Many will know John Musker as the author and director (with Ron Clements) of lots of Disney’s beloved animated options reminiscent of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Moana.
Other than their wealthy characters and heartfelt storytelling, Musker and Clements’ movies are recognizable for his or her thrilling and well-animated musical sequences that fluidly transition from one scene to the subsequent, benefiting from the medium in pleasant ways in which solely animation can. In Aladdin’s “Good friend Like Me” sequence, the viewers can’t assist however smile, faucet their ft, and sing alongside because the filmmakers, within the phrases of the Genie, “illuminate the chances” of animation.
Musker now continues that custom of well-planned animated transitions with snappy timing and witty gags in a brand new four-minute brief movie he wrote, directed, and animated known as I’m Hip. The movie, a few self-absorbed cat who tries to persuade the world of his ‘hipness,’ has its public premiere on the Annecy Pageant, happening this week in France.
Musker designed and animated the brief in its entirety (his first time animating in 40 years) enlisting a crew of ace clean-up, structure, and visdev artists, shade designers, background painters, results artists, and inkers and painters. Manufacturing started simply earlier than the pandemic and premiered at a crew, associates, and household screening on the Nice Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills final month.
Musker’s I’m Hip has 4 minutes of continuous caricature cavalcade that may please any animation fan. The filmmaker, who’s infamous amongst colleagues for his caricatures and studio gag drawings, designed and animated lots of his associates, household, and colleagues from his forty-plus 12 months profession and scattered them all through the movie.
Most of the caricatures within the movie are impressed by tales from Musker’s animation life. For instance, in a Operating of the Bulls scene set in Spain, a younger Glen Keane is featured, alluding to a operating contest on the Disney studio within the Nineteen Eighties when Keane’s dash was ok to win the race however quick sufficient that he couldn’t placed on the brakes and ended up crashing right into a wall, blowing out his knee. A few of the artists later made a masking tape define of Keane’s susceptible physique on the ground like a police chalk define. The viewers might not know the story behind every scene, however it is going to really feel there’s one to be advised.
After a celebrated profession at Disney, I’m Hip proves that there’s life after Disney. We just lately sat down with Musker to choose his mind concerning the movie.
Cartoon Brew: When did you begin making this film and the way lengthy did it take?
John Musker: I spent 4 years making this film, roughly. It started pre-Covid and continued after Covid’s waning.
What impressed you to make this brief?
I tinkered with the concept over time just a little bit, nevertheless it was solely after my retirement from Disney in 2018 that I severely considered making a brief primarily based on this track. I had numerous concepts for various shorts I wished to animate. I started my profession as an animator and I wished to strive my hand at it once more, even when I hadn’t actually accomplished it for 40 years. That sounds loopy, doesn’t it? So, guided by my spouse Gale’s suggestion as to the kind of brief I would make, particularly, “Do one thing humorous,” I returned to I’m Hip.
Why did you select this track?
I first heard the track, “I’m Hip” within the Nineteen Eighties. It was initially written by Dave Frishberg and Bob Dorough as a comic book set piece for Blossom Dearie, a novel and classy cabaret performer who performed piano and sang in a feathery voice. It’s been “lined” over time by a number of singers. I all the time thought that Frishberg’s comedian supply of his witty lyrics, which make enjoyable of individuals so determined to be considered “hip” – and people sorts of individuals by no means exit of favor – coupled with Frishberg’s sardonic piano taking part in on high of a cool bass and drums rhythm part, would make for an entertaining animated brief. Ron Diamond, a colleague I’ve recognized for a few years, helped me navigate securing the rights to the track, with out which nothing may occur.
I wished the movie to be a celebration of jazz and Frishberg’s track, however I additionally wished it to be a love letter to hand-drawn animation. Though the movie has a specific amount of Fifties and Sixties vibe, I didn’t need to do restricted animation which got here in vogue throughout that point. I actually wished to do “full animation” with drag, overlap, squash and stretch, and a sure diploma of volumetric drawing with 2nd cheats and issues on ones when wanted. I wished to have a good time the magic of unapologetic drawings coming to life and seeming to maneuver, in a caricatured style, of their very own will. I used to be impressed by Disney greats like Ward Kimball and John Lounsbery, but additionally folks like Ken Harris, Eric Goldberg, and Preston Blair. And by the duvet artwork of jazz albums of that interval, particularly the work of David Stone Martin, and to a lesser extent, the good Jim Flora, to whom I designed one shot as a form of homage.
How did you resolve whom to caricature within the movie and the context during which you set them?
I knew early on that I wished to place cameos of all of the smallish crew who labored on I’m Hip into the movie. I’ve been a caricaturist for a few years. I by no means earned a residing from them, however loved doing ones of associates, relations, and associates. However as I acquired into the brief, I had a number of pictures the place my lead character, this hipster cat, interacted with folks or handed by locations which have folks in them. I used to be going to need to design and animate these “extras,” and I assumed why not draw folks I do know into these roles? Within the artwork home movie show, for instance, the place the cat goes on a date together with his arty girlfriend Imogene, I assumed I might fill the theater with principally {couples} who’re filmmakers or film lovers. So seated beside and across the cat and Imogene are Henry Selick and his spouse Heather, Brad and Liz Chook, Jerry and Rebecca Rees. Additionally showing is movie critic Charles Solomon and his companion Scott Johnston, structure artist Jennifer Yuan and her husband Mark, Disney publicists Howard Inexperienced and Mike Bonifer, my sister Mimi and her movie professor hubby Dan Dinello, and school roomie Harry Sabin and his good friend Beth Herzhaft. Additionally lurking is movie impresario Ron Diamond.
I couldn’t resist the temptation to drop in caricatures of massive animation influences like Ward Kimball or my mentor Eric Larson. Or Disney legend Floyd Norman, who performs stand-up bass in a single early scene, or Marlon West, results supervisor at Disney and jazz fanatic whom I drew taking part in a cool set of drums. Once I completed, I spotted there have been over 120 caricatures sprinkled across the film. I hadn’t envisioned that after I began.
After a profession of constructing large-budget movies, how did it really feel to make an impartial movie? Did you make selections in a different way and have been there compromises you needed to make alongside the best way?
I produced the movie myself and paid everybody who labored on it. I wished to keep up artistic management over the whole lot, so I didn’t need to be beholden to folks with cash who would need enter. I relished the chance after a few years of constructing large price range options the place admittedly I had an excessive amount of management, however not the ultimate “say” on issues, to only go together with my intestine. No committees, no focus teams. Simply me and my crew.
In 2019, I accomplished the scratchy storyboard for the movie. I made a decision, primarily based on numerous suggestions, to make use of TVPaint, a French software program, to make my hand-drawn movie which I drew on my Cintiq. I had thought of doing it on paper as I had 40 years earlier, however I discovered TVPaint gave me a number of choices on the road high quality and the power to work in layers and to chop, copy, paste, and remodel issues, so it was match for me.
My aim was to design all of the characters and to animate all of them myself, all four-minutes price of them. I’m joyful to say I did that, with the big assist of good clear up artist Dan Tanaka, who keyed all my scratchy animation drawings, and people like Rachel Bibb and Dietz Ichishita and others who helped full the clean-up. I named my manufacturing firm Scribbly Footage, and for good cause. I’m a notoriously scribbly animator. God bless Dan Tanaka.
In fact, whereas I used to be making it, I drew on the concepts of others engaged on the movie. John Ramirez did nice visible improvement and had some story solutions. Claudio Acciari, an excellent Italian artist, did fantastic shade and background concepts that made their option to the display. Format artist Jennifer Yuan had witty concepts for the settings that I hadn’t considered and Ken Slevin, an Irish background painter and artwork director, did a lot of the backgrounds following a shade script by Disney legend David Goetz, who introduced plenty of nice extra visible concepts to the colour of the movie. I didn’t have an finish title sequence but when David did his shade script, in order that was all Ken, who did the layouts for that as effectively. I like what he did.
I had nice results work accomplished by the late Kathleen Quaife, who was an distinctive 2nd artist. And Sam Fleming additionally did shadows, bubbles, and rubble. And Disney vet Eric Daniels did some wonderful prop fx animation in each 2nd and 3d with billiard balls, falling pianos, and actually the kitchen sink.
However my greatest ally in all of this was Talin Tanilean, who wore many, many hats on this movie. She knew not solely TVPaint back and forth, however she additionally was snug in After Results with which she composited the whole lot and did all the ultimate digital camera work. She knew Adobe Premiere the place all of the pictures have been assembled. She acquired all of the work from clean-up into ink and paint the place sisters Bethany and Olivia Moy painted it. She was organized and environment friendly and did 1,000,000 different issues as effectively like extra shadows and highlights and repos and also you identify it. I couldn’t have accomplished this movie with out her. And she or he was all the time a pleasure to work with.
Had been there any specific challenges you overcame or methods you realized whereas making this movie?
I hadn’t animated in a few years, however I had continued to attract all this time. I dug out my copy of Eric Goldberg’s Character Animation Crash Course and my Preston Blair books and simply dove into the deep finish of the pool.
I’ve to confess, after I did my first little scene and tough inbetweened it after which performed it at pace, I truly acquired a thrill out of it. The cat was shifting, and he appeared alive like all of the animation I liked. He was a drawing, however a residing drawing. Some scenes of animation got here pretty simply to me however others I struggled with. At instances I might shift frames from one shot to a different to have poses learn extra clearly. Normally, my first approaches have been typically too busy, and I needed to simplify. I tough inbetweened the whole lot very crudely simply to check my timing as a result of I didn’t have faith that it might work. I used to be as much as a few of my CalArts unhealthy habits like not numbering my drawings. I might pose extremes after which put in breakdowns and inbetweens till I felt the timing was proper. Then I might return and quantity them and chart them for clean-up. All of the whereas I used to be making an attempt to use classes Eric Larson had taught me years earlier than concerning the change of form, sturdy silhouettes, good sturdy arcs, and paths of motion.
I had by no means labored with TVPaint earlier than however thankfully, I had David Nethery as my guru. We’d Zoom or Skype and he would present me how this system labored. I had downloaded some third-party brushes to get a scratchy pen and ink thick and skinny line, which I felt went with the fashion of a whole lot of the interval.
I didn’t have the unbelievable manufacturing assist system that we have been blessed with at Disney; a whole lot of vibrant, hardworking individuals who helped get the movie to the display. It fell to me and, thankfully, to Talin to not let issues get hung up. I even have osteoarthritis, significantly in my arms, so the elevated load of drawing took its toll on my crooked fingers and painful knobby knuckles, nevertheless it was manageable.
What did you study from taking over this endeavor? And are you contemplating making extra shorts?
General, it was a whole lot of work but additionally a whole lot of enjoyable. I like the best way animation can work to music. I’ve plenty of different brief movie concepts which might be all constructed round numerous items of music, though they differ when it comes to fashion, size, and tone. After I’m Hip makes its circuit of movie festivals, I could start one other brief. Time will inform.
Interview edited for size and readability.
