Tuesday, February 13, 2024

"I'm Hip" with John Musker

 I first found out about this film when I did an interview with John Musker and Ron Clements when Covid was on the rise. Here's the interview, feel free to watch the whole thing. 


I just realised the above video was labelled Part 1, in Part 2, John mentioned he was starting to work on his own animated short film and was trying to figure out how he was going to do it.

Four years later, "I'm Hip" premiered at Annecy, one of the most well known animation festivals in Europe and the film managed to make the Short List for this year's Oscars. Unfortunately, the film was not nominated.

I caught up with John Musker at an ASIFA screening of "I'm Hip" and here is the interview below along with some stills from the film.. Enjoy!


This is Dan Dinello and John's sister Mimi, Dan Dinello was my Film Tech 2 teacher at Columbia College in 1983-1984.

A movie theater of famous hip movie goers.












The beginning of the film so Musker and his wife walking under the Live Jazz sign...



Can you name these two Hip guys? Add your answer to the comments below.














That's Marlon West on drums and the head of effects at Disney, I went to school with him at Columbia College and he was hip even back then.



The guy snipping coffee is John's son.



"I'm Hip" will be coming to a theater near you as part of the 23rd Animation Show of Show. Contact www.animationshowofshows.com to find out when and where.

If you enjoyed this post, leave a comment below or on the YouTube channel Animateducated. 

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Animating Stuff in 2024

This year I've started a Live Stream show called "Animating Stuff" on my YouTube channel, Animateducated. It's a live format where I will either bring in a topic to talk about or show and the audience can text their feedback or questions.

Well, that's the theory. So far I've been starting this on Wednesdays @ 7pm PST and am working on finding that sweet spot when an audience might turn up to watch. So far, the audience have been pretty small and often times, I feel like I'm just talking to myself, which I usually am.

So, please help me find the best time to do this live stream. Below is a recent live stream which I edited down to include the most interesting bits. You let me know if I'm right or not.


Any suggestions for topics or things to animated or solutions to problems, please  send an email at animateducated@gmail.com.

Character designs by Nikolas Ilic






Character Designs by Ben Tong






Artwork by Ronald Searle  

Artwork by Arnold Roth



Enjoy this post? Leave a comment below or share it with the rest of the world!

Saturday, December 30, 2023

New Year 2024 Bucket List

It's a brand new shiny New Year and I have complied a short Bucket List of things I would like to happen in 2024. 


Animateducated, the YouTube channel, has grown a lot in 2023 than the year before. I am hoping the channel will finally pass the required 4000 watch hours to qualify for monetization. Then I can't wait until my interviews will be interupted by ads about how you can make thousands of dollars a week without doing anything!

I have several interviews ready to edit and some new ones which will require some travel and/or begging. 

Andrew Chesworth is a 2d/3d animator who recently posted his film, The Brave Locomotive to YouTube where it has gotten a lot of attention. I wll be editing his interview in the new year, here is a short promo.


I'm working on an interview with Felicity Moreland, who is has a new documentary about 2d animation called, Hand-Drawn: Documentary.


I'm working on getting an interview with John Musker about his short film, "I'm Hip". John's film has qualified for the Short List for this year's Oscars! Before the announcement, I had ask him if he would like to talk about his film and he has agreed. We are now making plans when to do the interview.


In the coming year, I hope to visit Michael McMaster and his shop to meet some of his creations.


Here's a fun video he made several years ago, featuring these two very famous robotic characters.

I am also looking into contacting artist and filmmaker, Jim McKenzie who has recently made this very fun film about his latest artwork called "Potato Face".


Hey Jim, you can contact me yourself, because I would love to find out how you made this film and what your new projects in 2024 might be. If anyone knows how I can contact him, please let me know.

This Summer, my wife and I are also planning a trip to the UK and would like to visit a few animators and animation studios to create few interviews while mine there.

But before this happens, I have to get in better shape and start my walking routine again. As animator, I sit a lot at my computer. When I worked at studio jobs, my weakness was free drinks like Pepsi or Coke. I drank it like water and I discovered by simply not doing so, I would loose weight and walking helps as well.

So this Summer, I don't want to squeeze myself into an airplane seat and be out of breath from walking up a few steps. I don't want to be the fat American tourist, so I'm starting now to get into an exercise routine and hopefully watch my weight go down.

Animating Stuff will return in 2024 where I will have a weekly live streaming episode where I will be working on or talking about something about animation. If viewers show up to listen in or participate that's always makes a better episode.

A big Thank You to the 1605 subscribers and the future subscribers! Do you have any ideas for me to pursue in the new year on Animateducated? 

Thanks for Watching and Have a Happy New Year!