A few years ago I was invited to direct a few episodes of a low budget kids show called "Paddle Pop" at The Monk Studios in Thailand. Paddle Pop Lion (called Max in Europe) is the mascot of Paddle Pop ice cream and of course the hero of the show.
Though we had serious restrictions in terms of budget, content, and schedule... we had a good time putting these little episodes together. English speaking actors are more difficult to come by in Asia, and many of the voices in the series are friends and crew members. For instance, I am the voice of the giant chicken statue in episode 7. The little robots in this episode were inspired by the Balinese Monkey Dance. You can hear hints of Indonesian music in the soundtrack.
Episode 9 was interesting because of the fact that most of the crew had never seen a real snow beast before... or real snow for that matter. They took it all in stride... and within the limitations we were faced with... did a fine job. Most of the character designs were established before I came onto the project. However, the client asked me to come up with "non threatening weapons." If you notice the soldiers "spears" they are inspired by dental floss picks.
Showing posts with label cartoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cartoon. Show all posts
Pumpkin Miniatures
I have long been an admirer of Persian and Turkish miniatures, and have always wanted to design a film in that traditional style. While researching "The Pumpkin of Nyefar" in Turkey years ago, I saw my opportunity, and made a number of small paintings inspired by the art I saw on tour. Much of my early concept art attempted to remain faithful to the style of the miniatures. But as the story of "Pumpkin" developed, and became more and more wacky. It was clear that the artwork needed to follow suit.
So instead of trying to replicate Turkish miniatures, I tried to create a look that better fit the story... but still contained elements of the miniatures that I so loved. One day I hope to have the opportunity to design a film that will allow me to explore this style further.
art © tod polson, film stills © tod polson and Mark Oftedal
The Pumpkin Of Nyefar
"The Pumpkin Of Nyefar" from Tod Polson on Vimeo.
"The Pumpkin Of Nyefar" is a personal hand animated short film I wrote with Maurice Noble (Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century and What’s Opera, Doc?) in Turkey, and co-directed with Mark Oftedal (Toy story, A Bugs Life) at the "Wang film studios" in Taiwan, and Bangkok. The film is narrated by June Foray (the voice of Rocky in Rocky and Bullwinkle).
Prince Abadaluh... Named after Maurice's surgeon
The Palace of Nyefar, complete fantasy, but inspired by trips to Turkey and India
Above: Some stills and color keys from the film. Character designs and character layouts by the amazing Mark Oftedal.
In 1994, Maurice Noble began training a group of young designers at Chuck Jones Film Productions. A lot of us were working on our own personal short projects, several of them based on ethnic folktales. Maurice thought it would be a great idea if the group of us could develop a series of shorts inspired by stories from around the world. We called this series “Noble Tales,” and we, his trainees, became known as the “Noble Boys” (which also included a few girls). Many of us traveled around the world and developed and together designed several dozen idea.
“The Pumpkin Of Nyefar” was one short idea Maurice and I wrote while visiting Turkey. Our first morning in Istanbul we came downstairs to the dining room and around the table were twenty belly dancers and a lot of pumpkin dishes. All the girls of course were smitten by Mr. Nobles charm. Ha ha… I can still see him grinning from ear to ear.
Afterwords we talked things over, and decided to write a story about a prince who could marry any beauty in his kingdom, but instead chooses to wait for true love. As fate would have it, the prince finds true love in the form of a pumpkin. While I was supervising a TV show in Thailand, James Wang (Wang Flm) invited Maurice and I to use his Thai studio to make our short. Maurice underwent surgery so that he could make the flight to Bangkok. Unfortunately he died a few weeks later. I came to Thailand a few months later to work on the short myself. But my friends didn’t leave me to do the film alone.
Soon after, my pal Mark Oftedal, came to town for a visit. His short vacation, turned into a several year working holiday. He became so involved with the project, re-working designs, storyboards, editing, setting the animation style, that he became the co-director. It was very much a partnership and it was fantastic working with such a talented fellah. Other friends from America helped out too. June Foray donated her voice to the film. Ben Jones, and Lawrence Marvit both did short stints in Bangkok to help get things going. Sue Kroyer did a lot of inspirational character design as did Roman Laney. Jules Engel looked over a lot of the early design and color. Aaron Sorenson, Dave Marshall, Dave Thomas, and Mike Polvani all donated time to the project. It was really a great collaboration of friends, just the way Maurice had dreamed about: doing a short film together, everything donated, just because they wanted to do it.
Please visit the link below to see the Pumpkin website!!! with more information and artwork! Put together by my friend p'Nat, and her company xhabition -tod
The Pumpkin Website
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