Here begins the final ambition of my life... the making of my first full-length animated movie, 'Spirit of the Game'!
The teaser is done, the website is out there and now I'm putting a final polish to the script. Soon I will be flying to the UK to record the soundtrack with some amazing actors over there who are all donating their time and talents to the project - dedicated to seeing it made, as am I. Then begins the final design polish, the storyboarding, the production layouts and the full-length animatic. With all this in place I will simply jump in and start animating, single-handed, until its done if I have to.
But it really shouldn't be like this at all should it? This is America, home of feature film animation, after all!
Its totally ironic to me that I live and work in the richest country in the world, the nation that defined and refined the great 2D animation filmmaking medium, and yet 2D-animated projects like this, and others, are totally ignored. America didn't invent animation but it certainly brought it to the world... and through the late, great Walt Disney, made some of the finest classics that will EVER be made. Yet in America 2013, 2D animation is taboo, a pariah, something of a bygone age that has seemingly fulfilled all its potential. The rest of the world still makes and enjoys hand-crafted animated movies of course - but here, corporate Hollywood turns its back on what is still potentially the finest creative medium Mankind has ever devised.
Yet despite Hollywood's indifference, so many people tell me that they really want to see 2D animated films again. Yes, they want modern story-lines - i.e. not merely predictable re-hashes of the old 'cartoon movie' form - but they do most certainly want to see imaginative, hand-drawn animated films that contain all the craft and innovation that Walt used to put into his films. Yet the mainstream still turns its back on all this and - I most earnestly believe - misses out on something that can still be radically innovative, remarkable and (heaven forfend) significantly profitable too!
So I believe its time to stand up and be counted. I have achieved many things throughout my 2D animation career... written books, won awards, travelled the world. But for one reason or another I have never, ever been allowed to realize my most cherish wish... that is, to create a unique and innovative full-length animated movie. Therefore 'Spirit of the Game' will be made... somehow... someplace... sometime... and the audiences of our world (for generations to come) will vote with their feet to underline what I say here. As long as I have breath in me and the strength to hold a pencil I will attempt to create something that will entertain, inspire and entirely be well worth the price you pay to see it. You have my word that 'Spirit of the Game' will be made - with every last ounce of passion, love, and skill I have - and it will be made well!
So do join me now on this journey into a last unrealized ambition. (Perhaps donate some money to it too, if you are of a mind to!) Let us travel together into the future - to see what awaits us along this insane (but more than a little glorious too) animated adventure called 'Spirit of the Game'!
And believe me - if I do build it you will most certainly come! :)
The teaser is done, the website is out there and now I'm putting a final polish to the script. Soon I will be flying to the UK to record the soundtrack with some amazing actors over there who are all donating their time and talents to the project - dedicated to seeing it made, as am I. Then begins the final design polish, the storyboarding, the production layouts and the full-length animatic. With all this in place I will simply jump in and start animating, single-handed, until its done if I have to.
But it really shouldn't be like this at all should it? This is America, home of feature film animation, after all!
Its totally ironic to me that I live and work in the richest country in the world, the nation that defined and refined the great 2D animation filmmaking medium, and yet 2D-animated projects like this, and others, are totally ignored. America didn't invent animation but it certainly brought it to the world... and through the late, great Walt Disney, made some of the finest classics that will EVER be made. Yet in America 2013, 2D animation is taboo, a pariah, something of a bygone age that has seemingly fulfilled all its potential. The rest of the world still makes and enjoys hand-crafted animated movies of course - but here, corporate Hollywood turns its back on what is still potentially the finest creative medium Mankind has ever devised.
Yet despite Hollywood's indifference, so many people tell me that they really want to see 2D animated films again. Yes, they want modern story-lines - i.e. not merely predictable re-hashes of the old 'cartoon movie' form - but they do most certainly want to see imaginative, hand-drawn animated films that contain all the craft and innovation that Walt used to put into his films. Yet the mainstream still turns its back on all this and - I most earnestly believe - misses out on something that can still be radically innovative, remarkable and (heaven forfend) significantly profitable too!
So I believe its time to stand up and be counted. I have achieved many things throughout my 2D animation career... written books, won awards, travelled the world. But for one reason or another I have never, ever been allowed to realize my most cherish wish... that is, to create a unique and innovative full-length animated movie. Therefore 'Spirit of the Game' will be made... somehow... someplace... sometime... and the audiences of our world (for generations to come) will vote with their feet to underline what I say here. As long as I have breath in me and the strength to hold a pencil I will attempt to create something that will entertain, inspire and entirely be well worth the price you pay to see it. You have my word that 'Spirit of the Game' will be made - with every last ounce of passion, love, and skill I have - and it will be made well!
So do join me now on this journey into a last unrealized ambition. (Perhaps donate some money to it too, if you are of a mind to!) Let us travel together into the future - to see what awaits us along this insane (but more than a little glorious too) animated adventure called 'Spirit of the Game'!
And believe me - if I do build it you will most certainly come! :)