FETUE .

A Superbe Year for French Animation

A record number of top-notch animated movies are slated to be released in France. Is it just

T
coincidence or a sign of things to come?
here must have been something special in French waters (Perrier, Evian orVittel?), because it seems that the country is churning out more high-quality
animated features than ever before. After serving up the Oscar-nominated The Illusionist, Allez Raconte, A Cat in Paris (Line Vie de Chat), Arthur 3: Lo
Guerre des Deux Mondes and Santa's Apprentice in 2010, the country is continuing its hot streak with titles such as Titeuf Le Film, The Rabbi's Cat (Le
Chat du Rabbin), The Prodigies, Les Contes de la Nuit, Un Monstre h Paris, The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart and Cinderella 3-D.
Although many of these titles may not get the worldwide publicity and attention of the latest studio offerings from Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks, each one
of them offers inspiring new ways of telling stories and experiments with the possibilities of the medium in ways that we rarely see in Hollywood blockbusters.

The Double
Life of a
Parisian Cat
Take, for example, the 2D ani-
mated feature A Cat in Paris (tine
Vie de Chat), which was released last
year in France and is just beginning
its run in festivals and select theaters
around the world. Directed by Jean-
Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, this
charming tale is tailor-made for dis-
ceming family audiences. Produced
by Folimage, the film is distributed
by Gebeka Films in France, Film Dis-
tribution (worldwide) and GKids (in
the U.S.) and co-produced by Lu-
nanime, Lumiere, Digit Anima and
Rh6ne-Alpes Cinema.
The beautifully animated proj-
I4,11flo Opormfvc:
ect centers on a Parisian cat that
is part of a secret ring of thieves at
night. Writer/director Alain Gagnol
tells us that the inspiration for the
movie came from his own person-
al experience."From my window, I
can see the roofs of the buildings in
my neighborhood:' he says. "There
are a lot of cats that wander out
there all night long, and I couldn't
help wondering where they were
going and where they come
from.. .that was the beginning of
the story!"
Gagnol began the script in 2004
and it took about two and a half
years to finish it.The film, which cost
about 4.5 million euros ($6.6 mil-
lion), began production in 2007 and
wrapped in four years. "We wanted
to make a film noir for children, with
gangsters and cops, presented in a
quite realistic atmosphere:' he adds.
"For instance, our cat is a real cat,
he can't talk."
The hand-drawn animation took
about nine months to execute.
"We only used computers for the
coloring part:' notes the director
"Even the lights on the characters
are hand-drawn as well, which was
a huge amount of work. I have been
working with Jean-Loup for a long
time, but we only made shorts be-
fore. I wrote the scripts, Jean-Loup
is the art designer, and we both
directed all the movies. The chal-
lenge was to be able to work with a
big team! We had to be very careful
about the style."
Gagnol and Felicioli began their
partnership at Folimage about 15
years ago. While Gagnol joined the
studio to work as an animator, he
wasn't quite happy with his own
drawings and wanted to partner
with someone who could deliver
original designs. Felicioli, in turn, was
looking for a writer, so life at the
studio worked out perfectly for the
two friends.
One of the qualities that sets A
Cat in Parisapart from the onslaught
of similar-looking CG-animated fea-
tures opening at the box office each
week is the fact that the story is told
in classic 2D animation, and that's
something Gagnol is quite proud
of. "The 2D animation fits our style
perfectly," he notes. "Anyway, we
need to be different from the oth-
er movies which are mostly made
with computers. And, to be honest,
for us, the easiest way to make our
films is hand-drawn animation be-
cause that's how we've always done
our shorter projects:"
Gagnol, whose next project is
Phantom Boy, a detective tale about
a boy with superpowers who helps
a wheelchair-bound policeman
battle a mob boss, says the popu-
larity of comic books in France has
helped bolster the animation in-
dustry. "Many of the comic books
are best sellers and a portion of
the audience is used to appreciat-
ing many different kinds of drawing
styles," says the director who counts
himself as a fan of Satoshi Kon and
Pixar movies. "I think that's one of
the reasons why French animated
movies are very different from each
other We also have the tradition of
the films by auteurs, for better or
for worse."

12 www.animationmagazine.net jun 11
 Out of Africa

A very different kind of cat is the

center of another animated movie
coming to French theaters in June.
Based on a popular graphic novel by
Joann Sfar, The Rabbi's Cat is set in Al-
geria in the 1930s and is directed by
Antoine Delesvaux and Sfar himself
Continuing the country's tradition of
artistic, traditionally animated proj-
ects, the movie centers on a cat who
decides to practice Judaism after he
swallows a parrot and learns how to
speak.
Delesvaux, a longtime fan of Sfar's
comics, and his team at Banjo Studio
in Paris began work on the project in
2008. He says it was obvious that this
colorful tale about a cat who learns
how to speak in Africa during the
'30s seemed to lend itself very well
to animation. "I had been a hug fan
of Joann's work even before meeting
him in person," says the producer-
director "We decided to collaborate
with Clement Oubrerie through our
company Autochenille Productions
and Banjo Studio to adapt the comic
books as an animated feature."
Working with a budget of less than
10 million euros ($12.7 million), De-
lesvaux and his company were keen
on staying true to the film's graphic
roots, "Joann works with pen and ink
and we used the same traditional
tools in our studio and got great re-
sults. The animators worked closely
with the actors to depict realistic
movements for the characters. You
can really see the evolution of Joann's
design on the screen. The coloring
process was also very complicated
because the backgrounds required
special individual lighting treatment."
The director, who names Miyazaki,
Brad Bird and Disney's Nine Old Men
as some of his influences, says that
he's happy to see the boundaries be-
tween animation and live-action films
disappear in recent years. "We are
seeing the growth of an industry that
has too often been put aside in the
past," he notes,"There is a rich abun-
dance of exciting ideas and talent in
the French animation sector and we
are experiencing growth in all areas Finding Religion: After swallowing a parrot, a cat finds himself able to communicate with human beings and decides to
of animation lately" become a practicing Jew in Banjo Studio's adaptation of Joann Sfar's graphic novel The Rabbi's Cat.

jun 11 www.anlmationmagazine.net 13

Angtry Toons
In Central Park
In addition to traditional 2D and CG
features, French auteurs are also experi-
menting with motion-capture technol-
ogy to deliver projects aimed at older
audiences.A perfect example is director
Antoine Charreyron's upcoming adap-
tation of the bestselling book by Ber-
14 www.animationmagazine.net
nard Lenteric, The Prodigies.
Produced by Onyx Films,
Fidl6it6 Films, Luxanimation,
Scope Pictures and Studio
37, the film will be released
in France by Warner Bros.
on June 8.The animation was
handled by DQ Entertain-
ment (India) and Attitude
and Norman studios. The
fantasy centers on five young
people with special powers
who band together to plan
their revenge after they're
assaulted by dark forces in
NewYork's Central Park.
Charreyron, who began
his career working on video-
games such as Tomb Raider
VI,Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
and Alphanim's TV series Galactik Foot-
boll says he was naturally drawn to the
movie because if its powerful subject
matter"For me, the novel was quite fas-
cinating because it really focuses on the
anger that you have as a teenager, which
you lose when you grow up," says Char-
reyron. "Iwas the same way-when I
was younger, I had an amazing amount
of anger and I was quite aggressive, but
jun 11
I learned to control it as Igrew up. So I
thought the author chose an interesting
way of exploring this subject."
Relying on his expertise in video-
games, Charreyron and his team cre-
ated the world of The Prodigies by using
a combination of motion-capture tech-
nology (Vicon) and key-frame anima-
tion. Working with a budget that was
reportedly between $16 and $20 mil-
lion, the facial animation was created by
the usual method of putting markers on
actors' faces, but for larger sequences,
especially for the scene in which New
York is destroyed, key-frame and CG
technologies were employed.
"My first job out of school was as a
key-frame animator, and I like to use dif-
ferent technologies together," says the
34-year-old director "Ithink the most
important thing to remember in a proj-
ect like this is connecting with the feel-
ings and emotions of the characters."
When asked about some of the
negative reception motion-capture
films have received in recent years,
Charreyron points out that there are
certain rules that artists have to re-
spect in the world of mo-cap. "Look
at Avatar, for example," he explains.
"You have to create a specific style in
this world. If you try and be realistic,
the human eye can detect the illusion.
Your designs can't be too close to real-
ity.That's why you accept the tall blue
aliens in Avatar You feel the emotions
of the characters. For The Prodigies, we
relied on the amazing work of Marvel
artist Humberto Ramos, who created
these angular designs for the charac-
ters, which are far from realistic."
Like many of his compatriots, the di-
rector of The Prodigies is excited about
the doors that new technologies and vi-
sionaries like James Cameron and Zack
Snyder have opened in recent years. "I
think animation is ready to tackle top-
ics beyond cartoony animals," he offers.
"Pixar and DreamWorks have done
amazing work in the family feature
arena, but I think audiences are ready
to embrace CG-animated action mov-
ies or science fiction fantasies. Here in
France, we are fortunate to have artis-
tic control over our movies, so we can
push the envelope a bit farther Our ani-
mated features have more in common
with indie art pictures in the U.S., so we
are able to exercise more freedom in
our projects."
 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Title: A Superbe Year for French Animation

Source: Anim Mag 25 no4 Je 2011 p. 12-14

ISSN: 1041-617X
Publisher: Animation Magazine
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