Не подумайте, что издеваюсь! За что купил, за то и продаю! А дело вот в чем. В субботу известный аниматор Джим Хулл (не путайте со скандальным журналистом Джимом Хиллом) опубликовал следующую заметку в своем
блоге:
It Just Keeps Getting Better and Better
I can't tell you how stupid I feel that I threw away my animation desk.
I had one of those big wooden ones too - 6ft x 5 ft, tons of shelf space, very intimidating. I loved that desk.
But what was I supposed to do? It was 2003 and the world of traditional Disney-style feature animation was all but dead. In a major Spring cleaning fit, I decided to toss it into the dumpster (it wasn't an easy fit) so I could just be done with the whole dream thing.
And then Iger puts Lasseter in charge. Not only of the films but of the parks as well. And he shuts down Toy Story 3 because of the fear that it would not be as sincere as the first two (sincerity? I thought it was all about money). Then he cans the cheap-quels (this isn't confirmed, but is more than likely true).
And then I get a call tonight from a friend who has a friend who heard from a friend that at a meeting tonight with Lasseter that he was talking all about bringing back the glory of Disney traditional 2D animation. How Pixar animators would not be tied down to their digital desktops. If someone wanted to work on a 2D film, they would be allowed to - probably even encouraged. That they are planning on bringing all those beautiful old animation desks out of that pathetic storage shed next to the Burbank airport and might even bring back shorts - hand-drawn animated shorts!
This friend of a friend of a friend went on to say that JL's main mission was to renew the public's trust and faith in the Disney name - that it would become the premier source of family entertainment that it once was. Can't wait till he's introducing the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights...
And why do I feel so free to say all of this?
I'm no longer under contract - something I'll have to elaborate on further - but today was my last day at Dreamworks Animation. I've got a week off and then the dream starts over for me as I'll be working at James Baxter Animation.
Now I'm pretty sure I can't say much about the project I'll be working on, except maybe this - breathtakingly beautiful. That's all. If you're a fan of 2D Disney-style feature animation, you will be very very pleased. The first scene I saw took my breath away in only the way that masterful animation can.
So now I've got to rebuild myself an animation desk. And learn to draw again (I really haven't done that much in 2 years and boy, do I stink...). And I'll be blogging about it as much as I can here. I've never been so excited about starting a new job on a new film as I am now.
It's a wonderful time for fans of animation, and an even better time for animators.
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Вкратце перескажу суть заметки. Итак, Джим с упоительным восторгом рассказывает, что мол ему позвонил приятель, у которого есть друг, который слышал от
своего друга, присутствовавшего на самом последней "пятиминутке" с Джоном Лассетером, что Джон этим вечером говорил исключительно о необходимости вернуть славу диснеевской традиционной двумерной анимации! Что пиксаровцев никто не заставляет навсегда прилипнуть к компьютеру, и, если кто-то желает работать на двумерном мультфильме, это будет ДАЖЕ поощряться! Есть даже идея вернуть искусство рисованных короткометражек! Друг друга друга заявил, что главная миссия Джона восстановить доверие и веру в диснеевское имя.
Но это все конечно же слухи. Но Джим добавляет и более надежную инфу. А именно - его контракт с DreamWorks (где он работал над "Спиритом", "Синбадом", "Мадагаскаром" и др.) подошел к концу. И через неделю Джим начнет работать на студии Джеймса Бакстера (кстати, Бакстер был его боссом на студии DreamWorks), работать над
чем-то неописуемо красивым и
что буквально осчастливит каждого фаната про-диснеевской анимации.
Собственно, если сложить два и два, то получается, что речь идет о "Зачарованной"!!!