previous page
TOC
Shorts
Close Encounter How a personal tragedy inspired Joe Mateo to create his beautiful Skydance Animation/Apple Original short Blush.
W
hen Joe Mateo’s beautifully crafted Blush premiered at Annecy this past June, audiences were moved by its lovely visuals and heartfelt storyline. Billed as the inaugural short by Skydance Animation and Apple Original Films, the short centers on an astronaut who crash lands on a desolate dwarf planet, but finds his life saved and forever changed by an ethereal visitor. Mateo is an Emmy-winning writer and story artist (Prep & Landing) and a longtime animation veteran at Disney and Pixar, having worked on features such as Pocahontas, Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, The Emperor’s New Groove and Treasure Planet. In addition to co-writing Meet the Robinsons (and voicing Tiny the T-Rex), Mateo served as story artist on such hits as Bolt, Tangled, Zootopia, Wreck-It Ralph and Raya and the Last Dragon, and head of story on Big Hero 6. Mateo talked to us earlier this year about his labor of love: Animag: Congratulations on all the accolades your short has received so far. Can you tell us a little bit about the origins and inspirations for Blush? Joe Mateo: When I lost my wife about four years ago, I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know what a panic attack was, and it was the first time I had it. Right after that, I felt like I
wasn’t able to breathe. I had a hard time going back to work. I was at Disney at the time, and everyone was very supportive. But drawing and animation has always been my outlet. So I thought, why not channel all of this grief and experience to tell this story? That’s how it all came about. With my kids, being the new air that I breathe, I thought I should share my source of healing and hope with the world.
Did the short start at Disney or was Skydance Animation involved from the beginning? It wasn’t supposed to be a Disney project. When I started toying with the idea of the short, I started thinking about John [Lasseter], with whom I had worked with in the past. He had started his new position at Skydance at that time. He is so good at staying with the filmmaker’s ideas and is very supportive of the true story that
‘We knew when we started the project what our message was going to be, but for me, I didn’t expect the healing to happen to me in the process of making it.’ — Director Joe Mateo
the filmmaker wants to tell. So, I thought it would be awesome to have John as my mentor, because it is always scary to direct your first project. So, I made that leap and decided to tell him why I thought this film had to be made. The design of the planet and the overall visuals of the film are quite striking. Can you tell us a little bit about them? So, I designed the characters and I followed my own personal style, how I always do storyboards. I am really comfortable working in that style, and it fit with the tiny planet. I didn’t plan to design it, but John really liked how I did the storyboards and decided to go with it. For the look of the world, I had a lot of help from my production designer Noëlle Triaureau and my art director Julian Romero Muñoz. One thing that stands out: When we started production, we designed the planet — I had a rough drawing, and then Noëlle did this painting that served as a springboard that really got everything going. Another standout part was the design of the tree and how it grew on the planet. I know it had to be special, but the way I storyboarded it, it was just a basic mango tree growing. But Julian, our art director, came up with this spiral movement. I saw it and I knew it was perfect. It didn’t stop with the tree: It became a unifying element throughout the short. We have the spiral
www.animationmagazine.net 84
TOC
december 21
previous page
