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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.05 - AUGUST 2000
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Scandals, Smokescreens and a Golden Age?: Canadian Animation in
the 21st Century Since the NFB left in the 1960s, the Ottawa animation scene, with the exception of a few service studios and the Ottawa festival, has been relatively quiet. However, an independent scene is slowly emerging. In 1999, the Ottawa festival joined with the Ottawa Independent Filmmakers Co-operative (IFCO) to purchase an animation stand. IFCO animator Brian McPhail has produced two poorly animated, but deliriously demented films called Stiffy (which toured with Spike and Mike and is now being turned into a TV series) and most recently, Down a Dark Chimney. Calvin Climie is currently at work on a stop-motion film, and Dan Sokolowski, a noted experimental filmmaker in Ottawa, continues to merge elements of animation and live-action into his picturesque landscape films. In late 2000, former NFB animator, Ryan Larkin (director of the Oscar nominated Walking and a protégé of Norman McLaren) will work on his first animated film in over twenty years.
Dynomight Cartoons employees Tavis Silbernagel and Nick Cross have started their own studios, Joy Lab Pictures and Do It For Me Productions, respectively. Their goal is to self-finance a film per month until they have a viable show reel. The animators have had early success with their delightfully shocking odes to Terry Toons, Fruit, Juice! Protein? and Der Unterseefraulein. South of Ottawa, in a town called Toronto, the animation scene remains primarily industry dominated, but thanks to the efforts of Patrick Jenkins, among others, there seems to be a revival in animation production through the re-formation of the Toronto Animated Image Society. Most recently, veteran animator Arnie Lipsey had his film Almonds and Wine screened at the World Animation Celebration. In an attempt to bridge the gap between commercial and independent animators a few companies have turned toward the production of independent short films. Montreal's Pascal Blais Productions, a commercial studio, which has worked with the likes of Caroline Leaf and Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back), co-produced the short film, The Old Lady and The Pigeons by Sylvain Chomet. The film was met with resounding success at festivals around the world and brought a new respect for the Blais studios. Most recently, Blais partnered up with Russian animator Alexander Petrov to create a 22-minute IMAX animation film based on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea. Aside from a variety of awards including the Oscar, Petrov's adaptation has attracted thousands of spectators to see this 'independent' animation film. In Ottawa, Dynomight Cartoons recently co-produced a humourous homage to Ingmar Bergman called Tea for Two by newcomer Nick Cross. Whether studio sponsored short films proves to be an adequate venue for independent animators remains to be seen, but it does provide an interesting option. "Where is here?" Canadian literary critic, Northrop Frye once noted is a question that pervades Canadian culture. It can also to be applied to Canadian animation, but unlike other facets of Canadian culture (literature, music, painting), and very much like hockey, there was once a sense of where here was: before 1972 and the historic series with the Russians, hockey was a Canadian game. Before the 1980s, Canadian animation was the National Film Board of Canada. Just as hockey is now flourishing as an international and increasingly Americanized business, so too is animation. Where there was once certainty, there were also limitations. Where there is now uncertainty and fragmentation, there are also possibilities. Like hockey which "is re-invented at the drop of every puck," Canadian animation is re-born with every drawing, print out, scan, cut out, scratch, or with whatever tools are out there. Canada, perhaps the first post-modern country, is a constantly shifting space where here is also out there, anywhere. Research Assistant: Heidi Blohme. Thanks to the following: Leslie Bishko, Eric Roy, Carol Beecher, Rene Jodoin, Gail Noonan, Helen Hill, James McSwain and Tom McSorley for letting me poach his hockey analogy.
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Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.