Animation Magazine - February 2023

THE BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY & ART OF ANIMATION AND VFX ™ February 2023

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THE BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY & ART OF ANIMATION AND VFX ™ February www.animationmagazine.net w w . a nima t i o n m a g a z i n e . n e t The Amazing Maur The Amazing Maurice: The Purrrfect Pratchett Adaptation The Purrrfect Pratchett Adaptation 2023 0 5 74470 82258 0 2> $7.95 U.S. $7.95 U.S. Little Nicholas: ittle Nicholas: A 2D Valentine to alentine to Goscinn Goscinny & Sempé y & Sempé New Gods: ew Gods: Yang Jian ang Jian Avatar: The Way of Water ay of Water Scoob! Holida Scoob! Holiday Haunt Koala Man oala Man SuperKitties WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

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feb 23 1 www.animationmagazine.net FEATURES THE CAT’S MEOW 20 The creative team behind The Amazing Maurice discusses the making of their Pratchett passion project. AN ARTISTIC HOMAGE TO A FRENCH FAVORITE 24 Director Benjamin Massoubre talks about the joys and challenges of adapting Little Nicholas to the big screen. MORE GODS AND MONSTERS 28 Director Ji Zhao tells us everything we wanted to know about his new epic fantasy movie, New Gods: Yang Jian. THE CAT’S MEOW The creative team behind The Amazing Maurice discusses the making of their Pratchett passion project. 16 24 AN ARTISTIC HOMAGE TO A FRENCH FAVORITE TELEVISION/STREAMING A NEW WONDER FROM DOWN UNDER 38 Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit talk about the distinctly Aussie charms of Hulu’s hot new animated show Koala Man. THE ANIMATED MAN FROM OZ 40 It’s time to catch up with Michael Cusack, the brilliant man behind YOLO: Crystal Fantasy, Koala Man and Smiling Friends. MISSION: PAWSIBLE! 42 Feisty feline heroes save the day in Disney Junior’s hot new show SuperKitties. RUH-ROH! YOUR MOVIE’S SHELVED! 44 Director Michael Kurinsky talks about how his animated movie Scoob! Holiday Haunt had its plug pulled. 44 GO. FAST. AGAIN! 46 Sonic is back in action in a glorious new CG-animated Netflix show. VFX & TECH DIVING INTO PANDORA’S MAGIC 52 Director James Cameron and his VFX team discuss the stunning visual effects achievements of Avatar: The Way of the Water. TECH REVIEWS 55 Higx Point Render, Adobe Creative Cloud 2023 and Adobe Characterizer. FIGHTING AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY 36 Save Ralph’s lovable rabbit puts the spotlight on cosmetic testing on animals. SHORTS DIVING INTO PANDORA’S MAGIC 52 TELEVISION/STREAMING AWARDS THE ART OF DESIGNING STAND-OUT CHARACTERS 30 The brilliant character designers of some of the year’s best movies share the secrets of their craft. THE ANIMATION RACE HEATS UP! 34 Your handy guide to all the year-end animation race shortlists, nominees and critics’ picks. ANIMATION PLANNER 6 February THE MUST-HAVE LIST 8 IN MEMORIAM 10 Remembering animation and VFX greats who left us in 2022. FRAME-BY-FRAME FEATURES VOLUME 37, ISSUE 2, NUMBER 327 FEBRUARY 2023 Director James Cameron and his VFX team discuss the stunning visual effects achievements of Avatar: The Way of the Water. Director Benjamin Massoubre talks about the joys and challenges of adapting Little Nicholas to the big screen. 20 44 COVER: The Amazing Maurice premieres at the Sundance Festival in January and will be released by Viva Kids in the U.S. on Feb. 3. 24 DAY IN THE LIFE A DAY IN THE LIFE 57 We spend a day with Ellen Jin, the art director of DreamWorks’ animated series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. AUTONOMOUS ANIMATOR 47 Is it really necessary to go back to the office? OPPORTUNITIES REDISCOVERING A ROMANIAN SPACE ODYSSEY 50 Rare animated sci-fi flick The Son of the Stars scores a new 4K restoration. HOME ENTERTAINMENT WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

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www.animationmagazine.net 4 feb 23 EDITORIAL ADVERTISING SALES EVENTS CREATIVE ACCOUNTING/CIRCULATION Editor in Chief: Ramin Zahed Multimedia Editor: Mercedes Milligan Webmaster: Damaso Abrajan Asst. Webmaster: Lucy Abrajan Tech Reviews Editor: Todd Sheridan Perry Contributors: Karen Idelson, Martin Grebing, Trevor Hogg, Michael Mallory, Jeff Spry Sheri Shelton Director: Kim Derevlany Creative Director/Production Manager: Susanne Rector Circulation Director: Jan Bayouth TO ADVERTISE: Phone: 818-883-2884 Fax: 818-883-3773 Email: [email protected] Website: www.animationmagazine.net ANIMATION MAGAZINE (USPS 015-877/ISSN 1041-617X) Published monthly except for combined issues of June/July and September/October, by Animation Magazine * 24943 Kit Carson Road Calabasas, CA 91302 Periodicals postage paid at Woodland Hills Post Office CA, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO MAILING ADDRESS: ANIMATION MAGAZINE 26500 W. Agoura Rd. Ste. 102-651 Calabasas, CA 91302 TO SUBSCRIBE: For the U.S., the rate is $60 for 1 year or $95 for 2 years. Rates for Canada and Mexico are US$75 for 1 year or US$120 for 2 years delivered by foreign airmail. Foreign rates are US$90 for 1 year or US$145 for 2 years delivered by foreign airmail. 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. Animation Magazine © 2023 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. President & Publisher: Jean Thoren Accounting: Jan Bayouth [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Here’s to a Super Animated 2023! A nd so a new year has begun! What do you have on your 2023 bingo card? World peace and happiness or global disasters and Armageddon? More animated shows greenlit or shelved by streaming services? Miyazaki’s new movie How Do You Live and Sony’s new Spider-Verse movie blowing our minds? Disney and Warner Bros. throwing huge bashes for their centennials? No matter what this new year has in store for us, your friends here at the magazine hope to bring you all the latest news, behind-the-scenes articles and fun profiles each and every day on our website and every month in this print publication! Fans of British fantasy master and satirist Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) have a good reason to be happy this year as a charming animated adaptation of his book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is first premiering at Sundance and then opening in the U.S. and other territories (after debuting in the U.K. in December). We had the chance to chat with The Amazing Maurice director Toby Genkel and producers Andrew Baker, Robert Chandler and Emely Christians about their labor of love, which is certainly not your same old, cookie-cutter, animated family movie. It was fascinating to find out how the teams in Germany and the U.K. joined forces to make this imaginative work come to animated life through the early days of the pandemic, and how they strove to stay true to the spirit of Pratchett’s writings. Another high-profile animated movie Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be made its U.S. debut quietly last month. This beautiful, 2D-animated gem pays homage to the enduring art of René  Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé and also gives us insight into the creative process of the two masters. Although the film didn’t have a wide release and arrived without much fanfare, it was the recipient of the top prize at Annecy and the Animation Is Film festivals in 2022. Our longtime contributor Michael Mallory catches up with some of the top character designers of the past year’s animated favorites in this issue as well. It’s quite interesting to learn about the challenges and rewards of this aspect of the animation business, which seems to attract so many talented artists from around the world. We could fill a whole book with their stories, but due to space limitations, Michael was able to include some of the artists who worked on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Bad Guys, Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild, Pixar’s Turning Red and Disney’s Strange World. Michael Cusack is another big animation star who has been having a terrific year: The charming Australian creator found the time to tell us a little about his three big shows, the new series Koala Man (Hulu), YOLO: Silver Destiny and Smiling Friends (both on Adult Swim). The burning question on everyone’s mind was how does he ever manage to deliver three fascinating toons at the same time? The ever-so-modest artist tells us that he does it all by surrounding himself with other amazingly talented people. We hope you all enjoy a great beginning of 2023. We know it’s never easy to get back into the swing of things after some time away, but remember: You can always rely on the magic of animation when the real world lets you down! “I sat behind a four-year-old in the cinema whose mom, anytime it got a little intense, kept leaning into her, to try and catch things in a way that might make it a bit easier. But the girl pushed her mom’s cheek out of the way because she just didn’t want to be managed. Kids don’t forgive you if you try to talk down to them, they really don’t.” — Nora Twomey, director, My Father’s Dragon QUOTE OF THE MONTH SUBSCRIPTIONS For account changes, renewals, cancellations, questions or comments: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMER SERVICE Animation Magazine | PO Box 16225 | North Hollywood, CA 91615-6625 | Phone: (818) 286-3199 [email protected] Ramin Zahed Editor in Chief [email protected] FEBRUARY 2023 VOL. 37, ISSUE 2, NO. 327 [email protected] 2023’s eagerly anticipated Miyazaki’s How Do You Live (left) and Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Part 1. FROM THE EDITOR WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

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www.animationmagazine.net 6 feb 23 To get your company’s events and products listed in this monthly calendar, please e-mail [email protected]. Animation Planner February 1The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder returns to Disney+ for S2! 3Take a deep breath before asking your friends to hit the theater for Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night, in U.S. & Canada cinemas today through Crunchyroll and Aniplex. 6Preschoolers can puzzle out problems with some fluffy friends in PBS KIDS’ Work It Out Wombats! 9Strap in for an epic space stowaway adventure in the new Netflix original My Dad the Bounty Hunter. 10The unusual heroic duo of Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are ready for action on Disney+. 11Five diverse Spanish titles are vying for the animated feature Goya Award tonight in Seville. [premiosgoya.com] 13 Adult Swim brings back space-age faves with King Star King!/!/!/ tonight at midnight and Ballmastrz Rubicon on Feb. 20. 15 Celebrate the year’s best in VFX, digital characters and movie magic at the VES Awards. [visualeffecssociety.com] 16 Berlin is buzzing with the next big screen hits during the European Film Market, running for eight days in the German capital. [efm-berlinale.de] 17 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is sure to deliver some incredibly creative VFX in the MCU’s latest installment. Brussels teems with inspiring animation during the 10-day Anima festival. [animafestival/be] 19 Awards season rolls on with the EE BAFTA Film Awards broadcasting from London tonight. [bafta.org] 23Jet over to the ancient Catalonian city of Lleida for your indie animation fix at Animac this weekend, or visit online March 3-12. [animac.paeria.cat] 25The prestigious Producers Guild Awards take place tonight, but Toon Town will be cheering on their colleagues and animation idols at the landmark 50th Annie Awards! [annieawards.org | producersguildawards.com] 24 WB is unraveling the time-traveling family comedy Mummies in theaters, from first-time Spanish director Juan Jesús García Galocha and featuring an impressive British voice cast. TBDHarlivy heats up in Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special, which will woo viewers on HBO Max sometime this month. Sword Art Online the Movie -ProgressiveScherzo of Deep Night, My Dad the Bounty Hunter Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Ballmastrz Rubicon Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Mummies Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special FRAME-BY-FRAME WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

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www.animationmagazine.net 8 feb 23 The Must-Have List The Amazing Maurice: The Art of the Film Curl up with the coolest new cat in town, whose animated exploits are brought to life in this coffee table hardback chock full of exclusive concept designs, character sketches, storyboards and production art. See how the German and U.K. animation teams collaborated to bring this fairytale corner of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld to screens, with unique insights from the artists and animators. (Character supervisor Sophie Vickers’ observation that “the trick with rats is to balance the appeal with the fact that they are actually rats” may go down as the most adaptable, situationally relevant animation quote of the year.) [Titan Books | $50 | Jan. 17] The Art of Avatar: The Way of Water Dive into the expanded world of James Cameron’s Pandora over a decade in the making in this 256-page hardcover tome, packed to the gills with stunning art and intricately detailed concepts for the sequel’s characters, new marine creatures, costume and vehicle designs and more. Written by NYT bestselling author/ entertainment journalist Tara Bennett in collaboration with the filmmakers, this four pounder is a deep dive into the creative and technical mastery behind the blockbuster, featuring an introduction by acclaimed filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. [DK | $50] Shudder’s Creepshow: From Script to Scream October doesn’t have a monopoly on spooky vibes! Keep the shivers going all winter long and into the new year with this tantalizing glimpse beyond the veil of the critically acclaimed anthology series. Grab a lantern and enter the creative crypt wherein lie the secrets of the show’s origins, inspirations, production and extra-sinister special effects. This 240-page epitaph gets an extra boost of creep cred with a foreword from horror icon Stephen King and afterword by fright fan Kirk Hammett (lead guitarist for Metallica). [Titan Books | $50] Charles M. Schulz The Art and Life of the Peanuts Creator in 100 Objects [Insight Editions | $50] One Piece Color Walk Compendium New World to Wano [VIZ | $40] Pearl of the Sea The first graphic novel (middle grade fantasy) from Triggerfish animation studio. [Catalyst Press | $20 | Jan. 31] Yu Yu Hakusho - 30th Anniversary Box Set All four seasons (112 eps.) of teenage delinquent turned Spirit Detective Yusuke Urameshi’s anime adventures, plus two never-before-dubbed OVAs with the original cast and over 90 minutes of legacy special features — packaged with special 30th Anniversary artwork sure to keep the demons at bay. [Crunchyroll | $90 | Jan. 31] Mickey & Minnie Vol. 1 Celebrate 100 magical years of Disney with this collection of 10 classic animated shorts, with new introductions by the marvelous mice themselves! Includes Mickey’s debut Steamboat Willie, Brave Little Tailor, On Ice and more. [Disney Movie Club Exclusive | Jan. 31] Inu-Oh Masaaki Yuasa’s show-stopping 14th century glam-rock opera arrives home after wowing festival audiences and animation lovers all year. Watchable in both the original Japanese (starring J-rock icon Avu-chan) and English dub versions, the Bluray set includes an interview with Yuasa, U.S. premiere Q&A, “Yuasa Draws Inu-Oh” and scene breakdown. [GKIDS/Shout! Factory | $27 | Jan. 24] ◆ —Mercedes Milligan FRAME-BY-FRAME WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

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www.animationmagazine.net 10 feb 23 IN MEMORIAM Remembering the Animation & VFX Greats Who Left Us Last Year Gil Alkabetz. Award-winning Israeli-born indie animator and teacher, best known for directing witty, beautifully observed shorts such as Yankale, Rubicon, Morir de Amor, Swamp and One Stormy Night. He was also animation designer on the German cult fave Run Lola Run. Died Sept. 15, age 64 (suicide). Ron D. Allen. Assistant director on FernGully: The Last Rainforest and production assistant on The Little Mermaid. Died June 6, age 55. Louie Anderson. Beloved stand-up comedian, actor (Baskets), author and game show host, who created and voiced Emmy-winning animated series Life with Louie, based on his own childhood, which ran on Fox Kids for three seasons (1994-98). Also voiced Gary/Gory on Pickle and Peanut. Died Jan. 21, age 69 (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma). Jered Barclay. Veteran actor, director and acting coach. whose career spanned almost nine decades. Animation credits include The Transformers (Cerebros, Dr. Swofford, Sinnertwin), The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Trollkins, The Little Rascals, Richie Rich, Foofur, The Dukes and Paddington Bear. Died July 23, age 91 (MDS leukemia). Jules Bass. Acclaimed director, producer, lyricist, composer and author who formed the influential Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment with his friend Arthur Rankin Jr. and produced beloved stop-motion classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Mad Monster Party, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, Peter Cottontail and 2D-animated shows such as Frosty the Snowman, ThunderCats and The Wind in the Willows. Died Oct. 25, age 87. Carl Angus Bell. Prolific Canadian animator who worked with the likes of Chuck Jones, Ralph Bakshi and Richard Williams at Filmation, Hanna-Barbera and Disney. Notable credits include Horton Hears a Who!, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Lord of the Rings, Heathcliff, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, Mulan and Tarzan. Died March 8, age 91 (heart failure). Anne D. Bernstein. New York-based comedy animation writer and story editor, who was best known for writing shows such as Daria, Downtown, Liquid Television, Celebrity Deathmatch, KaBlam!, The Backyardigans, Tutenstein, Viva Piñata and Angelo Rules. She was also head writer for Super Wings! at Little Airplane and was one of Baboon Animation’s team of expert writers and script doctors. Died Feb. 28, age 60 (Parkinson’s disease). Claudio Biern Boyd. Well-regarded Spanish TV writer, director, producer and founder of the Spanish animation studio BRB Internacional who created shows such as The World of David the Gnome, Gladiator Academy, Around the World with Willy Fog, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds and several other global favorites. Died Oct. 17, age 81. Robert Blalack. Panamanian-born, American VFX artist and founding member of ILM, who designed the Star Wars VistaVision Composite Optical Production pipeline at age 29 and went on to win an Oscar for his work on the 1977 classic and an Emmy for the ABC movie The Day After. Other notable credits include the Cosmos series and movies such as Altered States, Wolfen, Cat People, RoboCop, Airplane and The Blues Brothers. Died Feb. 2, Age 73. Nick Bososutow. Animation producer who worked on many acclaimed indie shorts and video projects during the ‘70s and ‘80s, including the Oscar-winning Is It Always Right to Be Right?, The Giving Tree, the Oscar-nominated The Legend of John Henry and The Reluctant Dragon. Died Nov. 19, age 82. Raymond Briggs. Popular English illustrator, graphic novelist and author who is widely celebrated for his 1978 masterpiece The Snowman, which was adapted into the award-winning Channel 4 animated special directed by Dianne Jackson and produced by John Coates in 1982. His books also inspired animated specials and movies such as When the Wind Blows (1986), Father Christmas (1991), The Bear (1998), Fungus the Bogeyman (2004) and Lupus Films’ 2016 feature Ethel & Ernest. Died August 9, age 88. I n 2022, we lost many talented men and women who enriched and brightened our world by the remarkable contributions they made to the fields of animation and visual effects. We honor their memory, celebrate their accomplishments and are forever grateful to them for making our world a better and brighter place. We are also thankful to the amazing Tom Sito, for producing The Afternoon of Remembrance each and every year to celebrate the achievements of those who left us this past year. The Animation Guild’s annual event is slated for Sunday, February 26 at noon PST via Zoom. WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 11 www.animationmagazine.net IN MEMORIAM Barry Bruce. Portland-based clay animator, director and designer, who worked at Will Vinton Studios. His credits include shorts such as Martin the Cobbler, Rip Van Winkle, The Little Prince, Dinosaur, A Christmas Gift, the Oscar-nominated The Great Cognito and Return to Oz, Sesame Street and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (animation supervisor). He won an Emmy in for his work on the special Claymation Easter and was nominated for two Emmys for directing the Meet the Raisins! TV special and the Claymation Comedy of Horror Show. Died Dec. 14, 2021, age 77 (cancer). Myrna Bushman. Timing director and checker who worked at Warner Bros., Disney TV, Ruby-Spears Productions and Hanna-Barbera on shows such as Inspector Gadget, Muppet Babies, G.I. Joe, Madeline and Sabrina: The Animated Series. Died Jan. 26, age 85. Mike Camarillo. Animation designer, layout and prop designer and effects animator who worked on shows such as Bebe’s Kids, Rugrats, The Simpsons, The Powerpuff Girls, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Sym-Bionic Titan and movies such as Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Road to El Dorado and Quest for Camelot. Died Dec. 25, 2021, age 57. Maryanne “Mickie” Caparilli-McGowan. Voice casting and ADR director who handled the ADR casting/ loop group for numerous animated features from Toy Story and Treasure Planet to Illumination movies such as The Grinch. Died March 12, age 84. Pat Carroll. Tony-nominated and Emmy- and Grammy-winning stage and screen actress and comedian, best known for voicing Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Died July 30, age 95 (pneumonia). Charles Csuri. American artist and computer art pioneer described by Smithsonian Magazine as “the father of digital art and computer animation.” Died Feb. 27, age 99. Paul Coker. Influential MAD magazine cartoonist and character designer who inspired the look of animated TV characters such as Frosty the Snowman and Peter Cottontail. Died July 23, age 93. Robbie Coltrane. Acclaimed Scottish character actor and comedian best known for playing the giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies. He also voiced animated characters in Brave, Arthur Christmas, The Tale of Despereaux and The Gruffalo. Died Oct. 14, age 72 (multiple organ failure). Kevin Conroy. Prolific and hugely popular voice of DC’s Batman in the animated universe, who starred as the Caped Crusader in 60 different productions (including 15 films and 15 series), beginning with Batman: The Animated Series (1992-95) and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) and ending with the Multiversus game (2022). Died Nov. 10, age 66 (cancer). Alkabetz Anderson Barclay Bell Bernstein Biern Boyd Blalack Bososutow Bruce Carroll Briggs Camarillo WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 12 feb 23 CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 IN MEMORIAM Alice Davis. Costume designer and Disney Legend who dressed some of Disney Parks’ most recognizable animatronics and was married to Disney animator and Imagineer Marc Davis. Died Nov. 3, age 93. Simon Deitch. Cartoonist, designer and layout designer who worked on The Head and Doug. He was the son of animator/cartoonist Gene Deitch. Died June 21, age 75. Jennifer Dolce. Annie-nominated editor/associate editor who worked on The Simpsons and features such as The Prophet, The Simpsons Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Trolls, Monsters, Inc., Puss in Boots, Penguins of Madagascar, Luck and others throughout three decades. Age 62. Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo. Well-regarded Croatian director, animator and caricaturist and prominent member of the Zagreb school of animation style behind titles such as The Great Meeting, The Doll (Lutkica), Krek and Curiosity (Znatizlja). Died Feb. 8, age 91. Ralph Eggleston. Acclaimed Annie Award-winning writer-director of the 2000 Pixar short For the Birds and prominent production designer on Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, WALL•E and the two Incredibles movies. He also contributed to Ratatouille, Up and Soul, and helped craft the original story for Monsters, Inc. and worked on shows such as The Pound Puppies, Garfield: His 9 Lives and The Simpsons. He was the art director for FernGully, Disney’s Aladdin, The Lion King and Pocahontas and DreamWorks’ The Road to El Dorado. Died August 28, age 56 (cancer). Steve Fickinger. Tony-winning producer (Dear Evan Hansen) who was also director of creative development at Disney Feature Animation, overseeing projects such as Mulan, Tarzan and Lilo & Stitch and supervising the theatrical adaptation of The Lion King. Died June 17, age 62. Jonathan Finn-Gamiño. Illustrator, character designer and storyboard artist who worked on American Dad! and Big Mouth. Died Jan. 25, age 32. Bob Fortier. Canadian writer and animator who worked on Rock & Rule, Hippo Tub Co. and Runaway Robots and was the founder of The Animation House studio in Toronto. Died Feb. 4, age 73. Gérald Forton. French comic-book artist, storyboard artist and model/layout artist who worked on shows such as X-Men: The Animated Series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and BraveStarr. Died Dec. 16, 2021, age 90. Jonathan Gales. Architect, animator and BAFTA-winning co-founder of British animation and VFX studio Factory Fifteen (BBC’s Tokyo 2020 promo). Died Nov. 19, age 36 (killed by a suspected drunk driver while using a pedestrian crosswalk in L.A.). Fortier Dovniković-Bordo Eggleston Davis Finn-Gamino Forton Conroy Coltrane Coker Gales Geurs Gagnon WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

FILM.NETFLIXAWARDS.COM “ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR.” FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FROM ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINATED WRITER AND DIRECTOR OF ‘BOYHOOD’ RICHARD LINKLATER “POIGNANT, FUNNY, EXPANSIVE, AND ULTIMATELY MOVING.” “★★★★★ SENSATIONAL.” “A WARMHEARTED AND EFFERVESCENT ANIMATED BLEND OF FANTASY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY.” “AN EXHILARATING PROUSTIAN WAVE OF REMINISCENCES.” WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 14 feb 23 IN MEMORIAM Evelyn A. R. Gabai. Writer and producer whose credits included Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Dragon’s Lair, Jem, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, DuckTales, The Smurfs, The Mask, X-Men: Evolution, Spider-Man: The Animated Series and The Penguins of Madagascar. Died April 30. Lina Gagnon. Montreal-based animator and educator who began her career as assistant animator on NFB’s Lumaaq: An Eskimo Legend and the Oscar-winning short The Man Who Planted Trees and went on to write and direct the Annecy prize-winning short Beginnings, Dessine Moi une Chanson (Draw Me a Song) and A Family For Maria. Died Feb. 4, age 75. Sari Gennis. Special effects animator and digital artist, who worked on James and the Giant Peach, The Tigger Movie, Happily Ever After, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Avengers, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Librarians. Died March 14, age 67. Karl Geurs. Emmy-winning writer, producer and editor whose credits include TaleSpin, Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too, Goof Troop, Dungeons & Dragons, Barney & Friends, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Curious George, Tumble Leaf and Pooh’s Grand Adventure. Died May 25, age 74. Gilbert Gottfried. Instantly recognizable voice actor and comedian who was best known for playing the wisecracking parrot Iago in Disney’s Aladdin (1992). He lent his distinctive voice to numerous characters in series such as The Ren & Stimpy Show, Beavis and Butt-Head, Bobby’s World, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, Duckman, Dr. Katz, Superman, Hercules, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Emperor’s New School, Fairly OddParents, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), The Tom and Jerry Show, Justice League Action, Family Guy, Teen Titans Go!, SpongeBob SquarePants, Cyberchase, Kamp Koral, Smiling Friends, Bear in the Big Blue House, Crank Yankers and all the Aladdin sequels, spin-offs and games. Died April 12, age 67 (myotonic muscular dystrophy). Lori Jo Hanson Garcia. Ink and paint artist, painter and final checker at Hyperion, Hanna-Barbera, Bakshi Productions and Universal who worked on shows such as Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and A Flintstones Christmas Carol. Died Aug. 2, age 66. Dylan Hoffman. Technical director and rigging artist (Canvas, Kamp Koral). Died Feb. 6, age 33 (motorbike accident). Jeff Howard. Animator and effects designer whose credits include The Princess and the Frog, The Simpsons Movie, King of the Hill, Dora the Explorer and BraveStarr. Died Aug. 25, age 69. Blake James. Canadian cinematographer, animator, layout and background artist who worked on many NFB projects as well as films and TV shows such as Heavy Metal, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, Dennis the Menace, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic and The Raccoons. Died Nov. 20, age 93. Kim Jung Gi. South Korean illustrator, cartoonist and manhwa artist who was famous for his large, highly detailed illustrations and drawing from memory at Comic-Con and similar events. Died Oct. 3, age 47 (heart attack). Angelika Katz. Painter who worked on numerous Hyperion and Disney animated features, including Aladdin, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, The Emperor’s New Groove and Lilo & Stitch. Died Jan. 3, age 77. Lansbury Laverde Gennis Howard Kim Korty Knowlton Kobayashi James Hoffman Gottfried WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 15 www.animationmagazine.net IN MEMORIAM Morse Melvin “Mel” Keefer. A layout and design artist who worked for Filmation and Hanna-Barbera on shows such as Jonny Quest, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Groovie Goolies and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Died Feb. 11, age 95. Ken Knowlton. Artist and influential computer animation pioneer who developed some of the earliest CG pictures, portraits and films during the two decades he spent at the computing techniques research department at Bell Lab. He was the inventor of BEFLIX, one of the earliest programming languages created for computer graphics. Died June 16, age 91. Shichirô Kobayashi. Japanese animation director and founder of Kobayashi Production, best known for his work on Ashita no Joe 2, Blood+, Detroit Metal City, Magical Angel Creamy Mami and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. Died August 25, age 89 (congestive heart failure). John Korty. American film director and animator who directed the Emmy-winning live-action TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and the animated feature Twice Upon a Time, the first animated movie produced by George Lucas. He also directed several animated shorts for The Electric Company and Sesame Street (including an adaptation of Aesop’s Fables) and Vegetable Soup. Died March 9, age 85. Angela Lansbury. One of the true stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood whose career spanned eight decades on stage, screen and TV. The London-born Irish-British and American actress was loved by animation fans for voicing Mrs. Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991) as well as Miss Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and the Dowager Empress Maria in Don Bluth’s Anastasia (1997). Winner of an Oscar, eight Tonys, 18 Emmys and a Grammy Award. Died Oct. 11, age 96. Fernando Laverde. Influential Colombian stop-motion pioneer who wrote, directed and shot a trio of animated features: La Pobre Viejecita (1977), Cristóbal Colón (1983) and Martín Fierro (1989). Died May 18, age 88. Mary Locatell. Background artist and model designer who worked on Lilo & Stitch: The Series, The Prince of Egypt, Shrek and Kronk’s New Groove. Died Feb. 12, age 62. Anastasia “Staci” Maniskas. Painter at Filmation and Hanna-Barbera whose credits ranged from Bugs Bunny specials to She-Ra: Princess of Power and BraveStarr. Died Feb. 1, age 87. Burton “Burt” Medall. Animator, animation supervisor and timing director at Disney TV, Warner Bros., Filmation, Bill Melendez and Hanna-Barbera who worked on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Ghostbusters, She-Ra: Princess of Power and BraveStarr. Died May 24, age 76. Tony Mines. Creative British animator who, along with co-director Tim Drage, was a pioneering force in the DIY LEGO filmmaking movement. His early viral shorts ONE: A Space Odyssey and All of the Dead became hugely popular online and led to The LEGO Group reaching out to work with them. His brick-toy oeuvre includes Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock, The Han Solo Affair, Monty Python and the Holy Grail in LEGO and Scary Thriller. Died July 9, age 44 (melanoma cancer). Medall Ōhashi Pospíšilová Newall Nichols Potterton Rabson Reitmen Mines Robbins WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 16 feb 23 CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 IN MEMORIAM Robert Morse. Acclaimed character actor best known for his roles in How to Success in Business without Really Trying, The Loved One and Mad Men, who also lent his voice to animated characters in Rankin/Bass’s Jack Frost (voice of Jack), Teen Titans Go!, Animals, Sofia the First, The Legend of Korra, Superman: The Animated Series, The Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats, Tiny Toon Adventures and Pound Puppies. Died April 20, age 90. George Newall. Co-creator of the iconic educational cartoon series Schoolhouse Rock (1973- 1984), along with fellow ad exec David McCall. Newall and Tom Yohe exec produced and creative directed every episode of the show, which informed young viewers about a range of topics using catchy tunes like “I’m Just a Bill” and “Conjunction Junction.” Died Nov. 30, age 88 (cardiopulmonary arrest). Nichelle Nichols. Trailblazing actress and singer who became one of the first Black women to be featured on TV in a leading role, playing communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series (1966-69) and later voicing the character in Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-74). Nichols also guest starred in shows such as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series, The Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy. Died July 30, age 89. Manabu Ōhashi. Prolific Japanese director and animator who began his career at Toei Animation at age 15 with Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru. After leaving Toei in 1968, he worked at Tatsunoko and Mushi Production and joined Madhouse in 1972. He was famous for his distinctive cloud drawings and for directing the Cloud short for the 1987 Robot Carnival anthology. Died Feb. 12, age 73. Everett Peck. Illustrator, cartoonist, animator, writer and teacher who was best known for his popular USA Network adult animated series Duckman (1994-1997) and Cartoon Network’s Squirrel Boy (2006-2007). He also worked as visual designer on  The Critic, character designer/design consultant on Dragon Tales, Men in Black: The Series, Godzilla: The Series and the Jumanji cartoon and as an animator for Sesame Street. Died June 14, age 71 (cancer). Vlasta Pospíšilová. Known as the “first dame of Czech animation,” Pospisilova was a well-regarded writer, animator and director who began her career as an assistant animator at Jiří Trnka Studio. Her notable film and TV projects included Fimfárum, Broucci, Pat & Mat, Lady Poverty, Greedy Barka and Three Sisters and One Ring. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Anifilm Festival in 2015. Died April 15, age 87. Gerald Potterton. British-Canadian director, writer, producer and animator who is best known as the director of the cult classic anthology Heavy Metal and his animation work on Yellow Submarine. He was nominated three times for the Best Animated Short Oscar for his work on NFB’s My Financial Career, Christmas Cracker and The Selfish Giant. He also served as animator and sequence director on Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure and story director for Rubik the Amazing Cube. Died Aug. 23, age 91. Janet Quen. VFX artist who worked on Monkeybone, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Mission Impossible 2, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, The Mummy Returns and The Twilight Saga. Jan Rabson. Prolific actor who voiced Tetsuo in the Streamline dub of Akira and also lent his voice to wide range of supporting characters in Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Cars, Ponyo, Gatchaman, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Movie Trilogy and Street Fighter II V. Died Oct. 13, age 68 (heart attack). Ivan Reitman. Czechoslovak-born Canadian filmmaker who will be remembered for popular comedies such as Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, National Lampoon’s Animal House and Kindergarten Cop. His animation work included the influential adult animated anthology Heavy Metal, the Michael Jordan-Bugs Bunny collaboration Space Jam, Beethoven and Mummies Alive! Died Feb. 12, age 75. Peter Robbins. Former child actor and voice for Charlie Brown (A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Boy Named Charlie Brown). Died on Jan. 18, age 65 (suicide). Jan Rogowski. Co-founder of U.K. animation studio Red Star 3D (with Ben Smith) and producer of the 2019 animated feature StarDog and TurboCat as well as the studio’s 4D ride projects The Lost World and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the upcoming animated feature The Amazing Maurice. Died April 6, age 41. Takahashi Takarada Schwartz Sempé Rogowski Troubetzkoy WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

FILM.NETFLIXAWARDS.COM FROM THE ACADEMY AWARD® WINNING FILMMAKER OF BIG HERO 6 & MOANA FROM THE ACADEMY AWARD WINNING FILMMAKER OF BIG HERO 6 MOANA F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N B E S T A N I M AT E D F E AT U R E “BREATHTAKING. The world of ‘The Sea Beast’ is so realistically rendered, so detailed and physical, that much of the time it feels like a live-action adventure. It’s so thoroughly immersive it might make you believe in sea monsters.” WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 18 feb 23 IN MEMORIAM David Schwartz. Storyboard artist and writer whose credits include The New Looney Tunes, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Johnny Bravo and numerous Scooby-Doo! shows. Died Dec. 30, 2021, age 67. Jean-Jacques Sempé. French cartoonist/illustrator (known as Sempé) who created the Petit Nicolas book series with René Goscinny and drew over 100 whimsical covers for The New Yorker. His work inspired several animated and live-action TV series and movies, including the recent Annecy Prize-winning feature Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be (Le Petit Nicolas: Qu’est-ce qu’on attend pour être heureux?). Died Aug. 11, age 89. Norma Swank-Haviland. Disney painter, animation final checker and uncredited voice actor for Chip in Disney’s Chip ‘n’ Dale shorts of the 1940s and ‘50s. Died April, age 97. Kazuki Takahashi. Hugely popular Japanese manga artist and creator of YuGi-Oh!, published in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1996 to 2004. The manga inspired the popular trading card game (the best-selling one to date) and global hit anime franchise. Died July 4, age 60 (drowned while trying to rescue three others who were caught in a rip current off the shore of Nago, Okinawa). Akira Takarada. Japanese film actor best known for his roles in the Godzilla film series and who also voiced Jafar in the Japanese dub of Aladdin movies. Died March 14, age 87. Eugene Serge Troubetzkoy. French-born nuclear physicist, pioneer of ray-tracing and co-founder of Blue Sky Studios. Died Sept. 26, age 91. David Warner. Veteran British actor who voiced characters in Batman: The Animated Series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Men in Black: The Series, Gargoyles and Freakazoid! Died July 24, age 80. Wendell Washer. Storyboard and layout artist on shows such as Tweety’s High-Flying Adventure, Flash Gordon and The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour. He was also storyboard director on The Muppet Babies, My Little Pony: The Movie and Dungeons & Dragons. Died July 8, age 75. Betty White. Dearly loved American actress and comedian, whose career spanned seven decades and seven Emmy Award wins. Best known for her memorable roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls and Hot in Cleveland and the movie The Proposal. She lent her voices to numerous animated features and TV shows, including Ponyo, Prep & Landing, The Lorax, Toy Story 4, The Lionhearts, Pound Puppies, King of the Hill, The Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants. Died Dec. 31, 2021, age 99. Ian Wilcox. Background layout artist and designer for Film Roman and Fox Animation whose credits include The Simpsons, Family Guy and King of the Hill. Died April 30, age 66. Steve Wilzbach. Associate producer of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and Eight Crazy Nights, who also worked as scene planner for The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones and Space Jam. Won a Daytime Emmy for line producing on Tutenstein. Died June 23, age 69. Sandra “Sandy” Wogatzke. Painter and final checker who worked for Filmation and Hanna-Barbara. Died Jan. 23, age 95. Derek J. Wyatt. American artist and character designer who worked as designer on Mucha Lucha!, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and Ben 10: Omniverse. He was the art director, lead character designer and color stylist on Transformers: Animated. Died Dec. 16, 2021, age 49. ◆ The list includes names of animation and VFX luminaries who died Dec. 2021 thru Dec. 15, 2022. We will update this list online to reflect all of those who passed away in 2022 after the print deadline. Warner Wilcox Wilzbach Washer White Wyatt WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

“REMARKABLE. People who love animation will appreciate the artistry.” “A FANTASTICAL ADVENTURE WITH ITS OWN DISTINCTIVE STYLE.” FILM.NETFLIXAWARDS.COM FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BEST ANIMATED FEATURE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE 2022 W I N N E R A NIM ATION IS FIL M FE S TIVA L “THE MOST GORGEOUSLY ANIMATED FILM OF THE YEAR. The story is vividly brought to life by the fl awless vocal performances of the cast, Meg LeFauve’s beautiful writing and director Nora Twomey’s heartfelt direction.” FROM THE CREATORS OF THE AWARD-WINNING WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 20 feb 23 The creative team behind THE CAT’S MEOW The Amazing Maurice discusses the making of their Pratchett passion project. - By Ramin Zahed - W hen you set out to adapt an animated feature based on the work of Terry Pratchett, you know that millions of the fantasy author and satirist’s fans will be watching the results very closely. That’s a fact that wasn’t taken lightly by the creative team behind the new CG-animated feature The Amazing Maurice, which began its U.K. run in December and will premiere in the U.S. on February 3, through Viva Kids. The clever film, which is produced by Emely Christians at Ulysses Filmproduktion (Germany) and Andrew Baker and Robert Chandler at Cantilever Media (U.K.), offers a fresh spin on the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The central character is a scheming ginger cat (voiced by Hugh Laurie) who manipulates a group of talking rats and a naïve piper boy (Himesh Patel) to con villagers out of their money. Things take a surprising turn when they meet a clever, book-loving girl called Malicia (Emilia Clarke) who has her own ideas about how this story should turn out. The film is directed by Toby Genkel (Little Bird’s Big Adventure, All Creatures Big and Small) from a script by Terry Rossio (Aladdin, Shrek). Faithful to the Master “The greatest challenge of all was doing justice to Terry Pratchett and his incredible work,” says Christians, an acclaimed producer whose many credits include A Stork’s Journey, The Flight Before Christmas, Luis and the Aliens and the two Ooops! Noah Is Gone movies. “We set out to create loving characters that our viewers will fall in love with, and we want to make people think without educating them.” Christians also mentions that her studio wanted to have a team from the U.K. as production partners, because this was a Terry Pratchett adaptation after all. She adds, “We FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 21 www.animationmagazine.net “The greatest challenge of all was doing justice to Terry Pratchett and his incredible work. We set out to create loving characters that our viewers will fall in love with, and we want to make people think without educating them.” — Producer Emely Christians also felt that it made great sense for Robert’s Sheffield-based Red Star 3D to split the work with Studio Rakete in Hamburg. It’s not always easy to split the work for an animated movie between two countries, but I have to say it all went very smoothly in this case.” Chandler says that the toughest challenge with adapting the work of Pratchett is doing justice to his words. “Terry’s books are literary works and this doesn’t always equate to great cinema.,” he notes. “The work we did with the screenwriter and directors, and the art director and all the artists and animators, to refine the novel and turn it into a three-act animated movie that’s simultaneously fun and visually-driven, and carries the depth and themes of Pratchett, was the greatest challenge. We took this challenge really seriously and I hope it paid off.” “My first reaction was one of, ‘Oh my God, Terry Pratchett!,’” recalls Genkel. “I felt a bit of weight on my shoulders. When I read the book, I knew that there was nobody quite like Pratchett. A fantastic story, all those wacky characters and effortless humor, paired with very strong commentary — it’s so impressive how he always manages to reflect the truth about human behavior with such great humor. His writing has such great rhythms to it and the imagery is so strong. Apparently, he loved Germany and the Black Forest and the Grimm fairy tales, so it truly resonated with me.” When the director first read the novel, he started to mark the lines that he thought must be included in the film because they were so brilliant. “Of course, then I found myself marking entire pages, because every line is brilliant,” says Genkel. “So, the challenge was which lines not to take. Those were very difficult decisions to make and all I can say is that I hope we picked the right ones! But here is the comforting thing: No matter which line from the novel we chose, it’s always great!” Making Medieval Magic The artistic team was also aiming to make the movie as visually arresting as possible as well as straying from what is seen as the typical modern CG look for family animated movies. As producer Andrew Baker (Robozuna), who is also a long-time Pratchett fan, points out, “We knew that our story is set against a fictional medieval German town, so our artists did a lot of research on actual locations in Germany to get the right look for the buildings, the cobblestone streets, the forest. There are actual buildings in the country that date back to the Middle Ages, so we had all these great real-life references.” The movie had a secret weapon in the artwork created by production designer Heiko Hentschel (The Congress, Luis and the Aliens). “He brought something extra special to the film,” says Baker. “The movie’s characters have such a distinct look. They are neither Disney nor arthouse. Maurice, Malicia, Keith, all our rats — they look quite unique and show so much personality. We were staying away from anything that looked generic or bland.” “We were very aiming high, something that could rival a big CG-animated feature from Pixar or Disney,” says Hentschel. “I always aim for visual simplicity in my designs. We opted for simple, recognizable shapes for the characters, which stands in good contrast with the elaborate sets. The main goal is to deliver a quick read. The audience should instantly get what the image is trying to convey.” SILVER-TONGUED TABBY: Based on one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, The Amazing Maurice is directed by Toby Genkel from a script by Terry Rossio and produced by Emely Christians (Ulysses), Andrew Baker and Robert Chandler (Cantilever Media), with animation by Studio Rakete (Germany) and Red Star 3D (U.K.) FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 22 feb 23 The producers also bring up the fact that the simple mention of Pratchett’s name opened many doors to them. “That’s how we ended up with our original character designer, Carter Goodrich,” recalls Baker. “We did some research and decided that we would love him to take an early shot at designing the characters. Of course, we had big ambitions for the way we wanted the movie to look like but we knew we wouldn’t have a budget like a Disney feature. So when we reached out to Carter or any of the actors, we told them that we don’t have a lot of money to play with. But, as soon as we told them it was a Pratchett project, they’d tell us that they love him and it opened so many doors for us.” Goodrich says he was immediately intrigued by the story’s mixture of a cat, rats and a period costumed pied piper and a smart, female protagonist. “The fact that the rats were in their own costumes as well is always a bonus,” he mentions. “When animals are clothed it allows for more opportunities to find good shapes and clues regarding who the character is or could be.” “I was allowed to simply make a pass on the characters without too much input as to details,” he recalls. “The inspiration comes from how I might see or imagine them; who they might be in addition to their assigned role in the story. If the characters don’t come with a whole lot of specific details, then they’re usually more fun and easier to explore. When you don’t have all the voices in your head, then it’s a looser, freer process. So you might be able to bring something to the table that hadn’t been considered, which gives the character something unexpected. Not that I necessarily did that with these characters, but I hope I did!” Catnip for the Young at Heart After many years of hard work, the filmmakers can’t wait to see how general audiences will respond to the film, which is also being showcased at this month’s Sundance Festival. “What I love and admire about Terry Pratchett is what I would call the ‘Pratchett melody,’ or even better, symphony,” says Genkel. “He makes us laugh effortlessly, but always has something to say. There’s a message of tolerance and mutual respect, something that really resonates with me. What I would hope is that we managed to capture that symphony and the audience will hum the music of the story with a smile on their faces after seeing the film.” “I hope that the film will do one thing above all: entertain our viewers and let them leave the cinemas with a good feeling,” notes Christians. “And if The Amazing Maurice also makes you think about things differently — in one way or another — I would be completely satisfied!” Baker concludes, “As well as being entertained and amused I’d hope that audiences are intrigued about the world of Terry Pratchett and not only read this novel, but also his other Discworld books! We feel very happy with the film and believe that we have something the fans will love as much as those who have never read the book. Everyone worked so hard to make this happen, so that the final result is something we are all immensely proud of! There is nothing I would change even if we had double the budget!” ◆ The Amazing Maurice opens in U.S. theaters on February 3. “When I read the book, I knew that there was nobody quite like Pratchett — a fantastic story, all those wacky characters and effortless humor, paired with very strong commentary.” — Director Toby Genkel “Everyone worked so hard to make this happen and to get the very best from every department. There is nothing I would change even if we had double the budget!” — Producer Andrew Baker FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 23 www.animationmagazine.net FEATURES Begin the New Year on the Right Note! Subscribe to Animation Magazine Free 1-Year Digital sub, Discounted print or both! Use promo code AMHOL22 AnimationMagazine.net/Subscribe WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 24 feb 23 An Artistic Homage to a French Favorite Director Benjamin Massoubre talks about the joys and challenges of adapting Little Nicholas to the big screen. L ast June, audiences at Annecy discovered the charming 2D-animated feature Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be (Le Petit Nicolas: Qu’est-ce qu’on attend pour être heureux?), which is based on the popular French children’s book series written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé. Directed by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre, the seamlessly realized movie manages to deliver a difficult hat trick: It pays homage to the creators of the books by weaving in their life stories as they set out to launch the project together, as well as offering vignettes featuring the mischievous schoolboy Nicholas and his friends and family. We had a chance to chat with Massoubre about how he and Fredon were able to pay such a lovely tribute to the life and art of Sempé and Goscinny: Congrats on your wonderful new movie, which has just been released in the U.S. Can you tell us a little bit how you got involved with the project? Benjamin Massoubre: I met the film’s producer Aton Soumache (The Little Prince) years ago and worked as an editor on a TV series that he produced, and also worked with him on Joann Sfar’s movie Little Vampire. He offered me the job because he knew I had a special history with the Little Nicholas books, as I come from a family of school teachers and they used the books to teach students to read. So, when he finally secured financing for the project, he asked me and Amandine Fredon to direct the movie. We started work on the movie in early 2020, when France was in full lockdown for COVID. What would you say was the best part of working on a movie about these two wellloved creators and this modern children’s classic? I loved to learn more about the lives of Goscinny and Sempé. We were able to find some material in their lives that cast a new light on how and why they created Little Nicholas. Structurally, it was also a difficult movie. It’s not your usual three or four-act movie. We put a lot of heart into it, because instead of having a narrative arc, it has an emotional one. It’s really a movie about resilience, about two men who were robbed of their childhood — FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 25 www.animationmagazine.net one who was the victim of an abusive stepfather (Sempé) and one (Goscinny) who lost part of his family in the Jewish Holocaust. These two men created Little Nicholas, who has a perfect dream childhood, and were able to live through him. Amandine and I found that the essence of the movie was the story of their resilience. The movie manages to interweave the story of the book’s creation with vignettes from the books themselves. Was that always part of the original plans for the project? In the early days of development, the producers planned to combine archival footage of the creators with the animated segments, but the live-action material was not as good as we wanted them to be, so that’s when it was decided to have both sections of the movie be animated. We first had the script written by René Goscinny’s daughter Anne and Michel Fessler (March of the Penguins). We added more biographical material to the script. Amandine and I wanted to flesh out the creators’ stories, so we added more biographical material to the movie. We felt that we had never seen the story of a writer and an illustrator working together on the screen, so we were excited to extend the portions of the movie about the creators’ lives in an animated format. Can you tell us about the studios that worked on the movie? There were so many studios involved. In France, we have a lot of indie studios that join forces to produce a movie, and sometimes we just build them from scratch to produce a project. Among the studios that helped us create the animation were Shan Too (Angoulême), which is run by Gilles Cuvelier and Arnold Boulard’s Gao Shan Pictures, located on the island of Réunion, and a smaller studio in the north of France called Train-Train. Most of the sets and compositing were done in Luxembourg, so I found myself taking a lot of trains in Europe throughout the production. You did a wonderful job of paying homage to the books’ original ink and watercolor illustrations. How did you develop that technique? It was mostly done in Toon Boom Harmony. Our animation director Juliette Laurent and our art director Fursy Teyssier collaborated IN LIFE AND ART: Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be pays tribute to the artistry of René Goscinny and JeanJacques Sempé by including their stylish flourishes and poignant life stories. Benjamin Massoubre FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 26 feb 23 with Jean-Jacques Sempé. He was already sick at the time, but he was 100 percent behind us. As we developed the set and character designs, everything was approved by him … It was really fun and emotional for us to work with him because he’s such a big influence and legendary figure in France. Even though he was ill, his spirit was always up. He always used ink and watercolor, so we set out to reproduce his style with Harmony. We also allowed some white space around the frames to pay tribute the way his illustrations looked on the pages of the book. It took a lot of back and forth to imitate the style and pay a true homage to his work. [Sempé, who drew more than 100 covers for The New Yorker, passed away last August, six days before his 90th birthday.] It must have been moving to see the audience response to the movie in France. The movie came out in early October and we had an amazing response from the audience. Even though it is still hard to get people in theaters these days. What made us happy was how people who grew up with the books in the ‘60s and early ‘70s came to see the movie with their children and grandchildren. It was quite emotional that we made a movie that spoke to these different generations of fans. Why do you think the characters and their stories still resonate with audiences? The stories written by Goscinny are in first person. Nicholas is narrating these books, and they are still very funny. Although life is very different for kids growing up in the world today, they still have similar experiences with their families, their friends at schools and teachers. The comedy and poetry are still relevant today. You have worked as an editor on many of the best animated shows and features coming out of France over the past decade, from Arcane and I Lost My Body to Calamity, Little Vampire and Summit of the Gods. How did you get interested in animation? It’s funny, because I don’t draw myself. I come from a screenwriting and editing background. But I grew up in a town near the center of France and lived close to a city called Clermont-Ferrand, which is famous for its short film festival. When I was in high school, I used to see a lot of animated short films at the festival and I was inspired by their creativity. They really opened my eyes to the possibility of the medium. In the late ‘90s, I saw Toy Story and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and then we had the Miyazaki movies and the Aardman shorts and movies. When I first arrived in Paris, I was lucky to get my start in animation. Back then, in France, we were producing only one movie every two years, and now we are so lucky because we are making 10 movies each year, in different styles and content. I feel like we’re living in the Golden Age of animation. Even big U.S. studios are exploring new ways of making CG movies with movies like Spider-Verse and The Bad Guys. It’s a very exciting time to be working in animation! ◆ Buffalo 8 released Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be in select U.S. theaters in December. FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

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www.animationmagazine.net 28 feb 23 More Gods and Monsters Director Ji Zhao tells us everything we wanted to know about his new epic fantasy movie, New Gods: Yang Jian. T he animated feature New Gods: Yang Jian, directed by Ji Zhao, was one of the most popular movies of 2022 in China. This second installment in the studio’s hit franchise follows in the footsteps of the director’s 2021 movie New Gods: Nezha Reborn. It was able to beat Minions: The Rise of Gru and earned $19.8 million during its opening weekend in August. Inspired by Chinese mythological figures, the blockbuster has already made over $77 million at the Chinese box office. This month, U.S. audiences will be able to enjoy the movie firsthand, thanks to a limited theatrical release by GKIDS. The second New Gods storyline centers on a fallen hero, a penniless bounty hunter named Yang Jian, who is hired to track down his own long-lost nephew Chenxiang and find a magical lotus lantern to free his mother. Zhao says he was attracted to telling this origin story in a new, imaginative way to introduce a new generation of moviegoers to a classic character and mythology. Tale as Old as Time “Any story that lasts more than 1,000 years must have been told thousands of times in different periods of history,” Zhao in an email interview with Animation Magazine. “But in every period of time, the storytellers would connect their feelings and add some historical imprint in that version of the story. As a Chinese filmmaker, I feel so lucky that there are so many stories to be discovered from our cultural background. And, even luckier, with the technology of animation, we could rebuild the story in a more imaginative way. The New Gods series aims to reinterpret classic characters and stories from a younger perspective. How to make it ‘new’? This question is the origin.” Yang Jian’s development started half-way through the production of Nezha Reborn, and it took about five years to complete. “We have had about 300 people within Light Chaser Studio who worked on this show, and another 400 artists from different vendors and another 200 post production artists who worked on dubbing, composing, sound, DI, songwriting, etc.,” says Zhao. “Yang Jian is a new height in terms of Light Chaser’s CG production quality. We used our inhouse cloth simulation, motion capture technologies. The film’s total rendering time made a new record: We had 410 million CPU core hours, roughly half of which were cloud rendering.” According to the director, the new story takes audiences along on a thrilling ride to another time and place, exploring a different film genre and different choice of style and music. “The only common thing is it is under the same New Gods frame and made by the same studio,” he points out. “Neither the studio nor I wanted to repeat ourselves.” FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 29 www.animationmagazine.net Zhao, who also directed the studio’s popular 2019 movie White Snake, says he was drawn to the central character of the saga, Yang Jian, a once powerful deity who has fallen from grace. “For me, the opportunity to establish a household name is very rare,” he says. “He is a character full of contradictions; half-human, half-god, with a heroic past and a desolate status quo. He is a truly charming character!” “At first, Yang Jian is introduced as an impoverished nobleman,” he notes. “The texture of his white robe should be reminiscent of expensive fine silk, and we laced it with intricate cloud patterns. In this story though, Yang Jian is no longer the God of War. His symbols as the God of War (the triple-tip double-blade sword and the silver-bullet slingshot) had to be repurposed. We designed his headwear in the shape of a triple-tip double-blade sword, and had him transform his silver-bullet slingshot into a harmonica. This harmonica is both an instrument Yang Jian carries around and is the key for his aircraft. Whenever he had nothing better to do, he’d toss it around. That’s a personal quirk of his.” The film is set around the era of the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 CE). “This is a period when many cultures clashed and fused,” says the director. “To stay faithful to the historical background, we went on discovery trips to places like the Shaanxi History Museum and Dunhuang City, and drew creative inspiration from traditional folk culture. What fascinated me the most about New Gods: Yang Jian was imagining how the realm of gods looked like in ancient times. In our story, the entirety of the Godly Realm is composed of many different fairy islands. The Penglai Fairy Island is akin to the central business district of the Godly Realm, Square Pot is the entertainment district, a city that never sleeps, and Yingzhou is a tourist spot with an exotic appeal.” Preserving Chinese Aesthetics The director points out that balancing the traditional story and innovative new ideas was not an easy task. “From a storyline perspective, the well-known hero’s story and his characteristics vary in each individual’s knowledge,” he explains. “We have to find a very efficient way to invite our audience to start the story from the same page. In terms of the feature’s visuals, it is very challenging to present abstract Chinese aesthetics with realistic CGI technology.” Overall, Zhao is pleased with how the movie offers both familiar elements and its share of twists and original surprises. “I think the way we created this movie brings audiences both familiarity and surprises. For example, in most ancient Chinese stories, you won’t see the characters ride a ship or an aircraft flying from one place to another! I hope our new audiences will enjoy watching this adventure, and hopefully it makes them anticipate the next chapter in our saga.” ◆ GKIDS releases New Gods: Yang Jian in theaters on January 20. “As a Chinese filmmaker, I feel so lucky that there are so many stories to be discovered from our cultural background. And, even luckier, with the technology of animation, we could rebuild the story in a more imaginative way.” - Director Ji Zhao EASTERN EPIC: Also inspired by Chinese mythological figures, this second installment of Light Chaser’s New Gods series has grossed over $82.45 million. FEATURES WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 30 feb 23 AWARDS The Art of Designing Stand-Out Characters The brilliant character designers of some of the year’s best movies share the secrets of their craft. - By Michael Mallory - T hings are looking a little bit simpler ─ literally ─ in the array of animated features circling over the Oscar field, requesting landing approval. Many of this year’s contenders have dialed back on digital realism to achieve new looks, tones and styles, particularly in terms of character design. “Previously in the 3D world you were pushing the limits of animation to see how realistic you could go,” says Taylor Krahenbuhl, character designer for DreamWorks Animations’ The Bad Guys. “Our director Pierre Perifel said, ‘What if we did The Bad Guys in an Akira Toriyama/Dragon Ball kind of way? What if we made it childlike with animation driven with key poses and key frames that really push the medium, and try to get a bit of 2D stylistic choices as well?’” Spotlight on Cartoony CG Characters While the characters in the film definitely lean toward the cartoony, Krahenbuhl kept the focus on their eyes. “We found that once we did the characters with a dark eyebrow shape that accented and framed and silhouetted the eyes, we were finding a special dynamic,” he states. The eyes may have it for the film’s human characters, but their noses don’t, being barely perceptible. “I remember a note from Pierre specifically saying, ‘Okay, that nose looks too big, make it a bit smaller,’” Krahenbuhl says. “We did and felt it worked. In 3D, when you light a scene, every form is going to have a cast shadow on it that is going to create other shapes and graphic forms. The more you can restrain within that form, the cleaner it is.” Proboscis patterning was also a factor for character designer Jin Kim in crafting the characters for Disney’s Strange World, but in the opposite direction. “The [family characters] all have common noses … huge and round,” he says. “Even Legend the dog has a big nose.” Kim states that he drew inspiration for the designs from European comic books, notably Asterix. “Our director Don Hall really likes the French/Belgian comic-book style, especially by the artist Didier Conrad,” Kim states. “[Conrad] uses a lot of curves, so we made sure everything was soft and round.” The most difficult character in Strange World from a design standpoint, though, was one with no nose at all … or any other facial feature. “The Splat was the most challenging,” Kim says of the film’s amorphous, tentacled blob. “It looks simple and easy, but characters that are simple are harder to design because they have to communicate to the audience somehow with no eyes, nose or mouth.” The designer studied the similarly featureless-yet-endearing character of the Flying Carpet in Aladdin for inspiration. Let the Feline Fur Fly Nate Wragg, the production designer for DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, drew upon the script’s somewhat darker tone to create a more stylized universe. “In previous films, he was living in a slightly more naturalistic space,” says Wragg. “But usCUTE CREATIONS: Turning Red character designer Keiko Murayama was inspired by the exaggerated expressions which were the trademark of the anime shows and movies of the 1970s and ’80s. WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 31 www.animationmagazine.net AWARDS ing a more illustrative feel to the overall look, we were able to push his caricature a bit more, and surfacing-wise, back away from naturalism.” That included showing the lionhearted feline comically gone-to-seed to the point of wearing an untamed grey beard. “That was totally story driven,” Wragg says, “but what does a beard look like on a cat?” For inspiration, character designers Andrea Blasich and Jesús Alonso Iglesias studied a luxuriously hairy Maine Coon cat. “Whether it was a grooming choice by a human or it naturally grew out, they kind of look like they have beards.” For Jason Deamer, character art director for Disney-Pixar’s Turning Red, the blow for simplicity came through the colors. “We’ve done movies where there were 52 shading colors that were done to the main character, and nobody notices,” he says. “It’s silly. If you look at the characters [in Turning Red] you’ll notice they each have a color.” Chunky Cute Saves the Day The film’s primary character designer was Keiko Murayama, who was brought in on a freelance basis by director Domee Shi. The challenge for her was keeping the lead characters convincingly youthful. “When you start to put in so much detail, they start to age,” she says. “When I first attempted to design them, they looked much taller and older. I have a tendency to draw a character who’s described as beautiful or handsome a little more elongated. So I had to make perfectly beautiful human beings into chunky, cute versions of them.” Murayama adds that the design influence for the picture came from 1970s and ‘80s anime, in which characters will often pull exaggerated expressions. “When they do that their mouths are half of their face,” she notes. “I deliberately tried to make it exaggerated and very comedic.” Of course, the film’s signature design challenge was the fact that its star, 13-year-old Mei, turns into an enormous red panda that must still maintain her essential Mei-ness. “If you superimpose panda Mei’s eyes over human Mei, they have exactly the squircle — a square and a circle mixed together, which is what we’re calling eye shapes,” Deamer says. At the other end of this year’s design spectrum are the characters from Netflix’s Wendell & Wild, directed by Henry Selick and produced by star and co-writer Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. Here the stop-motion-animated characters are not chunky and chubby but linear and angular. That was no surprise, since noted illustrator Pablo Lobato, who was hired to design the characters, is renowned for his Cubist style of caricature. Crafting Cubist Characters “I received an email out of the blue from Henry Selick and my first thought was, ‘This guy has the same name as the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas,” Lobato laughs. But it really was Selick, and Lobato really was hired for his first movie. His first task was creating caricatures of Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, the film’s star voices (co-star James Hong is also eminently recognizable through Lobato’s design). But creating the look of the film’s central character, a worldly Black teenage girl named Kat proved more difficult. “I did some sketches I was not happy with,” Lobato says. “I was concerned about the translation of 2D [drawings] “CG [originally] blew everyone out of the water in terms of replicating reality. Now we’re seeing it pivot back to, ‘Okay, we’ve done a lot of that, so how about we provide the audiences with different experiences?’” - Nate Wragg, production designer, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish “When I first attempted to design them, they looked much taller and older … So I had to make perfectly beautiful human beings into chunky, cute versions of them.” - Keiko Murayama, character designer, Turning Red ANIMAL ATTRACTIONS: The designers behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish charmed audiences by putting a luxurious beard on the famous feline and introducing the world to the adorable Perrito (right). WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 32 feb 23 AWARDS to 3D, and I thought, ‘What did the Cubist guys do with 3D?’” As a result he studied Picasso’s sculptures and learned that the painter was influenced by African masks. “I looked at a beautiful, very minimalist mask,” he says. “So, I put all these things in a blender and did five or six sketches and showed Henry, and he said, ‘Okay, this is Kat.’” Fans of Selick will not be surprised to learn there are several skeleton characters in Wendell & Wild, though designing them forced Lobato to rethink an image that everyone on the planet knows: the human skull. “I had to do six different skeletons — and there’s not much difference between your skull and my skull,” he says. “But as a designer, I thought maybe I should place them in different geometric shapes, so one is a circle, one is more rectangle and one is wide.” Another renowned illustrator, Gris Grimly, set the graphic tone for the year’s other major stop-motion production, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, produced by Netflix Animation and The Jim Henson Company. Grimly was brought on board as character designer when Henson acquired the rights to his 2002 illustrated book of the original Collodi story. While he was responsible for the unique look of Pinocchio himself, over the next decade’s worth of development and production, some refinements were made. “The original designs were more whimsical and much more stylized and angular,” says Guy Davis, who along with Carlos Grangel designed the final versions of the characters. “As we went forward we pulled away from that because we needed to be more rounded.” More rounded perhaps, but much more simply textured — notably the characters’ hair, which is sculpted rather than fibered with individual, realistic strands. There was also a technical factor: originally, the Pinocchio figure (crafted by puppetmakers Mackinnon & Saunders) had a mechanical face. Innovative Approaches “As a metal skeleton with paddles to push around flesh, it looked almost like a talking prune,” says production designer Curt Enderle. “It didn’t have that sense of a carved solid object. This version feels like he’s made out of wood.” As per del Toro’s input, his head also “I had to do six different skeletons and there’s not much difference between your skull and my skull. But as a designer, I thought maybe I should place them in different geometric shapes, so one is a circle, one is more rectangle, and one is wide.” -Pablo Lobato, character designer, Wendell & Wild “The original designs for Pinocchio were more whimsical and much more stylized and angular… As we went forward we pulled away from that because we needed to be more rounded.” -Guy Davis, character designer, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio A STYLIZED APPROACH: Fans of Pablo Lobato’s unique Cubist caricatures were pleased to see the unique artistic style of the master reflected in Wendell & Wild. CARVED OUT OF WOOD: The designers behind Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio had to keep in mind that the titular puppet needed to have an organic wooden look. has a work-in-progress appearance, which was animated using replacement faces, instead of a mechanical head. Two of the film’s more unusual characters are the Wood Sprite and her opposite sister, Death. “Death was going to be based on Greek mythology, so we added a Greek style mask,” says Davis. “The Wood Sprite has ears because the giver of life is going to listen and learn, whereas Death doesn’t have ears because it pretty much knows the answers to everything.” Trends come and go, of course, but Nate Wragg for one sees this as a natural evolution of the medium. “CG [originally] blew everyone out of the water in terms of replicating reality,” he says. “Now we’re seeing it pivot back to, ‘Okay, we’ve done a lot of that, so how about we provide the audiences with different experiences?” ◆ WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

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www.animationmagazine.net 34 feb 23 AWARDS Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Marcel the Shell with Shoes On The Animation Race Heats Up! Here’s your handy guide to all the year-end animation race shortlists, nominees and critics’ picks: Academy Awards Shortlists Animated Shorts Black Slide  (Uri Lotan; Israel, U.K.) The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Peter Baynton, Charlie Mackesy; U.S.) The Debutante (Elizabeth Hobbs, U.K.) The Flying Sailor (Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby; Canada) The Garbage Man (Laura Gonçalves; Portugal) Ice Merchants (João Gonzalez; Portugal, France, U.K.) It’s Nice in Here (Robert-Jonathan Koeyers, Netherlands) More than I Want to Remember (Amy Bench, U.S.) My Year of Dicks (Sara Gunnarsdóttir, U.S.) New Moon (Jérémie Balais, Jeff Le Bars, Raúl Domingo; France) An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It (Lachlan Pendragon, Australia) Passenger (Juan Pablo Zaramella, Argentina) Save Ralph (Spencer Susser, U.S.) Sierra (Sander Joon, Estonia) Steakhouse (Špela Čadež; Slovenia, Germany, France) Visual Effects All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix) Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios) The Batman (Warner Bros.) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Disney/Marvel) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Disney/Marvel) Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Warner Bros.) Jurassic World Dominion (Universal) Nope (Universal) Thirteen Lives (Amazon Studios/MGM) Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) Animation in Other Categories Best Original Song: “Ciao Papa” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Best Original Score: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Best Sound: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Golden Globes Nominees: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson (Netflix) Inu-Oh. Directed by Masaaki Yuasa (GKIDS/Science SARU) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp (A24) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Directed by Joel Crawford (DreamWorks/Universal) Turning Red. Directed by Domee Shi (Disney/Pixar) Critics Choice Awards Nominees: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Puss in Boots: The Last Wish  Turning Red Wendell & Wild. Directed by Henry Selick (Netflix) Other Critics Groups & Picks for Best Animated Feature of 2022 Boston Film Society of Critics: Turning Red Chicago Film Critics Assoc.: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio L.A. Film Critics Assoc.: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio National Board of Review: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On New York Film Critics Circle: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Utah Film Critics Assoc.: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Washington Film Critics Assoc.: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio European Film Awards: No Dogs or Italians Allowed WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 35 www.animationmagazine.net AWARDS Inu-Oh 2022 Animated Movies at the Box Office Rank. Title U.S. Gross Studio 1 Minions: The Rise of Gru $369,500,210 Universal/Illumination 2 Sonic the Hedgehog $190,872,904 Paramount 3 Lightyear $118, 307,188 Disney/Pixar 4 The Bad Guys $97,233,630 Universal/DreamWorks 5 DC League of Super-Pets $93,657,117 Warner Bros. 6 Sing 2 $86,307,835 Universal/Illumination 7 Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile $46,475,466 Sony Pictures Ent. 8 Dragon Ball Super $38,112,140 Crunchyroll 9 Strange World $33,788,315 Disney 10 The Bob’s Burgers Movie $31,933,830 20th Century Studio Worldwide Box Office Top 10 Rank. Title Global Box Office 1 Minions: The Rise of Gru $939,433,210 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 $402,656,846 3 The Bad Guys $250,162,278 4 Lightyear $226,425,420 5 DC League of Super-Pets $203,857,117 6 One Piece Film: Red $173,987,861 7 Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile $87,875,466 8 Dragon Ball Super $86,562,140 9 Detective Conan: Halloween $72,653,401 10 Suzume no Tojimari $62,921,126 Source: BoxOfficeMojo 12/21/22 Save the Dates: The nominees for the Annie Awards will be announced on Jan. 17. The nominees for this year’s Academy Awards will be announced on Jan. 24. The 95th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 12 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. The 50th Annie Awards will take place Feb. 25 at Royce Hall in UCLA. For more info, visit oscars.org and annieawards.org. ◆ Wendell & Wild Turning Red urning Red WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 36 feb 23 Fighting Against Animal Cruelty Save Ralph’s lovable rabbit puts the spotlight on cosmetic testing on animals. A mong the 15 wonderful titles that will be competing for the Best Animated Short Oscar this year is a powerful project titled Save Ralph, which was created in conjunction with Humane Society International to call for an end to cosmetic testing on animals worldwide. The stop-motion spot, which was written and directed by Spencer Susser (Hesher), first debuted in April 2021 and went on to win numerous awards, including last year’s Annecy Cristal and OIAF prize for best commissioned film, and both the Grand Prix for Good and the not for profit Gold at Cannes Lions. The short introduces viewers to Ralph, a hapless rabbit (voiced by Taika Waititi) who is one of the many victims of the brutal practices of the cosmetic industry. Susser joined forces with puppet maker and set designer Andy Gent (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs) and his team at London-based studio Arch Model to bring the likeable rabbit to animated life. Produced by Jeff Vespa, the short also features the voices of Ricky Gervais, Zac Efron, Olivia Munn, Pom Klementieff and Tricia Helfer. Susser points out: “Animals in cosmetic testing labs don’t have a choice and it’s our responsibility to do something about it. When the opportunity came up to create a new campaign for Humane Society International, I felt that stop motion was the perfect way to deliver the message. When you see the horrifying reality of the way animals are treated, you can’t help but look away. What I was hoping to do with this film was create something that delivers a message without being too heavy handed. I hope that audiences fall in love with Ralph and want to fight for him and other animals like him, so we can ban animal testing once and for all.” Wake-Up Call for the Cosmetic Industry “We applied a lot of love and attention in showing the physical suffering of being used as a tester — the skin rashes, the scars and swollen red eye,” says Gent. “Ralph is such a sweet character, he tries to downplay the awfulness of what is happening to him, but his injuries tell the true story, and in a way that draws the audience in rather than makes them look away. Your heart breaks for him because when he’s trying to convince the audience that everything’s OK, he’s really trying to convince himself. Of course, it’s not OK. But stop-motion animation allows us to tell this tragic, upsetting truth about something awful and unjust in a way that recruits people to win this fight with us.” Gent mentions that he and his team worked on the project for many months. “We knew the ins and outs of every single part of it all, but when you play the roll back, everybody’s welling up in tears at the end. So, I think you can see from that there’s a personal investment in it. It’s not just about telling a story in a film or in advertising. People working on this have connected to it, and when we see it played back, we’ve stopped thinking of Ralph as a stop-motion animation puppet and instead as a character telling a story that makes you want to change things. In our miniature world of models and puppets, using stop-motion filmmaking, we hope to bring attention to this mission to stop animal testing for cosmetics. We’re all very passionate about what we do, and it’d be very nice to think that this project to Save Ralph will have a greater, wider effect.” ◆ Watch Save Ralph and find educational materials on the current status of animal testing and how to take action against it available at hsi.org/saveralphmovie. Andy Gent ANIMAL ACT: Spencer Susser and his team use a sweet stop-motion rabbit to spread a dark message about the cosmetic industry in Save Ralph. SHORTS WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

7 > 9 MARCH 2023 BORDEAUX NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE ILLUSTRATION © ROSA BALLESTER CABO CO-PRO & PITCHING EVENT FOR ANIMATED FEATURES WWW.CARTOON-MEDIA.EU WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 38 feb 23 TV/STREAMING A New Wonder from Down Under Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit talk about the distinctly Aussie charms of Hulu’s hot new animated show Koala Man. T his month, animation fans will be introduced to an awesomely offbeat and original new kind of superhero from Down Under. Created by the brilliant Aussie mastermind Michael Cusack (YOLO: Crystal Fantasy, Smiling Friends), the new show Koala Man follows the adventures of a middle-aged suburban dad (voiced by Cusack himself) who sets out to clean his small town of Dapto from evildoers of all shapes and sizes and often ropes his poor family into his adventures. In addition to Cusack, the new Hulu show features the voices of Hugh Jackman as the popular Big Greg, head of the town council; Sarah Snook as Kevin’s wife; Jermaine Clement as Bazwell, a nerdy dandy who mentors Kevin’s son, Liam (also voiced by Cusack) and Demi Lardner as Kevin’s popularity-hungry daughter, Alison; with Rachel House as Vicky’s coworker Janine and local bowling club owner Louise,  Jarrad Wright  as Kevin’s neighbor/ BFF/superhero sidekick, Spider, and guest roles by veteran actors Miranda Otto and Hugo Weaving. Celebrating a Unique Voice Koala Man is executive produced by Solar Opposites  and  Rick and Morty  co-creator Justin Roiland and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu writers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit. As Hernandez and Samit point out, one of the main reasons the show stands out in the very crowded adult animation landscape is the distinct voice and vision of its creator, Michael Cusack. “It was part of our job as showrunners was to make sure Michael’s authentic point of view was not lost in translation,” says Hernandez. “When you look at his work on YOLO: Crystal Fantasy or Smiling Friends, it has such a strong point of view and visual sensibility. We didn’t want to lose that special Adult Swim style that makes Michael Michael. But, we also knew that this show was double the length of those other series, and it had a little more of a seasonal arc narrative. So, the question was, how do we take everything that Michael is all about and put it into a longer format and not lose that alchemical thing he has that is so brilliant?” Samit points out that the overall visual look of the show all comes from Cusack. “All of the character designs come from his own sketches,” he says. “A lot of animation these days looks like it could be all the same show. We are very fortunate that we have a vision that comes from our show creator, Michael. Even when we are all in the writers room, he is doodling. It’s so great to have someone like that in a writers room where we are talking about a character or a story idea, he just draws it and says, ‘Here it is!’” The origins of the show go back about four years ago when Cusack created the Koala Man character for a series of shorts, which caught the attention of the development team at 20th Century and exec producer Justin Roiland (Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites). The cool 2D animation for the show is produced by Melbourne-based Princess Bento, which is a joint venture of FOX Entertainment’s Bento Box in L.A. and Princess Pictures in Australia. “We’d been working with 20th Century on several projects, including Central Park, and then asked us to take a look at Michael’s shorts,” says Samit. “We thought it was hilarious, and we had instant chemistry with him. We were totally on the same page about what the show would be. It was one of those arranged marriages that worked out perfectly. Then, we went on to cast the show and make the pilot and then pitched it to Hulu, and soon we had this amazing creative partnership that continues to this day.” About half of the show’s writers are Americans and the other half hail from the land down under. “One of our advantages is that the voices and the subject matter are so authentic and fresh,” “I hope the audience will be surprised by how invested they are in Koala Man as a superhero and how they really care for these characters.” — Exec producer Benji Samit WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 39 www.animationmagazine.net TV/STREAMING says Hernandez. “Australia is very similar to our country but it’s also significantly different, so we set out to explore all those differences. There has been so much American adult animation that it’s sometimes hard to think of a completely original idea, but there haven’t been as many exploring Australian life. Every time one of our Australian writers would suggest something, we’d be like, ‘Oh, we’re doing that! It’s a great idea!’” Samit mentions that because of the pandemic, the writers room had to be conducted via Zoom, so that allowed them to bring in original Australian voices into the mix. “Our writers were in different places in Australia, so we actually got to understand some of the regional differences over there as well. They’d fight over how things would be done. They’d say things like, ‘Oh, that’s now how we play kickball. This is how we play it!’ We tend to view all of Australia as one big culture, but of course, every region is different from others as well,” adds Hernandez. The acclaimed showrunners admit that one of their favorite parts of the job was seeing how many crazy situations they could get Koala Man into. “We challenged ourselves not to put things in that we have seen a million times before and not be afraid of being too conceptual, abstract or surreal,” says Hernandez. “But we also wanted it to be very accessible and not feel like homework to watch. The plots had to be good superhero plots. They still needed to present real threats to the characters. Threading the needle between absurdist situations and real stakes was a real challenge, but it also helped us create a lot of awesome villains for Koala Man to go up against. I hope that people enjoy the villains as much as we do during the course of that first season.” Samit adds, “We had so much freedom on this show. More than anything else that we’ve worked on, we were able to go for what makes us laugh and what would be shocking to us. We asked ourselves, ‘Hey, can we do that?’ and Hulu said we can. They were great supporters of the show since the first day. We were really never held back from doing what we wanted to do on this show.” Hernandez is also quite grateful to have landed such a stellar voice cast for the show. “It may sound like a cliché, but this was a dream come true,” he says. “To have Hugh Jackman on board for this crazy thing was something that we could not have anticipated other than as a fantasy in our wildest imagination. Everyone we worked with on the show was the best of the best. If anything, it taught us that you never know who is going to say yes unless you ask. That has been a rewarding lesson!” Chuck Jones and Matt Groening When asked about their biggest animation influences, Santi quickly singles out The Simpsons. “That show got me into comedy, and when I look back at my childhood, that was the show that pushed me towards television.” Hernandez also mentions The Simpsons, but he also gives a lot of credit to his mother, Lorna Hernandez, who is a professor of computer animation (at the Art institute of Florid and at Univ. of California in San Diego). “She instilled in me a love for all the classics; Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and the early Looney Tunes. I even gave her an original Daffy Duck cel from Quackbusters (1988) for her birthday because Daffy’s her favorite character. As I got older, I have tried to add new tricks to my frames of reference by studying anime and shows like Cowboy Bebop!” The talented writers hope that audiences will embrace their new show and find it funny and entertaining. “I hope they’ll be surprised by how invested they are in Koala Man as a superhero and how much they really care for these characters,” says Samit. “I hope they laugh and think it’s silly, but at some point they feel really invested in the fate of the characters.” Hernandez agrees. “When you embark on these kinds of genre explorations, you have to do it with love and an understanding of what makes these tropes work. So our hope is that by the end of the first season (eight episodes), viewers will say, ‘Wow, I laughed my ass off, but I also saw an amazing superhero story. That our show stands with these other superhero stories in a diagonal, twisted way. But Koala Man is a hero, and that’s a surprising thing!” ◆ Koala Man premieres on Hulu on January 9. “The big question was how do we take everything that Michael [Cusack] is all about and put it into a longer format and not lose that alchemical thing he has that is so brilliant.” — Exec producer Dan Hernandez PASS THE VEGEMITE: The new Hulu animated series follows the adventure of a superhero dad named Kevin/Koala Man who fights evil and misfits who don’t take their trash out in the Aussie suburb of Dapto. WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 40 feb 23 TV/STREAMING The Animated Man from Oz It’s time to catch up with Michael Cusack, the brilliant man behind YOLO: Crystal Fantasy, Koala Man and Smiling Friends. O ver 10 years ago, Australian animation wunderkind Michael Cusack created a short called YOLO, about two fun-loving female friends who have a weakness for partying and enjoying massive amounts of alcohol. As we enter the first month of 2023, the talented creative is launching the second season of their Adult Swim series, YOLO: Crystal Fantasy, while his other show Koala Man premieres on Hulu. His third popular series Smiling Friends (also on Adult Swim) will also be coming back later this year. We recently had a chance to chat with the prolific guy about his amazing career and the second season of YOLO, subtitled Silver Destiny and starring Sarah Bishop (Sarah) and Todor Manojlovic (Rachel) as two ladies who are still desperately seeking “fun times, positive vibes and hot guys in the town of Wollongong!” Congrats on the new season of your show YOLO: Crystal Fantasy premiering this month on Adult Swim. Did you expect the show to have a big cult following when you started working on it a few years ago Michael Cusack: The new season will be basically a continuation of season one, and I’d like to think it’ll be better, as I love it and am very proud of it. The same writers came back. We are basically working with the same team: Studio Monkeystack (Adelaide) and Princess Bento (Melbourne). You are a bit limited during the first season of a show, and then you get to be creative in different ways during the second one. We have a bit more of an arc through this season as we follow Rachel and Sarah, but it’s still the same old craziness. We have 10 episodes this season, two more from the first one. It’s been more of a balancing act, since I’m also working on Koala Man and Smiling Friends, but I have a great team working with me. Were you surprised by the show’s popularity in the U.S.? The thing I love about YOLO is that it has a cult-y feel to it. It is the dream show that I always wanted to make: It’s an Adult Swim show that has a strong niche following. The best part of it was the fact that it was Australian and it resonated with non-Australians as well. That was the most satisfying part for me. What is your schedule now? We are working on season two of Smiling Friends and Koala Man for Hulu is also premiering in January 2023. It was always my dream to bring Australian characters and stories to animation because I felt like it was such an untapped playground to be creative in. The fact that Koala Man and YOLO are both very Aussie and we get to make them for American networks and American audiences is just amazing. Of course, working on Smiling Friends is yet another beast and very satisfyMichael Cusack WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 41 www.animationmagazine.net TV/STREAMING ing in its own way. The fact that it has such a big audience is really fantastic. I love to see all the fan art for the show. So, how do you manage to juggle all three shows at once so ably? Well, now it’s got to the point where work is definitely heating up and it’s getting more hectic, but I’m very lucky to have a lot of amazing people that are even more talented than me help me do all this stuff. That’s the only way all these shows could be made. It’s such a big collaborative effort. Can you talk a bit about the original look of YOLO? Sure, the ethos for the whole series is supposed to be like a fun playground for animators, so the characters can go off model. It should look like drawings you may find on a pencil case in school. Sometimes I see people getting annoyed at the art style, and they think it makes it look crappy, but personally, I love that. Crappiness should add to the comedy and the strangeness of the show. I think it’s drawn better in season two, but it still has the same spirit. Koala Man is still my style, but characters don’t go off model as much. It follows more of a Solar Opposites/Rick and Morty/The Simpsons pipeline. It’s more mainstream. It would be too chaotic if it was animated like YOLO. The concept of the show is already very strange so it needs to be more grounded in reality in its animation. Tell us about the voicing experience. We had the same cast. Sarah Bishop as Sarah, Todd as Rachel — my best friend from high school. I play Lucas the Magnificent and all the other characters. Todd and I would go to this church in Melbourne and record all these voices at night when it was quiet because nobody else was there. We had Flying Lotus on the show for the first season. For the second season, we had so much fun doing voices. There’s a piano and musical instruments in the other room, so whenever we wanted to, we’d go there and write a song for a scene, improv it and sing and record it right there. It was a really fun environment to do voices and music. What makes you happiest about the show? I love the fact that it’s set in Wollongong, where I grew up. It has a lot of elements to like. It’s very colorful and strange and Australian. It also has a lot of unique, interesting drawings. The best part is that Adult Swim lets us get away with a lot, so we have a lot of creative liberty to do anything. That’s my favorite part of animation, when you are free to explore a lot of strange ideas, both in the writing and in the art. What were the main animated shows that made a big impact on you growing up? I was definitely inspired by The Simpsons, South Park and Futurama a lot. Then, I discovered people like Egoraptor (Arin Hanson), David Firth and Sick Animation that made all these Flash-animated cartoons on the internet that really inspired me. That was the first time I felt like I really could do it myself. As a guy who has three great animated shows on the air right now, what kind of tips would you give up-and-coming animation types? Well, I would say that I’m definitely not the best, but I I think that the way that I kind of got to the level I’m at now is definitely through collaboration. It was about having a goal and a vision and then getting other people excited about that same vision, so I think that’s probably the key to getting these shows made. It’s definitely not an ego trip, but it’s really about having a big group of creative people that make it all work. It also makes it fun. ◆ The first two episodes of YOLO: Silver Destiny will premiere back to back on Jan. 22 at midnight with one new episode premiering weekly thereafter. The show is produced by Laura DiMaio with line producer Paul Moran; exec producers are Cusack, Mike Cowap and Emma Fitzsimons. DEMENTED, BUT DELIGHTFUL: Season two, YOLO: Silver Destiny, finds our friends Sarah and Rachel pursue new thrills and experiences as a gardener and a dark empress. Smiling Friends WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 42 feb 23 TV/STREAMING Mission: Pawsible! Feisty feline heroes save the day in Disney Junior’s hot new show SuperKitties. - By Karen Idelson - C at lovers of all ages will have reason to celebrate when SuperKitties, a new superhero series featuring four fierce felines, comes to Disney Junior and Disney+ in 2023. The show takes audiences along on adventures in the city of Kittydale with Ginny, Sparks, Buddy and Bitsy as they keep the metropolis safe and help their preschool audience better understand the actions of others. The series is the brainchild of Emmy Award winner Paula Rosenthal, who is creator and executive producer on the show. Rosenthal previously worked on Sunny Day, Olivia and Peter Rabbit. Kirk Van Wormer, who is also an Emmy winner and previously worked on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, The LEGO Movie 2 and Transformers Prime, is co-executive producer on the series. It’s Meow or Never When Rosenthal was working on developing the series, she confesses she did have a bit of a cat-focused agenda in mind. “Let me say, I’m an animal lover and that I love all animals,” says Rosenthal. “But I do love cats, and I didn’t think they were getting their due. There were lots of shows with puppies out there. There were lots of shows with lots of animals. But there weren’t a lot of shows with cats and I thought it would be fun to do something for people who love animals and cats.” She adds, “I’d say that it came together even better than I initially imagined. I just imagined an homage to superheroes and making sure that our characters were real superheroes rather than just rescuers, and that they can do everything from having their own powers and their own poses to their own superhero uniforms and masks. With the incredible collaboration with Kirk and Disney, we got it to a place where it’s better than imagined.” Rosenthal, Van Wormer and their team poured over hours of cat videos on sites like YouTube as they were looking for inspiration for the movement of the characters. They also looked back towards classic superhero series from decades past. Each kitty wears a color coordinated mask and superhero suit and has brightly-colored fur to set off the whole ensemble. This sort of striking look for the main characters was something they wanted to emphasize. “We thought about 1960s-era Batman, and the bright colors, energy and humor of that time,” says Van Wormer. “We were all just thrilled with this idea of having that kind of farce in our series. We started to think about how to bring that pop of color and that Saul Bass sense of style into Kittydale, which is a big city. Some big cities can be dark, but we want ours to be bright and the kind of place where kids want to go. So, we built this world with some really talented people who helped us find our way around. We tried to get the best of this stylized environment and cute kitties that become powerful heroes, and over-the-top villains who are also just adorable. We were also “We started to think about how to bring that pop of color and that Saul Bass sense of style into Kittydale, which is a big city!” — Co-exec producer Kirk Van Wormer WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 43 www.animationmagazine.net TV/STREAMING able to work with teams who knew how to create maximum fluffiness for the kittens on a realistic budget and timeline, so were very fortunate.” The brightly colored CG animation was done by Bardel Entertainment’s studio in Vancouver and Rainbow, which is located in Italy. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television – Kids (formerly known as Silvergate Media) in association with Disney Junior. As the series came together, Rosenthal also knew they’d have to keep their preschool audience in mind. The kitties all have their superhero gear which includes playful, stylized masks and a strong superhero stance but they’d have to craft the stories in a particular way. While superhero films and series often go into some very dark places with their villains, this show would have to take a different approach to work for Its viewers. “I wanted to tip my hat to Batman and similar shows that inspired the storytelling here,” says Rosenthal. “When we were creating our felines, we wanted to show children these characters who were smart and strong, brave and resilient in the face of danger. When I say ‘danger,’ I mean danger in the form of a pantheon of villains who create challenges for our kitties. So, there’s that element of classic superhero storytelling for sure.” Rosenthal points out that even the rogues gallery of Kittydale  has its charms and complexities. “One thing that really came out of the collaboration with Disney was that, once we had the spine of the stories and the storytelling, we understood that the villains weren’t really bad,” she adds “They were just misunderstood and did a bad thing. We were able to create a path toward empathy for them. We were able to tell kinder, gentler stories about how sometimes people do something bad, but there may be a reason behind their actions. We can understand them better when we understand those reasons, which is very important for children. Once we understand the reasons behind a behavior, we might be able to help someone choose a better path.” Viewers may also recognize some of the familiar voices when they watch the show, which features an experienced group of young performers. The voice cast includes Emma Berman from Disney-Pixar’s  Luca as Ginny, Cruz Flateau from CoComelon as Sparks, JeCobi Swain from Home Economics  as Buddy and Pyper Braun from  Country Comfort as Bitsy. Each of the SuperKitties also has their own superpower, which is designed to work well with the abilities of the other kitties. They’re all a nod to the powers we usually associated with cats. “With Ginny, she’s already super powerful, but when she suits up her superpower is that she has these power claws that enhance her natural abilities as a cat, so she can stick to things you wouldn’t normally expect her to be able to stick to,” says Van Wormer. “She can swing through things or hop through spaces that would be difficult for a regular cat, so her powers make her super-duper incredible. Buddy is really strong like a big, strong cat that will just walk over and lay on top of things and just knock everything down. He’s that times 10 when he furball blitzes into a big puff ball and he can bounce off walls and just knock them down. His brother, Sparks, is that cat that can open doors — he’s very smart and he’s our tech guy.” Adds Rosenthal: “Ginny may be the leader of the pack, but you see the show through Bitsy’s eyes. She’s the one who comes back to the lesson or message of the day. She does a video blog about what they’ve learned and the lessons in the show for that day. This is the only time they break the fourth wall and Bitsy will wink to the audience, because she knows they’re in on her story. This way the audience gets to feel part of the story she tells them at the end of the episode.”◆ SuperKitties premieres on Disney Channel and Disney Junior at 10:30 a.m. on January 11. The first batch of episodes will also premiere the same day on Disney+. LET THE FUR FLY: Four fierce and furry kittens called Ginny, Sparks, Buddy and Bitsy turn into SuperKitties whenever trouble arises. “We were able to tell kinder, gentler stories about how sometimes people do something bad. Once we understand the reasons behind a behavior we might be able to help someone choose a better path.” — Creator/exec producer Paula Rosenthal WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 44 feb 23 TV/STREAMING Ruh-Roh! Your Movie’s Shelved! Director Michael Kurinsky talks about how his animated movie Scoob! Holiday Haunt had its plug pulled. - By Jeff Spry - W e interrupt your mid-winter malaise to offer up a melancholy fireside tale of what could have been for Scoob! Holiday Haunt, a Christmastime CG animated feature that became the victim of modern-day corporate accounting. Industry vet and first-time director Michael Kurinsky was at the helm of this planned sequel to 2020’s Scoob! alongside co-director Bill Haller when dark clouds formed. Nearly completed and about to start acquiring a post-production gloss, the family film starring the voices of Iain Armitage, Mark Hamill, Cristo Fernández, Ming-Na Wen and Frank Welker got the unfortunate news on August 2 that it was being officially yanked from the Warner Bros. release slate.  “I’m not a Warner Bros. executive or movie studio finance person so I really don’t have any idea why it was targeted,” Kurinsky tells Animation Magazine. “I can say that when we had our phone call and we discussed it with the new execs that came in, They thought the project was great and it was theatrical quality. It had nothing to do with the creative aspects, it was purely a financial decision. I do know that the two most expensive products coming out on HBO Max for 2022 were Batgirl and our project. Batgirl was $90 million and we were $42 million.” Scooby Fan Support “There are a lot of Scooby-Doo die-hards out there and I hear from them, though it’s trickling down a bit,” he notes. “But a couple of months ago I was getting daily messages on Twitter and Instagram, all little shows of support. The fans are really great.” Even though Kurinsky and his creative team labored on the movie for nearly two years, number crunching accountants used the joyful project as part of a cost-cutting initiative in the wake of AT&T’s Warner Bros. spinoff and Discovery merger. Scoob! Holiday Haunt was destined to air on HBO Max on December 22, but instead it joined DC’s Batgirl in the graveyard of abandoned projects to tighten up the financial books with tax writedowns to offset production costs. Kurinsky’s impressive resume includes work as a production designer, art director and background painter on high-profile projects like Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 2 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Disney Animation’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Fantasia 2000 and Tarzan. Warner Bros. profusely apologized to the filmmaker for the sudden cancellation of Scoob! Holiday Haunt and lack of decorum in not letting him know first. “Apparently the story was leaked and it got out on social media before we were able to get formal calls from anybody,” he recalls. “I found out pretty much like everybody else did, through an article in either Hollywood Reporter or Variety. We finally had calls a couple hours later from the new presidents of Warner WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

feb 23 45 www.animationmagazine.net TV/STREAMING Bros. They apologized, saying that was messy and not how they wanted us to receive the news, but unfortunately that’s the way we did.” Scoob! Holiday Haunt takes place two months after Scoob!’s opening Halloween sequence, with the young amateur detectives still getting acquainted and embarking on a Christmas excursion where they visit Fred’s eccentric Uncle Ned and teach Scooby the true meaning of the season. “For people who saw the first movie, Scoob!, the first 12 minutes was an origin story about how Scooby met Shaggy and how they met the rest of the gang and how they solved their first mystery on Halloween Eve,” Kurinsky explains. “One of our major themes was that if Halloween made them friends, Christmas makes them family. It was how we saw solidification of not just Mystery Inc. and their crime-solving abilities, but why they work so well together. “So we got to take them out of Venice Beach and take them into a snowy mountain setting of this Christmas-themed resort. The gang investigates a ghostly mystery at Holiday Hamlet and solves it. That’s the bare bones of every single episode of Scooby-Doo. At times it’s a pure mystery and other times where it’s very Christmassy. But it’s where the two combined, that’s where it got really fun — we used stuff from Christmas folklore all around the world, beyond Santa Claus — and then it’s just good Christmas heart and fun in the ending.” It’s a Wrap! To soften the blow ever so slightly, Kurinsky and his co-director were able to finish the animated movie for the simple reason that it was already bought and paid for, but those were dark times. “I had to put on my bravest face every single day and communicate to a crew of incredible professionals who all knew the situation and the circumstances. To keep the morale up was not easy. I tried to be the head cheerleader, but I think we all supported each other and got through it collectively. We decided that a finished thing has a chance of living more than an unfinished thing. And since we were so close to being finished, we knew the quality of what we had done up to that point. Every frame is going to look as good as every frame that happened before we knew this news, and that was the attitude we went into every single day.” The team’s diligence and solidarity paid off when weeks ago Kurinsky entered a small screening room with ex-EVP of Warner Animation Group (WAG) Allison Abbate, executive producer Tony Cervone, WAG VP Chris Leahy and one of his key executives, Susan Peters. “We all watched a finished print and it looked great. I needed to see it, even if it was just that one time,” he says. “To be able to sit and watch the movie start to finish was a wonderful feeling. If there was a magic wand that could tap me on the head and my two choices were that we can erase this whole experience and you don’t have to go through that pain, or we do it all over again and it’s exactly the same outcome, I’d take number two every single time.” ◆ SCARY SITUATION: Director Michael Kurinsky, who has worked for almost three decades in the animation business, had high hopes for his movie Scoob! Holiday Haunt until it was abruptly pulled by Warner Bros. Discovery, due to financial considerations and tax write-downs. “We decided that a finished thing has a chance of living more than an unfinished thing … Every frame is going to look as good as every frame that happened before we knew this news, and that was the attitude we went into every single day.” — Director Michael Kurinsky WorldMags.net WorldMags.net

www.animationmagazine.net 46 feb 23 TV/STREAMING Go. Fast. Again! Sonic is back in action in a glorious new CG-animated Netflix show. E veryone’s favorite speedy, blue, spiny mammal is back in action. The new Sonic Prime series began its eight-episode first season on Netflix in December and found our popular SEGA icon (voiced by Deven Mack) traveling across the “Shatterverse” after a battle with Dr. Eggman (Brian Drummond) caused reality to break apart. The new CG-animated series is executive produced by SEGA, WildBrain, Marza and Man of Action. As the show’s exec producer and director Erik Wiese, who has worked on shows as diverse as SpongeBob SquarePants, Snoopy Presents and Samurai Jack, tells us, “Audiences will get a big action series with their favorite video game characters. It’s an epic tale, serialized over multiple episodes. We haven’t seen that before with these characters — or with any cartoon-y show. We want existing fans to have a new adventure where they discover, with Sonic, brand-new worlds, and first-time viewers to immediately connect with him and his crew.”  Wiese and his team worked hard to ensure audiences could empathize with the familiar characters in ways they maybe haven’t before. “Even though this show runs on action and comedy, we also went to some emotional places that hadn’t previously been explored. We hope those moments augment the big, fun action scenes the franchise is known for and give audiences a whole new Sonic experience,” he says. Fresh and Dead-On Accurate According to Logan McPherson, senior VP of creative/animated production at WildBrain, the Green Hill characters are all faithful versions of themselves. “They exist in the series as franchise mythology demands,” he points out. “SEGA sent us the geometry for the character models, which we fit into our pipeline, so they are dead-on accurate. We then developed a unique and innovative graphic surfacing style that fits them into the unique worlds we were designing. This gives the characters a fresh appeal that doesn’t push them off the model or make them feel unfamiliar. Slight adjustments to the costumes were also made. In the case of Rouge, SEGA designed a stunning new outfit for her that feels more contemporary and in-line with her character development.” McPherson and his team set out to bring something new to the White Gloved One’s multiverse. “The mythology is the jumping-off point for the series, fans get a familiar taste of what they know and love, and then we quickly move into an entirely new realm that showcases alternate versions of Sonic’s friends in vastly different worlds,” he explains. “This propels Sonic on a hero’s journey that truly stretches him to his limits! We think both new and old audiences will love the intrigue and the incredible journey the series takes them on. Other than Green Hill, the environments are all original and unique, which will be new for fans. We worked to push the cinematic depth with mood, lighting, tone and atmospheric depth, which give them a wow factor and appeal for a whole new audience!” Sonic, who was first introduced in 1991 in the popular video game, has been the star of five animated shows and two blockbuster movies (released in 2020 and 2022). The second film earned $400 million dollars worldwide and holds the title for the highest-grossing domestic opening for a video game adaptation ever. We have a feeling this new iteration is also going to fast track its way to the heart of fans in record time. ◆ The first season of Sonic Prime is currently streaming on Netflix worldwide. Erik Wiese Logan McPherson WorldMags.net WorldMags.net