The character of the Jackalope became fleshed out during the animation process. © 2003 Pixar.

Although a traditional animator by trade who’s dabbled with computers over the years (he first used a Commodore 64 when working on educational games), Luckey, one of Pixar’s original gang of five (along with John Lasseter, Docter, Andrew Stanton and Jeff Pidgeon), is best known as the artist who came up with the original design of Woody in Toy Story. “Originally, Woody was a ventriloquist doll,” Luckey recalled. “Disney found them spooky, so I came up with the idea of a cowboy. In my head, it was more like Gabby Hayes than John Wayne. I did something like 150 Woody drawings.” Since then Luckey has done design work on all of the Pixar features, bouncing around from the art department to the story department to animation.

Because Boundin’ adhered closely to the song, the story became locked in early on — a rarity at Pixar, according to Docter, where stories are always changing and improving. However, the personality of the Jackalope was one of the aspects that blossomed once they started animating. “I first had Hoyt Axton in mind, but he died; and then John Hartford, and then he died. I did a rough and John [Lasseter] told me that I should do it.”

Production on Boundin’ began in January 2003 and took 10 months to complete. In addition to writing and directing, Luckey also served as production designer and sang the song, which was recorded in Nashville at OmniSound Studios with Riders in the Sky, the country band heard previously on Toy Story 2 and For the Birds. Joey Miskulin of the Riders produced the music. “I didn’t want western swing,” Luckey insisted. “I wanted more Smothers Bros. or The Kingston Trio. I know three chords on the banjo, but these musicians really know what they’re doing.”

Even though Luckey didn’t actually animate the film, the vibrant style of his original drawings is very evident. © 2003 Pixar.

There were lots of research and preparation, including tap dancing lessons. They even sheared a lamb in front of Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California. “I managed to miss that one,” Luckey chuckled.

As for directing, Luckey said there wasn’t anything to it. He may have acted out a few simple performances, but gave the animators all the credit. “They knocked me on my ass every morning. But then I didn’t think it was going to be edgy enough for them, but when I first presented the idea to them, they clapped. I’ve been impressed with their work ever since I came here.”

Luckey also credited supervising animator Doug Sweetland with really pushing the envelope (he’s the one who captured the G-force implicit in Luckey’s storyboards with Woody and Buzz on the rocket in Toy Story). “It’s all better than what I had in my head. One little scene where the naked lamb does a dumb little dance — I think that’s a wonderful piece of animation. It really grabbed the personality. Subtle things… closeups of the lamb… eye movements… head moves are perfect.”