Search form

I Have a Question Mait Laas

In which Chris Robinson asks animators profound and inane questions that have little to do with animation. Today's guest is Estonian animator, Mait Laas.

Mait Laas is an Estonian animator. He’s a really sweet guy. In Soviet times it was rumoured that he was a little known vigilante named BumbleBee Man. Bumblebee man lived is allegeded to have lived in an abandoned Beehive where he stores his beemobile and honeyball rockets. He protected Estonians from evil doers like The Bear, Raccoonator, and the deadly Verroa Destructor. Laas agreed to meet me on February 24th in a field on the island of Saaremaa during a warm evening.

I get the greatest pleasure from....situations from the real life that can inspire me and make me to laugh inside deeply. You can´t really express it and you look like a freezing puppet who is laughing inside... Sometimes those situations are very small – almost invisible. But the unusual connections between the invisible things in this situation, what you are lucky to see – bring great pleasure for you...

Probrably the other people in those situations around you will look at you and say – that you are just crazy.  You estonians...

If I could have – assuming this is your real name – a nom de plume, what would it be?

Honeyman

The sport I do or would like to play is... counting the bees in countryside or going into the smokesauna.  Those sports are making you quickly and intellectually happy and wet.

A (non-family member) person I idolize is.... a nice and smart person, who have opened eyes and knows where to go....

The song that makes me tingle is.... a one lullaby by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt or the estonian “Happy Birthday” song by my daughter Laura and wife Kaire

The funniest thing that happened to me….  I looked into the eyes of the puppet – and this puppet (who has no “life”) - made me laugh (made me feel alive). (NB. See the  first question)

Chris Robinson's picture

A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.