Ed's Newsletter - December 2002

GLENN MCQUEEN
He was only forty-one years old when he died in Berkeley on Oct. 29th, but Glenn McQueen had already left a vivid legacy in the entertainment industry. The animation world in general and his co-workers at Pixar in particular are in deep shock and mourning. By all accounts, Glenn had major bragging rights to the cinematic style that became Pixar's signature. He helped create famous characters like Woody in "Toy Story". He was Animation Supervisor on that classic film as well as on "Toy Story II", "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc."

McQueen's close friends speak fondly of his wicked sense of humor and the fact that he was one of the nicest people you would ever hope to meet. I regret that I never had the privilege. I knew him by reputation of course and from reading interviews with him over the years. As an acting teacher, I was impressed with Glenn's perspective on the balance between art and technology. As I prepared these words, I glanced through my files and found this highlighted McQueen quote from a Disney press release circa 1999: "When I'm interviewing someone for a job, the last thing I ask is if they know how to use a computer. It's far more important to have people with a great sense of acting and timing and who know what's appealing. Those things are much more difficult to learn than how to use a computer." The man knew something, no question about it. He was a pioneer, lost to us far too soon.

Glenn left a wife, a four-year old daughter and many, many friends.

Donations in Glenn McQueen's memory can be made to UCSF Foundation, Box 0248, San Francisco, CA 94143.

CRAFT NOTES
"The Future of Animation"

According to Donald Crafton in "Before Mickey - The Animated Film 1898-1929" (M.I.T.Press 1982), Emile Cohl's 1908 "Fantasmagorie" was probably the very first animated cartoon. If true, then the animation industry today is only ninety-four years old. During that short time, we've gone through rubber hose, the birth of Mickey Mouse, "Three Little Pigs", "Snow White", the rise of CGI, "Toy Story" and flirtation with photo-real. The technical standard in today's major studio releases is breathtaking. Time and Newsweek rapturously report on strides being made in the depiction of water, hair, fur and skin. Walt's accomplishment was revolutionary when he gave Mickey a brain, but today It is no longer even a hat trick for animators to depict characters that seem to think and experience emotion.

So where does the industry go next? Where is "up"? How can we improve on what some people in the industry already consider to be perfection? How will animated feature films ten years from now differ from those we see today? Will the changes be mainly technical? I have some thoughts about the next generation of animated feature films but before I offer an opinion, I'd like you to please stick with me while I construct a foundation. What I have to say rests on certain premises.

THE PAST

The roots of all drama reside in ancient shamanism. Seven thousand years ago, nomadic tribes under stress from a hard winter or thinning herd would call out their shamans for inspiration and wisdom. They would don the appropriate masks, paint themselves blue and chant to the animal or weather gods. This ritual, while directed to the gods, was designed to imbue the tribe with hope and courage. It was evolutionary. If there was to be another generation of humans, then the current generation had to survive.

Much later, around 51BC, the five tribes of Greece assembled their shamans into choruses that chanted the Dithyramb and praised the wine god Dionysus. The objective was still the same as it had been thousands of years earlier on the plains of Mesopotamia: to inspire the tribe and to give hope for the future. The shamans were just more structured in Greece, that's all. Gradually, over the next few hundred years, the shamanistic dialogue on stage shifted away from man's relationship with the gods and onto man's relationship with man. The drama as we in western cultures know it today was born there in the Greek amphitheater.

The theatre that originated in Greece evolved through history, pausing in Shakespeare's England, Moliere's France and Chekhov's Russia. Always, it was a source of entertainment, inspiration and wisdom. Always, people would attend the theatre with the hope they would walk away with fresh understandings or new perspectives. In many important aspects, the theatre experience is akin to the religious experience.

Live-action film was born in the late 19th century and that, in turn, gave birth to animation. Emile Cohl could not have created "Fantasmagorie" unless live-action film already existed. (See Crafton "Before Mickey", p 6) The bottom line for all of this is that animation thrives on the same family tree as the legitimate theatre and ultimately shares the precise same historical roots: shamanism. People go to the theatre and to movies for entertainment, it's true, but the experience is still tribal. Even if they are laughing so hard they are on the floor, the whole transaction is still part inspiration.

THE FUTURE

I predict we will over the next ten years see the rise of a parallel animation culture, sort of the feature animation equivalent of the Miramax live-action movie. It will be targeted to adults instead of children and will be more shamanistic and tribal in its feel. I'm talking now about films with adult themes, not adult jokes. I understand there are plenty of films and TV shows today with adult jokes and references in them. When I use the word "shamanistic", I'm talking about sophisticated adult themes that aren't necessarily feel-good and don't necessarily motivate a lot of peripheral shopping. Japan's animation genius Hayao Miyazaki shines a light in this direction with "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke". His movies are profitable without being in-your-face commercial and yet still are thematically adult.

Art and commerce are joined at the hip in the U.S. We do not in this country have a tradition of government support for the arts. What this means for animation is that the big-budget big-studio features are here to stay, complete with all their commercial tie-ins, CD's, stuffed animals and the rest of it -- because they are immensely profitable. We will likely see technological advances in this genre, but such huge production budgets are necessarily dependent on adjunct sources of revenue to pay their way. It is just about impossible to recoup an $80 million production budget from box office alone.

A big-budget movie can of course be both commercially successful and shamanistic in its feel. It's just rare, that's all. Pixar did it splendidly with "Monsters, Inc.", presenting to the tribe a very important message about the survival value that is inherent in a child's cries and laughter. The movie worked for children, and it worked for adults on several levels. At the same time it delivered a tribal message, the movie was a gold mine of commercial tie-ins. However, this is not all that common any more. Many of the high-grossing big-budget features take care not to get too serious thematically or to step on anybody's toes. Adult humor is okay, but adult themes are commercially chancy.

Our challenge in the U.S. is to more evenly balance art with commerce. Walt Disney, the father of the modern animation industry, was the first person to earn a great fortune from it. But Walt was himself a storyteller and a romantic. According to the biographies I have read, he wanted to make money, but he would very likely have created animation even if that meant he would forever live in poverty. In Walt's personal value system, the balance between art and commerce arguably tilted toward art. And I don't think it is coincidental that his early films had mythic and shamanistic themes.

In my view, today is the most exciting time to work in animation precisely because the industry is in a state of flux. The best is yet to come. Technologically, the accomplishments border on magic; commercially, feature animation is a huge success. Now comes the next step. I contend it is tribal. The world is increasingly complex and overwhelming. Too many people are feeling alienated. Animation is a powerful medium. Animators can help the tribe get through a rough winter.