Another common theme with “Kells” and Moore’s new film, “Song of the Sea”: It is another mythical tale based upon Irish folklore. This time, instead of the Book of Kells, “Song of the Sea” centers around the last young selkie’s, journey home. According to Irish legend, selkies are part human, part seal sea creatures.

For a little taste of “Song of the Sea” check out the teaser trailer below. Note the strong stylistic similarities the trailer’s look and the look of “Kells.”

During our chat, Weil explained that the idea for ‘Janie’ came from a dream his younger sister described to him when they were growing up. She described her dreams as “movies coming out of her pillow.” Thus the idea for Janie, a little girl that dreams in movie strip pictures, was born.

‘Janie & Jerome’s’ crayon-drawn style was a distinct choice that Weil made as a storytelling strategy. “It was what was true to that world,” he said. See ‘Janie & Jerome’ short, ‘Rain,’ below:

Simensky making a cameo on the PBS show, WordGirl. Courtesy of pbs.org

Last week I posted a list of Linda Simensky’s favorite indie animated shorts. Because I miss old school Nickelodeon so much, here’s a little bit more detail on her time at Nick, her love of Bugs Bunny and some of her future plans. (See the post below for more background on Simensky).

How did you first get interested in animation?

My interest in animation started when I was little. I was a big fan of Bugs Bunny cartoons. Not so much of Disney, but I really loved Bugs Bunny, and I wasn’t necessarily paying attention to how the cartoons where made, or even that they were cartoons, I just knew they were really funny and I thought that was great.

What was the animation industry like when you were growing up?

It was always sort of a throw-away kind of business and nobody ever took it seriously and if you look at the entire history of animation, probably up until the 90’s it was not big business. Even the Disney films, as beautiful as they were and as much as people loved them, they were still seen as being for kids and people were not necessarily willing to give them importance.

What changed from then to now?

The 70’s happened and animation just basically became to sell toys, and the 80’s was more of the same. But then, Roger Rabbit came along, and then the Simpsons came along—and those were probably two of the biggest things that happened. The other thing that was important was the emergence of cable television. And not just that cable existed, but it existed and was doing pretty well. By the late 80’s, places like Nickelodeon had made enough money to afford making animation. And animation used to be more expensive than it is now.

Can you describe what kind of animation you were trying to make at Nickelodeon in the 90′s?

At Nick we were trying to, as best we could for television, recreate the way the theatricals were made back in the 30’s and 40’s. Put the directors in more charge under the creator, and have the writers work with the directors to really get the stories right and to be funny. There was a lot of emphasis on being funny, not just writing the stories. Really developing likable characters that people would really care about–and making them funny. It takes a lot of tries to get that right. But the stuff that we did right off the bat, it got a lot attention, simply for being so different from what was out there.

Courtesy of Nickelodeon

What were some of your favorite shows to work on?

Out of all of them I enjoyed working on ‘Doug’ because I worked on that the closest. That was done in New York and I was living in New York at the time. And I think I was the most involved with that one. I also liked working on ‘Rocco’s Modern Life’ and ‘Hey Arnold,’ and then I left and went to Cartoon Network, where I really liked working on ‘Powerpuff Girls,’ ‘Samurai Jack’ and ‘Dexter[‘s Laboratory].’ What I liked about those was that they had really strong creators and really strong teams all around. I felt I was really getting to learn a lot.

You’ve been at PBS since 2003, where you’ve been catering to a younger demographic with shows like ‘Sid the Science Kid’ and ‘WordGirl.’ What are the biggest differences in making cartoons for younger kids?

I think there are more interesting creative shows being done for the younger kids. I feel like a lot of what I’ve done for PBS has been funnier than what I was ever able to do at Cartoon Network, for a variety of reasons. One is that when you target older kids you tend to force yourself to put a lot of attitude into it, and attitude’s not always funny. I feel like there hasn’t been as much funny stuff out there as there used to be. We need sort of a new wave of animation and we haven’t gotten it yet.

You mentioned wanting to bring more diversity into animation in the future. What were some of your goals when you were starting out?

My first goal when I went into TV was to bring good animation back to TV. Second goal was to reinvent educational TV completely. That’s why I think it’s been interesting because I took a big role in reinventing it. I think I had a lot to do with making preschool animation a lot funnier than it had been and that was something that was important to me. You know, I’ve always set out with sort of large, undoable goals and I like it that way because the more undoable they are, the harder you try to do them.

How do you plan on realizing some of your future goals?

I think what I’m eventually going to do is start figuring out a way to have a mentoring program through PBS where we can find people, get them working on shows for a year so they can get an introduction to the industry. Because I feel like the industry’s so small it’s hard to break in.

Linda Simensky has held distinguished executive positions in the children’s television industry for more than 20 years. First, she worked her way up at Nickelodeon during the 80′s and 90′s, starting in the programming department and eventually moving into animation. During her nine-year tenure at Nick, she was responsible for overseeing the production of shows like ‘Doug‘ (the good, pre-Disney version) ‘Rocko’s Modern Life’ and ‘Hey Arnold.’

Around the time of ‘Hey Arnold,’ Simensky left Nick after being appointed Director of Programming of Cartoon Network. At Cartoon Network she worked on other memorable shows including ‘Dexter’s Laboratory‘ and ‘Powerpuff Girls.‘ Talk about 90′s cartoon royalty.

Since 2003, Simensky has been overseeing popular preschool and elementary, curriculum-based programming like ‘Sid the Science Kid‘ and ‘WordGirl’ as the Senior Director of Children’s Programming at PBS.

During our chat, Simenski highlighted three independent animated short films from the National Film Board of Canada that had a signficant impact on her view of animation:

1. The Cat Came Back (1988)

This hilarious Oscar®-nominated animation is based on the century-old folk song of the same name. Old Mr. Johnson makes increasingly manic attempts to rid himself of a little yellow cat that just won’t stay away… Also won the 1989 Genie Award for best animated short film.

2. The Big Snit (1985)

This poignant and hilarious animated film perfectly captures the intersection of a domestic quarrel and a global nuclear war. An Oscar®-nominee enjoyed by millions of fans, this film is a classic example of Richard Condie’s off-the-wall humor.

3. The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin (1981)

This short animation is a zany version of the classic fairy tale, with the leading role played by a mistreated, romantic penguin, with hilarious results. Cinderella Penguin loses her magic flipper as she runs to meet her midnight deadline, but all ends well when Prince Charming finds the right webbed foot and the nasty step-family is brought to heel. A 1981 Oscar®-nominee.

“It was so funny and so perfectly timed and the design was so funny that I really felt that was perfection for me,” Simensky said of ‘The Cat Came Back.’ ‘The Big Snit’ and ‘The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin’ were also examples of unique and funny animation at its best for Simensky.

For more on Simensky, check out this interview.

(All film synopses and photos courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada’s website)

After finally getting my eager hands on a copy of ‘Kells’ in preparation for my upcoming interview with Director, Tomm Moore, I have to say, I don’t disagree with all the hype. ‘Kells’ is something truly amazing to look at. Its intoxicating colors and animation style immediately hook the viewer in, and its cast of memorable characters like Aisling, the enchanting part wolf-girl, pixie and the story’s hero, brave young orphan Brendan make the film an easy emotional investment.

The fairy wolf-girl, Aisling in action

The plot of ‘Kells’ is based around the legend of Ireland’s Book of Kells, an ancient beautifully drawn illuminated manuscript that contains the Four Gospels. The movie follows Brendan and his mentor, master illuminator Brother Aidan, on their quest to finish the book amidst Brendan’s unapproving uncle and forthcoming Viking attacks. Because the book is one of Ireland’s most treasured medieval artifacts, Moore made the extra effort to have the look of ‘Kells’ have a medieval flare.

Legend has it that the book originated in Scotland sometime in the early 8th century, and was moved to the Abbey of Kells in the 9th century following a Viking raid. It was stolen in the 11th century, and recovered again (with some water damage and missing its cover). By the mid-1500′s the Roman Catholic Church took the book under its wing for safekeeping, eventually returning it to Ireland after the English Reformation. Today, the book is permanently on display at Trinity College in Dublin.

Personally, my favorite part of the film had less to do with the legend surrounding the Book of Kells, and more to do with the charming relationship between Brendan and his fairy friend, Aisling. The scene where Aisling guides Brendan through her enchanted forest to help him find special berries to make ink for the book is a highlight.

Brendan and Aisling in the enchanted forest

All images courtesy of GKIDS.

For more before my interview, check out Tomm Moore’s Blog of Kells.

When I first visited his classroom on Saturday, which was full of advanced graphic design and animation students, I could barely tell him apart from his pupils. Wearing dark skinny jeans, a plaid green button up and Chuck Taylors, at first glance it’s hard to believe he’s had over 30 years of animation experience.

Here are some of the highlights from our hour-long chat together:

What was working on one of ABC’s first educational children’s programs, ‘Make A Wish,’ (1971-76) like?

That particular show was a very unique show. It incorporated these kinds of little quick animation vignettes. It would mix animation with quick cut stock footage.  It was great. It allowed myself as an animator to be able to work independently, and offer what only I could do in my style, my ideas, storyboarding concept based on a script—and because it was cut so fast, you know, it was young kid quality.

You describe the style of ‘Make A Wish’ as having a ‘Garbage Film’ style. Can you describe what that is?

When I was an art student there were some experimental filmmakers, such as Bruce Conner, who was a gallery artist, he would do these films that kind of coined the name ‘garbage films.’ A garbage film was a little bit of everything thrown together. It was almost as if he had strands of film and he shook them up and however they came out was a great film. And that concept of garbage film was really what the show ‘Make A Wish’ was. It was a mixture of black and white silent film, gag stuff, mixed with the animation and live footage. So it really suited me quite well.

From your experience, do you remember a specific turning point in animation? A time when everything seemed to change?

[In the 70's] When we started our little studio [Martin Abrahams Video] we were doing cartoons and we were doing them very well.

Suddenly someone appears on the scene named Bob Abel, who did this phenomenal commercial for 7Up, this optical dream—a girl with butterfly wings, and outer space stars—It changed the way people saw things. Just like ‘Yellow Submarine’ changed the way people saw graphics and images, this became a way people saw things. That kind of animation I also did, flying hamburgers in outer space for Burger King—very much influenced by ‘Star Wars’ at the time. That idea of working with motion graphics, fancy logos that look like they’re made out of metallic and things we did in optical printing, I discovered we could do in video.

What are the biggest differences between animation today and what it was like when you were just coming out of school?

Where there used to be a lot of freelance animation work, now people have to work at studios to do the one television show. Whereas a lot of people in my up bringing of animation could feed into things.

Animation has changed over to story-based more than personality-based. I’m a big fan of personality-based. You look at the stuff on Cartoon Network or Sponge Bob, they’re one theme but they’re based on a rise of beats and turns. Beats in animation are the main points in the story and the turns are the things that suddenly make a conflict in the story.

What do you want your students to take away from your classes and SVA’s animation program?

My main concern today is to get my students into internships and start building their careers. Not only am I their teacher, I’m their agent.

One of the highlights of my trip was meeting animation student Nuno Nobre, 29. Nobre, who studied for two years at ESDIP professional drawing and animation school in Madrid, Spain, came to SVA to finish his thesis.

Part of Nobre’s thesis is a short film called “Foot Fetish,” a quirky story about a man who falls in love and pursues a women with his feet. After showing me a very rough cut of the film, Nobre went to a nearby drawing room to work on a 2-3 second scene.

Below is a short video of Nobre working on his animation:

The scene Nobre is working on is when the woman tries to escape from the lovelorn man by crawling out the window.

All Nobre’s favorite animated films, including Waltz With Bashir and Persepolis feature non-traditional types of animation. Unique styles that he hopes to emulate in his own work. When our talk came around to “The Secret of Kells,” he said he was very excited to see the movie, saying that he “loves the textures and the backgrounds” incorporated in the Oscar nominated film.

To learn more about Nobre, check out his website.

This film is an example of the types of “artsy films for kids” Dave Jesteadt looks for when screening for the New York International Children’s Film Festival.

“Kells” is the story about a young boy who must fight a slew of mythical creatures to find the key to completing the legendary Book of Kells. What set this film apart from its contemporary counterparts was its non-conventional choice in animation-the New York Times called the film a “hand-drawn labor of love.”

The “Kells” Oscar night spot:

More details on “The Secret of Kells” to come…

Though GKIDS as a separate distribution entity is  a much younger venture than its parent festival, this year was a banner year for the fledgling company. Its film “The Secret of Kells” brought GKIDS their very first (and surprise) Oscar nomination for “Best Animated Feature” alongside animation heavyweights “Up,” “Coraline” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

So just weeks after Jesteadt’s first taste of Oscar glory, we talked for about two hours about the world of children’s films, the allure of Pixar, and the best and worst of today’s animation. Here were Jesteadt’s picks for his favorite non-independent children’s films of present:

3. Wall-E (2008)

2. Ratatouille (2007)

1. Up (2009)

Although Pixar may seem like one of GKIDS’ main competitors, Jesteadt can’t deny the quality and gusto of their most recent works. He says just the fact that Pixar was able to use an angry old man as their main character in “Up,” speaks volumes for the evolving state of children’s animation.