The Ron and John Interview

I'm preparing for another big interview, this time with the directors of Disney classics like The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Princess and the Frog and Moana. 

The dynamic duo of Ron Clements and John Musker.

I will be recording the interview this Wednesday if the weather is right and posting it later to the Animateducated YouTube channel which you are a subscriber of or should be!

It was also Ruthie Thompson's 110th birthday!

Animated Oscar winners!

Its been an interesting year for animation with the return of a more traditional hand drawn look with films like Klaus and shorts films as well. 
Two animated shorts, which are in competition for this year's Oscars Short Film(animated) catagory are "Hair Love" and "Kitbull". Both are in color and are traditionally animated. Both films are sponsored by movie studios; "Hair Love" with Sony Picture Animation and "Kitbull" with Pixar SparkShorts program.

I had seen Hair Love and was sure it would win, however after seeing Kitbull, Hair Love has found its competition.

I'm going out on a limb here to make a prediction that "Hair Love" will win the Oscar! Hair Love is a human story about love, hair and the black community, but its more of a universal story with appeal. Its has a lot of strong storytelling inside it, as well as a message of hope. 

If it does, please take a look/listen to this recent interview with the directors of the film. https://youtu.be/7CPvoVOooPk  

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Kitbull too. The story is about a small abandoned kitten who meets an abandoned Pitbull. We learn that the Pitbull just wants to play, but is chained up and used in a bad way by his owner. 

The animation of the kitten is great and like Hair Love its colorful, traditionally animated and told with music. Kitbull also is a story of hope, where the two different animals become friends and help each other.

I know there is not much time before the Oscars begin on this wet and rainy Sunday, but please leave a comment below. Which film did you like like the most?

And the winner is, Hair Love!

Chenglin Xie

Chenglin Xie is a native of China and recently graduated from USC in Los Angeles.  

Here is a link to his website where you can see some of his animated films he has posted, including his 2017 Student Academy award winning film, "Life Smartphone".

Here is Chenglin's acceptance speech from the 2017 Student Academy Awards, where "Life Smartphone", won first place that year.

I contacted Chenglin a few weeks ago to see if he would like to be interviewed on Animateducated. At the time, he was busy finishing up his final film at USC. Below is a recent, short interview with Chenglin Xie talking about his work on the Animateducated channel on YouTube.

Here are a few other films that you can see on this website. All were produced using TV Paint software.

Father and Daughter 

A daughter's animated journey through her success and failures through gymnastics and the Father who is always there for her.

Tiny Monster

A Tiny Monster is drawn onto a tablet by an artist who attempts to interact with it. The Monster draws weapons to threaten the artist, but then decides to "Make Love and not War". A fun modern use showing live action and animation in one piece.

More interviews on the way!

45th Annie Awards 2018

From UCLA's Royce Hall last Saturday, Greg and I got an opportunity to attend the 45th Annie Awards, which is like the Oscars of the animation world. Now, I have to say, that every time I have attended this event before, people have mistaken me for some well known person in animation.

The first time this happened, someone thought I was Animator/Historian Tom Sito. The second time, someone thanked me for my moving tribute to Roy Disney, which was actually given by Disney producer, Don Hahn. Then last year, someone wanted me to draw a picture of Bart Simpson, thinking I was Simpsons creator, Matt Groening. 

The only things I have in common with these gentlemen are; that we all are men with facial hair, we wear glasses and share the love of animation.

The only person I wanted to meet this year was Glen Keane. For those who aren't in animation, Glen Keane brought the Disney characters of Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, Long John Silver to life. and this year's animated short film "Dear Basketball.," a love letter by Kobe Bryant about his favorite sport. The film won an Annie for this year's best animated short subject and has been nominated for this year's Oscars.

Upon entering the pre-party, we met Adrian Molina , the co-writer and co-director of "Coco". He spoke to us and was very friendly. He was a story artist at Pixar and was given the opportunity to help write the screenplay "Coco" and then to co-direct it.

Coco won most of the awards that night. and "The Breadwinner" won best independent animated feature which executive producer, Angelina Jolie help put together.  

Other highlights included, Angelina Jolie in attendance, "Cuphead" won special achievement award, TV Paint won the Ub Iwerks Award, The Winsor McCay award went to the NFBC duo of Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, Tom Kenny (the Voice of Spongbob) presented a Winsor McCay Award to Spongebob creator, Stephen Hillenburg and Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time) presented a Winsor McCay Award to animator James Baxter. 

Afterwards, we attended the VIP party where I got to meet and congratulated another animation hero of mine, James Baxter. 

When we first met Glen Keane, things were going well. And then, it started. When I meet famous people that I admire I have discovered, that I have a tendency to physically go out of focus. Most people will become nervous or shy or begin to sweat or can't think of what to say next, I go out of focus and here's proof.

I could tell Glen was noticing my blurry condition was getting worse, but he was very polite and the out of focus attack didn't last too long this time. Afterwards I remained in focus long enough to take this nice picture with him.

We met a bunch more people, but the real surprise of the night was meeting the model for Tinker Bell, Margaret Kerry!

She was also very friendly and I didn't go out of focus at all, not once. 

What a small world animation is after all. Just before we left, I ran into an old friend of mine, Wendie Owens. We use to work together at StarToons, back when I was in Chicago. Her husband, Mike Owens directed a new show on Amazon Prime called " Danger and Eggs", which was up for the best Character design in an animated TV/Broadcast production.  

As we finally began to leave Royce Hall for good, a group of people began to follow me. I am not joking here, one guy held out a pen to me and said, "Pen?" I looked around and then back to the guy. "Aren't you Pendleton Ward?" 

"Oh no, I'm sorry that's not me," I said, "I'm Don Hahn."

The group looked very disappointed as they sadly walked away. My friends said I should have signed it, but I couldn't have done that, besides it was late and we had long drive by back to Burbank.

* * * * *

Wow, what a night! Did you enjoy this post? Please click on our ads to let us know you liked it or not. 

Do I really look like Pendelton Ward? (It was dark and about 1 in the morning.) Please let me know and leave a comment below, don't be shy. Can't wait to find out who I will be mistaken for at next year's Annie Awards.

I am available if anyone needs to be at an important event or a meeting at the same time. I'd be glad to help you out.

Here are a few student animated film from the 2016 Annie Awards.