Il était une fois le dessin animé is Olivier Cotte’s latest work on animation.

French animation writer, teacher and director Olivier Cotte is a busy guy these days. He’s written an encyclopedia of animation (sorry folks, it’s only in French at the moment), a monograph on U.S. independent animator David Ehrlich, and is at work on a few books, including one about the Swiss animator, Georges Schwizgebel. Chris Robinson caught up, via e-mail, with Olivier to find out where he finds the time to do all this stuff.

Chris Robinson: Tell me a bit about your book Il était une fois le dessin animé, which is an encyclopedia of animation.

Olivier Cotte: This encyclopedia was an old dream I had. I fell in love with animation when I was about 10, after seeing Fantasia and the work of Norman McLaren. Two very different ways of making animation! After that, I saw as many animation films as I could for years, and I continue today. About 12 years ago, I had the idea of an encyclopedia and proposed it to several publishers, without success. During this time, I worked as a computer artist for features, shorts and commercials. And I had the possibility to work for a magazine dedicated to animation, Animation Reporter. One day, I proposed the old idea of the encyclopedia to Thierry Steff, the publisher of the magazine who also had a publishing company. He said yes. So I spent three years writing the book.

Fantasia was an early influence on Cotte. © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

CR: How does the book compare, for example, to Bendazzi's encyclopedia? Did you use Bendazzi as an example of what to do and what to avoid?

OC: Bendazzi's work is very impressive and I'm full of admiration for it. As the history of animation is the same for everybody (we will not change the historical facts!), I've tried all the time not to go in the same direction, but with another point of view. It was a difficult thing to manage, but there are two important things to keep in mind. First, I wanted this encyclopedia to be for a general audience. That's why I've included a technical chapter at the beginning, to inform people how we make animated movies, and to give them a better understanding of all the techniques that are used.