look and lighting Adolph Lusinsky and associate director of look and lighting Brian Leach. 8 - The attendees are taken on an informative tour of Studios in Burbank. 9 - No animation event is complete without a tour of Sony’s historic campus. 10 - FotoKem VP of sales and marketing Allan Tudzin demonstrates the 9 company’s 3D post pipeline services. 11 - Animation Feature Summit staff: We look forward to welcoming you in 2013! 12 - Toon Boom Animation CEO Joan Vogelsang receives The 2012 Animation Humanitarian of the Year Award from Animation Magazine publisher Jean Thoren. 13 - Mie Onishi and Ai Inoue from Marza Animation Planet in Japan. 14 - Gotham Group’s Julie Kane-Ritsch and Peter McHugh at the opening night party.

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january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 19 20 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 Shorts mous painting, The Scream. That was a key inspiration for us.” Now that House of Usher is fin- ished and ready to tour the festival circuit, Garcia is beginning to plan ahead. “I would love to do three more, perhaps, but I want to adapt the stories that I really, really love,” he says. “These more mature sub- jects liberate me from drawing little fuzzy bunnies for a while.” He is also developing a family movie called Bit- ten, based on a novel by Cornelia Raul Garcia Funke, the best-selling German au- bourg Film Fund, and produced by thor of books such as Inkheart and Stéphane Roelants, who runs Me- Reckless. “It’s a mix of comedy and A New House of Horror lusine Productions and also collabo- horror and is about a boy who is bit- Spanish helmer Raul Garcia pays homage to Edgar rated with Garcia on Tell-Tale Heart. ten by a strange creature and be- Allan Poe in the CG-animated short, The Fall of the Among Roelants’ many animation comes a werewolf.” House of Usher. by Ramin Zahed credits are A Town Called Panic, The Comparing the animation scene Day of the Crows and Ernest and Celes- today with the toon climate of three hen animation veter- “I started working on The House tine. decades ago, Garcia says there are a an Raul Garcia was a of Usher about four years ago, after A lifelong fan of Poe stories and a lot more choices in 2012. “We were W young boy growing we finished the movie The Missing true horror movie aficionado, Garcia very lucky back then if Disney did up in Madrid, he recalls being influ- Lynx,” he recalls. “The financial crisis strove to depict the decay of the one movie each year,” he notes. enced by two key cultural experi- made it very challenging for us to titular house in an original and au- “Technology-wise, I wouldn’t be able ences: One was watching animated raise the money. I’d originally planned thentic way. “I was pretty amazed at to do what I’m doing now. My main on The Wonderful World of Dis- to develop a feature based on differ- the graphic style that we came up complaint is that everyone is doing ney on TV and the other was reading ent stories by Poe, but we had to be with,” he admits. “The art direction the same kind of photorealistic look Edgar Allan Poe’s tales of horror and more flexible. There was a time and design of the project really in CG. It’s as if all the painters are suspense. Both of these activities when we even tried to go have informed his animation ca- ahead with a TV series of 13 reer—one that brought him from episodes, but the economy to America to work on movies was fragile, and we were such as , fortunate to have this short , , , The done.” Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Garcia says his goal was Lion King to more recent projects to create a short that was such as directing the Spanish feature completely different from The Missing Lynx and the acclaimed the other projects he’d short The Tell-Tale Heart (2005) and worked on. While his 2005 producing The Lady and the Reaper short The Tell-Tale Heart was (2009). also inspired by a famous This month, Garcia’s passion for Poe short story, The Fall of Poe is once again on full display as the House of Usher has a dif- his animated short based on The Fall ferent CG look. “I wanted of the House of Usher has been short- to match the theme with a listed for an Oscar nomination. Nar- graphic style that would rated by another Poe aficionado, ac- help the story,” he notes. tor Christopher Lee, the 17-minute “We were fortunate to have project was produced by Melusine Christopher Lee as our nar- Productions, R&R Communications rator as he is someone who has evolves as the story progresses. It given the same box of oil paints and Inc., Les Armateurs and The Big played such a huge role in the histo- was one of those cases where we told that’s all they can do. Which Farm. As the director tells us recent- ry of horror movies.” knew what was possible and what brings me back to the short. That’s ly, this latest labor of love is actually The bulk of the film’s animation we weren’t able to do with our bud- why we wanted to promote differ- part of a larger project that would was done in Luxembourg (using 3ds get. I can tell you that the one image ent looks and styles besides photo- encompass more shorts based on Max and special plug-ins) since the that really hovers over the entire realism in The Fall of The House of Poe’s classic stories. short was financed by the Luxem- production is Edvard Munch’s fa- Usher.” ■

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 21 (Disney’s Tarzan, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Shorts and The Little Mermaid among others) came in han- dy, Lee was blown away by how dedi- cated to the project Keane proved himself to be. “Once, we had decided that he would animate this scene in which meets these fawns. And we kind of talked about what that scene could mean for the film, and how the action would play out,” Lee remembers. “The next day, he came into work with this huge stack of drawings! And the drawings were him searching for the design of the fawns, of Eve hold- In the Beginning… ing them, how they would walk, how Minkyu Lee discusses his Annie-winning, Oscar she would interact with them…He short-listed, Genesis themed short Adam and Dog. told me that that night after being by Mercedes Milligan handed the scene, he had dreamed of these fawns, and he woke up in the ompanionship between hu- drew on the works of directors An- middle of the night, and couldn’t go mans and animals is an oft- drei Tarkovsky, Terrence Malick, Sofia back to sleep because he was so in- C explored concept in the Coppola and Jean-Luc Godard. “I’d spired by it, and just went straight to film world, no less in the animation sometimes choose the shots in a the drawing board.” realm. But one of this year’s Best more conventional way, and immedi- Another morale-boosting moment Animated Short Oscar short-list ately something would feel off or came after the film’s completion, contenders seeks to breathe new life lost. And then I’d watch a Godard when Adam and Dog took home the into an old trope: Minkyu Lee’s digital film and think, ‘Wow, what a great 2012 Annie Award for Best Animated 2D fable Adam and Dog, set in the feeling of liberation! I can do any- Short last February—beating out ma- and exploring the thing I want with film!’ And it would jor studio heavyweights for the honor. genesis of an age old communion. “I always help me think outside of the ments; he estimates these cost be- Lee’s excitement about the recogni- didn’t want Eden or this dog’s rela- typical restrictions of familiar story- tween 10 and 20 thousand dollars. tion is still plain almost a year later, tionship to Adam to be portrayed in telling,” he recalls. and he notes he was especially a way that felt contrived or too plot- The 27-year-old, Korean-born art- A Keane Interest pleased to be able to share the night driven,” says the director. “I really ist, who also produced the short, says One of the highlights of the pro- with his friends/crew members who wanted to focus on conveying the the idea came from a writing exercise duction for Lee was the involvement got to see their hard work pay off. For sense of peace in Eden, and also that he did while enrolled in CalArts’ of legendary Disney animator Glen Lee in particular, the Annie win has sense of breath, and the purity of life M.F.A. film directing program. Toward Keane, who served as a guide and opened doors to getting more of his there. I think breathing room is such the end of 2009, he began working on mentor for the crew. Lee recalls that stories out of his head and onto an important thing for a character to bringing his concept to life, devoting the revered artist was very interested screens by putting his name in front feel truly alive. Just letting the charac- his off hours and weekends to the in the project from early in the pro- of TV and film agents. ters be who they are.” project for about two years before cess, and the two began meeting to In fact, Lee shares that he already Lee, who was fascinated by anima- taking leave from work to devote six discuss the film frequently after that. has a variety of concepts in various tion from a young age, lists his idols months to its completion. A small but In addition to reviewing the anima- stages of development for TV, film, as toon legends and loyal army of talented animator and tors’ work, Keane was an invaluable books and graphic novels which he is Norstein, and his favorite example of artist friends also spent their nights guide for Lee in developing the story. working on, in addition to spending the art form is Disney’s . But and weekends volunteering their ser- “Glen has this wonderful gift to see his days as a visual development artist for this project, the film buff also vices, animating from their home set- deeper into a piece of art, or a mo- for Disney’s feature animation de- ups primarily in TV ment, or a story. He can see through partment and teaching 2D Character Paint; some work it, and discover the core of it,” the di- Animation at his alma mater, CalArts. was also done on rector explains. “When I first pitched Who knows—after experiencing the paper. Since the him the story, he said to me that it restful beauty of his animated Eden, crew was gratis, really felt like a story of ‘grace’—a you might almost have the energy to Lee’s main costs grace that was given as a gift to man- keep up with this rapidly rising star. were for equip- kind. And when I heard that I just Director Minkyu Lee (with poster) pauses for a quick photo ment, software, went, ‘That’s it! I know that that is For more information about op at a screening of Adam and Dog with his dedicated crew— printing and other what my film is about.’” Adam and Dog, visit including Disney legend Glen Keane (second from right). miscellaneous ele- While Keane’s impressive resume adamanddog..com.

22 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 23 Shorts

Katsuhiro Ôtomo

and political situations, the 58-year- old artist admits that he prefers working on fantasies. “Not every- thing in current events makes for a good story—for example, we had a borhood of Tokyo. “We relied on big earthquake two years ago in Ja- CG in order to complete the proj- pan,” he told Anime News Network A Perfect Period Piece ect within the development period,” recently. “I was very shocked, but Ôtomo’s beautiful new short Combustible condenses says Ôtomo. “The mob scenes, spe- despite everything that happened, a lifetime of events in a 12-minute format. cial effects and some of the other I’m not convinced anyone will be more detailed tasks would take a able to make a good work of fiction long time to animate had we chosen out of it. Some artists have already uring a recent interview, where Ôtomo received a Lifetime to do all of it with hand-drawn ani- started drawing, but they’ve stuck Katsuhiro Ôtomo said Achievement Award. mation.” mostly to accounts of what actually D that he wished he a time Ôtomo says he developed the happened in Japan.” machine so that he could travel to project as a short because it was dif- Authentic Details When asked about the lasting different periods in history. With his ficult to get a greenlight for afea- Looking back t the short, Ôtomo impact of Akira, his cyberpunk clas- new 12-minute, animated short ture film set in the Edo period. “In says he is quite pleased with how sic on the next generation of film- Combustible, the widely revered di- Japan, it’s becoming increasingly dif- they were able to recreate the at- makers, Ôtomo says he’s happy that rector of films such as Akira (1988) ficult to develop a project based on mosphere of the Edo period audiences continue to appreciate and Steamboy (2004), allows his au- an original screenplay,” he says. “Of through the clothing, hairstyles, ar- his early work. “As for the live-ac- dience to travel back 300 years to tion version of the film, I’m not in- the Edo era (1603-1868) of Japan. volved with it at all. I drew the “I’ve always wanted to create a original , directed the anime, story about Edo,” he tells Animag. and I believe I did everything I could “The theme of this work is based do for it. However, it’s important to around classic tales from the Edo move on.” era such as Yaoya Oshichi and the A fan of classic movies such as comic Kaji Musuko, which are com- ’s 2001: A Space Od- monly used for Kabuki or Joruri yssey and Nicholas Ray’s Rebel With- programs. I wanted to take that old out a Cause, believes it’s become theme that we used to have in Japan harder and harder to direct features 300 years ago, and describe with re- in Japan. “Maybe some of the difficul- cent technologies, in anime form.” ties in the business world are the The beautifully crafted shorts vis- result of the earthquake, and every- its different stages in the lives of two course, I don’t believe this is only chitecture and other details. He thing else that is happening over characters who grew up as child- limited to just Japan.” adds, however, that the most chal- there,” he says. “But it’s not easy to hood friends, fall for each other as It took his team of 11 about a lenging aspect of the job was han- get sponsors from the corporate teens, become separated as adults, year to develop the short—six de- dling the CG animation. He ex- world to produce animation today.” and are reunited under difficult cir- voted their time to drawing while plains, “We didn’t have any experi- So how does he think aspiring cumstances. Combustible is one of the other five were tasked with the ence CG animators on our staff, so filmmakers and animators should ten shorts that have made the Os- other visual aspects. The anima- we had to do a lot of retakes to prepare for their careers? “Watch car shortlist this year, and was re- tion—which is a mix of CG and complete the job.” lots of the masterpieces that have cently screened at the Platform Ani- hand-drawn was completed at stu- Although he says he sometimes been made in the past,” says Ôtomo mation Festival in Los Angeles, dio located in the Ogikubo neigh- finds inspiration in real-life events wisely. ■

24 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 25 10 Things We Loved About 2012!

The Pirates! Band of Misfits The silly, big-hearted cast of Aardman’s The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

How Korra, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a stop- motion SpongeBob came to Nickelodeon’s rescue. Korra A Brave Pixar princess who doesn’t give a damn about princes. Brave DreamWorks’ double treat—a rollicking summer Madagascar adventure and a magical Rise of the Guardians holiday gem.

Cartoon Network continued to make us laugh with , and Annoying .

Genndy Tartakovsky’s vampire hit Hotel Transylvania erased Teenage Mutant the memories of the lame Twilight series. Ninja Turtles

The of ParaNorman and the re-animated pets of Frankenweenie put screams back into stop-motion. Madagascar Wreck-It Ralph’s perfect mix of clever humor, 8-bit nostalgia and genuine emotion. SpongeBob The brilliant lunacy of ’s . SquarePants Rise of the Guardians Live-action movies like Life of Pi, The Avengers and The Annoying Orange Hobbit that put some animated pics to shame.

Hotel Transylvania

Adventure Time

Frankenweenie

Regular Show

Gravity Falls

The Hobbit

ParaNorman

Wreck-It Ralph 26 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 Oscars ‘13 ians is another high note in a career that has included Oscar-nominated work for The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The King’s Speech. In addition to Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, his other animated effort is the 1999 feature A Monkey’s Tale, which was directed by Jean-François Lagui- onie (Le Tableau). He says he enjoys working on animated projects be- cause of the freedom they provide him to explore different characters, situations and themes. Patrick Doyle Sounds of the Ancient Highlands Patrick Doyle, the much-her- The Winning Scores alded who delivered the evocative and emotional The composers of some of the best animated soundtracks of the year soundtrack to Disney-Pixar’s Brave discuss their craft and inspirations. by Ramin Zahed this year, says writing the music for a story set in his homeland was a ver the past year, there tors and try to immerse you in the ries the film for 90 minutes non- true gift. “I’ve always been an enor- have been plenty of beautiful visuals of the film. You feel stop. You have to make sure that mous fan of animation,” he says. “I O behind-the-scenes fea- like you’re an actor working with a you’re not repeating yourself and was first approached about com- tures about the visual aspects of great theatrical director.” boring the audience with the same posing the score for Brave over recent animated features in the- Desplat says he was contacted sound and melody; you have to find three years ago, and spent time aters. While many of these movies by the DreamWorks team about the arc and a new plateau, then go coming back and forth to San Fran- have been absolutely stunning to two years ago and he was pre- up again and deliver a powerful cli- cisco, watching the various stages of look at, it’s important to remember sented with the film’s key designs max in the end.” the film as it grew. I watched many the talented men and women who and shown some of the finished se- Desplat, who was trained as a storyboard versions in the theater worked hard to create the aural quences. “I thought a lot about the classical flute player, says he became in Pixar, as well as visiting various backdrops to these visual feasts. film and I began to dream about it,” a cinephile at an early age and be- animators to watch their work as it French composer Alexandre he recalls. “I keep my brain clear gan admiring the film scores of John progressed. It also gave me time to Desplat is one of the most pro- and eventually the music begins to Williams (), Maurice Jarre think, which is the greatest gift for a lific musical talents working in the form in your head. When you score (David Lean’s movies) and Nino film business today. This year alone, an animated feature like this, it car- Rota (Fellini’s classics). The Guard- continued on page 28 audiences were able to enjoy his soundtracks for movies as wide- ranging as Moonrise Kingdom, Rust and Bone, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty and DreamWorks Animation’s holiday treat Rise of the Guardians. Desplat describes Guardians as “a very beautiful, visual work.” He says he totally immersed himself in the magical world of the film’s leg- endary characters Santa Claus, the Sand Man, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost. “It’s a very emo- tional film, and you need to feel the psychological states of the charac- ters. I worked closely with the film’s director Peter Ramsey and produc- er Christina Steinberg. They have great respect for their collabora-

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 27 composer. Live-action film scores, “Probably, the toughest part of 2012 Composer Credits which I do mostly, tend to give you the job was finding a way to give much less preparation time, so this each of the different videogame Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (John Powell) gestation period in animation is a worlds their own musical finger- The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Theodore Shapiro) luxury which I adore.” print, but still keep the narrative Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted () He says that the film’s narrative, tied together,” he tells us. “But that Brave (Patrick Doyle) the geographic setting, the great was actually half the fun of doing : Continental Drift (John Powell) performances and the beautiful the score, getting to weave these ParaNorman (Jon Brion) animation were all important ingre- different textures and styles to- Hotel Transylvania () dients that fired his imagination. “A gether into a score. It was a chal- Frankenweenie () lot of the preparation for this score lenge, but a fun one.” Wreck-It Ralph (Henry Jackman) was already in place because I was Jackman points out that seeing A Liar’s Autobiography (John Greswell, brought up surrounded by Celtic all the different elements come to- Chris Murphy Taylor) folk music, and in my immediate gether was also part of the rewards Rise of the Guardians (Alexandre Desplat) household my father, mother and of the job. “And it wasn’t just the The Painting (Pascal Le Pennec) other relatives were and are sing- score coming together; and From Up on Poppy Hill (Satoshi Takebe) ers,” he adds. made tracks for the film Zarafa (Laurent Perez Del Mar) Overall, Doyle, who was nomi- as well. We didn’t work together The Rabbi’s Cat (Olivier Daviaud) nated for Oscars for his work on on those, but they are such pros at The (Joel McNeely) Hamlet (1996) and Sense and Sen- what they do, and they have their sibility (1995), says the job of mu- own unique sounds, it was cool Having had a lot of fond memo- get to the mid ‘90s, they could only sically charting Princess Merida’s to see how they interpreted the ries of the early videogame uni- make like four simultaneous sounds. thrilling adventure was a uniquely movie.” verse, Jackman enjoyed immersing Same with the Atari. I wanted the thrilling one. “The job of writing To prepare for his assignment, himself in those old-school notes. 8-bit music to be as authentic as the score for Brave was a joyful Jackman says he hung out with the As he tells us, “I was excited to get possible.” experience, and it became expo- film’s director , looked into the classic videogame music Since our hero Ralph travels to nentially fun as time went on,” he at all the storyboards and listened sound. Back in the day, actually, my different game worlds in the movie, remarks. “The people are incredibly to the story carefully. first ever paid gig was to convert a Jackman had to come up with dif- generous and I was looked after “Rich wandered around the game called M.C. Kids, which was an ferent sonic cultures for each mi- extremely well by [director] Mark room telling me all of his ideas, so I arcade game for the Commodore lieu. “The beginning of the movie Andrews, [producer] Katherine had a really good feel for all the dif- 64—I had to type in like 10 lines of is really strictly 8-bit, as you don’t Sarafian, [director] Brenda Chap- ferent worlds they had created,” he machine code for it to make a lot of even see Ralph as a 3D character, man and the team. recalls. “They had Sugar Rush, He- beeps and boops.” but then it opens up,” he explains. has created an extraordinary com- ro’s Duty, and the Wreck-It Ralph Jackman, whose previous anima- “Hero’s Duty has this intense action pany and it was a pleasure and an world. As he walked around and tion credits include , feel to it. Sugar Rush has a J-Pop honor to be included in yet another told the story it was really obvious Monsters vs. Aliens, Winnie the Pooh vibe in there, and then Vanellope has exceptional and original creation.” that the movie was a complete win- and Puss in Boots, says he did lots of her own sound. By the time you get ner. That was before any animated research to come up with just the to reel four, there are these heavy Play It Again, Ralph footage at all. In fact, we had quite right notes for the movie. “I even emotional cues, because Ralph’s re- Imagining the musical soundtrack an in-depth musical conversation bought a big old Donkey Kong game lationship with Vanellope has gotten to the chaotic and very differ- at that point, when we decided console!” he says. “I studied those more serious.” ent videogame worlds of Disney’s that even with all of these different old chips to learn about Jackman does a great job of Wreck-It Ralph created a whole set worlds we could get excited about, their frequency response and how articulating the importance of his of new challenges and rewards for we needed themes that could glue many simultaneous noises those work on the big screen. “It’s all to composer Henry Jackman. everything together.” things could make. Even when you do with the story, really,” he notes. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a person or a cartoon, the feelings are the same, and so you should take it just as seriously when scoring it. What is different in animation is that you need to be more flexible and able to turn on a dime. In a live-action movie you have more space, where as in an animated film you may have Henry Jackman five or six different musical ideas in a minute long piece of music…But those ideas need to be just as real and full on as they would be in a live-.” ■

28 www.animationmagazine.net january 13

Television ment to the pet shop via a dumb- waiter. In addition to designing fun fashions for the pets, Blythe also changes outfits frequently—rocking at least two looks per episode— something that directors Parker and Dickie say adds a little pressure to the speedy production schedule at DHX Media in , Canada (which also handles the animation for Hub hit : Friendship Is Magic). Keeping the heroine’s look fresh is just a part of the show’s de- sign goals to create a graphic, mod- ern and animation-friendly look full of poppy colors. DHX handles the design, posing and key animation for the show which has seven key animal characters and six key or recurring human characters, not to mention new people and pets who The Next Little Big Thing? come to the shop. An outside studio provides animation service work The Hub launches its latest franchise revamp with fashion-forward The from DHX’s detailed scene instruc- Littlest Pet Shop. by Mercedes Milligan tions, and the animation is done entirely in Flash from digital boards ust when you thought The shop was not even part of the show re-launch of the toy line has been drawn by hand in SketchBook Pro. Hub network’s lineup of Has- yet. “They were nervous about a big hit, they were more focused “Dallas [Parker] and I see ev- J bro Studios original toons the pet shop selling pets—we con- on building a quality show than tying ery stage along the way, so we’re couldn’t get any cuter, a new ani- vinced them that pet shops aren’t the toon in to retail efforts. “They juggling three or four episodes at mated take on the popular Littlest like that anymore. They’re amazing did have a core cast of pet charac- once, but it seems like from the Pet Shop toy line is set to bring all places, with day camps and groom- ters we had to work with, but we beginning script to final animation new cuddly critters, charming hu- ing stations...they cater to pets now wanted to expand the world, so we it takes about a year. Based on our man characters and catchy musical instead of just selling them,” Tim gave Blythe friends and a life out- rationale, we’ll be finished with the numbers into the mix. explains. side the pet shop, and we series in 52 years!” Dickie The Littlest Pet Shop, a 2D ani- Also serving as exec produc- added the proprietor of jokes. When we spoke mated 26 x half-hour series, centers ers on the series are Chris Bartle- the pet shop who is in October, DHX had on Blythe: a small town girl who has man and Kirsten Newman. Dallas kind of like a mother completed seven ep- just moved with her father to a Big Parker is supervising director, with to Blythe,” she elab- isodes with the help City apartment right above The Lit- Joel Dickie as director. The show’s orates. “We knew of their hundred- tlest Pet Shop, where all kinds of original music is handled by Daniel they wanted to do odd team. pets gather for day care. Incredibly, Ingram and Steffan Andrews. The something with fash- In addition Blythe discovers she can talk to and voice cast is lead by Ashleigh Ball ion, so we had Blythe to the ongoing understand the pets, opening up as Blythe; the pets are voiced by be a designer and cre- fashion show, the new worlds of imaginative adven- Tabitha St. Germain, Nicole Oliver, ate pet fashion—we animation and de- tures. The regular pet crew includes Jocelyne Loewen, Peter New, Sam tried to tie everything in sign teams also face an adorable panda, dancing gecko Vincent, Kyle Rideout and Kira Toz- in an organic way the challenges and dog among others—not to er. Michael Kopsa plays Blythe’s dad, and make it like of innovating mention the various pets from all Shannon Chan-Kent voices her twin this is Blythe’s new funky dance over the city that drop in for day tormentors Whittany and Brittany, life, but it’s a young teen- routines for musi- care from time to time. and Kathleen Barr is Mrs. Twombly, ager’s life as well.” cal sequences, craft- Strangely, according to execu- pet shop owner. Tim adds that they ing thematic back- tive producers/story editors Julie The producers say that after also created “Mean Girl” grounds and settings McNally Cahill and Tim Cahill (Car- opted for their for style villains for Blythe (their for imaginative adventure toon Network’s My Gym Partner’s the property, the development father owns the largest pet fantasies, and scrutinizing a Monkey), when they joined the process was a rapid-fire, on-the-fly shop in town) as well as a Flash frames for continu- development process at Hasbro in blur which flew into production. Ju- cool style secret ity. “[Mrs. Twombly] has a September 2011 they found the pet lie Cahill notes that while Hasbro’s entrance from her apart- beauty mark on her upper

30 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 Pets and Petulance: EPs Tim and Julie Cahill strove to expand Blythe’s world beyond the pet shop to create a funny, compelling show—including creating twin “Mean Girl” nemeses Whittany and Brittany. lip like Marilyn Monroe—that seems to be the biggest animation chal- lenge, making sure it’s on the right side!” says Parker. “Flash is a good program for reusing animation, but reusing animation is pretty tough on this show with Blythe because her outfits keep changing.” Before all the talk of big-eyed animals and wardrobe changes gets the testosterone crowd roll- ing their eyes (c’mon, just “bronies!”), it’s important to note that the Cahills strove to create a show that kids of both genders will get some of the jokes their kids are we were really pushing for. Julie and I rest of the gang), we have a feeling enjoy. “It sounds like a very girl-ori- puzzled by,” says Julie Cahill. “It’s not are fans of quirky comedy, so we try there won’t be a boy or girl on the ented show, and is, but we have boy like a preschool show … some- to work in quirky humor as much as block ashamed to admit this fun characters and we try to bring that times it is a challenge to make sure we can, and it seems to be working show is waiting on their DVR. boy sensibility into the show so it it doesn’t go too sweet, too young.” out well.” appeals to boys as well as girls—and “[Hasbro] has been really open Once audiences meet Pet Shop’s The Hub launched The Littlest their parents, who might be in the to letting us do a lot of physical hu- crazy monkey, sagacious hedgehog, Pet Shop last month. The se- room watching, and we’d love for mor in the show,” adds Tim Cahill. adorable panda and mongoose- ries airs Saturdays at 11 a.m them to enjoy the show and maybe “It has this really snappy animation gecko comedy tag team (plus the ET/ 8 a.m. PT.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 31 Television

hand-rendered them so that they The Return of a Seasonal Friend mix seamlessly with the rest of the animation,” she says. “Then com- Channel 4 and Lupus Films revive Raymond Briggs’ beloved characters in a positing and specials were added in new animated special The Snowman and the Snowdog. by Ramin Zahed After Effects.” This need for handcrafting most t’s been 30 years since audi- principals Camilla Deakin and Ruth of the animation was one of the ences around the world fell Fielding pitched the idea for a sequel production’s biggest dilemmas, says I in love with the animated ad- to Channel 4’s CCO Jay Hunt. She Deakin. “Our biggest challenge has aptation of the children’s book The loved the idea, so the team started been doing all the animation and Snowman. Produced by the late Brit- to develop concepts and designs rendering by hand. At the same ish animation veteran John Coates, right away. “We knew the 30th an- time, we had to make sure the film who passed away earlier this year, niversary of Channel 4 was com- is rich, colorful and luscious to look and directed by Dianne Jackson ing up and as The Snowman was at, so that it works for a modern and Jimmy Murakami, the stun- one of the first things com- audience but also sits comfortably ningly beautiful 2D project missioned for the Channel alongside the first film.” received numerous awards when it launched back in Deakin adds that making the se- and an Oscar nomination for 1982 we thought it would quel has been a hugely rewarding Best Animated Short in 1983. be nice to have a sequel experience for her team at Lupus This month, viewers in the to mark the anniversary,” Films. “We love the fact that we U.K. will get a chance to see a explains Deakin. have animators working on this new animated sequel to the clas- Working with a £2 mil- film who also worked on the first sic, produced by London-based lion budget (approximately Snowman film. We love the fact that Lupus Films (The Pinky & Perky $3.2 million), the animation the studio is so quiet except for the Show, The Hive) and written and team chose to stay close to gentle sound of animation paper be- co-directed by Hilary Audus and the hand-drawn technique ing flicked back and forth and the Joanna Harrison, both of whom of the original production. occasional whir of an electric pen- worked as animators on the orig- Deakin says only some cil sharpener. We love the fact that inal film. minor CG animation was we have lots of recent animation It all started back in the Febru- used to depict the vehicles school graduates who are absorb- ary of last year, when Lupus Films and keep them consistent. “We ing all the traditional techniques and

32 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 Rebuilding The Snowman: For the new special, Lupus Films strove to recreate the original’s illustrative, hand-drawn quality, using limited CG and hand-rendering it to maintain a coherent look.

learning so much from the experi- softened and agreed that it would and always remember to enjoy our- enced animators on the team. On be nice to give all the fans of The selves! John was a brilliant producer top of it all, I think the Snowdog is Snowman another lovely film to en- because he found talented creative incredibly cute and children every- joy alongside the first.” people and allowed them space Producer where will love him.” Of course, another reason Briggs to do what they did best without The producers credit John said yes to a sequel is that he knew too much interference. He was Camilla Deakin Coates for getting the ball rolling that Coates was assembling an ex- also very supportive of women in on the current by approaching his old friend Ray- cellent team of people that he knew the industry and provided a launch mond Briggs, with whom he had from previous productions and pad for quite a few female produc- U.K. animation collaborated on several projects. In trusted to make a quality animated ers and directors to develop their scene: the early ‘80s, Briggs had said that special. Deakin is quick to point out careers.” there could be no sequel because the important role the late British She also points out that on The Snowman and the Snowdog, both “The state of the animation producers, the director and art di- industry in the U.K. is interest- “I think the fact that the film is tradition- rector are all women. She also adds ing at the moment. It has been ally made, and clearly made with love, that Coates was very involved in a very tough time of late, with the making of the special. He came license fees falling and work will make it stand out and really appeal up to the studio regularly for edito- going abroad. People are wait- rial meetings and had an input on all ing for the new animation tax to the audience.” creative aspects of the film. “Just be- credit to come in next April fore he died we sent him a two and and when it does it will be a — The Snowman and the Snowdog producer a half-minute trailer which we’d cut massive boost to our industry Camilla Deakin for [the TV market] MIP Junior and and a lot of new shows that are he loved it. He was really pleased to in limbo will get going. I think see how well the film was turning that smaller companies are able the Snowman had melted at the end producer played in assembling the out. We are really sad he didn’t see it to survive a downturn such as of the original production. However, ingredients for the sequel. completed, but we are dedicating the we’ve been experiencing more when the show was digitally remas- “John Coates has been a huge in- film to his memory and we hope that easily than large companies tered for the 20th anniversary edi- spiration to us for many years,” she it will go out there into the world because we’ve had to be more tion, Coates convinced the author explains. “When my business part- and be loved by millions of people flexible to survive. Also having that they should add snow falling ner Ruth and I set up Lupus Films, just like the first Snowman film, as lower overheads when times over the end credits. “At that point, we told John that we were basing that is what he would have wanted.” are quiet frees us to be more we knew there was a possibility the our company strategy on his— inventive and react quickly Snowman could return,” explains namely that we would only work on The Snowman and the Snowdog to new opportunities as they Deakin. “By the time the 30th anni- projects we felt passionate about, will premiere on Channel 4 arise.” versary came around, Raymond had only work with people we liked in the U.K. on Christmas.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 33 Screen Novelties co-founders Chris, Seamus and Mark take a breather.

fruitcake. After several months of research and development, work on the show began in October of last year. Among the cool stats we dug up on the shoot: Six sets were constructed on which 60 pounds of Mysterious Mose, and wanted to baking soda was used as snow, 42 Stop Motion Casts a have us apply our sensibilities to pounds of glitter added sparkle to SpongeBob,” says Screen Novelties the magic, 22 pounds of wood chips Spell on SpongeBob co-founder Seamus Walsh who co- were used to create Sandy’s tree- directed the special with partner house floor and 20 boxes of cereal How the talented team at Screen Novelties Mark Caballero. “We come from covered the coral rocks. brought a familiar 2D toon to 3D life in the It’s a the same planet as far as our sense One of the team’s biggest chal- SpongeBob Christmas! special. by Ramin Zahed of humor and comic sensibilities are lenges was making sure the stop- concerned. But we also wanted to motion version of Bikini Bottom ou can call it the Rankin- Orel, Chowder, MAD and The Marvel- make sure that it felt like a Sponge- resembled the 2D world of the Bass legacy—the reason ous Misadventures of Flapjack. They Bob episode.” series. There was also the issue of Y we tend to enjoy our clas- even collaborated with film legend The half-hour-long It’s a Sponge- making the yellow absorbent hero sic animated holiday programming on the 2002 An- Bob Christmas!, which debuted on of the show resemble his 2D self. spiced with a touch of stop-motion nie-winning short The Story of The CBS last month and airs on Nickel- “We had to make sure SpongeBob magic. It’s only natural that kids Tortoise & the Hare. odeon on December 6, finds Plank- felt like SpongeBob,” says Caballero. who grew up watching Rudolph the “They dug one of our shorts ton turning everybody in Bikini Bot- “It actually took us a few months of -Nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus is that we’d done a while back, which tom from nice to naughty by feed- going back and forth to make sure Comin’ to Town love to see the same was called Graveyard Jamboree with ing them some jerktonium-laced it didn’t feel too plastic-y and ultrar- technique applied to today’s favor- ite animated characters. So when the creative team behind Nickel- odeon’s long-running show Sponge- Bob SquarePants decided to create a new Christmas special this year, they went straight to the folks at L.A.- based studio Screen Novelties, which specializes in stop-motion animation. Screen Novelties had worked with SpongeBob creator and exec producer Paul Tibbitt on the 2008 theatrical re- lease and the show’s 10th anniversa- ry special opening titles, so it made sense that they’d also produce the animation for this Christmas spe- cial. Plus, they have also done some amazing stop-motion work for TV shows such as Robot , Moral

34 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 ealistic. We ended up using a type of SpongeBob and his pals as stop- special holiday fundraiser at L.A.’s movies. People like Wes Anderson cushion foam that was pretty mal- motion heroes, the Screen Novel- Cinefamily to raise money for The can do stop-motion, and you have leable and gave off a bit of a trans- ties guys are getting ready again to Bob Baker Marionettes, the city’s all these people coming out of the lucent yellow glow off him. It had to work on their own original material. 50-year-old children’s theater. woodwork trying their hand at dif- feel cuddly and happy-go-lucky as In addition to several new projects, “It’s our way of thank- ferent kinds of animation.” well as having that extra crazy ele- they are shopping around “There’s more stop-motion hap- ment. It’s not easy to translate a 2D a feature based on their pening in Los Angeles than ever character into a puppet: It can get popular Monster Sa- before,” says producer Chris ugly if you’re not careful.” Finnegan, who co-founded the SpongeBob veterans Hil- shop with Caballero and lenburg and Tibbett provided Walsh in 2003. “We seem hands-on feedback on the pro- to have more TV work duction on a weekly basis. “They’d coming from Disney, Car- check out the weeklies and go back toon Network and and forth with us on the various Nickelodeon. And gags,” says Walsh. “It was really a this year, espe- pleasurable experience when they cially, we’ve seen came to visit, because we come such an appetite from the same planet. It all felt for stop-motion very easy and natural.” in the world of features About 30 people worked on [ParaNorman, The Pirates! the special over at Screen Novel- Band of Misfits, Frankenweenie, etc.]. ties. “When we were doing the initial Of course, it may never go head to animation, it was a very busy period “We had to make sure SpongeBob felt head with CG in terms of mass ap- for all of us,” says Walsh. “We came peal, it’s more of a niche audience. in at about 8:30 in the morning and like SpongeBob. It actually took us a few months We are always happy to do it for didn’t leave until midnight some days. of going back and forth to make sure it didn’t feel people who get it.” But it all zipped by pretty quickly. We too plastic-y and ultrarealistic. We ended up using Of course, one of the reasons the felt pretty lucky because usually ex- team at Screen Novelties has been ecutives involved with productions a type of cushion foam that was pretty malleable able to succeed in the competitive look at the stop-motion process as and gave off a bit of a translucent yellow glow.” world of indie animation is their annoying, but on this special, they flexibility and ability to adapt to the were very jazzed and gung-ho about — Screen Novelties’ producer Mark Caballero changing needs of the market. “You it. Plus, the stop-motion community have to be nimble and keep the over- is very small, and everyone seemed head manageable,” says Finnegan. to be thrilled to work on the show.” “We have to be able to maintain our When asked to pick a favorite studio facility, keep our key staff em- part of the special, both Caballero ployed, and be mindful of not getting and Walsh point to the beginning too big. In addition to stop-motion, minutes during which SpongeBob we also do some Muppet-style hand wakes up and meets the different puppets, cutout animation and ex- characters. “You track down in Bikini perimental stained-glass techniques. Bottom as he wakes up, and there’s a We also do 2D animation and might cute sincerity about the whole seg- be working in CG in the future as ment,” says Walsh. Caballero adds, well. It’s all about being nimble and “We got to do some multi-media riding the waves. For a small com- mixing of techniques here. There are pany like ours, it’s challenging and some strange puppet cutaways. We exciting at the same time.” And that wanted to keep the weird element sounds a lot like life with SpongeBob in there. Everything that we direct fari short. The pic revolves around ing Bob Baker, who was one of the in Bikini Bottom. has to be charming and a little bit a pair of bumbling crypto-zoologists original animators at the George odd as well. We believe that our he- who spring into action to save the Pal studio,” says Caballero. “It’s our It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! roes Rankin and Bass started it with world’s most famous monsters from way of saying thanks. It was because airs on Nickelodeon on Rudolph. You need to have a little bit a ruthless big-game hunter. They’ve of people like Bob that we got into December 6 at 8 p.m. The of creepy in your holiday entertain- also delivered a LEGO piece for stop-motion animation.” special is also available on ment. It even goes back to Dickens ’s Adventure Time “The animation landscape has DVD (Nickelodeon Home when he introduced in A and stop-motion work for Nick’s changed so dramatically over the Ent., $14.98). To learn more Christmas Carol!” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. past 15 years,” adds Walsh. “Direc- about Screen Novelties, visit Now that they’ve re-imagined In addition, they are working on a tors can choose how they do their www.screen-novelties.com.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 35 doing, and it started to look better them and to offer that block of cu- Dive into This Fantastic and better and more friends wanted rated TV for the viewers.” to get involved.” Giles says he was very excited Cartoon Lagoon One of the great things about about the reaction of the fans at the Cartoon Lagoon experience is the TV festival and at the New Manny Galán and Pat Giles’ new DVD project that you never know who or what York Comic-Con. “Some students offer a hilarious mishmash of puppetry and is going to pop up. There might be stopped by and wanted to know public domain cartoons. some classic tales featuring Casper how we were able to create such the Friendly and the natural-looking animation,” he says. ew York-based animation Manny said, what if there was an Sailor or some hipster indie ani- “I had to tell them that they are ac- veterans Manny Galán actual lagoon, full of abandoned car- mated shorts (Life in the Analog Age tual puppets (created by Julia Ros- N and Pat Giles know their toons, VHS tapes, DVD’s, , by Gabe Swarr or The President of ner) sewn together by human be- toons! They are the type of creative etc., just floating there to be plucked the Universe by Mike Carlo) or a visit ings. We shot the puppets live in the guys who have a deep passion for out and watched again?” from The Gregory Brothers or Fairly basement of a Catholic girls’ school all forms of animated projects— Galán, who met Giles when they OddParents creator . in the Lower East Side of New York even the , low-budget ones were both working on animated “Butch does a PSA warning kids City. We put tracking marks on the that haunt the strange corners of General Mills cereal commercials, about the dangers of music,” says puppets’ faces. The animation of the public domain and pop culture. So, adds, “You know I love to work with Galán. “It’s all about recapturing the faces were done with Flash, and it’s not surprising that their first my friends. We worked on a self- Saturday morning experience. Kids then we added the tracing mo-cap big venture, Captain Cornelius Car- published comic book and designed don’t have the sense of appointment plug-ins, composited laboriously toon’s Cartoon Lagoon, pays homage a toy line. With Cartoon Lagoon, it TV anymore, so this was our chance to the faces. We thought it would to the old-school children’s shows started out as a goofy thing we were to recreate that sense of place for be easy, but it wasn’t really a short that aired on Satur- cut! So that’s how day mornings when we got the unique they were growing look! We ended up up. using everything.” This off-the-wall Giles and Galán special features Wet cite a wide variety Willy Jones and of influences— Axel Rodd McGee from Thunderbirds who embark on and colorful undersea to the imaginative voyages aboard the shows of Sid and Manta Ray, a car- Marty Krofft and toon-retrieving ves- the hilarious riffs sel led by old-timey of Mystery Science sailor Captain Cor- Theater. They also nelius Cartoon. The say they’re hoping show, which won the fact that the the recent New two-hour Cartoon York Television Fes- Lagoon DVD is tival’s Audi- now available on ence Award, is described as a love Amazon will help generate more letter to pop culture and Saturday word of mouth about their proj- morning puppet-animated shows. ect. “We’ve been talking to a bunch As Giles, whose animation cred- of folks at different studios about its include shows such as Disney’s it, but we didn’t want to take the Doug, PB&J Otter, Daria, Sheep in project to them before it was fin- the Big City and Codename: Kids Next ished,” says Giles. “We’re not quite Door, explains, “It is a very unique fu- , and not Disney—but you sion of puppets and animation. Our can safely watch our show with the characters are trapped in a cartoon- kids. We didn’t want to get all these retrieving submarine that explores a notes and have anyone tell us how lagoon, where all of these public do- to do it. We figured we wanted it main cartoons are dumped.” Giles to be the best show we could make says the idea for the show came before we pitched it to anyone!” Lagoon Legends: From left, animator Justin Roth, exec producer Pat Giles, voice from Galán. “There is a legend about actor Chris Phillips (Captain Cornelius), lead puppeteer Michael Schupbach, creator/ an E.T. Atari game that sold so poor- exec producer Manny Galán and head writer won ’ For more info, visit patman- ly, that it was dumped into a landfill. Audience Award at the recent New York TV Festival. studios.com/cartoonlagoon.

36 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 37 Milestones 2013 Anniversaries 100 Years From Stag Beetles to World-Class Cinema

he Russian Animation Film Association wrote to let us know that Russian animation T is celebrating a major milestone this year: It’s been 100 years since Wladyslaw Starewicz created his first animated short. The Beautiful Lukanida. The -born director, began his career as the director of the Natural History in Kovno, Lithuania. He began to experiment with animation when he decided to recreate the fight between two stag beetles using articulated insect puppets. The Beautiful Lukanida is described as a fairy tale for beetles and received much acclaim around the world, and was followed by the Revenge of the Kinematograph Cameraman, a 1912 short about infidelity and jealousy in insect society. Starevich’s 41-minute 1913 filmThe Night Before Christmas was the first example of the use of stop-motion and live action in the same scene. Since then, Russian animators have played a huge role in pushing the artistic boundaries of the medium. Iconic artists such as Alexander Petrov (The Old Man and the Sea), Yuriy Norshtein (Tale of Tales, Little Hedgehog in the Fog) and Stanislav Sokolov (The Winter’s Tale) have continued to keep the flame of Russian animation alive through the years. In recent years, Russian artists have ventured into the CG animated feature world with titles such as 2010’s Space Dogs directed by Inna Evlannikova and Svyatoslav Ushakov (Center of National Film) and Vlad Barbe and Maksim Sveshnikov’s Snow Queen () which will be released this month in the country. Commemorating Russian animation’s century, The Russian Animation Film Association was formed in 2012 to raise awareness of the studios and their interests around the world. The Yuriy Norshtein Fund, studio, and animation film school SHAR are among the org’s founders. Among the studios participating in the association are RIKI ( TV series), Animaccord Animation Studio (), Airplane (The Fixies) and (Qumi-Qumi). The first RAFA meeting was held as part of the Open Russian Festival of Animated Film in Suzdal 2012. RAFA aims to build the animation industry in , attract state and private investments, participate in legislative initiative for the country’s animation industry developing in Russia and to increase the level of education for animation professional staff. The Association seeks to join forces with the other global animation communities, distributors, companies, studios and government organizations in order to develop, promote and co-product animated films and TV series. As part of RAFA’s activities this year, Russian animation had an important presence at global festivals and markets such as Annecy and MIPCOM. Eighteen animation studios participated at the Annecy festival and a wide range of companies reported sales and partnerships at the MIPCOM market in in October. We hope to cover a lot more about this important organization’s activities in 2013. Starewicz and the country’s early animation pioneers would be quite proud of their countrymen’s achievements a century later. 35 Years 35 Candles in His Lasagna

e may hate Mondays, but he sure has weathered plenty of them—everyone’s favorite grouchy H feline is celebrating his 35th birthday this year! The fuzzy orange sourpuss made his first appearance in ’s comic strip in 1978, debuting in 41 newspapers on June 19 through . One interesting point of trivia is that the strip originally centered on Garfield’s owner, , and the publishers all turned it down asking Davis to focus on that hilarious cat! While it wasn’t until 1982 that he made his cartoon debut in CBS’ special, the cantankerous kitty has become a staple of the genre, with 12 primetime specials, seven seasons of (1988-94), two theatrical features, three CG home video movies, videogames, a popular website and now Cartoon Network/Boomerang’s hilarious CG series , which launched in 2008 to coincide with Garfield’s big 3-0! With so many adventures under his metaphorical belt, we were relieved to get the inside scoop from Paws, Incorporated—founded by Davis—to pick out some of Garfield’s top moments and get a few choice morsels straight from the celebrated cat. For instance, did you know that the domain gmail.com originally belonged to Garfield’s web portal before Google got it? Or that in 1989, Garfield became a real-life hero to five-year-old Cynthia Guerrero when a Garfield sticky toy in the window of her father’s truck deflected a bullet from a random drive-by shooter in Corpus Christie, Texas? Not so lazy now, is he! Some more Garfield thought bubbles: The silliest thing he ever did was pose nude for Playgirl magazine (eat your heart out, Tyrese Gibson). His biggest role model is himself, obviously, but he does admire Sylvester. “I just know he’s going to get some day,” he purrs. “Tweety’s last words will be, ‘I did! I did taw…AWWWK!’” And his ultimate fantasy adventure? Why, to go back in time and sit at King Arthur’s Round Table as the noble Sir Lunch-a-lot. Hmm, sounds like a good premise for his next film! www.garfield.com

38 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 30 Years Still Rockin’ It

repare to feel old: The lovable mop-headed denizens of Fraggle Rock are turning P 30 this year! Yes, it was back in 1983 that Jim Henson introduced the world to the underground dwellers in the Fraggle Rock TV series, which debuted January 10 on Canada’s CBC, HBO in the U.S. and U.K.’s ITV, enjoying five phenomenal seasons until the spring of 1987—its cult status theme song also known as “Dance Your Cares Away” (written by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee) even hit the Top 40 charts in Britain. After their puppeteered escapades, the Fraggles went on to star in their own NBC cartoon co-produced by Marvel Prod. and made many appearances visiting with their Muppet friends on TV shows, specials and in films. Happily, fans will be getting a fresh dose of Fragglicious fun as The Jim Henson Company gets ready to launch a new preschool CG series called Doozers, featuring the industrious little builders of Fraggle Rock fame. Of course, Fraggles alone did not build the house of Henson, now headed by Jim’s daughter, CEO Lisa Henson, and president & COO Peter Schube, who has been with the company since 1988. As The Jim Henson Company (founded in 1955) reps remind us, they have a lot to be proud of: “We created talking frogs, pigs, bears and monsters that are beloved by generations around the world, and new worlds like Fraggle Rock where kids could learn about tolerance, diversity and living in harmony with each other and the Earth.” In fact, they tell us that when Jim started developing the celebrated show, he told his team he wanted to make a show that would create world peace. Now with cool new toons like Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train and Doozers, that forward-thinking idealism is as strong as ever. While we love JHC’s in-house mantra—“When in doubt, throw penguins”—you can’t beat the sincerity of their late founder’s words: “When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope still is to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here.” Mission accomplished, Jim! www.henson.com

BRB’s Willy Fog Hits 30

ow could we have another anniversary issue without the folks at Spain’s busy animation H studio BRB letting us know about one of their properties hitting a landmark event? This year, it’s the studio’s fantastic take on Jules Verne’s classic Around the World in 30 Days that is celebrating its 30th birthday. This joint project with first ran on RTVE in 1983, but it found a home in many TV stations around the world. Exec produced by studio founder Claudio Biern, Around the World with Willy Fog (La vuelta al mundo de Willy Fog), the show centered on Willy Fog (the show’s lead, depicted as a lion), Rigodon (a lynx) and Romy (a panther), who were pursued by dogs. The English version of the show found a perfect home on the CBBC in the U.K. and RTE in Ireland and also traveled to Japan in 1987. The toon even inspired a live-action musical show in Spain during its 25th anniversary. Carlos Biern, the studio’ tireless head of co-productions, tells us 2013 is going to be another spectacular year for the company—with new TV shows such as Invizimals, Filly and Mica, and features such as Super Bernard and Dogtanian waiting in the wings. Judging from all the good work BRB is doing, Spain’s financial crisis will be a distant memory before we know it. Website: www.brb.es

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 39 10 Years Jam Media Celebrates a Sweet Decade

he brilliant team at Dublin-based Jam Media have a lot of reasons to celebrate this month. T Not only did they win a Children’s BAFTA award for their popular live-action/animated hybrid series Roy and took home Cartoon Forum’s Producer of the Year honor in September, they’re also marking their 10th anniversary as one of Ireland’s animation studios. “This is the third time we have been nominated so we are obviously thrilled that we have won a BAFTA,” said Jam Media’s CEO John Rice. “The competition was stiff and this award, coming just after the re-commission of a double series of Roy by CBBC, proves that the series and the character of Roy really seems to resonate with viewers in the UK, Ireland and beyond.” Formed by John Rice, Alan Shannon and Mark Terrific Trio: From left, Jam’s Mark Cumberton, Cumberton in 2002, Jam Media has steadily grown John Rice and Alan Shannon over the past decade, delivering innovative shows such as Funky Fables, PICME, Roy and Tilly and Friends for broadcasters all over the world. In addition, the company has been on the cutting edge of user-friendly technologies, introducing its proprietary Headhunter software long before customizing animation on the Web was a common phenomenon. Jam Media’s Roy took home a Children’s The tool allows personalized animation for broadcast, web and mobile application, and it also includes Bafta last month. a render engine, which allows users to easily share their customized animation and video clips on social network sites. Jam Media is in the midst of creating 60 new jobs as part of an 8.5 million euro investment in the animation sector. It definitely sounds like the studio’s winning recipe is getting sweeter with passing year. Here’s to many more decades of innovative animation and sticky content from the expert team of Jammers. Website: www.jammedia.ie

5 Years

On Fire for Animation!

ans of quirky modern toon comedies will be well familiar with the work of our next celebrants, F Big Jump Productions Inc., who this year celebrate five years in the biz. Located in Ottawa, Ontario, Big Jump was founded in 2008 by animation veteran Rick Morrison, president (who also co-founded Funbag Animation Studios), and Sheridan College alumnus Cory Morrison, vice president and director, and Rod Amador, also vice president/director. The studio strives to maintain a standard of excellence that can be seen in its animation service work for unique series like ’s Ugly Americans and . Prez Rick Morrison shares with us that audiences can look forward to more of the studio’s keen work on CMT’s upcoming Bounty Hunters toon, based on Jeff Foxworthy’s Blue Collar Comedy troupe. He also revealed quite an impressive anecdote when asked what the best thing Big Jump ever did was: Deliver season four of ’s The Secret World of Benjamin Bear … while the studio was burning! “We were delivering the last few episodes of a 13 x 22 series, and the building our studio was in caught fire,” he recalls. “Thank goodness we stored digital files off site and set up a virtual server—we were able to temporarily relocate overnight and continue production and meet our delivery obligations.” We bet it’s times like those that Big Jump’s in-house motto, “Smile! After all, we are making cartoons!” is a great rallying cry. www.bigjumpproductions.com

40 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 41 Milestones Toon Town Anniversaries of 2013

75 Years Ago: Bugs 70 Years Ago: Bunny The - makes directed his first toon, is released in June. appearance The Yankee Doodle Mouse Porky’s Hare Hunt in Porky’s It wins the Oscar for Best Hare Hunt. Animated Short the following year. Jean Painleve and Rene Norman McLaren creates National Film Bertrand’s Barbe-Bleue Board of Canada’s animation division. (Bluebeard) sets Among the noteworthy a new standard in shorts of the year are Claymation. Jack-Wabbit and the Dick Rickard’s Beanstalk, Victory adaptation of the Through Air Power, El children’s book Victory Through Air Power Gaucho Goofy, Private Ferdinand the Bull is released. Pluto, and The short wins an Oscar in 1939. Red Hot Riding Hood.

65 Years Ago: and Alexander Anderson form TV Arts Productions in Hollywood. 60 Years Ago: The Oscar-winning (directed by Fred Quimby) and the The Little Orphan Disney’s , directed by Oscar-nominated Mickey and the , (Charles A. Nichols) are among the big short and Wilfred Jackson opens in releases of 1948. theaters on Feb. 5. Disney offers , featuring Once Shorts highlights include Duck in the 24 Upon a Wintertime, Amuck, Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century Bumble Boogie, Johnny 1/2th Century, Jerry and Jumbo Appleseed, Little Toot, Blame It on and Magoo Slept Here. the Samba and Pecos Bill. Bill Hurtz’s The Unicorn in the Garden is UPA’s first first appears cartoon special. Marvin the Martian in Haredevil Hare on July 24, 1948. introduces his charming green hero, , in Gumbasis. Ward Kimball and Charles A. Nichols offer a crash course in the history of musical instruments in the Oscar- 55 Years Ago: winning short Toot, Whistle, Plunk and directs the Oscar-winning short Knighty Knight Bugs, in which appears Gumby Bloom. as a court jester who dukes it out with the Black Night (). Knighty Knight Bugs directs the Disney short, Paul Bunyan. Hanna-Barbera’s popular The Huckleberry Hound Show debuts in syndication. The Huckleberry Hound Show

42 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 continued on next page 30 Years Ago: 35 Years Ago: Vfx masters , , , and work their magic Richard ’ popular once again in Star Wars: . novel about a rabbit clan, Cosgrove-Hall’s award-winning special The Wind in becomes an underrated the Willows debuts in the U.K. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi animated feature directed La Lanterna Magica studio Watership Down by Martin Rosen and opens its doors in . Tony Guy. John M. Mills and Elphin Lloyd-Jones found The National Film Board Telemagination Studio in the U.K. The Wind in the Willows of Canada continues Indie animator its affair with Oscar offers the acclaimed short, Bottom’s Dream. with Special Delivery, presents the trendsetting videogame Dragon’s Special Delivery directed by Eunice Lair in June. Macaulay and John Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock premieres on Dragon’s Lair Weldon. Charles Swenson and Fred HBO. present The Mouse and His Child. Among the freshman shows on TV this year are Alvin and the New shows debuting this fall on TV are The Chipmunks, The Charlie Brown and Show, Dungeons All-New Popeye Hour, Baggy Pants and the and Dragons, He-Man and the , The Nitwits, The Fantastic Four, Godzilla Power Littles, Mr. T and The Pac-Man/Rubik the Amazing Cube Hour. Hour, The New Superfriends and Fang Face. Fraggle Rock Jimmy Picker’s claymated Sundae in New York offers a Rip Van Winkle, ’s stop-motion whimsical take on the Big Apple. version of the famous Irving tale, hits theaters Directed by , Mickey’s Christmas and lands an Oscar nom the following year. Carol puts a Disney spin on the Dickens’ classic. ’s Don Bluth, and adaption of The form The Bluth Group. Mickey’s Christmas Lord of the Rings comes to

theaters stateside in The Lord of the Rings November.

45 Years Ago: 40 Years Ago: Directed by Charles London’s TVC 50 Years Ago: Nichols and Iwao finishes animating Penned by and Takamoto, Hanna- ’ movie directed by , the Barbera’s Charlotte’s Web Yellow Submarine, Oscar-winning short, , offers a musical take on the directed by George centers on an old man who’s trying E.B. White Classic, featuring the voices of Dunning. to understand abstract animation. Yellow Submarine Debbie Reynolds and Wolfgang Tennessee Tuxedo Paul Lynde. Reitherman and his team at Disney and His Tales Ralph Bakshi’s bring A.A. Milne’s beloved bear premieres on CBS Heavy Traffic opens in to animated life in the Oscar- this year. theaters in August. winning short Winnie the Animated version of In September, TV Pooh and the Blustery Day. Heavy Traffic ’s debuts Hanna-Barbera’s Faith and Astro Boy premieres Jeannie, Speedy Buggy, Superfriends and wrap their Oscar-nominated Winnie the Pooh in Japan. Yogi’s Gang and ’s Lassie’s Rescue short Windy Day. Friz Freleng and David DePatie Rangers, Mission: Magic!, My Favorite This year’s TV debuts form the DePatie-Freleng Martians and ! include Filmation’s Enterprises On Nov. 8, Disney The Archie Show and studio. releases Hood, Hanna-Barbera’s The Young Arthur directed by Wolfgang Banana Splits, The New learns about Reitherman, which The Archie Show Adventures of Huck Finn his legacy features the Oscar- and Wacky Races. The Sword in the Stone from Merlin in nominated song “Love” Directed by Jimmy Murakami, the Robin Hood Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, and some 100,000 Oscar-nominated The Magic Pear Tree released in theaters in December. painted cels and 800 painted backgrounds. arrives in theaters.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 43 20 Years Ago: 25 Years Ago: Sweet and pastoral are how you can describe 1988 is a tremendous year for anime the two new British series of the year movies as Isao Takahata’s widely Telemagination’s The Animals of Farthing influential Grave of the Fireflies, Wood and TVC’s The World of Peter Rabbit Hayao Miyazaki’s charming My and Friends. The Animals of Farthing Neighbor Totoro and Katsuhiro and Aardman offer Wood Otomo’s dark, My Neighbor Totoro the brilliant plasticine-animated Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong futuristic epic Akira Trousers, which wins an Oscar in 1994. open to popular and critical acclaim. Warner Bros. release the stylish Batman: Mask Meanwhile, the TV landscape in the U.S. is a of the Phantasm, directed by Eric Radomski different story as shows such as Alf Tales, and Bruce W. Timm. Beany and Cecil, Garfield and Friends, Directed by , Tom and Jerry: The The New Yogi Bear Show, A Pup Named Movie opens in U.S. theaters. Garfield Scooby-Doo, The New Adventures of Wallace & Gromit in the TV debuts this year include Wrong Trousers Winnie the Pooh, Rocko’s Modern Life, and Slimer and the Real PB&J Otter, The World of Eric Carle, The Pink make their debut. Panther, , Family Dog, The mixes live action Adventures of Blinky Bill, Animaniancs, Biker and animation to superb results in Who Mice from Mars and Madeline. Framed Roger Rabbit, which wins David Fine and Alison Snowden hit the The Pink Panther over auds and nabs four Oscars, one for jackpot with their witty 2D short Bob’s Birthday, director Richard Williams. which wins an Oscar in 1995. John Lasseter’s Oscar-winning, CG- Steve Oakes, Susan Holden-Squibb, Richard Winkler and animated short gives the world a Who Framed David Starr form in New Roger Rabbit glimpse of Pixar’s fantastic future. York City. George Scribner’s Oliver & Company delivers a hits another high point in this musical, canine take on , with the voices of Billy career with the stop-motion animated musical Joel, Bette Midler and Dom DeLuise. feature The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Nightmare Before ’s crude duo, Beavis and Butt-head, Christmas debut on MTV on March 8.

15 Years Ago: MTV spoofs stars and their inflated egos with the clever claymated series Celebrity Deathmatch. animates Bob and Margaret, a series spinoff of Snowden/Fine’s Bob’s Birthday. Studios opens in Burbank in March. gives the world his hybrid creation, CatDog, which debuts in April on Nickelodeon. CatDog and ’s lush feature offers audiences a Disney heroine to admire in June. launches and serves up his cool anthology series Oh Yeah! Cartoons on Nickelodeon in July. In Japan, audiences flock to theaters to catch Pokemon: The Movie. DreamWorks releases Antz, the first 3D-animated insect feature of the year, as well as the 2D Biblical tale . Mulan Michel Ocelot’s beautifully animated Kirikou et la Sorciere (Kirikou and the Sorceress) wins over French audiences. TV animation is on a roll this year as Godzilla: The Series, Disney’s , Histeria!, Initial D, Invasion America, Pokemon: The Movie Bebop, Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain, Silver Surfer, Stressed Eric, Toonsylvania and all make their debut. Created by , Nelvana’s Emmy-winning preschool show, Rolie Polie Olie pushes the CG envelope. Craig McCracken’s begin their fight against the forces of evil. John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton’s A Bug’s Life reminds audiences of Pixar’s competitive edge over other studios. Among the other animated pics of the year are Perfect Blue, The Movie, Lupin III, The Batman/ A Bug’s Life Movie and Galaxy Express: Eternal Fantasy. Don Hertzfeldt’s Billy’s Balloon, Sylvain Chomet’s Old Lady and the Pigeons and ’s Oscar-winning Bunny are three of the year’s favorite shorts.

44 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 10 Years Ago: 5 Years Ago: has its share of hits and misses Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” with , and Ren & Marsh’s Emmy-winning series Phineas Stimpy’s Adult Party Cartoon premiering on and Ferb premieres on Disney Channel in Spike TV. February. Cartoon Network unveils Star Wars: Clone Other big TV debuts of the year include Nick Wars, directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, Stripperella Jr.’s Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, Cartoon Network’s Ben 10: Force, as well as Nickelodeon’s The Mighty B!, Studio B’s Ricky Sprocket: Show Jackson Publick and Biz Kid, Little Airplane’s 3rd and Bird, and Cartoon Network’s Doc Hammer’s The The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Venture Bros. The first quarter sees the release of animated features such as Mike Young Jimmy Hayward and ’s Blue Sky movie Star Wars: Clone Wars Productions brings Horton Hears a Who, Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks to PBS. which wins the Annecy Festival Cristal for Best Feature, and Bill and Nick age the Rugrats kids in All Plympton’s highly original indie, Idiots and Angels. Grown Up. Some of the acclaimed animated shorts of the year are Paris-based Marathon Animation follows up Totally Spies Alan Smith & Adam Foulkes’ This Way Up, Doug with Martin Mystery. Sweetland’s Presto, Francois Joubert’s French Roast, Warner Bros. Animation offers Nick Park’s Wallace & Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Duck Dodgers, and Xiaolin Death, ’s Lavatory Lovestory, Emud Showdown, while Disney TV Animation Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand’s Oktapodi. The House serves up Lilo & Stitch: The Series. of Small Cubes by Kunio Kato wins Aardman’s the Oscar for Best Animated Short in becomes a TV series in the U.K. 2009. Teen Titans Andrew Stanton and Disney legend passes away on April 14, 2008 in Sequim, delight audiences with Finding Nemo, The House of Small Cubes which becomes one of the most popular animated features Washington. of all time and wins the Oscar for Best Ari Folman’s powerful animated feature Animated Feature the following year. becomes Israel’s official entry in the Oscar DreamWorks releases Sinbad: race. Legend of the Seven Seas in theaters Summer features include Ben Stassen’s 3-D and opens 4-D in special park Finding Nemo Fly Me to the Moon and Anthony Leondis’ venues. The studio’s specialty label Igor, Kirk De Micco’s Space Chimps Waltz with Bashir imports ’s Millennium Actress to the U.S. This year’s new fall toons include Cuppa Frederator Studios delivers ’s My Life Coffee’s Life’s a Zoo, HBO’s The Life and Times of Tim, Cartoon as a Teenage Robot on Nickelodeon. Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars, MGM’s : The 101 Dalmatians 2, and Piglet’s Big Movie are and Henson’s Sid the Science Kid, Studio B.’s three of Disney’s traditionally animated movies of the year. Kid vs Kat, Warner Bros.’ Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Sylvain Chomet’s acclaimed The Triplets of Belleville Porchlight Ent.’s The Secret Saturdays and Nicktoons’ Making becomes an artistic hit in France and Fiends. nabs two Oscars in 2004. Other movies Peanuts animator, director and voice artist Bill Melendez dies on of the year include Raining Cats and September 2, 2008. Dogs; The Dog, the General and the European titles of the year include David Rubin and Juan C. Birds, Animatric, El Cid, Wonderful The Triplets of Belleville Pena’s Spirit of the Forest and Jacques-Remy Girerd’s Mia Days, Doggy Poo!, The Rain Children et le Migou.) and Rugrats Go Wild. Among the many theatrical animated titles of Warner Bros.’ : Back in Action combines live the year are Fathom Studios’ much-maligned action with animation. CG project Delgo, ’s The Tale of 2003 emerges as a strong year for animated shorts: Adam Despereaux (Universal), A-Film’s Niko and Bolt Elliot’s Harvie Krumpet leads the pack (and wins the the Way to the Stars and Brdley Raymond’s Oscar). Other big contenders include the Disney/Dali feature. Directed by Raul Garcia collaboration , directed by Dominique Monfery, and Manuel Sicilia and produced by Antonio ’s Boundin, ’s Banderas, The Missing Lynx hits a high note and Christopher Hinton’s Nibbles. for Spanish features in December. This year’s big Oscar contenders are DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda (directed by WALL-E John Stevenson and ), Disney’s CG-animated 3-D pic Bolt (Chris Williams and ) and Pixar’s WALL-E (directed by Andrew Stanton), which goes on to win the prize in 2009. ■

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 45 Oswald and Mickey recreate in 3D, using our Mickey model, real moments from 2D Mickey cartoons. Together Again! They showed me side-by-side images of our Mickey going through the same Game designer Warren Spector spills the beans on the paces as his 2D counterpart. When I new Epic Mickey 2 release and tells us how much he couldn’t tell which was which, I knew loved playing with older Disney characters and long- the team was good to go. We did the forgotten park attractions. same with Oswald on this game. But one of the things that defines the swald the Lucky Rabbit is What did you love about the Disney Epic Mickey games is the variety having quite a year. Almost 85 new gig? How is it different of visual styles represented. We had pre- O years after making his big from your previous work? rendered 3D CGI sequences to open screen debut in the Universal short Trol- As a life-long animation and Disney What were the joys and head- and close the game—those were done ley Troubles, Walt Disney and ’ fan, I just feel so honored to have been aches of bringing a classic char- by an outfit called Plastic Wax in Austra- fascinating character is back in the spot- able to return to a place acter like Oswald back to ani- lia. And then we had 2D animation, sort light again. Earlier this year, Oswald of prominence in the videogame world. mated life in this game? of like storyboard or concept art come made a big splash at the Telluride Film People forget that he was a pretty big Oswald’s such a great character! to life, for our internal storytelling mo- Festival with a new restored version of deal in the Genesis/Super Ninten- Honestly, I don’t think there were any ments. Those were done by an Austin his 1928 classic Hungry Hobos. This holi- do era, but he hadn’t been in a game in a headaches at all associated with him— animation house called Powerhouse. day season, he will be once again captur- long time when my studio started work- just joy. You look at the Disney-era Os- Love those guys! ing the imagination of gamers all over ing with him. Even more than that, we wald cartoons and just marvel at how the world as he and Mickey Mouse re- got to put Mickey at the heart of an epic cartoony a character he was. He How much homework did you turn to Cartoon Wasteland in Epic Mick- adventure, something no one had done stretched like taffy, removed his head have to do for this game? ey 2: The Power of Two, a world inhabited since…man, maybe since the great Floyd and used it like a bowling ball, swam “Have” to do? Probably, not much. By by forgotten Disney characters and Gottfredson comic strips of the 1930s through the air, got himself squished into the time we finished the firstEpic Mickey theme park attractions. We recently had and ‘40s! And beyond that, to be able to dozens of tiny versions of himself, and game, everyone on the Junction Point the chance to interview Warren Spector, bring back , separated himself from his shadow to be team was steeped in Disney history! But the award-winning game designer be- Walt Disney’s first cartoon star… in two places at once. And don’t even we certainly chose to do a lot of home- hind both Epic Mickey games, as well as Come on, what Disney fan wouldn’t get me started on all the uses Disney work! We did a ton of research—online, titles such as Thief: Deadly Shadows, Deus watching films, visiting the Parks and Ex, Wings of Glory, Ultima and the Wing working with the amazing folks at the Commander series. Disney archives. As much as we could, we tried to live by the rule that every- When did you begin work on thing in the game should be inspired by Epic Mickey 2? something real from Disney’s past. The Warren Spector: The answer I think concept artists started submitting their you’re looking for is that Disney’s Epic work together with all their referenc- Mickey 2 took about two years to es—they knew if they didn’t, I, or one of make—a relatively short development the art directors, would ask them the cycle for me! In a sense we started do- dreaded question, “Where did that ing real work on the game around Janu- come from?” If they didn’t have an an- ary of 2011—there was some light- swer, it was back to the drawing board— weight conceptual work happening for a jump at the chance to do that? and Ub Iwerks came up with for Os- literally! couple of months before that but, really, What’s different about the Disney Epic wald’s ears! It really was a joy borrowing the team was resting up from the first Mickey games from my previous work? ideas and personality traits from classic What are some of the standout game, which shipped in November of Less than you might think! Obviously, Oswald shorts and translating them into qualities of the Oswald charac- 2010 and didn’t hit the ground running the content and tone of a Mickey Mouse in-game action. ter? until after the new year. In another game, even one as sort of dark in tone Well, for starters, he’s a little envious sense, though, we started working on as this one, is going to be different from Where was the animation done? of Mickey’s success! Who wouldn’t be? I the second Mickey game before we ever the M-rated dystopic real world SF All of the 3D animation—the in-game mean, the way I’ve always thought of the got rolling on the first one. I had a pretty games and fantasy adventures I’ve done stuff—was done right here at Junction character, he’s the older brother who good idea of the high level storyline and before. But from a gameplay standpoint, Point [in Austin]. We had nine animators feels he’s been rejected by his dad in fa- gameplay features I wanted to include in there’s a foundation, an underlying phi- on the project and they just killed it. vor of a younger brother who’s stolen a second game, and a third, actually, right losophy, that says games should be about Capturing the essence of classic, 2D the life that should have been his. You’d from the start. That stuff was always in players telling their own stories, solving Disney animation in a 3D world was a be resentful, too! Of course, by the end the back of our minds, even during the problems the way they want and dealing challenge, but the team nailed it. The of the first game, Oswald and Mickey first game’s development with the consequences. coolest thing the team did—this was had hung out enough, and Oswald had back on the first Mickey game—was seen Mickey’s truly heroic nature, so

46 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 ames Old School Style, New School Play: The G Epic Mickey 2 team worked hard to make sure ence are we providing that players al- most of the designs in the game were inspired by ready understand and desire?” When I old Disney toons, attractions and characters. can answer all of those questions, I sort of plan out in my own mind what three games could look like—what story could I tell in game 1, game 2 and game 3? What game features would I intro- duce in a game 1, 2 and 3? It’s not that I expect I’ll literally tell those stories or use those features, but I need to know that, if I’m going to spend six to 10 years of my life living in a world, playing with some characters, I need to know that I’m not going to be bored stiff! Anyway, once I have that worked out—and I don’t even tell the team about that stuff, most of the time—you they mended fences. That doesn’t mean toys and, well, everything Mickey has! ney classic has songs, so Epic Mickey 2 start brainstorming. All that thinking there aren’t still occasional disagree- Oswald deserves to be as big a star as does, too. I think people who played the provides creative constraints within ments, a little tension, but they’re broth- Mickey and my team and I are going to first game will find lots to like in the se- which the team has to work but, as long ers—there’s always going to be a little do everything we can to see that the quel, and people who didn’t play the as they stay in that “creative box” that tension! To me, though, Oswald’s more Lucky Rabbit gets his own star on the first game. And now that we’re on a belongs to me, the team, especially the than an envious, resentful rabbit, of Walk of Fame in Hollywood! bunch of different platforms, not just on leads, kind of has to run with it. I get one course. He’s a lot like Mickey in some the , like the first game, people who more vote than everyone on the team ways; friendly, never gives up, that sort Can you tell us a bit about how didn’t play the first game will be able to combined—on story, gameplay features, of thing. But he’s a little quicker to get the new game is different from jump right in and have a great time. visual style, you name it—but if I ever angry—Mickey pretty much doesn’t get the firstEpic Mickey outing? have to use that extra vote, I’ve kind of mad—and he’s more trusting, more na- Disney’s Epic Mickey 2: The Power of failed to communicate what game we’re ïve and even more mischievous than Two tells an all-new story, features some Why did Oswald end up with a making. It’s my problem, not the team’s Mickey is. He knows his luck will see new forgotten characters and takes magic remote control in this problem. I try to leave the details of ex- him through. players to some new lands. That’s just outing? ecution in the hands of my discipline what you’d expect in a sequel. But the We wanted to give Oswald a set of leads, working with their team mem- abilities that was unique, different from bers. When everyone feels a sense of Becky Cline, director of Disney Archives, on Oswald: Mickey. If you’re making a co-op game, creative control, magic happens. where two characters work together We had a lot of people working on “Oswald is a great character and Warren Spector loves him. He has cer- to overcome game challenges, you want the game. Wrangling all those cats, cre- tainly earned his moniker, Lucky! He’s creative and loves to solve problems— each character to have abilities that ating a single, coherent piece of work, he is very good at using his body parts to fix things. He uses his foot (he’s a complement, rather than duplicate, the was pretty crazy! If I stopped to think lucky rabbit) when he needs good luck; he paddles his canoe with his ears. other character’s. Mickey has his brush, about how crazy it is, I’d probably never Both kids and adults can enjoy his wit and creativity. He’s also an extreme that allows him to use Paint and Thinner make another game—but I love this character—with the highs and lows of most entertaining characters. Plus, he’s to draw and erase toon things in the stuff, so I guess I must be crazy. How’s something of a lothario with the ladies, so he pushes the envelope more than world of Wasteland. Oswald has a re- that for a non-answer to what seemed Mickey. We are going to be seeing a lot of him in the future!” mote control that allows him to affect like a simple question! ■ electrical, mechanical and audio-anima- tronic things that give Mickey a heck of Disney’s Epic Mickey 2 was re- Do you think we’re going to see new game features several all-new a hard time. What’s easy for Mickey is leased on , PS3 and Wii a lot more of him in the future things that might surprise some folks. hard for Oswald and vice versa. That’s on November 18, Mickey Mouse’s now that the copyright issues First, there’s two-player cooperative kind of the heart of co-op play. birthday. The game’s official price [with Universal] have been tak- play—one player can play as Mickey but, is $49.99, but you can pick it up en care of? at any time, a second player can join in What is your creative process for $39.99 on amazon.com. The hope we see a lot more of Oswald in and play as Oswald. Together, Mickey like when you tackle a massive voice cast includes the future! Obviously, I hope he appears and Oswald can do things that Mickey project like this one? (Mickey), (Oswald), in many more games. But you’re already can’t do alone, so that changes things How much time do you have?! My Cary Elwes ( Gus), Jim seeing him on t-shirts and pins and the pretty significantly in the game. Also, creative process starts by asking myself Cummings (Pete), like. There are already plush toys and we’ve added songs. Yeah. Songs. How a series of questions—things like (Animatronic Donald) and Tress Oswald ears and holiday ornaments. can you claim to be making a game that “what’s the thing in this game that no MacNeille (Animatronic Daisy) That’s all great, but what I really want to honors 80 years of Disney’s creative one’s ever seen before?” and “what fan- and songs by Jim Dooley and Mark see is new Oswald cartoons and vinyl history and not have songs? Every Dis- tasy are we fulfilling and/or what experi- Himelstein.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 47 of the result, landing Westenhofer Building a Beguiling the gig as vfx supervisor on the ste- reoscopic 3-D shoot. Bengal Tiger With the tiger playing so large a role in the story, he was the first VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer discusses some obvious effects challenge. “We’ve of the mind-blowing visual effects of Ang Lee’s been asked to make digital animals Life of Pi. by Thomas J. McLean in the past and try to make them as real as possible—then they sing ife of Pi is not a movie about the regal lion created for Narnia, or they dance or they do something mathematics, but numbers that brought the Oscar-winning di- that is obviously fake,” says Westen- L played a big role in creating rector to Rhythm & Hues in 2009 hofer. “But here is a tiger who was the stunning visual effects for direc- with one question: Would a digital going to be a tiger. So if we ever had Ang Lee tor Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann character look more real in stereo- a chance to fool our colleagues, this Martel’s best-selling novel. scopic 3-D? was it.” “If I was a numerologist, I blew “We didn’t know, so that was a The process began by gathering a Building the digital version of it by 10 days because I was on the good question,” says Westenhofer. huge amount of reference and rely- Richard Parker took about a year, project 3.18 years and it should “He asked us to take a shot of ing on tiger experts, such as Thierry starting with a simple model of a have been 3.14!” says Bill West- Aslan—and he was adamant about Le Portier, a French trainer who tiger that was lined up with footage enhofer, visual effects supervisor on and photos of King in action and the movie. Life of Pi follows a young “We’ve been asked to make digital animals in the tweaked until it fit. The reference man from India who is traveling to past and try to make them as real as possible—then also provided all the tiger’s fur, with Canada when his ship sinks and the digital model ending up with 10 he is stranded alone on a lifeboat they sing or they dance or they do something that million hairs. with a Bengal tiger named Richard is obviously fake. But here is a tiger who was going Principal photography of the raft Parker. Pi, played by new actor Suraj sequences was done at a tank in Sharma, struggles to survive his ex- to be a tiger. So if we ever had a chance to fool our Taiwan, with Le Portier providing treme situation and his boat mate colleagues, this was it.” real tigers for as many sequences as on an extraordinary 227-day jour- possible. In all, the real tigers were ney. —Life of Pi’s vfx supervisor Bill Westenhofer in 14 percent of the shots; the rest Westenhofer and his crew at were digital. Rhythm & Hues were an obvious not changing a thing, just rendering provided animals for films such as “While we were shooting other choice for Lee, having done realistic the second eye—and we’ll look at it Gladiator. One of Le Portier’s tigers, stuff, Erik [De Boer, senior anima- looking animals on movies such as in stereo and we’ll see if it improves named King, had a particularly re- tion supervisor] was in with the Babe: Pig in the City, Cats & Dogs and it or makes it look fake.” gal look that appealed to Lee, who tigers and shot incredible refer- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Lee liked both that his instruc- selected him as the main model for ence, like super close-ups of the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was Aslan, tions were followed and the quality Richard Parker. paws rolling, what the pads would

48 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 Visual Effects

An Ocean of FX: Westenhofer and the R&H team provided tons of water effects and plenty of other digital critters besides Pi’s Bengal boatmate. do when the claws momentarily iting side,” Westenhofer says. “It’s emerge during the walk cycle and got to be absolutely perfect or you tiny details of how the skin was just see these little stereo things.” moving,” Westenhofer says. There were 690 vfx shots out of “From an animation standpoint, 960 total in the movie, both of which even if your intention is to be as are telling numbers, Westenhofer animalistic as possible, it’s so easy says. The former shows how promi- to subconsciously anthropomor- nent effects are in the movie and phize things,” says Westenhofer. the latter shows those shots were “We found for every shot a refer- unusually long—a product of both ence clip or a combination of clips Lee’s preferences as a director and even from the stuff we shot or from avoiding too many rapid cuts in 3-D. documentary footage and said, this “We had more than 2,000 frame is what we’re going to base this shots in this film than I’ve worked shot on, and we showed Ang and he ter for so many shots. They also benefited from a grid on in my entire career,” he says. agreed.” As with the animals, the stan- painted on the tank that could be “Quite often, we’d have to blend The crew also relied on Le Porti- dard for reference was held high used to measure wave frequency between takes, especially in some of er, who would look at and comment on the digital water. The produc- and amplitude and accurately recre- the storm and action sequences. So on footage to make sure it looked tion worked with Steve Callahan, ated and matched up. the shots are actually comprised of real. an oceanographer who survived The project also tapped the re- six different takes that are blended “We would get approval from 76 days afloat on the ocean, as a sources of Moving Picture Com- together at key moments.” Ang on the shot and then spend consultant on both the story and pany for the ship-sinking sequence, Working on the movie was a lot another one or two weeks going in the way the ocean moves. Lee also while Lola VFX helped make Pi look of hard work, but Westenhofer says and doing just the tiny little bits of took the crew out on a Taiwanese more gaunt and thin toward the end the artistic results exceeded his ex- stuff, like the legs crunching and the coast guard cutter into rough night of his journey. Crazy Horse Effects pectations. “Each shot, we would sit paws and the toes moving and little waters to get reference for the se- did digital matte paintings, while down with Ang about what kind of twitches in the face,” he says. quence in which Pi’s ship sinks. Look FX contributed some com- day it was and looked through our The other animals on the life- “In the storm sequences, they positing and yU+Co did some work library and he’d set up a mood,” boat were mostly digital as well— used a full simulation for the waves on assembling montages in stereo. he says. “What was great about a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan so the entire surface was a fluid sim BUF did the tiger vision sequence, this was that it was the first time mother with her baby. creating these storm force gale, 30- originally meant to have a watercol- that I really felt we could create art There also is an island full of foot tall waves. For the calmer stuff, or look to it before becoming a bit through visual effects. It sounds cli- meerkats, all of which were virtual. we ended up using a more proce- more realistic. Other houses work- chéd, but it really felt like every shot “It’s a combination of hand-animat- dural approach.” ing on the movie include Legacy Ef- was looked at with an artistic view.” ed stuff and Massive,” says Westen- The crew developed a library fects, Christov Effects and Design hofer. of about 60 different water looks, and Halon Entertainment. Fox released Life of Pi in The second huge challenge, with Westenhofer saying it took Stereoscopic 3-D added an extra theaters nationwide last which was less obvious at the start, anywhere from a week to three wrinkle to the process. “It’s just un- month. It opens in the U.K. was creating convincing digital wa- months to get a look to feel right. forgiving, especially on the compos- on December 20.

january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 49 Opportunities Schodl brings an experienced 3-D is a whole different ballgame.” perspective to these expectations, SCAD’s commitment to teaching since he has taught the Stereoscop- stereoscopy also extends to its vi- ic Filmmaking course twice before. sual effects program, which includes “But this is the first quarter where a course in Stereoscopic Imaging we actually have all the equipment taught by Stuart Robertson, an Os- in place. We needed the digital pro- car winner for the visual effects in jection side but also the digital ac- What Dreams May Come. quisition equipment.” Schodl, who “My class requires that students earned his M.F.A. in Cinematogra- have the ability to generate stereo phy at the American Film Institute, images or do a 2D to 3-D conver- explains, “SCAD purchased a new sion,” says Robertson. “They need beam-splitter rig from Britain’s Ge- to know about theater space, and nustech, and high-end Sony F3 cam- cutting off the frame in the appro- eras. The equipment that our stu- priate places. Once they know the dents are using to shoot 3-D with basic principles, it then becomes all one single rig comes close to a cost about artistry.” of $100,000.” Robertson notes that his course SCAD students typically take isn’t about photographing visual ef- courses in pre- and post-produc- fects elements stereoscopically, but tion techniques as well as lighting rather teaching students how to and digital cinematography before handle those elements in post. “For Adventures in 3-D getting their hands on this equip- example, we might get two sets of ment in the Stereoscopic Filmmak- back plates and we’ll need to do a ing class. But as Schodl observes, green-screen composite with them. Stereography “To get the ball rolling, we had to It’s very challenging, especially when loosen the prerequisites somewhat, we have to paint stuff out.” SCAD Savannah College of Art and Design leads because there are a lot of students has acquired software packages the way in offering courses on stereoscopic who are unaware of what is really which support 3-D post processing, filmmaking and imaging. by Ellen Wolff going on. They think that 3-D means including the latest versions of Ado- just shooting the same things with be After Effects and Premiere, and hose who attended But I do hope that by the end of two cameras. A lot of educating has the plug-in Ocula for The Foundry’s the 15th annual Savan- the spring quarter we’ll have a com- to be done outside of the stereo- compositing package . T nah Film Festival this fall pilation of student work to screen scopic classroom to make the stu- Robertson sees the popularity might have seen something new in there.” dents understand that shooting in of stereoscopy as an evolutionary the theater at the Savannah College step and not a leap into alien ter- of Art and Design (SCAD). The pri- rain. “Our students need to under- vate, non-profit school, which hosts “[A lot of students] think that 3-D means stand the things that could be ap- the festival at its Georgia campus, just shooting the same things with two plied to either a stereo or a mono has partnered with the 3-D cinema movie. That’s the important part. company RealD as SCAD’s exclu- cameras. A lot of educating has to be done Stereo represents a further exten- sive provider. The implications for outside of the stereoscopic classroom to sion of skills that have evolved and students are notable: a profession- continue to evolve.” However, he al-grade theater to screen the im- make the students understand that shooting has no doubt that the demand for ages they produce in stereoscopic graduates with stereo skills will con- courses that are already underway. in 3-D is a whole different ballgame.” tinue to rise. “SCAD is very much Joerg Schodl, who teaches the — Joerg Schodl, industry-focused, and our graduates Stereoscopic Filmmaking course Stereoscopic Filmmaking instructor at SCAD have to be able to work within a in SCAD’s film program, cautions production environment. As stereo that while we shouldn’t expect to becomes more and more embed- see a full-blown 3-D student festival ded in the industry, we have to make any time soon, SCAD definitely will sure that we’re addressing it.” use the new theater to showcase The results of SCAD’s foray student work. “This is very new,” All images courtesy SCAD into stereo will initially be seen in remarks Schodl. “We’re waiting for projects by both undergraduate software that will permit student and graduate students. As Schodl films to be transcoded into the explains, “A senior thesis film will necessary file for RealD projection. be shot in 3-D at an old Spanish

50 www.animationmagazine.net january 13 fortress in St. Augustine, Florida. It’s the will include significant green-screen effects and CG. “Possibly at next year’s first project using our brand new rig, so film festival it will screen in the RealD theater.” I’ll be going down there to supervise and Stereoscopic education is still a work in progress, but Schodl believes, make sure that students aren’t breaking “We are pushing the envelope. I’ve heard that there are some similar cours- anything! You’ve got to think that when es at a school in Paris, but I’m not aware of other schools taking the extra they drive off to a film location, in the steps that SCAD is taking. We’ve invested a lot—and we’re not done yet.” back of their truck there’s easily half a For more info, visit www.scad.edu. million dollars of gear.” Schodl himself has volunteered to Ellen Wolff is an award-winning journalist who specializes Prof. Stuart Robertson photograph a graduate thesis film that in animation, vfx and education. Timely. Essential. Toonerrific!

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january 13 www.animationmagazine.net 51 A Day In The Life

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