Monsieur Pett

It was there all the time. It was there when as a little boy I sat in the front row of the local flea pit and I was confronted by John Hubley's "Rooty toot toot"... When I was intensely touched by the charm of Bob Cannon's "Madeline"... When I learned to see the world through the optic of Picasso, Klee and Miro... When I discovered that Saul Steinberg used the same optic as them but his work was published in the comic papers... When I was being serenaded by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis... When going to an art school where on Saturdays they showed the animated films of Norman McLaren... When going with my mates to the cartoon cinemas of Buenos Aires, where we watched continuously the magical "Mutual" or "Essanay" Chaplin's shorts, falling in love with Edna Purviance.... When being shattered with the grainy black and white Paris photographed by Raoul Coutard in the Jean Luc Goddard and Francois Truffaut films... When reading the biography of Joseph Pujol, "Le Petomane," in Barcelona...(the first time I had read about him was in Apollinaire's "Le poete assassine")... When storyboarding an animated film about Le Petomane," in London, and having to abandon the project to continue animating thousands of commercials. That is why I had to make "Monsieur Pett;" it was there all the time. All we had to do was to push the pencil a little bit...luckily I was surrounded by a wonderful group of friends and colleagues who also shared the dream and put their passion and energy into it.
-- Oscar Grillo