After surviving the brain drain of the big studios, animator Mike Ngyuen set out to make a short, personal film which grew into a feature. All images © 2003 July Films, Inc.

Animator Mike Nguyen has traversed a tour of duty at almost all of the major animation studios in the U.S. He's seen firsthand how wasteful overhead, enormous development costs and the conveyor belt technique have drained the life out of animated features for the artists who draw them. After finishing up work on the turbulent ride to finish Osmosis Jones at Warner Bros., Nguyen set out to make a personal short film of his own. Now, three years later, that short has grown into a nearly completed feature entitled My Little World.

Getting to this point took Nguyen a decade, starting with a degree in Character Animation from CalArts. He lists early Disney and animation legend Richard Williams as some of his major influences. In 1989, he started his professional feature animation career as an effects assistant animator on Disney's The Little Mermaid. After working on Disney's The Rescuers Down Under, he served as an animator on the Oscar-nominated classic Beauty and the Beast.

He next went over to Hanna-Barbera to work on Once Upon a Forest, then moved over to Turner Feature Animation for The Pagemaster and Cats Don't Dance. After contributing to Space Jam, he became lead animator on Quest for Camelot and finally assumed the role as supervising animator on The Iron Giant. In the meantime, Nguyen began teaching Character Animation at his alma mater. In 1999, he took freelance jobs on Disney's The Tigger Movie and DreamWorks' The Road to El Dorado.

Princess, the best soccer player for the Town Kids, finds her skills challenged for the first time when she loses the ball to Blue.

In 2000, Nguyen decided to make a film based around the dance-like motion of soccer. He felt inspired by his childhood love of the game and the announcement that the 2002 World Cup Soccer Championships would be held for the first time in Asia, split between Korea and Japan. Wondering if the film could be part of the festivities, Nguyen contacted his acquaintances in Korea, who told him that there wasn't much theatrical interest in a 20-minute film. As the story started to develop in his mind, Nguyen discovered a much longer tale, about friendship and the charting of life's simple pleasures, germinating. Before too long, this idea was strong enough to secure funding for a feature from Korean producer Anhee Choi. Hence, Nguyen formed July Films to produce his personal opus.