Karen J Lloyd's Storyboard Blog » Scripts and Storytelling

Behind The Storyboards of The Princess And The Frog – Part 2

Karen J Lloyd — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:01:05 +0000

Wee! The first official post of 2010!

(Finally.)

And what better way to kick it off than the second part of my interview with Paul Briggs? You can find the first part of my interview with the ‘The Princess and The Frog’ story artist, here.

Enjoy Part 2 and don’t forget to click on the illustrations to get a better view of Paul’s awesome work!

What’s a ‘typical day’ for you as (current) Head of Story when you’re in production?

A typical day as a Head of Story is managing a team of Story Artists to help the Director get their vision up on screen.

That doesn’t mean I completely buy into it. In fact, I feel the biggest part of my job is always being honest and open in questioning and confirming what the Director wants. Together as the story team, we work really hard in supporting or challenging the idea that is being presented on the screen.

There’s also the scheduling side of it all, but that’s no fun!

Is there a process for assigning certain story artists a particular sequence to work on? Do you go with their strengths or is it the ‘luck of the draw’ for them?

We have some pretty incredible board artists at the studio that can do a wide range of scenes but most tend to gravitate to sequences that appeal to them more. So you want to assign sequences that people will have the most fun boarding.

You know you’re going to get incredible work from them but I always like to try and push people out of their comfort zone for a sequence or two. It really challenges them and forces them to keep their skills sharp and grow as a story artist.

The best artists are the ones that you can hand any sequence to and know you’re going to get something special back.

Click on image to enlarge.

Are feature boards still done with paper and pencil and set up in a story room? Or have things gone completely digital? What are your typical working tools?

You know it all depends on the artist. Some guys here still work on paper but a lot of us work digital now. Whatever makes you comfortable but also allows you the freedom to quickly sketch your ideas down and not become precious with them.

I normally work in Photoshop on a Cintiq and use another program to pitch in. When I’m boarding I actually limit myself to 2 custom brushes, 3 to 4 levels and only 4 different gray values (no color unless absolutely necessary to make a story point.) This limited palette forces me not to get caught up in all the bells and whistles.

I concentrate more on the just getting the idea down rather than a pretty drawing. We pitch all digital on screens that our boards are projected onto.

What is your process for working?

Whether I’m issued script pages or not I always start by breaking the sequence down. I’ll ask myself – “What’s the point of the sequence ? Why is it in the movie? Where is the character at in this point of the journey?”

Once I’ve established all of that then I’ll thumbnail – I usually do 2 – 3 thumbnail passes. I try and get all of my thinking out in these rough thumbnail stages. My first pass is usually really, really rough like jotting notes and scribbles down on a legal pad. Then I’ll do a second pass of thumbnails on a long story pad.

I’m not so much concerned with staging and cinematics – I’m more focused on character at this point. I do a third pass of thumbnails and in this pass I refine a lot of things. Finally, I pin my third pass up on a story panel and redraw it all digitally. That sounds like a lot of work but it’s really not. I work really rough and I never get precious with my early drawings.

After that, I pitch to the directors and the story crew and get notes!

Click on image to enlarge.

How was it to go back to traditional animation for this film? Is there really much difference for the story team as opposed to working on a 3D film? If so, in what way?

The biggest difference in boarding for traditional versus CG animation is the camera moves. You’re limited in how much you can do with the camera because it’s a painted set and not virtual environment. However, that can be a blessing more than a curse – I think a lot of times camera moves are obnoxious and unmotivated in a lot of CG films.

Any thoughts on the subject of 2D vs 3D? (Not that it’s a war or anything…)

As long as it’s an emotional and entertaining story I’ll watch/work on it whether it’s hand drawn, CG, stop motion or paper cut outs!

Do you think hand-drawn animation is back for good? Are there more hand-drawn films in the works at Disney now?

I sure hope so. I love the art form so much. It was so exciting when The Princess and The Frog was starting up and hearing that ‘paper being flipped’ sound again. There’s nothing like taking a stack of animation paper and rolling a scene.

I remember the first scene I saw was of Dr. Facilier by Bruce Smith and I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. It was like seeing an old good friend return again.

I believe we have more hand-drawn films in the works… but I’m not sure I can say what!

Click on image to enlarge.

What’s your best piece of advice for people who dream of working as Story Artists in feature animation? How important is education? Experience? What should they have in place before applying? Who has the best shot? (I gotta ask…the people want to know.)

This is a great question!

It’s difficult to be a Story Artist because you have to be skilled at two things.

Being a storyteller and an artist! Hence the name.

The artist part of it is difficult enough and people struggle with just this for a long time. It doesn’t matter where you get your education, but your drawings should convey entertainment, staging/composition, cinematics, mood, acting, gesture, anatomy, perspective, strong silhouettes, energy and tone.

That’s a lot and even once you’ve got it down, you never stop practicing and improving upon these things.

Never stop learning.

When you’re confident with your drawings you can focus on visually telling the story. This is the most difficult thing to learn and practice because you’re basically writing with drawings.

It’s about communicating an idea through your drawings. The people that have the best shot at working in Feature Animation as a Story Artist are able to submit a portfolio of entertaining fresh ideas that read clearly in drawings.

Here’s my biggest teaching advice: It’s okay to eavesdrop! The greatest education I always get is in listening to people talk about their lives. Engage them and ask questions. Old people are always the best to listen to!

People make some very important decisions in their lives – some good, some bad, but it defines character and that choice in my opinion is what makes a great story.

Click on image to enlarge.

What’s your all-time favorite animated Disney film as a *viewer* and why? What was your favorite one to work on and why? (Besides ‘The Princess and The Frog’, of course!)

My favorite animated film is Pinocchio. It’s a story that’s perfect for animation and it’s a beautiful film. There are so many great moments and messages in the film. Dumbo is a close second with The Incredibles coming in third.

I’ve worked on some amazing films but… I think my favorite is still to come!

~Thanks so much Paul!~

Visit Paul Briggs’ Blog at:
www.pbcbstudios.blogspot.com

For more information on submitting a portfolio to Disney Animation please visit: www.disneyanimation.com

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch more cool interviews in the future!

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Behind The Storyboards of The Princess And The Frog

Karen J Lloyd — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:26:32 +0000

Well, well, well. Look at me.

I’m writing a post! No lazy-ass video this time! Because I have one awesome interview for you!

I bring you Paul Briggs, Story Artist on Walt Disney’s ‘The Princess and The Frog’.

(UPDATE & CLARIFICATION: Oops, my bad! Paul was not, in fact, the Head of Story on ‘The Princess and The Frog’. He was a Story Artist. But he *is* Head of Story on a current, untitled project at Disney at this time. Sorry everybody! I’ve made corrections to this post since publishing it.)

How cool is THAT?

I feel all special and stuff.

And there are original thumbnail and storyboard drawings from him! Feel free to drool on your screen.

But before we get to it, I want to wish all of you a very HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON! Whatever that holiday may be for you.

If it’s nothing…well have a great weekend or something.

This interview is a juicy one, so I’ll be splitting it up into two parts. You get this one now to read at your leisure till 2009 is over. Then you’ll get the rest sometime in January 2010. (2010? My word, where does the time go?)

And the way I’ve been posting in my ‘Kid vs Kat’ haze, this could be the last thing your hear from me till June or something.

I kid, I kid! (Maybe.)

So without further ado, I bring you Paul Briggs, current Head of Story at Disney and proud new Daddy.

Enjoy!

What is your background, education and how did you get started in the animation business?

In 1984 I was 10 years old and I was in a mall at a Walden’s Bookstore and came across ‘The Illusion of Life’ by Frank and Ollie. Even though there was no way we could afford it, my Mom bought it for me and I spent the rest of the day slamming into people, benches and planters because I couldn’t take my face out of that massive book.

That was the day I fell in love with wanting to do animation.

I went to college at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri but I wasn’t focused on animation at the time (even though I found out later that Walt himself as well as the great Marc Davis both went to KCAI!) I was focused on doing sculpture, ceramics, painting, and really solid drawing.

I was busy experimenting, having fun, and making a million mistakes and learning from them. A lot of my classmates were talented draftsmen so I was constantly focused on learning and trying to better myself as an artist. We had some amazing drawing classes –including one where we went to a medical university and drew from cadavers for a week!

One of my instructors pressured me to submit a portfolio to the Disney Internship but I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. He pestered me enough that at the last minute I threw a drawing portfolio together in a week and mailed it off. To my surprise and disbelief they called me a couple of weeks later to tell me I was accepted! I was 20 and packed everything in my Jeep and moved to Orlando to work at the Florida Animation Studio.

I trained under Pres Romanillos (supervising animator Shan Yu for Mulan) and David Tidgwell (Head of Effects.) At the end of the program they were hiring in special effects to work on Mulan and I was brought on as an inbetweener!

How did you end up as a story artist? Was that your original plan?

It was great being in special effects animation but I always wanted to do story. I always loved the development of characters and journeys to another world. In effects I saw how a sequence traveled from beginning to end through the animation pipeline and I was constantly examining why those sequences were in the film.

There were some sequences that I was really frustrated with and thought – “This isn’t working at all! I could do better than this .” So I decided “that’s it, either get into story or shut up!” So I really started to focus my learning. I started analyzing film, reading books, and showing my story tests to people I respected and admired.

It’s important to get advice from people who are constructive but aren’t afraid to be honest with you. Dean Deblois is an amazing story artist and a good friend and he gave me great honest feedback.

Story was a LOT more difficult than I expected. I failed over and over and over again but I never gave up and eventually with the right guidance things began to click. In 2001, I was accepted into a story training program and have been boarding ever since! Everyday is a challenge and it constantly keeps all my creative skills in check and I love it.

Can you give us a quick synopsis of ‘The Princess and The Frog’ without giving much away?

The Princess and The Frog is a really tender love story between two people that aren’t looking to fall in love with one another but the more they’re together they discover they were meant for each another.

How does a new film idea get to the production stage at Disney? Are ideas usually pitched from the directors? Do other artists ever get to pitch ideas?

The way films are developed at Disney now is filmmakers pitch 3 ideas to John Lasseter and he guides projects into development. He has filmmakers pitch 3 ideas because he believes the problem with creative people is that they often focus their whole attention on one idea.

So right at the beginning of a project, you unnecessarily limit your options. John is really sharp and he is amazing at finding the world in which a movie is made. I think if you have three really strong ideas John will listen to them whether you’ve directed before or not. He loves being entertained by great ideas.

Click on image to enlarge.

When an idea is decided upon, do they move right to some preliminary story sketches and storyboarding? Or will a writer get hired first to write (or in this case, the director start writing) the script? What’s the usual process?

Once a project is moved into Development, the Director is surrounded with all the tools necessary to flesh out the world. He’s normally working in broad visual beats supported by Story Artists and Visual Development Artists drawing imagery and ideas and doing tons of research.

Lasseter is constantly checking in on the process and when he feels it’s at a stage that’s ready, a writer is brought in and starts to write the script. After John is satisfied with the script, we board! We normally screen 3 passes of the film before it ever goes into production.

It’s exhausting! But we do this because it’s never going to be right the first time – but we tear it down and figure out what does work and rebuild. There’s something about seeing the visual images that reveals all of the story problems but also starts to reveal the true entertainment of the film. Every time we rebuild it, we rebuild stronger and better.

The story is the base on which everything will be supported on. If it’s not right, everything will crumble around it in down the line.

Click on image to enlarge.

What was the biggest difference between working with Ron Clements and John Musker compared to directors you’ve worked with in the past? Do they do anything in a unique fashion?

Working with John Musker and Ron Clements is an amazing experience.

First of all, these guys love animation. It’s in their blood and it’s inspiring to sit in the story room and hear them talk about animated films and their personal experiences working in the animation industry.

The next biggest reward to working with them is they have a very strong vision and the experience to carry it out. They’re strong leaders that really know how to craft a film. I learned an incredible amount by watching how they would shape a sequence for The Princess and The Frog through story, editorial and into animation.

The one thing about John Musker is you have to be careful what you’re doing. He’s known for his caricatures and you never want to give him material to draw from! There have been times I’ve looked up to see his keen gaze on me and I know something is being put to paper that I’ll regret later.

~End of Part 1~

Thanks Paul! I’ll have the second part of this interview with many more drawings from Paul in January.

Stay tuned and Happy Holidays!

Visit Paul Briggs’ Blog at:
www.pbcbstudios.blogspot.com

For more information on submitting a portfolio to Disney Animation please visit: www.disneyanimation.com

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch the second part of this great interview!

Some related posts other readers have enjoyed:

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My Own Personal Toy Story

Karen J Lloyd — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:17:32 +0000

As a child, I was not a ‘Barbie girl’.

Clothes and high heels? Eeesh.

And baby dolls?

Ack. Gag. What the hell was I supposed to do with one of those? Blech.

Interestingly enough, I currently don’t own a dress and don’t have kids. Hmmm.

I mainly played with stuffed animals, plastic creatures (I loved rubber snakes and dinosaurs) and male action figures (anyone remember ‘Big Jim’ and ‘Big Josh’?).

Yeah. I was a real little princess, I was.

Now, any self-respecting animation artist knows that if you don’t have some kind of toy collection, you are not that serious about animation.

It’s some kind of unwritten law or something.

So I thought it might be fun to share a few of mine. Some are actually from my childhood. But a lot of my collection accumulated while in animation school and beyond. Most of which you can see above.

Let’s take a look shall we? (My apologies for the crappy photos.)

Fonzie.

This one is from my childhood. I loved Happy Days and had a crush on Henry Winkler. I had the Fonzie Happy Days album for goodness sakes (and really wish I still did).

This toy is friggin’ pristine (except for the dust). It looks like it came right out of the box. I didn’t play with it so much as just admired it. The thumbs are pose-able and there’s a lever in the back to make his hands go up and down.

I challenge you to do this and not say, “Ayyyyyyyyy!”

I love him. And he lives on the top of my toy shelf.

Because he’s cool.

This Dog and Cat

Don’t ask me what they’re from. I only know there was a family they belonged to and I didn’t give a damn about getting them. I just wanted the dog and cat.

They had this cute double decker house they lived in (and my hamster used to sleep in). And little food dishes and everything. I played with them for hours.

They’re just the kind of thing that brings back fuzzy memories and I still love them.

C3P0 and R2D2

These are the real deal, my friends! From my child hood. From 1977 (yes, I’ve already told you I’m old).

The first edition of Star Wars toys.

They’re also in pretty damn good shape. What can I say? I was anal and organized as a kid too.

My only regret is that these are the only Star Wars toys I ever bought. I loved the movies, but I wasn’t all geeked-out over them (like some friends I know).

Snoopy!

I have two of these guys. There was a whole collection of these Peanuts figures, but again, I only wanted the ‘animal’. He came with a little Woodstock too.

You could buy lots of different outfits for him (hence the shoes). My Dad made me this great wooden dog house with a platform on top so he could sleep up there like in the comic strip.

Many hours of childhood fun is living inside my beloved Snoopy dogs.

Simba Figure

Okay, he’s not really a toy. Or maybe he is.

Just a really expensive one!

I love, love, love this thing.

He sits proudly on top of a bookshelf that has pictures and of my deceased kitties. And their urns.

Yes. Their urns.

But we won’t talk about that.

And that is an X-files figure in the background, but I was too lazy to take it down from the bookshelf to take a picture.

I have a Scully and a Mulder still in their packages.

Because I am an X-Files geek.

Crabby Cartman

Even though he was bought by an ex-boyfriend, I still love this guy.

But the thing is, I always forget he’s crabby.

Because he lives on the television with a straw hat.

See? Not so crabby.

But at night, it sometimes feels like someone is watching me in the shadows.

My television just would look totally weird without my stuffed Cartman staring back at me.

What about you?

What’s your toy story?

Do you still have any from your childhood? Any really cools ones you love now?

Gosh, I really hope so.

_._._._._._._

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Facing Off With ‘Bolt’

Karen J Lloyd — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:27:28 +0000

Before I begin, is it just me or…?

If you’ve seen ‘Bolt’ and watch ‘Lost’, you might find that uncanny like I do.

Anyhoo.

Back to analyzing some Bolt sequences. You can find the first Bolt post here.

I’m just going to pick apart one sequence this week.

Like with the first post, I’m sticking to the opening of the movie when it’s really the ‘Bolt’ TV show we’re watching.

Because it’s full of action movie cliches and fun to watch.

Which bring us to:

The Face Off

Or ’stand off’. Or ‘playing chicken’.

Either one, it’s when two parties are at either end of what usually turns out to be an alley.

Because there is no escape from an alley, hence the heightened drama.

So it starts.

The dark, black car pulls into the alley blocking off the only exit Penny and Bolt have. (They are at the other end.)

The camera is low, making the car more menacing.

Cut inside. The creepy bad guy gives our driver-thug his orders. “Just the girl.”

Because creepy bad guys never do their own dirty work. They call ‘Thugs-R-Us’ or something.

The peel-out. You have to get your camera very low for a good peel-out.

Note the horizon line. Low. This allows for the car’s tire to screech right past us. A higher camera angle wouldn’t cut it.

On our heroes. Penny, concerned.

Pan from her down to Bolt, ready for action.

Now for a good face off, you have to show each party back and forth and back and forth. And as the action and suspense builds, you will probably cut faster and faster.

So we go wide on the creepy black car. Betcha he’s going to drive right at us.

Wee! It drives right over us. This gets us really involved with the action. Again, this kind of shot will only work with low camera angles.

Picture an actual cameraman. He’d have to be lying on his stomach to get this shot without getting hit by the car.

Low, baby.

So if the car is going to charge, our hero is going to charge.

The camera follows Bolt as he runs down the long alley towards the charging car.

Oooo, ‘over the wheel’ shot. Much like an ‘over the shoulder’ shot, but with…you know…a wheel.

Again, camera is low, low, low.

Ah. Now to switch it up and get away from those necessary low angles, we go high. Very high.

A real ‘where are we?’ shot to get the audience re-oriented to the surroundings. Bolt and the car race towards each other.

Back on ground level, now with Bolt racing right to camera.

And I mean, right to camera.

Is he going to head-butt that car? Is he??

I believe he is.

Pow! To give more effect to these two shots, it’s actually a jump cut. And it works here.

Bolt stops cold as the car lifts straight up. We go into slow-motion mode now, like any self respecting action flick would.

Into the full shot to see Bolt watching the car fly over him.

It’s good to bring the character closer and back into the mix. It keeps us connected to them. And we stay in the slo-mo.

Don’t forget about Penny. There’s a big, black car flying in slow motion right over her ‘à la Matrix’ style.

Could be cause for concern.

This is a very cool shot. Penny is reflected in the car as it soars over her in very slow motion.

Nice touch.

The car continues away from her. We see it now turned over, preparing us for…

Smash! The landing of the car on it’s roof, back in full speed.

This face off is over.

Let us all scratch our ears and rejoice.

Remember the cup tipping over at the end of the my last post? Yeah, Bolt calmly scratching his ear unperturbed, is the same deal.

It gives us the feeling all is well again and this little action sequence is over.

But fear not, because there is more to come!

Tune in next time for more Bolt action goodness.

_._._._._._._

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Getting Some Action with ‘Bolt’

Karen J Lloyd — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:52:33 +0000

Wee! Back to writing about cartoons.

This is not a movie review.

But in case you were wondering: I liked Bolt. No complaints really.

Well, except that I was forced to wear glasses on top of my glasses so I could watch it in craptastic ‘Real 3D’.

The 3D thing was totally useless for this movie. Useless, I say! There was no reason for it but to gauge me an extra $3 for a ticket.

And the fact Disney gave away all the funny hamster bits in the trailers leading up to the movie release. (Yeah, thanks guys.)

But I digress.

I thought it would be a good movie to learn some lessons in action sequences.

Ahh, the action sequence.

Some board artists love ‘em. Some hate ‘em.

In a script they sit as cute little paragraphs. Seemingly harmless.

Then you start to thumbnail them out. And that cute little three-line paragraph suddenly morphs into a beast of pages upon pages of storyboarding hell.

I am not all that fond of them. I’m more of an ‘acting and dialogue’ kind of gal.

But they can be fun sometimes.

The opening sequences of Bolt have some really great ones. Because they are kind of spoofing action movies, there is a lot of cliched fun going on.

So let’s take a look at a few.

The Quick-Cut Mini Montage

I actually really like doing these. They are dynamic, fast and cut to the chase.

And are awesome ‘cheats’ to tell a lot of information without worrying too much about hook-ups.

Penny and Bolt are about to be chased by the bad guys. So Penny needs to get out her super-scooter thing.

How exciting would it be to storyboard this on a wide shot?

Bor-ing.

So with a series of quick little cuts from different angles, we get all the information we need.

Up shot on Penny lifting the scooter into shot.

Zing! The wheel comes to camera.

Cut to the front wheel on the ground. The camera is low.

Whoosh! The back wheel zips back to us as the camera pulls back with it fast.

The extreme close-up of Penny putting on her helmet.

Where was the helmet? In her backpack? Do we care? Do we really want to see her take it out and all that?

NO! We get the information without worrying about silly details like that. We just need to get the thing on her head.

They’re in a hurry, dammit!

Close-up of her thumb on the handle bar. She presses a button.

Very fast truck-out to reveal both of her hands on the handle bars, revving the scooter.

And it’s done.

The shot goes wide and off they scoot. Like I said, they are nice little cheats and a fast, interesting way to get that scooter scooting.

Plus it tells the audience the scooter has a few extra gizmos on it. Good information that comes into play later.

The Multi-Angle Slow Motion Series

Here’s some action flick goodness for you.

Bolt is about to get shot at from another helicopter that is off screen.

Slow that camera down so we see our hero missing those helicopter blades and soaring over it.

Change the camera angle and shot size so we see it continue. (Soarrrrrrrrrr)

One more time! From the top.

But notice they are cutting with continuity here. Where he ends up at the end of one shot, he continues along on the next one.

Then we get to the back of the helicopter and Bolt is off screen. It starts in slow motion, then speeds up to real time.

Just in time for his landing. And off he runs.

You can breathe now.

But it’s not over!

No, now we get the joys of:

The Multi-Angle Repeat-Action Series

How many times have you seen this one? Pure cliched fun here.

The up shot on the helicopter Bolt just jumped over.

Boom! The other helicopter blasts that sucker.

Let’s see it again. Higher and wider.

Boom! Oh yeah, baby. More! More!

Wee! One more from the side.

Boom! This one fills the screen with all it’s fiery awesomeness.

And now, just for good measure after all that pumping adrenaline, we need a little comic relief.

Extreme wide shot on the city with the explosion way off in the distance. And an empty soda cup in the foreground.

And it ever so gently blows over. Tap!

Nice touch. It’s smart to put that little pause in there.

It makes the audience smile.

It gives them a little break from all the fast action and gets them ready for more.

All that was missing was Penny and Bolt walking in slow motion away from a huge fiery blast in the background.

Or diving to camera with a huge fiery blast in the background.

None of this makes you roll your eyes because they are doing it on purpose.

This is all for the Bolt TV show in the movie. It’s supposed to be over the top and full of those action movie cliches.

Like I said, fun stuff.

I’ll probably continue with this little series. There are some great uses of up shots and down shots in the movie. Something I’ve been wanting to touch on for a while.

So tune in next week for the exciting continuation!!!

_._._._._._._

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My Feature Favorites: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Karen J Lloyd — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:28:59 +0000

First off, a technical note: If the site is looking a little wonky, clear your cache and reload it. Hopefully that does it. I’ve been making a few tweaks.

Yes. The South Park movie is one of my favorite animated feature films.

Why?

Well, first off, it’s funny as all hell. Second, I’ve been a fan of the show since it first came on the air (like I said before…it brings out the 20 year old frat boy in me). And third, it proves the point I made in the Toy Story post.

That point being, the technology doesn’t matter. You can tell a good story with stick men.

Or in this case, with paper cut-out, potty-mouthed little kids.

And yes, I’m fully aware of the irony that it’s not made with paper cut-outs but with a super-powerful computer program called Maya. It’s still meant to look like paper cut-outs, so that’s really the point. It’s still simplistic in style and execution.

In other words: Crappy.

And I love it.

My personal opinion is the best seasons of South Park are 4 to 8. The movie came out after Season 3, so I think this is where it really took off. They found their voice. The characters were solid. It was ready to evolve. And it did.

This movie isn’t for everyone. If you already love South Park and haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for? If you only kind of like South Park, watch it to see them at their best. If you hate South Park, you’ll either become a convert or hate it more.

I’m not here to convert you. But I will explain why it’s on my top five list of animated features.

And I’ll do my best to talk about a profanity-heavy movie without using any. Maybe.

So here’s why I love South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

The title. When I saw South Park Live in Montreal, the guys said the movie was going to be called ‘South Park: All Hell Breaks Loose’. But the MPAA (the dudes who rate the movies) didn’t want the word ‘hell’ in the title.

So they came up with this title and it was approved. Only much later on, did they realize, “Heyyyy…that’s about wee-wees isn’t it?” (I’d use the real word, but don’t need the spam.) Too awesome.

It’s a musical. Trey Parker loves his musical numbers. There’s something so charming and hilarious about a movie like this going the Disney route. The songs are catchy and funny and they work.

“The animation’s all crappy.” – Cartman. In regards to Terrance and Phillip. The boys then proceed to be animated all crappy themselves. The self-awareness isn’t annoying, it’s funny.

The Terrance and Phillip movie. This is what the whole story revolves around. The potty-mouths of these characters is what sets the story in motion. Now the big question: cartoon characters or people? Cartman just said “the animation’s all crappy”, yet later on in the film they are referred to as ‘actors’.

I believe it was during this movie the confusion about these flapping-headed Canadians was born. Hooray for Canadians! We’re just happy to be part of the fun.

“I hate you Kenny” – Cartman. Pretty much for no reason at all. I still cracks me up.

When Carman’s mother explains a certain ‘activity’. I won’t write it. It involves licking. And it’s nasty. Anytime we see Cartman’s mom for what she really is, it’s gold. It’s her ‘proper-ness’ that makes it so funny.

All the kids wearing profanity on their shirts. I won’t write it, but I can show it!

The ‘It’s Easy MMMKay’ song. Anything with Mr. Mackey is always fun, m’kay? The song tries to give the kids alternative phrases to the naughty words they’ve been exposed to. Just say, “you’re a buns-hole”.

When Kenny bursts into flames. Because he lights his fart on fire. I usually hate fart jokes. But I like this one. Don’t try this at home, kids.

The gore of the operating room scene. Not because it’s a gory operating room scene, but because of the point Matt and Trey were making. Nothing from these sequences were cut by the MPAA. All they mostly went after (in real life) was the profanity. Gore is fine. Naughty words aren’t.

In South Park, everyone goes to Hell. Except Mormons. We learn that in Season 4.

The whole ‘Blame Canada’ thing. I’m Canadian. And no, I’m not offended. Because this is the point that so many people miss: they’re not making fun of Canadians, they’re making fun of (some) Americans.

You know why it doesn’t bother me? Because the whole concept of starting a war with Canada over profanity is so out-of this-world-ridiculous. I mean, come on! The song is making fun of over-reactive parents that like to blame everything and everyone else for their kids’ actions.

So we Canadians aren’t offended by the ‘Blame Canada’ song because we get the joke. We’re funny like that.

Actual footage of the Canadian Air Force. (See? We make fun of ourselves for goodness sakes).

The ‘Kyle’s Mom’s A Bitch’ song. Best. Song. Ever. Never get tired of it. Everybody sing along!

Eric Idle does a voice! How cool is that? Plus, it’s the introduction to Cartman’s V-chip. Which really comes into play for the climax of the story.

When the General shoots Bill Gates. Yes, it’s immature of me to find this funny. But it is. And it was yet another violent scene that was left untouched by the MPAA. It also got a huge cheer when I saw it in the theatre.

The relationship between Satan and Saddam Hussein. I mean Satan is like, Satan, and all he wants is a functional relationship with Saddam. The whole thing works really well.

It’s also completely insane that they got away with showing ‘that certain part of the male anatomy’ in this scene. Just because they said “it wasn’t real”, it was OK.

The un-cut violent battle scenes. Yet more footage of bloody violence that passed the censors without a blink of the eye. The whole movie is a statement inside a statement.

Cartman saving the day with his filthy mouth. The concept just wraps up the story so beautifully. The whole profanity thing comes full circle.

Seeing Kenny’s face for the first time ever. How ridiculous is this? We’re excited to see his usually covered, hooded face. And all the kids have the same face! We’re basically thrilled to see a new overlay of hair. But we’re excited nonetheless.

Kenny going to Heaven. After three seasons of Kenny dying a horrible, violent death each and every episode, he gets a break (even though he’s still dead).

In all the craziness, profanity, violence and offensiveness, the movie wraps up with nice feel-good moment. It’s perfect.

So this movie may not be on the same level as my other feature favorites artistic-wise (or maturity-wise). But so what? It has what many other animated features lack.

A solid story.
Strong, memorable characters.
A message.
And very, very funny.

What more can you ask for?

So that wraps up my feature favorite series. It was lots of fun. I’ll do more of these in the future and will even throw in some not-so-good ones occasionally. We can learn from those too.

Hey, and I made it through the whole post without much profanity.

F*ck, yeah!

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to see if I ever actually use the F-word. It could happen.

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My Feature Favorites: Finding Nemo

Karen J Lloyd — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:22:54 +0000

Simplicity of story.

If anyone ever questions why I love Pixar’s Finding Nemo so damn much, this is my answer.

The basic story is so simple. And they do so much with it.

When planning their short films, I used to tell students there are two ways to tell a story. You can ‘enjoy the journey’ or you can ‘lead up to a great finale’.

Finding Nemo is a terrific example of enjoying the journey. Do we really think it won’t be a happy ending? Of course not. In a story like this we can pretty much assume everything will turn out just fine.

That’s not the point

It’s what happens along the way that makes it so great.

So if you are planning your own short (or long) story, remember that. If you don’t have a super satisfying ending that will knock the socks off your audience, you can always make the journey one heck of a great ride.

I’m over-simplifying things a bit, but I hope you get what I mean.

Same deal as my other feature favorites. No story summary or anything, I’m just digging in to my favorite bits of Finding Nemo.

Let’s Roll.

It’s gorgeous. Look at the image up top. The whole underwater world is so beautiful and believable. Makes you want to take up scuba diving (if I didn’t have such a nasty fear of suffocation).

Starting the film with a mass murder. Basically. Marlin’s wife and all but one of his little kid-eggs are eaten by a nasty barracuda within the first 5 minutes of the film. Horrible. And risky. But it worked…you now have our attention Finding Nemo.

Nice use of transitions. There are different kinds of transitions to get you from one scene to another. One of these is the cross-dissolve. One cool way of using a cross-dissolve is to dissolve between similar shot compositions.

We are on the close shot of Marlin holding the little cracked egg, which is the end of a very powerful sequence. We need a little time to absorb what has happened before continuing the story. It dissolves to the moon as seen from underwater, the circles are in the same position in the frame. Then it has the opening credits and touching music.

When it transitions yet again (to the sun) and a young Nemo waking up his father for school, we’re ready to be cheered up. Once you know about these techniques, you start to see them everywhere. Keep an eye out.

The introduction of ‘the mask’. The mask turns into a very important part of the story and we really need to see it. Not to mention we feel how scary this must look to little Nemo. Show the audience what it needs to see. Always.

When Marlin meets Dory. The whole sequence is a fun introduction to Dory and her short term memory loss. The line “Hmm…where are they?” still cracks me up. Great use of silence and pauses in this scene.

Our first look at Bruce the shark. Too awesome. Fantastic character design and detail on him.

When Dory says “Es-cap-eh”. (I’d type a accent but I don’t know how). This is our first glimpse that she can read. Very important to the story. Of course there’s no logical explanation of how she learned to read, but why get into all that crap? Spoils the fun.

Longest.

Truck-out.

Ever.

Do not attempt this in 2D.

Creepiest. Alien-like-fish. Ever. To think things like this exist is real life, is too wild.

This double reflection shot. So real (and I assume a challenge to duplicate). Plus the aquarium scenes aren’t getting much attention. (Sorry about that Gill and company).

When Dory ’speaks whale’. I saw this movie three or four times in the theatre and laughed out loud every single time at this sequence.

I think this single-handedly revived Ellen DeGeneres’ career. Not to mention the fantastic character animation and acting. Bravo.

The ‘trapped inside the whale’ sequence. For two great life lessons it teaches. When Marlin says he promised he wouldn’t let anything happen to Nemo. Dory (in her infinite wisdom) says that was a funny thing to promise because, “You can’t never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo.” Love that.

Then when they are hanging from the whale’s tongue and Dory says they have to let go. Marlin says, “How do you know something bad isn’t going to happen?”

Dory pauses and says, “I don’t!” This is where Marlin learns to ‘let go’ by letting go. Big moment in the story. And for us. What are you not doing because you’re afraid of what might happen?

Darla’s entrance. So perfect with the lighting and ‘Psycho’ music.

The seagull chase. Fun action sequence here.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Darla’s maniacal laugh. Can’t quite capture it in a still shot, but oh-so-funny.

The dentist patient reaction shot. All the Darla screaming and chaos is going on in the office. Then this shot of them all leaning in, is great. How do you add comedy/action to a sequence that may not be written in the script? This is how.

When Dory says, “When I look at you…I’m home.” Makes me choke up every time. Great animation and voice acting. One of my favorite moments in the whole film.

NEMO!!! When Dory finally realizes she’s with Nemo and it goes into that fast, flashback clip sequence. It really drives it home (visually) that she remembers everything again.

When Dory kicks ass. And she holds the uncooperative crab out of the water to the hungry seagulls. Great scene and a turning point for Dory. No more Ms. Nice Fish!

The ‘keep swimming’ sequence. For the sole fact that in the commentary they said it was based on some old fisherman story this actually happened. I love that (and hope it’s true)!

The final shot. Movie is over. A few credits. Then the sequence of the aquarium fish finally escaping. It ends here with them all in bags and one of them says, “Now what?” Perfect. End credits.

Simplicity of story and being taken on a wonderful journey.

That is why I love Finding Nemo.

Thanks again, Pixar.

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch my take on South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Yes, you read that right.

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My Feature Favorites: Toy Story

Karen J Lloyd — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:27:49 +0000

“To infinity and beyond!”

Sound familiar?

Toy Story is the third on my list of my favorite animated feature films. You can see the whole list in that link. If you’ve never seen Toy Story I’d really have to ask where the heck you’ve been. See it already!

What can I say about the first 3D full-length feature film ever made?

That it’s the Snow White of a new generation? Yes, I guess it is.

That it put Pixar on the map? Yes, I suppose it did.

That it was such a success because of all that fancy technology? Uh, no. Sorry.

Some will argue with me, but Toy Story was not a success because of the technology. It was a success because of the storytelling and characters.

Would it have worked in 2D? Yes, I believe it would have. A good story is a good story, no matter the medium. As I’ve said before, you can tell a good story with stick men as far as I’m concerned.

As I go through all my favorite bits from Toy Story, please note that I never mention rigging, lighting or texture mapping. Don’t get me wrong, it looks fabulous (even if the humans are a bit wonky ). It was freakin’ eye candy all the way when I saw this the first time.

Kids don’t care about eye candy (at least not after the first 10 minutes). Trust me. If the story sucks, a kid will let you know by their lack of interest…technology or not

But 3D worked for telling a story about toys. Period. These days, it’s just gotten a little out of hand. It’s everywhere! Gaa! Use it when it suits the story please.

That’s my two cents. Lecture over.

Let’s roll! Here’s my favorite bits from Toy Story.

The toys. It was a trip back to my childhood. I know the people making this film were from my generation because of the toy selections. I mean Weebles! Stretch Armstrong! Sweet.

More great camera movement. Remember I talked about the great use of camera movement in my Iron Giant post? Here is another fantastic example of a reveal. We’ve been teased about what Andy’s gift was and we finally get to see it.

Woody looks up to bed and the camera pulls back to reveal legs.

Then the camera starts to pan up the body. We get a nice close view of Buzz in all his toy coolness.

To end on his little smirk.

The use of pulling out then panning up lets us really soak in the moment and enjoy our first look at Andy’s new toy.

The little details. OK, this is where I give the 3D stuff real props. The eye for detail in the room. Like the little scuff marks and the great P.O.V. shots that would be a nightmare in 2D. And the reflection here in this P.O.V. shot of Buzz taking his first look around Andy’s room. Nice.

When Buzz ‘fell with style’. This was just a fun piece of business that had huge meaning later in the film. In this scene Buzz had no doubt he could fly and he succeeded. Sorta. Remember that.

This frame in the ‘Strange Things’ song montage. It’s not even the shot that makes me laugh. It’s the last frame of the shot. That pose just makes me giggle.

The acting. Study and learn people. The timing, the posing, the little subtle stuff. So much greatness in this movie. Look at this scene of Woody getting the idea to get rid of Buzz (that backfires).

No words needed till he blurts out “Buzz!” at the end. This is what I mean when I talk about knowing what your character is thinking, and to act that out.

The whole scene under the truck. When they are first lost and at the gas station. Woody blurts out the now famous, “YOU. ARE. A. TOYYYYYYY!” But I love this bit where Buzz gives him the Vulcan sign and calls Woody a “strange, sad little man.” Great line with a nice visual joke.

Like I said in the Iron Giant post…sometimes words *are* funny.

The aliens in the machine. I mean come ON! “The claaaawwwww!”, “I have been chosen!” That sequence rocked the casbah. So. Damn. Funny.

Our first look at the mutant toys. Admit it. You were a bit freaked when you saw this for the first time, right?

This moment. When this little mutant guy turns off Woody’s flashlight. The timing rocked. Study it.

When Buzz sees his commercial. Huge moment for Buzz and for us. The story takes a big turn here as he comes to grips that he is just a toy.

When he tries to fly out Sid’s window. An even more powerful moment. Remember when he believed he could fly? He succeeded. Now when his confidence is shaken, he fails. Nice little life lesson here I think.

“I am Mrs. Nesbitt.” Purely for my own amusement. I love this bit.

The terrorizing of Sid. Was there no better sequence of a ‘bad guy’ getting what’s due? The audience gets a huge sense of satisfaction watching this. And they didn’t have to…you know…kill him off or anything.

“So play nice.” – Woody.

The whole chase. This end sequence is so fantastic for so many reasons. It has a bit of everything.

A whole bunch of fast-action craziness is going on. Then they cut to the baby in the car listening to Hakuna Matata. The baby sees what’s really going on the mirror. A great, funny moment of calm and quiet before jumping back to the action. Perfect.

This shot of silence after they let go of Slinky. It shows their defeat with it’s ‘wideness’ and their ’smallness’. I just love it. Don’t be afraid of wide shots.

When the match burns out. The first time I saw this I let out an “Ohhh!”. We knew Woody had the match and assumed that’s what would save the day.

Too easy. Keep putting your characters in trouble and give us a great solution to the problem. Burn it out. Now what? Great storytelling.

“Now I have guilt!” – Rex.

When Potato Head gets smashed by the little car. Great timing. Great reaction face.

“To infinity and beyond!” A scene so good you need to see it twice. Such a great moment for the audience, especially when Buzz says he’s ‘falling with style’. He’s accepted who he is yet knows he can still ‘fly’.

We all need a little Buzz in our lives. Thanks Pixar.

Get out there and fall with style people. : )

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My Feature Favorites: The Iron Giant

Karen J Lloyd — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:05:50 +0000

Oh Iron Giant, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

If you’ve never seen The Iron Giant, go now and rent it.

Then buy it.

And love it forevermore.

This is the second film I’m going to gush over from my list of favorite animated films. You can see the whole list here.

Again, I’m not giving a summary of the story. And it’s a given that I love it for the story and the strong characters and stuff. That’s usually why I love the films I love.

Spoiler Alert: I might be giving away a few of the good bits here, so if you haven’t seen it, you’ve been warned.

Here are some of my favorite moments (and other thoughts) of The Iron Giant. With maybe a few lessons thrown in. It was really hard to pick just a few. There so were many more I could have chosen.

Here’s why I love The Iron Giant.

Brad Bird directed it. You know the Simpsons? The Incredibles? Ratatouille? Yeah. That guy. If there’s anyone I’d like to share a beer with and talk about storytelling, this would be the guy.

Nothing about the story bugs me. Really. Nothing. It’s damn near perfect. There’s virtually nothing I’d tweak or change. Wow.

Great ‘reveal’ of the Giant to Hogarth. Hogarth has gone out to the woods to investigate. He’s looking around in the night.

Then the Giant’s head swivels around in the background to reveal his glowing eyes. Our eyes go right to it. Simple, powerful (and a little creepy) at the same time.

The ‘Duck and Cover’ film. Gotta see it and understand the fifties to really appreciate it. Funny as hell and there is reference made to it near the end of the movie. It wasn’t there for nothing.

Great ‘reveal’ of a gag. When people first start storyboarding, the biggest mistake I see is the use of camera movement. They just throw them in all willy-nilly, thinking it was about time to add one.

No. Every camera movement should have a reason.

And one of those reasons is a ‘reveal’. Using a Truck-Out (pull back, zoom out, dolly out, etc) to reveal a gag is one of those times.

Here’s a great one. Kent has gone back to his car with the bitten rifle. He gets in and is about to place the rifle on the seat beside him.

Camera starts to pull out quickly…

To reveal the big bite out of his car. Too great.

Shots tell the story and so can camera movements. Use them to your advantage.

The ‘lost hand’ sequence. Such a great piece of business that doesn’t get tiring to watch. I love how the little wrist bit wags like a tail. Hogarth saying grace while the hand mucks about in the kitchen is priceless.

Then it continues when Kent shows up and Hogarth pushes the hand out the bathroom window. Then his mom opens the door and he’s on the toilet. Funny, fast, visual. Kids and adults can all get a laugh out of it.

The ‘little acting moments’. This is where it shines and feels real. Little bits of dialogue and fun little moments that add depth and flavour and all sorts of storytelling yumminess. Like when Kent is on the phone with the General.

He’s in Hogarth’s kitchen and the General is laughing at him. The camera pans to a goofy potholder (like it’s laughing at him). Kent then turns the potholder around to hide the face. So great. There’s lots of these moments in the film.

When Hogarth asks Dean if the Giant can stay at the scrap yard. Sometimes words are funny.

When the Giant does a cannonball into the lake. Again the details of Dean’s newspaper just adds to the fun.

I wish I could show the whole sequence. When Dean lands (still in his chair) in the road and keeps saying, “Yeah?!” to the guy in the truck. The deadpan look on his face. Acting. Timing. Great.

The deer sequence. Things start to get more serious here. A message starts to emerge.

Death and guns.

And we get a glimpse there may be more to this metal Giant.

It wakes the audience up.

When the Giant almost shoots Hogarth. We’ve just come out of some lighter sequences here. When they fake out the army and all that. Back to some fun when he spins Hogarth in the car. But then it gets serious again. We start to get worried.

When we see the Giant for what he really is. Like in the Lion King, this is when 3D is at its best. This would not have been nearly as awesome if the Giant was hand drawn. The details made us go “Coooooool!” even though emotionally we might have been going “Oh no!!”. Great design work here that we can really geek out over.

“You choose who you want to be. Choose.” – Hogarth to the Giant.

While the Giant was pointing his gun at him. Big moment. And the message of the whole film.

“Soooooopermaaaannnnnnn” - Giant. I challenge you not to choke up at this scene.

Go on. You can’t.

The little bolt. I won’t give away everything here. But if you’ve seen the film, you know what I’m talking about. Hope. Happiness. We know what’s happening because of an earlier sequence.

And no cheesy sequel. Please, for love of all that is well and good in the world, NO cheesy sequel.

Ever!

It would spoil the perfection that is The Iron Giant.

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch my take on Toy Story.

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My Feature Favorites: The Lion King

Karen J Lloyd — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:05:21 +0000

After ripping ‘Igor‘ a new one when I reviewed it, I was asked in the comments what some of my all-time favorite animated films were (thanks Steph).

So why not make a series of posts about them?

In the ‘Igor‘ review, I pointed out many of the things they did wrong. With these posts, I’ll point out what they did right. You’ve probably seen most of them, so no boring summary.

I’m just going to dig right in.

These are some of my all time favorite animated films. I’m not saying they are the all time greatest films ever made. They are MY choices and I have my reasons. That’s it. They are:

The Lion King (Disney, 1994)
The Iron Giant (Warner Bros., 1999)
Toy Story (Pixar, 1995)
Finding Nemo (Pixar, 2003)
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Paramount, 1999) (yeah, yeah, I know…)

I loved ‘Wall-E‘ but don’t want to put it on the list yet because it’s so new and I don’t have a DVD to watch and capture images yet. When I can, you’ll be getting my rave review of that movie.

And yes, as an ‘animation professional’ I know I’m supposed to say ‘Snow White‘, ‘Pinocchio‘, ‘Fantasia‘ and all those classics. But I’m going by what I’ve loved and watched the most.

So in that case, The Lion King kicks Snow White’s ass.

I will start with The Lion King.

I’ve written about my love for this movie before. It’s a personal thing. I love this movie because I *love* lions (with a tattoo to prove it), there are no humans in it, was the reason I became an animator, was the first VHS tape I ever purchased and it started off as an ‘underdog’ film and ended up a blockbuster.

Here’s what it did right…besides the solid story and strong characters.

The opening. All quiet and dark, then into that great African music with the sunrise and all the animals gathering. Remember how I said ‘Igor‘ started by telling me a bunch of stuff and it needed to ease me into the story? That is how you ease people into a story. Yummy.

Voice casting. Yes, there are celebrities. But they were cast for their voice and not just their name. I mean, James Earl Jones! And Jeremy Irons is so great as Scar.

Pacing. There wasn’t too much story to tell. No jamming a bunch of stuff into it in the name of our assumed short attention spans. It took us on a journey and we stayed with it and we were never lost or confused by the story.

Use of visual repetition. It’s a good storytelling technique that works well with kid’s stories because it makes things easier to remember. They’re little ’sign posts’. ‘Igor‘ lacked this.

For example: The image of Simba that Rafiki paints on his tree. He finishes it and adds the goo to the forehead as he did to baby Simba at the start of the film (which is another visual repetition).

When he thinks Simba is dead, he smears this drawing in despair.

And when he realizes Simba is still alive, he adds the mane to the drawing.

No words are needed here. The pictures tell the story.

Another example is when Nala jumps and pins Simba when they are cubs.

It’s just a fun piece of business that shows off some character traits. But then it serves as a great trigger for Simba (and the audience) to realize it was Nala chasing Pumba when they are adults. We remember it and we see it.

‘Igor‘ constantly used dialogue for these kinds of things. The equivalent would have been the young Simba to tell Nala “And don’t jump on me and pin me down today. You know that bugs me.” without showing it. Then we would have had to remember that piece of dialogue to ‘get it’ in the adult scene. Not nearly as effective, is it?

Fantastic use of 3D. This is how is should be. Use 3D when it makes sense and when it is most effective. When trying to draw it by hand would be impossible. To add in some dynamic camera movement. Crowd scenes.

A heard of stampeding wildebeasts. Still an amazing sequence.

The ‘Holy Sh*t’ reaction face. There’s a few of them in the film but this one says it all. No words needed.

Saddest death since Bambi’s mom. I still tear up. But I’m an over-sensitive suck.

Nice use of transitions. Using dissolves between these scenes in the ‘Hakuna Matata’ sequence show us, without a doubt, that the grown-up lion is in fact Simba. It’s simple, fun, visual and effective.

If it was presented in a different way, we may have paused for a second wondering, “Is that him or another lion?”. Don’t let your audience second guess important information (unless that’s part of the story, of course).

And this sequence of Simba returning home. Just music and two scenes super-imposed. I love it. There are lots of great transitions and camera work in this film.

The funny lines are backed up with visuals. One of the best lines “What do you want me to do? Dress in drag and do the hula?” was ad-libbed, very funny and essentially for the grown-ups.

Did it stop there? No! It went right into an equally funny sequence of Timon doing the hula dance. Fun for the kids (and for us) and the line wasn’t wasted. Everyone wins. Are you listening ‘Igor‘?

My favorite shot. This shot was when young Simba was about to be scolded by his father Mufasa. He’s walking towards him, looks down and sees this.

It said so much and is so simple.

Was it written in the script?

Nope.

A story artist did it.

It’s these kinds of moments you should be striving for when you storyboard. They don’t have to be written for you. You can show the audience so much in a well chosen shot.

The shots tell the story.

There’s so much more I could say about ‘The Lion King‘.

And I hear you.

“But they break into song!”

Meh…the songs work. Yes, ‘I Just Can’t Wait to Be King’ is a little cheesy, but it’s fun for the kids and is still catchy. I love the African musical score the best.

The only little thing that nags at me is this question:

Who is Nala’s father?

Think about it.

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email to catch my take on The Iron Giant.

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