Opening - Peter de Seve and John Musker
Cow Premier Bow
Its been 50 years since the 1st Annecy animation festival gathering in 1960. Apparently it was a small affair: 50 people congregated to watch animation and party. This year being a big anniversary year they asked some of the biggest names in the business (John Musker, Nick Park, Peter Lord, Joanna Quinn, Ed Nazarov, Alexei Alexeev, Matt Groening, David Silverman, Michel Ocelot, Peter de Seve, Raoul Servais, Marv Newland, Paul Driessen, Bruno Bozzetto, Sylvain Chomet, and me) to help celebrate. They put us all up in the fancy Palais de Menthon on the other side of the lake. It's right on the beautiful lac d'Annecy so every morning I got to take a refreshing swim in the crystal-clear waters.
The opening night started off with a bang with Sylvain Chomet's “The Illusionist”, taken from an unfilmed Jacques Tati screenplay. The film took 5 years to make. Even though I loved the art and the beautiful animation I felt that the story was kinda weak. There was no conflict or tension and very little humor for a Tati story. It will probably do well in France due to the personalities involved but I can't see American audiences going for it.
Another film screening there was “Dispicable Me” by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. Its much more of a kid's film and the audience gave it a standing “O”. It had great 3D effects and very great humor.
The organizers produced an exhibition in the old castle illustrating the history of the festival and also a book of 50 years of the festival. I did a signing along with 5 others which included David Silverman, Paul Servais, George Swisgabel, and Alexei Alexeev. Then we visited the Dutch party at the Cafe des Artiste where I got to sit down and chat with Jimmy Murakami and John Coates: 2 guys responsible for “Yellow Submarine.” What great stories they told! I asked them why King Features only gave the studio 11 months to make the film, which is unheard of in animation. Apparently they were afraid that the Beatles would fade away into obscurity by then. Stupid King Features!
Bruno Bozzetto
Rom Clements and Peter de Seve
It's nice to see you had lot of fun in Annecy ! It's so sad we couldn't come with Lucie this year but next year we will definitly be there, I hope we will see each other and have a lot of fun like in New York !
ReplyDeleteWould love to hear more Yellow Sub stories.
ReplyDeleteHey, Anonymous (JUNE 27, 2010 8:26 PM) ,
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The true story behind Jacques Tati's The Illusionist that helps to explain why Chomet's take on the script lack's depth.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/pages-for-twitter/the-shame-of-jacques-tati.html
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