Summertime, and the living is easy
Ahhhh Summer. Those heady days where the sun seems to beckon you outside, down a path, into a boat, off on voyages to relax. It wreaks havoc on a carefully planned animation schedule. I try to rationalize it by calling it “seeking inspiration” and “doing research.” I mean, it’s not like I’m not *thinking* about Rover. But it’s hard to justify these terms in the long run.
So what research have been doing, and what inspiration have I sought? Well, I got to see Wall-E, Pixar’s lovely tiny shy robot movie. To be honest, I was fairly anxious about seeing this film. Clearly there is a lot of cross over with my beloved property: a tiny, shy robot, exploring a strange world… the early trailers really had my mind buzzing. Friends were emailing me, wondering if I was feeling violated. So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I went to see the film. I mean, it’s freaking Pixar, the best animation studio in the world right now. I love these guys.
Thankfully the two stories go in very different directions. Of course, there are some themes that cross over, but other than that, the two films are not that similar. Sure, the characters of Rover and Wall-E have similarities, but none that bother me that much. In fact, I enjoyed the film very much, and I am glad to see Pixar taking these kinds of creative chances. It’s an unusual feature film from an American company, and I am glad it has enjoyed commercial success.
Other than watching movies, I am continuing to work with Mike Sinterniklaas on sound design and language development. The ideas we have discussed regarding the role of language in the film have influenced the characters to the point that I am reboarding many sequences and slightly reworking my story. So story refinement goes on as well. I’ll try to post more frequent updates on our progress.