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And its complete bullshit.
I think it was around 2003, finishing upClone Wars.
So I thought maybe I should do some stuff with magic.
I wanted a bigger story, a grander scale, to push myself.
I doodled this scene of somebody running from a train that was on fire and alive.
And I was like, Yeah, this could be really cool.
And from there it took almost 20 years to finally get it made.
I sold it a couple of times, at a couple of different places.
I cant explain why a project goes and why it doesnt.
Is that how you generate ideas, by doodling?Yeah.
Sometimes the drawing could be of an image that suddenly popped into my head.
Sometimes the process works great, other times not at all.
This series seems to me the culmination of everything youve done.
The character renderings sometimes take me all the way back toDexters LaborThePowerpuff Girls.
But the action is more in aClone Wars,Samurai Jack, orPrimalvein: mythic, beautiful.
Focusing more so on the comedic, because that was the important part.
And the relationship stuff.
Remember, I was 25, so I didnt know anything.
But it was all just kind of happening.
It was what we liked, right?
So we started doing sometimes more dramatic episodes later, but still with a lot of comedy.
We also started feeding in more action, because we all liked doing action, especially myself.
I like to do action thats a little more, I dont know elevated?
I dont know what the right word is.
InPrimal, whats really elevated is the action.
InDexters Lab, its the comedy thats elevated.
ForUnicorn, we elevated the drama; we wanted the emotions and the characterization elements to be heightened.
And everybody in the scene looks funny!
Thats the golden ticket, I always felt: You knowSnow White, the Disney feature?
Its the most emotional thing.
Everybody buys into it.
But they look ridiculous.
The characters onThrees Companywere constantly eavesdropping on other people and making wrong assumptions.Definitely!
Oh, no, wait, theyre just cooking.
Comedy is the hardest thing to do.
Its all subjective, what people think is funny.
I used to teach a class in timing for a little while at CalArts.
The mix of cartoony draftsmanship and epic action creates a unique tension in your work.
And its complete bullshit.
Everything in this series is really cartoony.
That wedding sequence was my proof of concept, by the way.
That was the sequence where I wanted to show how all the elements could work together.
Its a mystery you dont know whats what.
And then Emma transforms, and shes not who she was anymore.
And at that point, it shifts over to action mode.
I also think of John Woo when were doing those kinds of scenes.
John Woo is the kind of filmmaker who does a funeral sequence and makes it themostcinematic!
Theres torrential rain and its all in slow motion, and there are all these dissolves.
That kind of thing is part of the language that I love.
Youre telling the story visually.
Thats always the key.
Speaking of visual storytelling: Lets talk about exposition.
Did you sell the house?Youre totally right.
I hate overt explanations.
Most modern-day movies and television shows, especially animated ones, start with [adoptskid voice] Hi!
And I live in this village!
And this is my problem!
And this is my dad, and I love him, but he doesnt love my hobby!
Were five minutes into the movie, I know everything, and mentally I turn off.
Theres not a ton of lore being dumped.
The audience is actually really smart.
Thats something I enjoy as an audience member too.
Think about the originalStar Wars.
Youslowlystart to understand whats happening in that world.
Same thing withRaiders of the Lost Ark.
You start with a mystery.
Who is this guy?
Whats he doing in the jungle?
Whats that thing hes after?
All storytelling is mystery.
The audience will fit all the pieces of the story together.
And you know, this could be a fault!
This one is complex, with the storytelling and everything unfolding and where it goes, it grows.
If you dont trust where the story is going, or if youre already bored, then Ive failed.
Its a different beast.
Usually, though, I feel like a 22-minute episode is enough time.
Seven minutes, the length of a story inDexterorPowerpuff?
Isnt seven minutes the standard length of a Looney Tunes short?Yeah, exactly.
Seven minutes is a length thats built for a chase cartoon.
Seven minutes was perfect to do what they were doing.
That was an epic struggle for us.
Then we started doing 11-minute stories, and that opened us up and we started to learn.
I realized I needed to slow down, because I really needed to get the audience in, right?
Ever since that, Ive been slowing down.
You also use silence a lot more often.
And you dont score everything.
Im a product of 70s filmmaking.
In the 70s, things were just a little bit more avant-garde.
Sound was a big part of it.
Movie storytelling in the 1940s and 50s was about grandeur, and there was a lot of musical underscoring.
The beginning ofOnce Upon a Time in the Westis just guys waiting for a train.
Youve got these incredibly detailed faces.
But if you watch it, especially on a big screen, youre sucked in like crazy.
Im big on pacing, including sound pacing.
When I design or write stories, I keep that in mind: Its about contrast and rhythm.
Were making a song.
A good song has quiet parts and loud parts.
Classical music, of course, is the best example of that.
When I started onDexter, there were no books about this.
There was nobody who was talking about, This is where you should have music or not have music.
It was the most frustrating thing.
And all of Sergio Leones films.
And of course, Akira Kurosawa Leone borrowed from him; the gunfighters in his westerns are Kurosawas swordsmen.
Tone is so important to me now.
OnDexterandPowerpuff, I never talked about tone.
I would say, Why cant we have the music as loud as the dialogue?
They said, Because then you cant hear the dialogue.
I said, But this is an action scene and the dialogue is just grunts and stuff.
I got so frustrated that I just started doing action scenes without even the grunts.
I didnt miss it at all.
Later, I found some good mixers who could give me a better balance.
But even onUnicorn, we had to make tough choices and simplify.
You didnt give him facial expressions.
We did it with all of them, including Copernicus.
It was like going through the struggle with Fang inPrimal.
Id never done a dinosaur character before.
I had to sketch and sketch and sketch to make it find that language that would define her.
Like how Max Fleischers Superman stands with his chest out.
Spear inPrimalhas a bit of that Fleischer Superman vibe.He has the Charles Atlas body.
There was no proper way to work out.
Hes got this weird, bulky body that we would draw a little differently every time.
He leans over a lot.
Same thing with Copernicus.
We figured it out.
The silent characters are easier to find and define than the talky characters.
Steven DeStefano, who designedUnicorn, might design the right character but the wrong posture.
A good character designer like Steven will start by asking you, Well, who is this person?
What are their traits?
Character design informs posing, and it all works together.
When hes talking to his daughter, Mavis, hes the cowering dad hes always hunched down.
When hes talking to his friends or running the hotel, hes chest-out.
Its all visual support of the character.
Even if the scene is about characters talking, there needs to be something visual that supports the language.
All that stuff began in the old days, with theatrical acting on film.
Like Yul Brynner as Ramses inThe Ten Commandments.
Hes posturing the whole time!
Nobody would do it nowadays like that, in live action.
It looks ridiculous to people now, but its great!
Same thing with Kurosawas samurai characters.
InSeven Samurai, each one of the swordsmen has a very distinctive body language.
Each character stood and walked a specific way.
Thats great character development and great acting.
Thats what were trying to do in animation.
