Animal Crackers Movie

This year has just been flying by. For the past two months, I have been working on storyboards for an independent animated film called Animal Crackers. No, it has no connection to the old Shirley Temple song, it is not a remake of a Marx Bros. movie, nor is it related in any way to the comic strip of the same name. It is, however, a pretty fun circus story being directed by Tony Bancroft (co-director of Disney’s Mulan) and Scott Christian Sava.

With terrific character designs by famed illustrator Carter Goodrich, the voice cast for Animal Crackers is equally fantastic! John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Sylvester Stallone, Ian McKellen, Danny DeVito, Gilbert Gottfried, Patrick Warburton, Harvey Fierstein, and Raven-Symonè lead the way thus far.

 

This is development art of Owen and his wife Zoe, voiced by real-life husband and wife John Krasinski & Emily Blunt.
This is development art of Owen and his wife Zoe, voiced by real-life husband and wife John Krasinski & Emily Blunt.
This is a current work-in-progress shot created by the animation studio from a scene I helped storyboard.
This is a current work-in-progress shot created by the animation studio from a scene I helped storyboard.

 

Well, there isn’t much I can say about the story, or much about any other details since this is still early on in the production process. However, there is an official Animal Crackers Facebook page that you can follow where other art updates are posted, along with photos of our cast from their recording sessions.

What I CAN tell you, though, is that just this past Friday was my last day on the film. My work here is done. I had a swell time working with the very small full-time in-house crew here in Los Angeles. So small that we were a grand total of five people! The gang genuinely surprised me with a little farewell cake that was big enough to feed a crew twice our size! That just meant we had to have seconds.

 

My little farewell party with assistant editor Mayume, editor Mark Rosenbaum, director Tony Bancroft, yours truly, and production assistant Scott Kimball.
My little farewell party with assistant editor Mayume Fujimoto, editor Mark Rosenbaum, director Tony Bancroft, yours truly, and production coordinator Scott Kimball.

 

So what is next? I don’t know. Looking forward to the next animation adventure. Until then, I shall keep busy with more illustration projects brewing here in my studio!

Categories
Art: Animation

Stan Freberg 1926-2015

A little joy left the world last week. My dear friend Stan Freberg passed away one week ago on Tuesday, April 7, 2015.

 

Gary Owens, Steve Allen, and Stan Freberg at the unveiling of June Foray's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 7, 2000.
Gary Owens, Steve Allen, and Stan Freberg at the unveiling of June Foray’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 7, 2000.

 

Stan made his creative mark on the world first as a cartoon voice actor, then a puppeteer, a radio man, a comedian, a movie actor, a television actor, and an ad man pioneering the use of humor in commercials. I have written about Stan’s career before, and I highly encourage you to CLICK HERE to read more about the creative impact he had on society. Chances are that you will remember something of his work even if you didn’t realize he was the guy behind it.

The private Stan was my friend. My pal. We first met just after his first wife passed away. I was privileged to have spent many hours with Stan and his second bride, Hunter. We talked about all kinds of things. He loved to tell his stories of working with Walt Disney, spending time with the Beatles, opening for Frank Sinatra, aspects of his boyhood growing up with a Baptist pastor for a dad, and just talking about normal everyday things. He was charming, witty, and embarrassingly kind – proof of which was his common opening comment to me whenever we met, “You know, you draw Mickey Mouse better than Walt Disney, and I knew Walt!”

Last November, many people gathered at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood where famous friends fêted Stan with praise upon praise for his marvelous career while a packed audience soaked up this treasure. Speakers in person and on video included Leonard Maltin, Al Yankovic, Eric Goldberg, Micky Dolenz, Harry Shearer, Matthew Weiner, Penn Jillette, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg. In hindsight, in a strange way, Stan was able to attend his own eulogy. He sat there beaming from ear to ear at all the kind words and memories. (Photos can be seen here from that event.)

A few months back I had a special day with Stan. It was fitting that we spent some of that time together just drawing. He loved his old Beany & Cecil puppet television show, and enjoyed sketching Cecil for fans. His hands may have lost some of their dexterity, but the creative spark still twinkled in his eye. And the conversation, as always, was lively with much laughter filling the room. Stan always could dish out the funny, but he was also quick to appreciate a zinger when tossed right back to him like a comedy hot potato. Stan may have been 88, but humor kept him young.

Stan made the world laugh. What a pleasure it was to be able to make Stan laugh in return.

 

 

Categories
Chad's Editorials Miscellaneous

The Violet Varmint

Every now and then you have a dead moment (so to speak) at work waiting for your next assignment. Such a moment was upon me today, so instead of surfing the net or getting a sixth cup of coffee, I decided to start doodling. While keeping things very sketchy and rough, the doodle kept expanding in size, scope, and hideousness until it arrived at this heaping hulk of a concept monster.

Is he a brute with beastly intentions? Perhaps a misunderstood miscreant with a  heart of gold? Or maybe it is someone who just regrets not having taken better care of his teeth in his younger years.

Whoever he may be, he most definitely is a sketch who evolved in a moment of a little workday idleness.

 

purple monster
Genetics can sometimes be cruel.
Categories
Art: Photoshop Art: Preliminary Sketches Character Designs Development Art Monsters Random Doodles Sketchbook

Spring Bunny

Spring is coming. You can feel it in the air! Well, maybe not those of you on the east coast who have been hit with a dollop of snow in recent weeks. Here in Los Angeles, we have been setting heat records for this time of year with it being in the 90s. I tend to enjoy things a little cooler than that, but we make do.

So with spring around the corner, I felt like sketching a smiling little bunny rabbit. Perhaps you might enjoy looking at it from your sunny front porch, or from your snow fort – whichever the case may be.

 

rabbit art
Beware the Ides of March Hare.
Categories
Animals Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Blue Bear

Recently I started working on storyboards for a new animated film called Animal Crackers. I had some time between assignments last week, and just to keep busy, I started sketching. This bear came out of hibernation by way of my Cintiq screen. (That’s a monitor you can draw on with a stylus.)

While the film does include many animals, this is not one from the movie lest your hopes were up for a sneak peek. For that, you should visit the Animal Crackers Facebook page where you can see some of the characters as designed by the amazing Carter Goodrich!

 

Just in case you were wondering, this bear does NOT use Charmin.
Categories
Animals Art: Photoshop Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

The Oscars

Last year a great composer and one of the nicest guys, Ken Thorne, passed away. Ken had worked on many film scores such as The Beatles’ Help!, The Monkees Head, Superman II and Superman III (both starring Christopher Reeve), the Alan Arkin starring Inspector Clouseau, and Tom Selleck’s Lassiter to name a few. I had posted my appreciation for Ken upon his passing, and posted a photo of him that I had taken the last time I saw him a couple of years before at a film composer event at the Dark Delicacies store in Burbank, California.

Recently, one of Ken’s daughters contacted me and asked if they could send my photo to the Motion Picture Academy. The Academy has been gathering photos for their “In Memoriam” section of the Oscars telecast taking place this coming Sunday evening, and had asked the Thorne family for a photo for possible inclusion. I was honored that Ken’s family liked my photo enough for such a prestigious purpose, and was very happy to give my blessing.

The Oscars have many things they try to accomplish, and I was told that there is a chance that Ken could be omitted for the sake of time, but let’s hope not. After all, he won an Oscar for his score to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1967. He is one of the Academy’s own.

 

Ken Thorne
The great Ken Thorne taken in 2011.
Categories
Art: Photography Film Music

Selfie

I thought it was time that I posted another selfie. No, not a photo of myself, but rather it was time to try a new version of my toony self by way of a self-caricature. It takes a little longer than holding out a camera and snapping the image, and it is much less blurry this way, but it is fun to see how far the image can be pushed and have it still look like me. Really, it all comes down to just wanting to make a new profile picture for Facebook.

If you would like to see past samples of self indulgence, CLICK HERE!

 

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but I imagine this would inspire the Cliff’s Notes version.
Categories
Art: Drawings Art: Inking Art: Photoshop Caricature Character Designs Self Portrait

Stupid Cupid

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yes, that day has arrived once again where we shamelessly tell someone we think they are neat-o with a card featuring a silly cartoon drawing and a heart-shaped box of chocolates mostly filled with sweet stuff nobody likes until they find the one with caramel. Nothing can relay our heartfelt intentions more sincerely than that……until the showoff comes along who makes us all look bad by hiring a skywriter to declare their love in a message in a puff of pollution for all in a 5 mile radius to see.

So, to get you started on your day of wooing, here are a couple of cupids ready to rise to the occasion…

 

“Martha, they’re back. Turn on the bug zapper!”
Categories
Art: Painting Art: Watercolor Character Designs Illustrations