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Home , John Kricfalusi, Nelvana, Richard Condie, Tom Sito

BY KAKEN MAZAKE.With

P.

NSIDERS JOKE THAT CANADIANS ARE THE GYPSY KINGS OF THE WORLD. THERE IS

PROBABLY A CANUCK IN EVERY MAJOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIO — RUNNING MGM'S ANIMATION

UNIT, DESIGNING CHARACTERS WITHIN DISNEY'S DOORS, INNOVATING AT INDUSTRIAL LIGHT

AND MAGIC (ILM), BREAKING NEW GROUND AS FEATURE DIRECTORS, AND REDEFINING TOONS

LEFT, I ON THE TUBE. AT INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS AND FILM TOURNEES, CANADIAN ARTISTS STAND OUT. PHS:

GRA TO SUSPICIOUS FOREIGNERS, IT MUST SEEM AS IF CANADIANS ARE INVOLVED IN AN INTERNATIONAL

PHOTO CARTOON CONSPIRACY.

THE GLUM' IIICOMEKS, LIKE ITS riki-DECES- DEStITE THE ADOLESCENT lki_fEKENCES, LIKE THE tOrULAlk SKETCH COMEDY SHOWS, REN AND STIMtY, IS NOT VACUOUS. SOR THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THE INGKAINED STUtIDITY Of THE TU51_ BY MAKING SMART COMEDY OUT Of NOKTH AMERICA'S Oumt5IN6--00Whi

, „ , Getting to the bottom of this remarkable the NFB to form an animation unit, was mator at ILM. Perched above the 49th diaspora requires a probe of our nation's blind to passports. He recruited the best parallel, Canadians have learned how to collective pysche. Heritage and geogra- and the brig est around the world, infiltrate and blend into the corporate phy play a part. Animators jokingly refer including Bri in's Gerald Potterton, environmen ts. to the cold expanse of our great White Denmark's Ka Pindal, the Netherland's A temple of American culture, the North and the artistic impulse to person- Paul Driessen d Zlatko Grgic of Yugo- Disney Studios are strangely overrun by ally imprint the empty spaces. The mul- slavia. Now, nadians have a unique Canucks like Duncan Marjoribanks, Nik ticultural landscape is another factor. vantage point en viewing other coun- Ranieri and Joe Haidar who headed Canadian animators are notorious cross- tries, particularly their southern neigh- south for the work and the weather. Just breeders, and they trace their roots to bours. "Canadians know Americans bet- how were they able to slip into this capi- Sheridan College (in Oakville) and the ter than they know themselves, because talistic monolith? It was a quiet revolu- National Film Board. From the word go, they observe them all day through the tion at Disney. "We are the guys upstairs Norman McLaren, a Scotsman hired by airwaves," says Steve Williams, chief ani- who aren't invited to the party down-

left, JOHN KRICFALUSI's Ren and Stimpy; below, DANNY ANTONUCCI's The Grunt Brothers NIK RANIER1's Lumiere (Beauty and the Beast), above, and Jafar (Aladdin), right

stairs, so we sneak in through the heat ments Antonucci and Kricfalusi offer up tive experience of growing up in a tv cul- ducts. And because we look like them have little moral fibre. They serve as eye ture, while at the same time parodying and talk like them, we get away with it," candy to disenfranchised youth impa- it. says Haidar. It was a different story at tient with shows that are supposed to be The slick and frenetic pace has cap- ILM. The raptor roar heard around the "good for you." Instead, Kricfalusi and tured the schizophrenic mood of today's world in Jurassic Park was the brainchild Antonucci push the envelope at the spe- youth. Ren and Stimpy, in particular, of Canadians Steve Williams and Eric cialty channels with burping, farting, mirrors the dialectical dilemma of teens Armstrong. This team took ILM, and petrified body fluids, and other nasties. — torn between fascination with the pop the world, by storm. Feature filmmaking The Grunt Brothers series is based on culture icons who take an anti-societal will never be the same thanks to their an MTV spot designed by Antonucci. stance, and cynicism towards the experimentation. The insert features six cancerous charac- inevitable commercialism their heroes voi The Canadian ironic sensibility is also ters, each grunting painfully as eyes fall into. The Grunt brothers don't quite creeping into American programming. bulge and veins pop. The scene cuts to reach the pathological proportions of After languishing for years in the an MTV logo plopping into a toilet John Kricfalusi's chihuahua, Ren. By Saturday morning slots, commericial bowl. Scatalogical humour reigns on comparison, Antonucci's characters are animation has found a primetime niche cable. Antonucci has developed his more sedate. The hypertension manifest- on the cable webs, and Canadians are grunting trio into a gelatinous brethren, ed in straining muscles, engorged arteries adroitly surfing this new wave of inter- persecuted throughout the centuries for and veins, and dilated eyes leads to an est. Riding the crest is The Grunt their odd rituals. implosion in the brothers Grunt, rather Brothers, a creation of 's Despite the adolescent references The than the explosion of rage and frustra- Danny Antonucci, and the latest addi- Grunt Brothers, like its predecessor Ren tion that typifies the character of Ren. tion to MTV's line-up, which includes and Stimpy, is not vacuous. Like the Whereas the havoc wreaked by the

Beavis and Butt - Head. Antonucci is a popular sketch comedy shows, they Grunts is almost accidental, Kricfalusi successor to John Kricfalusi, a Canadian acknowledge the ingrained stupidity of purposefully unleashes his characters on expatriate who helped resuscitate the the tube by making smart comedy out of the world. medium with his characters, Ren and North America's dumbing-down. The Antonucci and Kricfalusi both attend- Stimpy. Like Kricfalusi, Antonucci has shows are self-aware; they give a know- ed Sheridan College at the same time no intention of catering to the action ing wink-wink to the audience, with and share an affinity for bursting capil- heroes or pablum that is ironic insertions of music video and laries. But the similarities end there. spoon-fed to kids. The dietary supple- mock bumpers. They reaffirm the collec- Antonucci is a disciple of Mary New- 6 TAKE ONE I WAS VIE ANTI-DISNEY STYLE. IN MY SCHOOL DAYS; I DIDN'T LIKE. THE LOOK IN ANIMA TION OF THE ROUNDED, STKLAM-LIND CHARACTERS. Wilk I WOULD fOK AWHILE, I KE.ALIZI-D IT WAS A !UAW SOUND INDUSTRIAL DLSIO mA1400ANKS THAT WORKED" DUNCAN

land, a former graduate from Los and dear to adolescents' hearts. Yet, it's the Orient. He believes animators must Angeles who settled in Vancouver in the character design that makes this car- train by studying the work of the mas- 1973 to set up his company, Interna- toon so interesting. Lupo is no typical, ters, and in tional Rocketship. Newland, whose first bulbous-nosed, bug-eyed character. particular. film Meets Godzilla achieved cult Lupo is fashioned after Max Fleischer When 's president Gerry status, says his ambition has always been cartoons and has the rubber-hosed Laybourne announced the cable network to make personal films. Over the years, limbs, zipper mouth, and beady eyes was looking for animator-driven car- his commercial production has under- favoured by West Coast animators toons, Kricfalusi and his new crew at 1 written the hard costs of his shorts, as Newland and Al Sens. Spumco were ready. Kricfalusi took his well as other freelancers in his orbit. "I'd In contrast, Kricfalusi says he wasn't portfolio crammed with ideas and visited rather spend two months making a com- influenced by the Canadian independent Nickelodeon executive Vanessa Coffey mercial to make a profit than spend 10 scene or the NFB, and learned nothing in . "She was staying at the minutes talking to any banker," says at Sheridan College in the one and a half Universal Sheridan. It was the middle of Newland. "Explaining what I do in years he spent there. "I was supposed to summer and the air conditioner was bro- order to get money for it is hell on go to Sheridan, but I didn't spend much ken. I pitched the stuff to Vanessa and I earth." In the last couple of years, time there. I was a lousy student. It was sweated all over her. Sweat was flying in International Rocketship has become a combination of things: I was lazy, I buckets off my hair. She was shocked, known more for its shorts than its com- had a bad attitude, and they didn't teach but she loved it." Coffey sent Kricfalusi mercials, thanks to exposure through the me anything. It was more a course about to meet with New York honchos. In her festival circuit. Now commercial clients propaganda — joining the Disney reli- words: "I can't sweat like you." The are requesting "the look" or "the edge" gion — than it was about learning the Nickelodeon round table, spurred by of the shorts, says Newland. basic skills of animation." Kricfalusi has Laybourne's parting shot after the pitch MTV is a case in point. The station made it his personal crusade to rail session — "Buy something from this hired Antonucci to do some station against the demise of quality animation. man" — commissioned Kricfalusi's identification inserts based on his Lupo He wants to eliminate hack writers and Spumco to do a pilot based on his char- the Butcher character. Lupo, a stereotyp- go back to the good old days when acters Ren and Stimpy.

MO. ical Canadian/Italian butcher who hacks shorts were written and rendered by ani- With a single series, Kricfalusi grabbed away at a chicken only to have the dissed mators, not by committee. He wants to the chance to reverse what he saw as 30 bird turn on him. It's good-old-blood- repatriate the inking and painting, which years of decline in the field and provide a and-guts, a one-gag cartoon that's near for years has been done factory-style in little subversive humour for the bored WINTER 1995 7 masses. "Cartoons today are like spinach tv shows, and the commercial breaks and tially a diabolical thought control device, ice-cream; they purposely make them bumpers take direct aim at Saturday which forces Ren to behave in a blissful- taste bad," says Kricfalusi. "We tried to morning cartoon pap. One of Kricfa- ly vacant manner. Ren no longer bursts make them taste good, that's all. We put lusi's hilarious bumpers, My Little into fits when mishaps occur, he just in all kinds of humour. We put in what Brother (read My Little Pony), is a toy tunelessly sings "Happy, Happy, Joy, we thought kids would think is funny, that girls can blame when they get into Joy." Meanwhile, his convulsing body and what we thought was funny. We trouble. reflects how tortuous it is to suppress all purposefully tried to piss off moms by Two shows transcend the satirical his anger and frustration. The Happy putting in things kids would love — material by injecting genuine pathos into Helmet is the cartoon version of soma, boogers. Only our boogers weren't just the storylines. "Son of Stimpy," original- the drug in Aldous Huxley's Brave New little green things, we had magnificent ly called "Stimpy's First Fart," opens World, which keeps the masses too com- renaissance paintings of boogers, beauti- with Stimpy wandering the streets insist- plaisant to rebel. fully rendered with special effects shini- ing "He's real, he's real." The object of Although he wouldn't like the analo- ness. They could talk and sing. We went his passionate search and rescue is Stinky gy, Kricfalusi's more complex cartoons to town on boogers...we expected moms the Fart, a little gaseous emission that read as postmodern fables not unlike to go nuts and they didn't. We were slipped out of Stimpy's behind one day some of the work by National Film mad that parents liked our show." and escaped. What makes this episode so Board animators such as Richard Of course, Kricfalusi didn't really brilliant is the fact that Stimpy's search is Condie, who animated , a expect to piss off the entire 18-plus actually an existential search of self. The parable of nuclear holocaust. In his lat- demographic. Like the old masters, his fart is Stimpy's alter-ego. est, yet-to-be-released film, Playroom, cartoons are laced with so-called adult In "Stimpy's Invention," Stimpy (de- Condie paints the illusion that man is humour. Most of the humour is tradi- scribed by Kricfalusi as an idiot-savant) master of his own fate even if it means tional satire a la Saturday Night Live or invents the Happy Helmet, which he succumbing to temptation and ruining 's SCTV. Each episode parodies forces Ren to wear. The helmet is essen- his ordered life. However, this notion of

STEVE WILLIAMS' computer-generated animation for The Mask

MOIFINOMICatifili

Ro t% 0,07100

1 OWPoint existentialism is shattered when Condie and Rule, were forced to 'accept the ball out the door, the new producer has fall- reveals a different universal truth. and chain lifestyle of producing Saturday en way behind schedule and ratings are Kricfalusi and Condie are sympatico in morning cartoons for children, the most down. content, if not design. Stylistically, appalling of which is The Care Bears. Having lost Ren and Stimpy, Kricfalusi Condie's work bears more resemblance For Kricfalusi and others who waited is back on the war path. He has cut a to the work of NFB staff animators Wolf out the 80s, there is hope that the pen- deal with Marvel comics for his new Koenig, Don Arioli and Paul Driessen, dulum is swinging back and audiences characters Jimmy the Hapless Boy, his than to the U.S. heavyweights like will demand more adult cartoons with uncle , and girlfriend Clampett and Avery. Kricfalusi dismisses higher production values. Asked why Sody-Pop, and is producing a pilot for NFB animation — with the possible Ren and Stimpy is so popular, Kricfalusi television. His new strategy is to keep all exception of animator Brad says: "Asking why Ren and Stimpy is so rights and control all aspects of the mar- Caslor, who also took his cues from popular is like asking why fucking is keting. In addition to the comics, Clampett and Avery — primarily because popular. It's fun to do. It's as if for 40 Kricfalusi is marketing a paint-by-num- the Board has never striven for the pop- years you taped everyone's groin shut bers set of Jimmy and the gang complete ulist appeal of Disney or the Warner and no one could have sex. Then, all of a with a mask of Jimmy's exploding head Brother's cartoons. That was left to the sudden, you take the tape off, and every- which kids can cut out and wear, plus a private sector, and the Canadian com- one's all crusty and smelly, but they start free box of Sugar Corn Waste, an essen- mercial landscape is pock-marked with fucking again and say, 'Wow, isn't this tial waste product for all kids. He is also those who made and lost it all — Al fun.'" marketing Spumco tv cartoon paints, an Guest Studio (Rocket Robin Hood), But for every two steps forward, there inking set for all those little wannabe Potterton Studios, Crawley's, Atkinson, is always a step back. Nickelodeon, cartoonists who can be "admired and Hinton, Cinera et al. The survivors like incensed by content battles, dumped then fired," just like their hero John , pushed into near bankruptcy Kricfalusi half-way through the second Kricfalusi. with the production of their feature Rock season. Since Kricfalusi's untimely push Despite interest in his new projects, "Folk ANYBODY TO SAY THAT A (OtituTER-6EN- RATED HUMAN WILL NOT HAM', THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE TALKING ABOur. IT WILL HArrEN.1% STEVE. WILLIANS left, STEVE WILLIAMS' Kricfalusi dismisses any sug- Tyrannosaurus Rex (Jurassic Park); below, gestions that animation is on 's The the comeback trail. "There

Big Snit isn't a renaissance — that denotes quality, a flowering of culture and skill and excel- lence — and that's not happen- ing," says Kricfalusi. "Maybe, we're in a pre-renaissance. I'm praying we are. First we have to blow up the Disney Studios, get all the animator's out of there and detox them. Then we have to kill Saturday morning and come up with a new word for cartoon. They denote chil- dren's entertainment and that's a horrible handicap. My goal is to get the hell out of tv, it doesn't deserve animation. Let's put it on the big screen where it deserves to be. That's the one thing Disney is doing right." Although admired, Kricfalusi's evangelical mission has not been embraced by other Canadian expatriates. For many, classical animation is alive and well at Disney. "John has always had conviction of his genius," says Duncan Marjoribanks, Disney's supervising animator for Sebas- tian, the crab in The Little Mermaid, and Abu, the monkey in Aladdin. Kricfalusi considers working for Disney a sell-out. Marjoribanks' approach is more pragmatic. He views animation as more of a trade than an art form. WHILE "The thing that makes animation a CLASSICAL ANIMATORS ARE STRIVING TO business is that it's a collaborative RE-TOW TO THE medium," says Marjoribanks, unap- STANDARDS SET BY THE MAS- olagetically. "This suits my own TERS IN THE 19÷o5, personality; the whole becoming (OMtUTER ANIMATORS ARE greater than the sum of its parts." TAKING THE MEDIUM Nevertheless, Marjoribanks is im- INTO THE FUTURE pressed with the boundaries Kric- falusi is pushing. "You can't fully appreciate John's work unless you've done Saturday morning and you know what you are up against." Marjoribanks should know. He's been there. Another almost-graduate of Sheridan College (class of '76) Marjoribanks moved to the U.S. to work on Hanna-Barbera's Captain Caveman in order to survive in the business. Sheridan was pumping out animators in a Canadian market unable to absorb them all. At that time, Nelvana and Atkinson Studios in were producing quality half-hour specials, and several com- mercial operations were going strong,

TAKE ONE but it wasn't enough. any animator who had the guts to try. acters, producers are licking their lips Five years after moving to Los An- The animators called the sessions "The over the possibilities of exploiting the geles, Marjoribanks was offered a job at Gong Show." Luckily for Haidar, the classics. Amblin is making noises about Disney. He snapped it up. "I was very gong did not sound and the execs liked doing Bugs Bunny. "They should be anti-Disney in my school days. I didn't his twist for a feature based on Hercules executed for that. They are bastardizing like the look of the rounded, streamlined so much they assigned directors to it. this piece of art. [The software] was not characters. After I worked in animation Hercules is now in pre-production, tenta- intended to be [developed] so greasy for awhile, I realized it was a really sound tively scheduled for release in 1996, and producers could come in here and slime industrial design that worked," he says. Haidar says the whole exercise has given it, just using it to generate capital and "People put this place down because we him confidence. As a result, he is devel- marketing campaigns," says Williams. do somewhat formulaic films," says fel- oping projects outside Disney. Another trend will be to make syn- low Disneyite Joe Haidar. "I agree, but While classical animators are striving thetic characters. In the future, a director within our own formulas we do push a to return to the standards set by the mas- will not have to hire actors, he will just lot of boundaries. There's room (in this ters in the 1940s, computer animators direct the animator to build a Jack industry) for all kinds of different are taking the medium into the future. Nicholson in one scene or a Michele styles." Canadian dominance of computer Pfeiffer in another. "It's a brave new A group of Canadian Disney anima- graphics is due to three factors: software, world where the Indiana Jones-like char- tors discussing their roots disagree over software, and software. To be precise, acters will only exist in a digital world. the role citizenship plays in their art, Alias, Softimage and Side Effects, three You don't have to pay an actor. There except to say Canadians are definitely computer software packages developed will be no drug addictions or delays. more passive-aggressive than Americans in Canada. Actors will be on the set every day," says and simply try harder. Like the cartoon Steve Williams, another Sheridan Williams. He doesn't object to this drawn by (an American who almost-grad, got a head start in the method of cloning: "It seems to be worked for Nelvana) implies, Canadians industry, by working for two years at where the human race is going anyhow. never take anything for granted (see the Alias. In 1988, Williams left for ILM. For anybody to say that a computer-gen- editorial page of this issue). The success of Tron in the early '80s, fol- erated human will not happen, they Nik Ranieri, who graduated from lowed by The Abyss, had producers don't know what the hell they are talk- Sheridan and spent several years working upping the ante in the special effects ing about. It will happen." in Canada, believes his northern training arena. James Cameron's Terminator 2: Needless to say, the demand at ILM has influenced his style somewhat. He Judgement Day was a milestone in the has increased dramatically. Williams was has even introduced audiences world- very technical tailored film, but Wil- forced to recruit more staff, and where wide to Canadian political figures. liams, one of the special effects anima- else to look for new candidates but up Lumiere, the anthropomorphized can- tors on the shape-changing villain, was North. However, Williams is pushing dlestick in Beauty and the Beast which not satisfied with supplying just the for animators over techies. "We need Ranieri animated, looks an awful lot like icing. He wanted to make the cake. He people who understand sculpting. .7; the cartoon of former Canadian finance got his chance on Jurassic Park. When Although one needs certain dexterity to minister Marc Lalonde in his student the movie's producers originally ap- push the buttons, we need animators film, Common Problems. "There is a sim- proached ILM, all they wanted was a who understand timing and motion. ilarity in style," referring to the thick scene that featured a stampeding herd. After all, the computer is just a pencil. eyelids, thin face and small mouth, "but The rest of the dinosaurs were to be And just because you can run a comput- I don't think about it when I am draw- done in stop-motion, the traditional way er does not necessarily mean you are ing," he says. Ranieri believes he was of animating monsters using models. "I going to be a good computer animator." influenced by the people he worked with wanted to do the Tyrannosaurus Rex," Even though Williams has been at the Atkinson Studios doing the Babar says Williams. So on his own time, adamant about hiring animators, that special, Pascal Blais in , and Williams played graphically with leg may change too. ILM is currently testing Greg Duffell's Lightbox Productions. bones of the T-Rex. The producers were a motion capture system which records Without a doubt, Canadian mentor so impressed, they advanced ILM money the movement of a person or animal and Richard Williams (Who Framed Roger for Williams to build the skin. Director breaks it into co-ordinates for the com- Rabbit) influenced him heavily. Stephen Spielberg stopped research on puter. No imagination necessary. As the While Canadians at Disney are happy the stop-motion models and focussed on technology is heading into a realm of plying their trade in a supportive envi- the computer team. virtual interactivity, will animators ronment, they are beginning to flex their When Williams joined ILM there become redundant?" It's hard to say," creative muscles both inside and outside were six people on staff, now there are says Williams. "We are an animation the mother corp. Joe Haidar, one of the 450. "We are going from a special company right now, but what we will be animators who worked on Gaston in effects shop to a birthing centre," says in five years, who knows?" Beauty and the Beast, the Genie in Williams. Jurassic Park proved comput- The irony of this is that the Canadian Aladdin, and Captain John Smith in ers could make realistic prehistoric gypsy kings who have nurtured this craft Disney's next film , is trying beasts. The Mask showed that machines for decades and shared their skills both to break through Disney's ceiling. Three could go head to head with classical ani- at home and abroad may bring about years ago, Haidar took up a standing mators by creating wacky Tex Avery their own extinction • offer from the head honchos to make a effects. The problem is Williams may Karen Mazurkewich is writing a book and pitch. At the time, the Disney execs, have helped to build another co-producing a film about Canadian ani- , Michael Eisner, and Frankenstein monster. Rather than mators called CARTOON CONSPI- Roy Disney Jr., would hear ideas from using the technology to create new char- RACY

WINTER 1995 11