This month, we picked three animators who manage to balance their work on independent films with their commercial animation careers, and asked each of them what films would they want to have with them if stranded on a desert island. Swedish animator Jonas Odell has directed television ids for the likes of the Swedish Lottery, Locomotion and Cartoon Network. With Stig Bergqvist, he recently made an independent film called Otto whichis currently making the festival rounds (next stop Ottawa). Steve Box is a director at Aardman Animations in Bristol, England. His short film Stage Fright won a British Animation Award and the Children's Jury Prize at Annecy '98. Cynthia Wells recently completed a stint as a commercial director at Rhythm & Hues in Los Angeles and is now focusing solely on her second independent film, The Shadow of Doubt. Peter Reynolds is founder and creative director of the Boston-based animation studio, FableVision, which has recently produced commercials for the NBA, and WNBA. Reynolds' short film The Blue Shoe is distributed by Link Entertainment and was just picked up for a two-year run in Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation.

There are, of course, many other animators who balance independent work with commercial careers. Several of them, in fact, have already participated in AWM's Desert Island series. Visit our back issues to read top ten films as selected by Bill Plympton, Aleksandra Korejwo, Barry Purves, and Paul Vester.

Jonas Odell's Top Ten:

1. UBU by Geoff Dunbar. "A congenial animated version of the play by Alfred Jarry."
2. King Size Canary by Tex Avery. "Anything by Avery would do, but this one has its own twisted logic that makes it especially memorable."
3. Going Equipped by Peter Lord. "A technically brilliant treatment of a serious subject."
4. Anything by Oskar Fischinger.
5. Alice by Jan Svankmajer. "Surrealism never really worked in painting, but in animation it does."
6. Creature Comforts by Nick Park.
7. The Sound of Music by Phil Mulloy. "Totally without compromise. Disgustingly funny and politically provocative."
8. The Three Caballeros (Disney). "No compromise here either, a good alternative if you're not allowed to bring drugs to the island. The last half hour is the ultimate music video."
9. Betty Boop as Snow White (Fleischer Bros.). "Again: surrealism does work in animation, here with a little help from Cab Calloway."
10. Birthday by Janno Poldma.