The hilarious hazmat suited bunnies first launched in Apple Authentic Movies and Skydance Animation’s 2022 function Luck take middle stage within the studio’s newest animated quick, Unhealthy Luck Spot. Billed as an extension of the Luck universe, the brand new challenge finds the three fortunate rabbits on a quest to save lots of their magical world from a little bit of unhealthy luck.
Unhealthy Luck Spot is directed by animation veteran Matt Youngberg, an Emmy- and Annie-nominated director and govt producer finest recognized for his work as showrunner and EP of exhibits corresponding to Disney’s DuckTales, Transformers: Animated and Ben 10: Omniverse in addition to serving as storyboard artist and director on Batman Past and Teen Titans. We caught up with Youngberg to search out out extra about his current journey within the Land of Luck:
Animation Journal: So Matt, congrats in your new quick journey. Are you able to inform us a bit aobut the way you moved from DuckTales to the Luck Rabbits?
Matt Youngberg: So, I came visiting to Skydance after I completed DuckTales at Disney in 2021. I noticed there was this chance to push myself creatively in a means that I hadn’t achieved earlier than. I’ve have been doing 2D, TV animation for therefore lengthy and I’ve all the time had this love for pc animation. So I knew I couldn’t go this up. After I got here to Skydance, I started working in improvement, after which the chance to work on this quick got here up. I jumped at it as a result of we now have a brand new studio and entire new animation pipeline, which offered me with a terrific boot camp.
So, the film Luck was already in manufacturing once you began on the quick.
Sure, they already knew they wished a brief in regards to the bunnies. Everybody on the crew loves these bunny characters, and there’s lots of enjoyable constructed round them already. I labored a little bit bit with among the key gamers from the film, particularly lots of the individuals who labored everyday on it. It gave us a terrific probability to information them within the story and in addition for me to study from it. It allowed me to really feel extra acquainted and comfy with the present studio.
How many individuals labored on the quick and the way lengthy did it take?
I don’t know if I might let you know the precise quantity, however we began actually small. It was simply me and two or three storyboard artists, simply sitting round and developing with concepts. Then, the animators and structure and lighting staff got here on board. Nevertheless it was nonetheless a comparatively small crew, not more than a dozen. It took us about six to eight months to complete the quick.
What did you’re keen on most about engaged on this challenge?
I liked the truth that we had been in a position to inform a brand new story with new characters. I all the time love attempting one thing new. This quick gave us the possibility to discover the Land of Luck and see some extra of it, whereas making it really feel like a basic cartoon with fashionable sensibilities. The quick was set within the land that was created for the film, which meant we had sure constraints. Nevertheless it was enjoyable to play with what we had and push the cartoony components earlier than it breaks.
It actually helped to have the bunnies in hazmat fits, and we might intensify their buoyancy with out them getting damage. We might push the comedy and use squash and stretch and depend on old-school sorts of gags inside a contemporary context.
What would you say had been your greatest challenges?
We had been coping with the studio’s staff in Spain whereas we had been in L.A. In fact, everybody’s used to working remotely today. They had been very straightforward to work with, and we discovered a method to make the distinction in time zones work for us. Typically it may well really feel like the remainder of the staff is much away, however we’ve all received used to the distant working. I keep in mind we needed to cease going to the studio again after I was engaged on DuckTales at Disney. We needed to discover a method to make that work.
Now that you’ve had your first style of an enormous studio CG challenge, what do you’re keen on about it and what drives you nuts about it?
For the reason that very early days, I’ve all the time liked to study animation and devoured it. One of many issues I really like is its consistency and stability. Even if you happen to’re doing practical rendering, you are able to do superb issues, extra so than ever earlier than. However, there are limitations. It’s simpler generally if you wish to change an expression on a personality to simply draw on it. You may change the expression intuitively. There’s a little bit extra limitation on how one can change a personality’s expression. You may’t simply draw your means out of issues — however you could have lots of actually good individuals who have to leap in and sort out an issue!
What’s your tackle the unpredictable, fast-changing world of animation in 2023?
For many people, it’s a well-known world. Animation has all the time been pushing know-how ahead, from the early days of black-and-white shorts to the multi-plane digicam, and so forth. There’s so many issues that animation has achieved that you just don’t get in live-action function movies. I’ve labored for over 20 years in animation, and I’ve seen lots of cycles and modifications. I feel when there’s fixed information protection about all of the modifications, it feels fairly loopy. However you simply have to have a look at it as one other cycle. We simply adapt and maintain our eyes on centered on creation.
So long as we’re creatively true to ourselves and put ourselves into these characters and tales, audiences will join with them.
Unhealthy Luck Spot is accessible to stream on Apple TV+ and on the platform’s YouTube channel.
