A survey of animation and visual effects artists, asking, "What" ten animated films would you want to have with you if stranded on a desert island?
This month, we asked a few executives involved in creating animation for the Internet what animated films they would want to have with them if they were stranded on a desert island. Brad deGraf is president of Protozoa, a San Francisco-based, hi-tech animation studio which has produced several projects for the World Wide Web, including 3-D Dilbert and Floops. Jan Mallis, herself a former member of the Protozoa team, is currently president of blitcom, a company founded in 1997 to create VRML programming for the Web, using technology such as Netscape Netcaster, Marimba Castanet Transmitter and Cosmo Player technology. David Vogler is a self-described "graphic artist gone interactive," who was very recently appointed vice president/creative director for Nickelodeon Mediaworks. He was previously vice president of Kid's Content for Disney Online. Brad deGraf's Top Ten: I mostly like wacko characters and stories. Technique is great if it's in service of that, but writing and voice are really what's critical. 1. The Wrong Trousers (Aardman) for the writing, characters, staging, and animation, perfectly concocted. 2. The Great Cognito by Will Vinton. 3. Quasi at the Quackadero by Sally Cruikshank. 4. Panspermia by Karl Sims: computer animation, no characters, but a story nonetheless. 5. The Wizard of Speed and Time by Mike Jittlov. 6. Betty Boop's Sleeping Beauty (Fleischer Studios): the one with Cab Calloway as a ghost doing "St. James Infirmary." 7. George Pal's Puppetoons. 8. Futuropolis by Steve Segal and Phil Trumbo, and every artist that lived in Richmond, Virginia in the late `70s. 9. How to Kiss by Bill Plympton. 10. Family Dog by Brad Bird and Steven Spielberg. Jan Mallis' Selections: 1. Farmer Alfalfa cartoons (Terrytoons). 2. The animated TV series, Crusader Rabbit , "The Case of the Missing 18th Hole" episode by Jay Ward and Alexander Anderson. 3. I Love to Singa by Tex Avery (Warner Bros.). 4. Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century by Chuck Jones (Warner Bros.). 5. What's Opera Doc? by Chuck Jones (Warner Bros.). 6. A double Disney dose: Rescuers Down Under and Fantasia (Disney). 7. Toy Story (Pixar). 8. Family Dog by Brad Bird and Steven Spielberg. 9. The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton/Henry Selick (Disney). 10. Floops : all 65 episodes (Protozoa). David Vogler's Favorites: 1. The Ren & Stimpy Show,when it was directed by John Kricfalusi. 2. The Simpsons (20th Century Fox/Film Roman). 3. A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles Schultz/Bill Melendez. 4. The Penny cartoon on The Pee Wee Herman Show (Aardman). 5. Patchhead by Gregory Harrison (Carolina Pictures). 6. "Oh Yeah! Cartoons" (Nickelodeon). 7. Inside-Out Boy (Nickelodeon). 9. All Warner Bros. shorts from the 1940s and 1950s featuring Bugs & Daffy, and directed by Robert McKimson, Chuck Jones, etc. 10. Any Charlex animated TV ad or music video from the 1980s. (Charlex, NYC).
