William Joyce: Making art come to life
Author/illustrator/filmmaker William Joyce’s imagination has taken many shapes, from children’s books to animated characters, New Yorker covers, and feature films. His incredible sense of humor always prevails. A resident of Shreveport who is from a colorful southern family, Joyce is co-founder of the animation and visual effects Moonbot Studios with Reel FX co-founder Brandon Oldenburg. He also serves as the artistic director for Artspace, Shreveport’s first arts center dedicated to the creation, production, presentation, and exploration of all of the art disciplines for multigenerational audiences.
Technological advances have enhanced Joyce’s work significantly since he first began writing books and creating animated series such as Rolie Polie Olie (for which he won three Emmys). Additionally, advances in technology have also helped him create character designs for blockbuster movies such as Toy Story and A Bug’s Life; and as production designer/producer for Robots; and executive producer for Meet the Robinsons, based on his award-winning book, A Day with Wilbur Robinson.
His latest venture, a 13-minute animated short by Moonbot Studios called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, is a humorous, allegorical tale about the curative powers of stories. Joyce and co-director Oldenburg present a hybrid style of animation that is reminiscent of silent films and MGM Technicolor musicals. Joyce and his team used a variety of techniques, including miniatures, computer animation, and 2D animation. Artspace recently provided a walk-through exhibition of the amazing set.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which was selected to premiere at the 26th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, was inspired by “equal measures of Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books,” according to Moonbot.
Moonbot Studios and Twin Engine Labs (an idea development company based in Shreveport) recently teamed up to create a new app for an iPad/iPhone based on The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. The new app will make the children’s story come alive. The objective is for audiences to experience the story through different venues. Nearly every page will have something interactive, which pushes the story forward. The new app is slated for completion around mid-March 2011.
On both the page and screen, Joyce is beloved for his unique characters and a visual style that harkens back to earlier eras. His artwork, which has been exhibited in museums throughout the United States, has been collected by numerous celebrities including Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg.
I recently spoke with the wonderfully witty Joyce at Moonbot Studios and asked what he and his imagination have been up to lately.
I understand the world premiere of your new short film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, was featured at the 26th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which had films from 49 countries this year. How do you feel about this latest honor?
It’s a great honor. If you win, you can qualify for an Oscar. At the Santa Barbara Film Festival, they only take 10 shorts. We are just starting this process of getting it out there. We started Moonbot about a year ago and just moved into our studio in August. We were building the studio while we were also making the short. The sets were great fun to build. We were trying to use old technology and new technology to create something in between. It’s our way of stating how new media is evolving. It is also proof of how this studio can do world-class animation. This short is sort of a calling card. We currently have five or six other projects that we are developing. We wanted to have our own shop here in Louisiana. No one has ever done that level of animation here. And we now have the tax initiatives here that are equivalent to those in foreign countries.
One of my very favorite computer animated films of all time is Toy Story. What served as your inspiration for conceptualizing endearing characters such as Buzz Lightyear, who was played by Tim Allen? And did you have any favorite other little characters?
I was part of the team that did conceptualize him. I created the three odd little aliens. They weren’t even a character in the script at first. It was very collaborative. I worked at Pixar when there were only 20 people there. It was a lot fun being a part of the beginning.
If you had to be a character in Robots, who would you be and why?
I produced and designed Robots. My favorite character in Robots is Diesel, the little blue guy. He was really pure in his dialogue.
As executive producer of Meet the Robinsons, would you say that part of its inspiration came from your childhood in Shreveport?
There was a big house where a very eccentric family lived. I was friends with one of the kids. My own family was pretty eccentric, too.
We all have favorite movies we recall from childhood. I understand you liked Gone with the Wind. What about The Wizard of Oz? Did that movie have any affect on your imagination while growing up?
Sure, I mean The Wizard of Oz forged my creative identity for the first time. It was just so fantastic. And sunny and odd, and touching and terrifying, and cool and exciting. It has such a visceral purity in its fairy- tale magnificence. It depicts the whole pop tapestry of our lives. I can probably recite it by heart. The production was so fraught with disaster. The Wicked Witch caught on fire, they scrapped Dorothy’s costume and hair and completely redesigned her whole look, and they had to recast the Tin Man. There’s a saying that “Hollywood makes its best movies.”
Could you tell me something about the source material you are providing for the upcoming 2012 film, The Guardians of Childhood, with DreamWorks Animation?
They’re doing a big press release on it next week. It’s based on a series of novels and pictures that I’m working on. It’s about the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, the Man in the Moon, and Santa Claus. We give them a compelling mythology and they work as a team. The boogie man is called Pitch. He’s a shadow. He’s not as scary as the Wicked Witch of the West.
How much of the illustration and animation do you actually do on these films?
I usually design the characters completely, up to a point. More and more, I sort of guide others. It’s really fun. I have a lot of amazing talent I work with.
Do you have any favorite restaurants in Shreveport?
The Village is a great little place, dark and intimate, delicious and fun. Wine Country has an adventurous young chef; it is boisterous and loud. Cush's Grocery has amazing po-boys and is great for lunch. An old school place with great po-boys is Herby-K's. My brother-in-law is about to open a restaurant in Shreveport featuring south Louisiana cooking. He went to cooking school down there. He has a slightly different slant on south Louisiana cooking. He makes the best po-boys and étouffée!
What is the best thing about living in Shreveport for the kind of work that you do?
You can really, really concentrate on your work. We have our 10 favorite places to go. They pay attention to us when we need to go en masse and work and play at the same time. Shreveport is a good size city, and it is absolutely better than L.A. I don’t need to do that again. ✦
