REFLECTING ON 30 YEARS OF DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
Chris Sanders, Raymond and Christopher Zibach, Rebecca Huntley, Joel Crawford, and Jason Mayer share their thoughts on the studio’s first three decades, how it nurtured and supported their lives and careers, and how that ‘family’ atmosphere in turn spurred the visionary storytelling and beloved characters created within its walls.
“When I was in college, I was looking at Shrek and thought, ‘That's the tone for me,’” he shares. “When I got the opportunity to come over to DreamWorks as a story trainee, I jumped at it. I loved that you can make movies like The Prince of Egypt and then turn around and make something like Shrek. There isn't a house style to DreamWorks, and that is so fresh and essential for not just the animation industry, but the movie industry as a whole.”...
OF LOVE, LOSS AND MUSIC: HOW SCOT STAFFORD'S DAUGHTER INFLUENCED 'ULTRAMAN: RISING'S SCORE
The Emmy Award-winning composer shares for the first time how his daughter’s serious accident, in the middle of production, brought him even closer to his role as a parent while influencing his work writing music for a film with so many uncomfortable parallels about trying – and sometimes failing - to protect one’s family.
"I’m giving you an exclusive," says Stafford. "And I will only talk about this once...I was about three quarters of the way through scoring the entire feature. My then 15-year-old daughter was in a very, very serious accident, was hospitalized for almost three months and had four brain surgeries. I, my wife and the whole family were going through absolute hell and I still had to compose. So, when I was looking at those scenes, I knew what was at stake and it absolutely informed everything I created in those scenes.”...
FROM STRUGGLE TO STRENGTH: HOW ‘47’ WAS MADE FOR AND WITH THE DOWN SYNDROME COMMUNITY
On their stop-motion short, Amy Fortunato and Andrea Bistany worked with artists from the Down syndrome community, drawing from real life experiences, to craft a compelling story of a man’s journey to overcome obstacles and find his place in the world.
“When Klick came to us, our first thought was that we wanted those in the Down syndrome community to do the music with us,” says Canja Audio Culture founder and creative director Filipe Resende. “We started searching and found Sujeet. He’s a very impressive guy. We’re based in Brazil but actually flew to Buffalo, New York to direct him on the re-recording and piano playing. In the end, I think he wound up directing me. It was an amazing time. It changed my life to be there with him.”...
VINCENT WALLER AND MARC CECCARELLI TALK 25 YEARS OF ‘SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS’
The showrunners share some behind-the-scenes stories while reflecting on 25 years of undersea adventures, timeless humor, and the enduring legacy of Stephen Hillenburg’s animated ‘Sponge Boy’ creation from Bikini Bottom.
“Steve built such a marvelous model to work with,” notes Waller. “All the characters and the settings are completely otherworldly, and you feel completely immersed in it. I remember even just looking at those early passes and it already looked like you were wearing goggles and felt like you were Jacques Cousteau finding this world. I was very excited to be a part of it and I still am just as enthusiastic today. That’s never gone away.”...
MANO ANIMATION MAKES HISTORY WITH 'THE GLASSWORKER,’ PAKISTAN'S FIRST 2D FEATURE
Karachi-based director Usman Riaz talks about his hand-drawn film that tells the story of a young man and his father, a glass blower, whose relationship is tested after war breaks out and an army colonel and his violinist daughter arrive in their town.
“This story takes place in a time when patriarchism and social standing are considered more important than free thought and artistic pursuits,” says Riaz. “It was only when I began writing my own music and orchestral scores as a child that I realized I had a voice. Exploring that with the conflict happening around me as a kid, and then exploring that again with these characters was quite introspective.”...
DICE TSUTSUMI TALKS 'BOTTLE GEORGE,' ADDICTION AND CLINGING TO HOPE
The Tonko House co-founder teams with popular Japanese comedian Akihiro Nishino on a compelling new short film that combines the artistry and palpable emotionality of stop-motion animation with a powerful narrative exploring themes of addiction and personal growth.
“I have personal experience, as a young child and in my 20s, dealing with somebody who I was really close to going through addiction problems,” Tsutsumi reveals. “And it’s a situation where you don't even know you’re in it. You don’t even know you have a problem until you're stuck inside that bottle. It had a big impact in my life, and I always wanted to do a film about it. When [Akihiro] mentioned that he too had similar problems in his life, with his friends, we knew it was time to go deep with this film.”...
CLAYMATION MAGIC: AARDMAN TEAMS WITH THE BBC ON ‘THINGS WE LOVE’
The UK broadcaster's new promotional series, paying homage to the famed ‘Creature Comforts’ franchise, transforms viewers' favorite programs into animated shorts using the iconic studio's celebrated mix of humor and stop-motion.
“Aardman’s had an ongoing relationship with the BBC for a long time,” notes Rich Webber, the director behind Aardman’s latest series of animated shorts, Things We Love, now on their YouTube channel. “We’ve done quite a lot of stuff together. So, when they approached us to see if we could do a Creature Comforts style piece, where we’d go out and interview the British public about the programs they love on the BBC, we thought it was a great idea.”...
HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN WITH 'THE BOY AND THE HERON'
Animation supervisor Takeshi Honda and GKIDS president Dave Jesteadt discuss the emotional impact of what may be the famed director’s final film, his first in 10 years, a semi-autobiographical fantasy set in World War II that embraces life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship, releasing in U.S. theaters December 8.
“There’s this crescendo throughout the scene as this mother and son call out each other’s names before being pulled apart and I was going through a similar situation during that time,” Honda shares. “My own mother had just been told she had cancer...It was a very challenging time because we were in the midst of a pandemic. It was far from over. And Miyazaki-san would say to me, ‘Go home. You need to be with your mother.’ But she was in a hospital and because it was a pandemic, they wouldn't accept any visitors from outside of the prefecture. So, I wasn't able to be with my mother when she passed away the following year in May.”...
NEYSA BOVE DIVES INTO THE VERY FABRIC OF ANIMATION COSTUME DESIGN
As head of the industry’s first official studio-designated ‘Costume’ department at Skydance Animation, the former Disney visual development artist no longer jumps between outfits one day and props the next, and that welcome change allows her to bring a focused human touch and feel to designs that machines cannot match.
“Especially if you’re working on something that pertains to a real culture,” says Bove. “On Moana, we were recreating materials they had from 5,000 years ago. So, the Oceanic Story Trust brought in tapa cloth, which is made from mulberry tree fibers. It’s what Moana’s top is made from. Getting to touch and play with this old material really helped elevate our costume game to the next level.”...
‘BLUE GIANT’: THE CHALLENGE OF ANIMATING VIBRANT JAZZ SOLOISTS
Director Yuzuru Tachikawa discusses the difficulty in capturing the raw power and energy of the musicians behind his new film’s young saxophonist, Dai Miyamoto, and his ambitious trio, when every solo is unique, and recording live performances picks up every little unwanted sound.
“In jazz, there's a performance structure where you have the music theme and then you have the solo,” notes Tachikawa. “For the theme part, there's sheet music and everyone's following that. But when it comes to the solos, that's where the personal expression comes in. And it's never the same, because it's always going to reflect that moment between the musician and their instrument. So, for the movie, when we asked the musicians, ‘Could you repeat this part again?’, the answer was no.”...
HOW 'SUZUME' REFLECTS THE JAPANESE CULTURE OF SELF-SACRIFICE AND CONFORMITY
Actor Nichole Sakura, who voices the film’s titular character, shares how summers spent as a kid in Japan provided unique insight into her role, and helping write the English dub, on Makoto Shinkai’s latest film, born of his survivor’s guilt having lived through the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.
“My mom is from Japan, so I grew up going to Japan as a kid every summer,” explains Sakura. “Like with any language, you can’t always translate it exactly. There are so many phrases and little nuances that only native speakers can really grasp. And that's a huge challenge in translating a film, trying to get as many of the nuances in there as possible that inform the character in the story...One of the most central relationships that Suzume has is with her aunt, and they hash it out at one point, their feelings about the fact that Suzume’s aunt raised her, and the sacrifices that had to be made. I felt lucky that I understood the original language because it did really help inform my performance.”...
'THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA': A DREAM PROJECT MADE BY LOYAL FANS AND LONG-TIME FRIENDS
What began as a livestreamed web series about a group of friends playing ‘D&D,’ has become 24 episodes of an animated adult fantasy-adventure featuring an excitable band of misfits with a fondness for boozing, brawling, and just generally F**king S**t up, desperately trying to pay off their mounting bar tab.
“It was a life-altering experience,” concurs [Liam] O’Brien. “The Vox Machina stories were literally us opening up the wardrobe in the attic and stepping into Narnia. There was no way we weren't going to go back to the start and chronicle that story of our falling in love with the game.”...
'JOSEE, THE TIGER AND THE FISH': EMBRACING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN ANIME
Kotaro Tamura’s brave, emotional animated love story features one of the first lead characters in a romance anime to use a wheelchair.
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish could be a turning point for anime romance and inclusivity in the industry and the stories that are told through it. Tamura says he can only hope his film has that kind of an impact. “I would be pleased and honored if that happens,” says the director. “This has been called a ‘typical love story’ by some, but that usually means a romance about able-bodied people. A romantic anime film like this, with a lead character in a wheelchair, just didn't exist until now."...
MAMORU HOSODA'S 'BELLE': LEARNING TO BECOME YOUR TRUEST SELF
The Oscar-nominated ‘Mirai’ director discusses his new film, about a shy young high school girl who comes of age as she takes a fantastical journey through the virtual world of ‘U,’ releasing today in North American theaters.
“I'm always fascinated about how people are able to change or how people are able to transform and, if there's an old version of a person or perhaps a new version of that same person, what it takes to bring them through that transformation,” says Hosoda. “It could be many different things – perhaps they meet some very important person or figure in their life, or there's a major event that causes or triggers this change.”...
'NAMOO': AN ARTIST REFLECTS ON LIFE, DEATH, AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN
Using frames hand-painted with Quill and VR headsets, Oscar-nominated director Erick Oh and his production team at Emmy Award-winning Baobab Studios expertly crafted a thought-provoking and emotional 3D animated short that follows the beautiful and heartbreaking moments of a man’s life.
“It’s deeply personal, but I feel like it's universal enough for everyone to resonate with,” explains Oh, known for his innovative animated short Opera that was nominated for Best Animated Short at last year’s Academy Awards. “It’s not a story about my grandfather. It’s all about growth and change.”...
'BLADE RUNNER: BLACK LOTUS' REVISITS THE ICONIC CITY OF NEON LIGHTS
The fifth project, but first series, in the epic ‘Blade Runner’ franchise tackles the grimy, gritty futuristic world of bioengineering with a female protagonist, Elle, who awakens in Los Angeles with no clue to her identity, now airing on Adult Swim’s Toonami and streaming on Crunchyroll.
“In a way, it does question a lot of the same things that the cyberpunk genre will usually ask,” says [Shinji] Aramaki, who has also co-directed with [Kenji] Kamiyama on Ultraman and Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045. “'What is human?’ and the question of existence and whatnot. But this property does exist in a different plane. For me, it wasn't as much of a challenge trying to do something different. The challenge was doing justice to the properties of the franchise.”...
'MY HERO ACADEMIA: WORLD HEROES' MISSION': A DIVERSE 'FEAST FOR THE SENSES'
Funimation and Toho Animation’s new anime, the hit franchise’s third movie, features three high school students studying to become superheroes, who suddenly face their greatest crisis - with only two hours to save the world!
"We had an inkling going into the auditions, and there were a lot of murmurs and whispers all those years ago, that this show might be something really special,” says Clifford Chapin, who voices gunpowder and flame-throwing character Katsuki Bakugou, and has been part of the MHA legacy with Briner since Season One. “But we could never have expected what it actually became, what it is now. It just exceeds all the expectations I could have had for it, and I mean that in every sense of the word.”...
'WOLFBOY AND THE EVERYTHING FACTORY' CELEBRATES WILD, WEIRD AND WHIMSICAL
A young boy bullied at school for wearing a wolf mask discovers the power of being different in Toff Mazery’s all-new 2D animated series, now streaming on Apple TV+.
“We’ve said from the beginning when we started writing, that throughout the show, for kids and for everyone, we explain that the weird parts of us are the parts that aren't conforming to what we think other people want us to be,” says Mazery..."That drawing-outside-the-lines way of thinking and way of going forward, I think that’s the key. If I hadn't done that, I don’t think I would have been as happy and satisfied in my life and in my work. In art and in life, I took a lot of the outside-the-lines turnings. And some of them bought me to this job and hitRECord.”...
THE LEGENDARY CHARLES SCHULZ EXPLORED IN 'WHO ARE YOU, CHARLIE BROWN?'
New Apple TV+ documentary paints a compelling picture of the iconic cartoonist and his beloved characters through animation, film clips, cartoon clippings, family photos, and audio commentary from the artist himself.
“It gave me a great sense of the people who appreciate him and his work so much that they're willing to make the effort to create something as beautiful as this,” says Jean Schulz, Charles’ widow. “I was delighted when I saw it, and I can't wait to see it again. I've seen it a few times, and I think it's beautiful. I mean, my hat goes off to Michael.”...
'TRESE' VIVIDLY BRINGS MYTHICAL BEASTS OF FILIPINO FOLKLORE TO LIFE
Premiering June 11, Netflix’s 2D animated series adaptation of Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s gritty horror and crime comics is a highly original, noirish take on the culture’s deeply-rooted supernatural lore and superstitions.
“It's been a 10-year journey with Tanya to find the best way to adapt Trese,” notes Tan. “When we found out that it was going to be adapted into anime, it suddenly made perfect sense.”
Baldisimo adds, “I just expect three hours of fun. That's all I want.”...
'SPIRIT UNTAMED' RECAPTURES THE 'SPIRIT' OF THE CIMARRON
Opening in theaters June 4, director Elaine Bogan and DreamWorks Animation’s next entry in the film and TV franchise uses CG to beautifully capture both the majestic splendor of the American frontier and the emotional bond between a headstrong girl and a wild stallion.
“A lot of this movie is about Lucky going through this journey and trying to learn how to communicate with another being that doesn't speak, and that's the magic of animation for me,” she says. “It’s about being able to tell a visual story without needing a whole bunch of dialogue or conversation, understanding what these characters are thinking and feeling with a simple movement, a tail flick, a head toss, or using the scenery around them.”...
'EDEN' MARRIES 2D AND 3D IN A POWERFUL PICTURE OF PARENTAL LOVE
Premiering today, Justin Leach’s new series, Netflix’s first original anime, explores the idea of robots showing the compassion needed to raise a child found alive in a post-apocalyptic world without humans.
“I wanted to make something that moved people to at least a teary-eye level,” says Justin Leach, Eden’s creator and producer. “I loved this idea of parents being fish-out-of-water and how, when you drop a baby into the mix, it changes people's lives in ways that are unexpected. I thought it'd be interesting to take that concept and apply it toward robots and see if that’s what makes them more human at the end of the day, when they have an experience that makes them feel compassion or start to care for a child.”...
'RUGRATS' RETURNS WITH A 21ST CENTURY FACE-LIFT
Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Susie, and Angelica are back, now animated in CG, but still humorously exploring their world as only precocious youngsters can do; series premieres May 27 on Paramount+.
“Rugrats is undoubtedly one of Nickelodeon's crown jewels,” says [Eryk] Casemiro. “You know how it is when you have a really good friend and you go for years without seeing them, and then you pick up right where you left off? It’s been just like that. I can write Chuckie or Phil until the cows come home. I love a good sarcastic Phil line.”...
WRAPPING UP LOOSE ENDS IN 'CASTLEVANIA'S FOURTH AND FINAL SEASON
For Kevin Kolde and Sam and Adam Deats, tying up key storylines should help audiences better appreciate the emotion behind the show’s broken, but ultimately unstoppable vampire-hunting heroes.
“When you're trying to show the effects that everything has had on these characters, and where they are, there's so much nuance that you're putting into every frame, every pose, every action, and it gets very complicated trying to bring that across,” Sam explains. “This season, more than ever, there's a whole lot of really strict, hands-on work being done to make sure that emotion and feeling in each character were handcrafted and hitting the exact marks they needed to.”...
'THE MITCHELL'S VS. THE MACHINES': A SCRAPBOOK OF ART, NOSTALGIA AND, KILLER ROBOTS
Distinctively styled 2D, 3DCG, and live-action, integrated with a highly personal and relatable story, give Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe’s new apocalyptic comedy adventure a uniquely ‘human’ touch.
“The film does feel like a scrapbook,” says head of story, Guillermo Martinez, known for his storyboarding work on Missing Link and Kubo and the Two Strings. “When Mike told me, this film would be like Little Miss Sunshine meets The Terminator, I knew I wanted to work on an animated movie like that, something that feels automatically different.”...
HOW 'CITY OF GHOSTS' TAKES A KID'S-EYE VIEW OF THE SUPERNATURAL
‘Adventure Time’ director Elizabeth Ito’s new documentary-style animated series follows a group of kids, known as the Ghost Club, as they investigate ghost sightings and encounters around L.A.
“It's really interesting how kids do tend to see ghosts, and they tell their parents about it in some weird way, and it’s usually the parents who gets creeped out,” Ito shares. “Similar to how pets can react before an earthquake, I think kids have this sense for certain things too.”
But despite the Ghostbusters-like plot, the six-episode series employs a calm, clever, and quietly comical tone where the Ghost Club members not only befriend the ghosts, but also interview them and listen to their life stories, learning more about the history of Los Angeles neighborhoods in the process...
'BOMBAY ROSE' PAINTS AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF INDIA'S PAST AND PRESENT
For writer and director Gitanjali Rao, the ‘love’ within a simple rose inspired her compelling and beautifully hand-painted animated film about people in India living unfulfilled lives as they struggle to survive.
“It’s a story of Bombay people,” says Rao, known for her award-winning and Oscar-nominated animated short, Printed Rainbow. “People I come across each and every day of my life. Whether you’re traveling, going to school, or going to work, you're always thrown in with people who live in the streets. It’s quite a homogeneous city. You can sometimes be stuck in a traffic jam for hours together. You see their lives and realize that this is a very marginalized society.”...
'FLEE': AN ANIMATED DOCUMENTARY RECOUNTS A HARROWING PERSONAL TRAUMA
Jonas Rasmussen’s intimate and powerful 2D film tells the untold story of his long-time friend Amin’s life as a gay child growing up in Kabul before his escape via Russia to Denmark.
For over two decades, documentary film director Jonas Rasmussen says he had no idea of the trauma that his friend Amin - an Afghanistan native - had experienced by the time they met in the filmmaker’s hometown of Copenhagen in 1996... “He knew that he had to tell the story at some point, because his life was split into two pieces,” says Rasmussen. “He couldn’t keep living for his past, and he had to bring his past and his present together to start a new life with his boyfriend. So, I think he knew he had to tell this story and this film gave him that opportunity to open up.”...
'KAPAEMAHU' HElPS REVIVE HIDDEN HAWAIIAN HISTORY OF HEALING AND ALOHA
Beautifully animated, award-winning 2D short celebrates the long-suppressed, centuries-old story of Waikiki’s mysterious four-boulder monument to the gentle people, both male and female in mind and body, who brought science and healing to the island.
“There was a lot of effort to peel away the layers to uncover what had been hidden for so long and intentionally suppressed,” says Joe Wilson, a writer, co-director, and producer on Kapaemahu along with partner Dean Hamer and lead director Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu. “This film is a great metaphor for calling us all to try to see what's in front of us and understand it more deeply than just what's on the surface.”...
THE PERSONAL STORY BEHIND GUY'S OPENING SEQUENCE IN 'THE CROODS: A NEW AGE'
For story artist Colin Jack, boarding the heartbreaking backstory meant dealing with his own recent loss, made easier by enlisting the help of his son Gabriel.
For the past six years, DreamWorks Animation has been home for story artist Colin Jack, working on family-friendly and adolescent-angled stories like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Trolls Holiday, Trolls World Tour, and the recently released The Croods: A New Age. While Jack mostly utilized action comedies and rom-coms as references for his boards on the new Croods sequel, inspiration for the film’s opening sequence, revealing a young Guy and the death of his parents, came from a much more emotional and personal source: his own family...
'LUPIN III: THE FIRST' BRIDGES THE 2D-3D GAP BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN ANIMATION
Tomokazu Sakamoto and Tatsuya Akagi share their efforts, with support from the franchise’s late creator, Monkey Punch, to respectfully depict iconic 2D anime characters in the 3D/CG style more familiar to international audiences.
After fifty years of longevity - with two manga series spanning 35 volumes, a five-part six-season 2D anime and over a dozen feature films including the acclaimed Hayao Miyazaki feature directorial debut, The Castle of Cagliostro - Lupin III released its first 3D/CG animation installment, Lupin III: The First this last October. And much to the relief of animation supervisor Tomokazu Sakamoto and rigging supervisor Tatsuya Akagi, long-time fans of the franchise created by the late Monkey Punch (Kazuhiko Kato) have been enthusiastically embracing the new film’s deeper dimensional look...
CINZIA ANGELINI'S 'MILA' GIVES AN ANIMATED VOICE TO CHILDREN OF WAR
10 years in the making, and completed with the help of ‘The Addams Family’ production studio Cinesite, the powerful CG short, about a young girl’s witness to the WWII bombings of Trento, Italy, offers a compelling message about hope and perseverance.
“When I was young, my mother often spoke about her feelings growing up during WWII and, in particular, how she felt as a little girl caught in the middle of the bombing,” remembers Angelini... “So many times, she told me how she could vividly remember the sense of void during those moments. How she couldn’t move or run to shelter until someone would pick her up. That was the story that I wanted to tell with the medium I love, animation, and to bring the spotlight on terrible realities that many kids have to still go through.”...
A COUPLE FACES THE PAIN OF UNSPOKEN GRIEF IN 'IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU'
In Will McCormack and Michael Govier’s animated short, estranged parents of a child killed in a school shooting try to overcome their heartbreak and find each other again; now showing on Netflix.
Grief, while a universal concept, is also a complex emotion, difficult to fully understand and pick apart. There are the commonly known stages of grief - denial, anger, depression and so on - though those can also look different for different people. But in the Oh Good Productions animated short, If Anything Happens I Love You, released Friday on Netflix, creators Will McCormack and Michael Govier tackle the wrenching pain of grief through animation, telling an emotional and relatable story that can hopefully help bring people together...
GLEN KEANE'S 'OVER THE MOON' ARTFULLY ILLUSTRATES HEALING FROM GRIEF THROUGH PLAY
With vibrant colors, gelatinous creatures and an unreal Lunarian moonscape, Sony Pictures Imageworks helps visualize a young girl’s emotional journey to a whole new world, in Pearl Studios’ new animated musical, now showing on Netflix.
“Dealing with grief, and learning to see things from a different perspective, can be a journey in itself,” says Over the Moon’s FX supervisor Ian Farnsworth. “And it’s important to know that it’s ok to heal through play.” Farnsworth, a father of three, says that while grief is “not usually a subject we think about geared toward children,” it’s one of the reasons, along with the chance to work with Keane, that he was excited about Imageworks taking on the project’s animation...
CREATING A BRIGHTER WORLD FOR COLOR DESIGNERS
Jack Cusumano and Teri Hendrich’s ‘Color is Design’ social media campaign is a key part of their ongoing effort to get color designers paid the same as other jobs in animation design.
“It’s an overlooked role,” adds Daniaelle Simonsen, who worked as a color designer on Gravity Falls, with Cusumano on the Disney animated series DuckTales, and is currently a color supervisor on Shion Takeuchi’s upcoming animated Netflix comedy series, Inside Job. “Color designers are responsible for establishing these nuanced moods and shades, and some of the scenes we color are not just one character, it's entire moments,” she notes. “There's a lot more to it than just filling things in."...
SOUTH AFRICA'S CABBLOW STUDIOS BRINGS A CUTE 2D TWIST TO IMPORTANT DIABETES EDUCATION
Kabelo Maaka and Dr. Tshepo P. Maaka’s animated short, ‘3 Teaspoons of Sugar,’ which competed in Annecy 2020, artfully presents needed information about the dangers and difficulties faced by people with disease.
“It’s one of those diseases that people think it's okay to just have, like it's like a handbag that you just carry around,” says Dr. T, a medical practitioner and anesthesiologist of 26 years. “They don’t realize how serious it is and that’s why we need to educate people about diabetes.”
Kabelo adds, “You go on an emotional journey with the characters and we give you the information without overwhelming you. We want our animation to still be a beautiful art form; all that we're doing is giving it a medical theme.”...
KIDS ON THEIR OWN AND IN DANGER - WELCOME TO 'JURASSIC WORLD: CAMP CRETACEOUS'
For producer Scott Kreamer, Steven Spielberg’s iconic franchise has always been about kids, but in the new Netflix and DreamWorks Animation series, this time, they’re all alone with no adults around to save them.
Isla Nublar has more stories to tell and Steven Spielberg is back in the prehistoric saddle, welcoming more young visitors on another big-toothed, big-clawed adventure. But, this time, no adults are coming to the rescue...Though the show is as thrilling and terrifying as ever, one of the producers, Scott Kreamer, hopes that telling the story of Camp Cretaceous through animation--without blood and gore--helps introduce the Jurassic universe to a younger generation of fans...
ANIMATING THE ESSENCE OF NATURE IN AYUMU WATANABE'S 'CHILDREN OF THE SEA'
The director discusses bringing Daisuke Igarashi’s 2006 manga to life in a dazzling, iridescent, and beautifully animated film that captures the complex bonds between all living things.
The cry of a newborn child, the song of a humpback whale and the birth, and death, of a star--all parallel symbols in the Japanese animated film Children of the Sea, brought to life with dazzling, dancing, iridescent animation that beautifully encapsulates one cinematic subject.
“The theme of this film is ‘The mystery and joy of life,’” says Ayumu Watanabe, the film’s director. “And that everything is a part of the universe.”...
'PROMARE': HIROYUKI IMAISHI AND HIROMI WAKABAYASHI'S VIVID DEPICTION OF RACISM AND UNITY
The director and producer of the electrifying, high energy anime feature tackle segregation, cruelty, and protest against injustice in a future society forged by the collision of fire and ice.
Promare’s animation is energy itself, but the illustrations speak to much more than just aesthetically enticing action scenes. “This film’s main theme is the ‘fusion of two elements,’” explains Promare producer Hiromi Wakabayashi. “The story has two protagonists with their own goals that collide yet eventually work together. We wanted to illustrate that with visuals rarely seen in Japanese animation.”...
JONAH SCOTT AND THE EXPRESSIVE MULTI-LAYERED CG ANIMATION OF 'BEASTARS'
For the voice acting star of Netflix’s new anime series, the show’s nuanced use of 3D/CG is as big a story as the mature themes of sexuality and mental health.
Netflix’s recently released anime series, Beastars, has received considerable attention from viewers, both anime fans and otherwise, who are either intrigued by the show’s gritty, Zootopia-like vibe, or adamantly opposed to the series due to the highly mature themes of sexuality and self-loathing, tackled through anthropomorphic animals.
The show’s leading English voice actor, Jonah Scott, says the show “definitely isn’t your mom’s anime” but should still be given a chance, especially by teens and adults who, like Scott, have struggled (or are struggling) with mental health...