The Outstanding Achievement in Animation and Spotlight Award honorees, respectively, at this past weekend’s SCAD festival in Atlanta discuss their recent projects ‘Nimona’ and ‘Fionna and Cake’ and how recent industry upheaval makes it even more important to stay dedicated, flexible, and determined in pursuing your career.
In 2004, when Walt Disney Feature Animation in Florida closed, Ted Ty – who had been an animator on iconic films like The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Lilo & Stitch – felt like the door to the future of his animation career slammed shut. The studio was taking an undetermined break from producing more 2D animation content while making a sharp right turn toward 3DCG.
“It was a decisive moment that scattered all of us into the wind and sent a lot of people on permanently divergent life paths,” recalls Ty. “But I ended up back here with Nimona, and it's the highlight of my career.”
Nimona, the 3DCG feature now available on Netflix, was adapted from Nate Stevenson’s famous graphic novel of the same name. The comedy adventure follows the complex journey of a young shapeshifter in a technologically advanced world as she struggles to help clear the name of a disgraced knight. At the seventh annual SCAD AnimationFest that just concluded this past weekend in Atlanta, Ty, animation director on the film, was presented with the Outstanding Achievement in Animation Award for Nimona’s experimental and eye-grabbing animation techniques. Ty was the very first person to be presented an award in the school’s new 700-seat SCADShow theater.
But, at Ty’s presentation on the film, while listing off names from memory of his team of 150 animators – like Pat Rhodes, Silvia Ortiz Cabañas, Erica Palmerini, Alexa Gendron, Derek Henriques, Federica Darsie, and others – another outstanding achievement rang clear.
Nimona was a rescue project.
“I remember getting a call from my friends at Blue Sky Studios and them telling me, ‘We just closed,’” recalls Ty. ‘I didn’t know about Nimona. I knew they were working on a great project. And that they all loved it.”
Blue Sky Studios, the studio behind the hugely successful Ice Age movies, the Rio movies, and Robots, closed in the spring of 2021, during early production stages of Nimona. It had been acquired by Disney as part of the 2019 20th Century Studios purchase. But when Ty, as Global Head of Character Animation for DNEG, received the story reels, he became, as he says it, “taken by Nimona.” The film was picked up by Annapurna Pictures on April 11, 2022, with DNEG Animation taking over production and hiring on some of the former Blue Sky animators. Then Netflix took on its release. Nimona had been saved.
But, that same year, Adventure Time’s storyboard artist and eventual showrunner Adam Muto – another AnimationFest 2023 honoree and recipient of this year’s Spotlight Award – was experiencing another shift in the industry. A year after production began on Muto’s own spin-off, gender-swapped, Dungeons & Dragons-inspired Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Warner Bros. TV Group announced 82 layoffs, the elimination of 125 jobs, and the cancelation of incubator programs for new original talent, including Stage 13, the Warner Bros. Writers’ Workshop, and the Warner Bros. Directors’ Workshop. Warner Bros. also assumed official control over Cartoon Network Studios.
“Animation existed in this fragile bubble, and we all knew it,” says Muto. “We were like ‘Please, can we have sensible growth?’ But then you have 20 series greenlit at a time and, because there's not room for them, the bubble popped, and it took everybody else out. Animation is so labor intensive, compared to some other shows, so the idea of releasing these shows all at once is like this massive bloodletting every time. Those two things don’t really work together.”
Luckily, Fionna and Cake’s 10-episode series, set in the land of Ooo and following the alternate and more adult-centric universe versions of Finn & Jake on a multiverse-hopping journey toward self-discovery, didn’t suffer any casualties and released last month on HBO Max. But Muto says watching the disappearance of a network that was home for eight years to his team’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series and seeing the cancellation of so many shows and animated programs over the last year, gets disheartening.
“I would get advice from old-timers who would say there are ‘boom and bust cycles,’” explains Muto. “There's a point in time where there's a lot of production, and it falls, and then it grows again. That's kind of the timing where we started the show. Cartoon Network wasn't making a ton of stuff and they hadn't greenlit anything for about a year and we took advantage of that. But the things we used to be able to say, like, ‘It’s just going to come back. Wait it out,’ are not always true anymore.”
This is why rescue stories like those of Nimona’s are so vital to share with young student animators about to enter the industry, which grows more daunting by the day.
“I feel grateful for receiving this award from a relatable perspective,” says Ty of being an AnimationFest honoree. “I still feel very in touch with where I started at CalArts. And I dream about the same things. So, I hope these students can relate to it and know that they'll be awarded this someday. It's really just about hard work and continuing to dream no matter what. It sounds corny, but that's really it.”
Ty attended the very first SCAD AnimationFest back in 2017 with the U.S. premiere of Leap! and quickly fell in love with the school and the passion he saw in the faces of its students which reflects, Ty feels, the big-dreamer nature of SCAD president Paula Wallace.
“I felt like I discovered a brand new, amazing pencil or brush that no one else had yet,” he recalls. “And I feel that magic around every corner I go and every person I meet here. When I look at all the students, what I see, and what I feel, is the true achievement in animation.”
Muto, who had never been to SCAD before attending the festival, noted that one of his primary reasons for coming this year was to not only graciously accept his own award, but to become inspired by SCAD’s talented student animators during the Student Showcase, which was full of thunder gods, prankster video game characters, and exotic warriors.
“I delivered the last episode of [Fionna and Cake] at the beginning of the month and felt completely emptied out,” Muto explained. “I'm really hoping I can see these films and see the enthusiasm and kind of leech off of it like a vampire, so I can become inspired again to work on the next thing.”
The Fiona and Cake creator also acknowledged the surrealness of seeking inspiration from students who decided to become animators after years of watching and being inspired by Adventure Time.
“There are topics in this new series that are very personal, like revisiting and reassessing the past, and getting older,” says Muto of Fiona and Cake. “Working on this has made me a little wistful, but I’m also like, ‘Where did the time go?’ I was on Adventure Time long enough to see people who watched it when they were in school get older and go into animation and eventually work with us on this series.”
Ty adds, “Ultimately, we aim to create animation that does what great songs do and tap into each person’s own emotional journey and inspire them. Nate would probably be embarrassed about me saying this, but it’s very rare when something you create transcends your own personal viewpoint, and you tap into something universal. But Nimona does. I related to the script having been a heavy-set, very nerdy, comic-book-reading Asian kid growing up in an all-white neighborhood. I had many on my animation team who were from the LGBTQ+ community, others had relatives, brothers, and sisters who were from that community, and some who just wanted to be involved in telling a great story.”
Nimona’s script – filled with raw passion and emotions laid bare – saved the animation project and helped see it to fruition. Adventure Time’s comedic and wholesome twists on classic fantasy tropes created a passionate fanbase that made Fionna and Cake’s existence possible. Though the future of the animation industry is unclear, both Muto and Ty advise aspiring animators and storytellers to stay motivated and stay flexible.
“I wish I could prognosticate that the streaming business model will fix itself and suddenly become more animation-friendly because I think that's the biggest challenge,” notes Muto. “I think we’re still seeing streaming businesses evolve, and trying to find out how they can be profitable. That's also why so many projects get slashed out of desperation. And we're already seeing different models emerge with independent animation. That may not be the answer for everybody, but that's become a viable alternative now. I think we'll see more of that over the years. This kind of stuff you can’t plan for, so you need to stay flexible and stay nimble.”
And stay passionate.
“For students, our industry is seen through about 40 filters before they hear about it, and they can’t always get the truth immediately,” says Ty. “I would tell them to take everything with a grain of salt. Try to put everything you hear out of your mind as much as possible and concentrate on creating and learning who you are and finding your own way. That's hard enough without having to worry about things that aren't within your control. Sometimes you don't see that the door that shut makes you go through another door that you might not have otherwise. And there can be great things behind it and great people that you'll meet.”
He adds, “Care about your art and your artists. Take care of yourself and your friends, and then, when you're doing good work, you'll make it through, and you'll find your way.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
