Oscar nominated director Andrew Chesworth has such an interesting career. He worked at Disney animating on Frozen, Feast, Big Hero Six, Zootopia, Moana, Get a Horse! to name a few, before working with SPA Studios on Klaus and Ember, as well as directing two of my all time favourite animated shorts: One Small Step and The Brave Locomotive.

Sitting down with Andrew was a great privilege, especially when he told me he wanted to talk about Disney’s 1940 Pinocchio. Often overlooked in the oeuvre of early Disney animated features, Pinocchio is a true tour de force in pushing the medium forward. More expensive than the highly successful Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, you can see no corners were cut with Pinocchio. Approaching with the mentality of no limitations, Walt Disney and his team were firing on all cylinders, finding a strong moral story, complex characters with distinct personalities mixed with incredible technical innovations as well as standout artistry in animation.

These are a few of the things we talked about:

• The making of One Small Step and The Brave Locomotive
• The stylistic approach of each animator, including the criminally overlooked Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla.
• Irony at the base level of Pinocchio and the dangerous world that lurks in every corner

& so much more!

I’m really excited to hear your thoughts after listening to us ramble on!

Colin Jack is currently a co-director at Dreamworks Animation, and has storyboarded on everything from Ed, Edd n Eddy, Captain Underpants, Puss in Boots, The Croods, Boss Baby as well as more recently been Head of Story on Trolls Band Together. As we siphoned through a list of potential candidate works to talk about, he quickly decided on Fantastic Mr. Fox, the 2009 debut animation from visionary director Wes Anderson. I was so excited ot get to share a discussion about his work with Colin. These are a few of the things we talked about: - Moving from Live Action to Storyboarding - The themes of Fatherhood in the movie, reflected in Colin’s Life - The design choice of Fantastic Mr. Fox as it doesn’t resemble the visual style of Quentin Blake. & so much more! I’m really excited to hear your thoughts after listening to us ramble on!

Tom Bancroft needs no introduction, but I’ll try to briefly summarise his career. Graduating from CalArts he was catapulted in Disney Animation at the beginning of its Renaissance. Working on nearly every film of that time. Animating Iago, Young Simba, Pocahontas and Mushu to name a few. Currently directing Light of the World with John Schaffer as well as bring CEO of Pencilish Studios and a creator of MerMay. He previously created the documentary Pencils vs. Pixels about the rise of 3D as it stole the light of hand drawn animation’s rebirth.

Speaking to Tom on this podcast was amazing. I’d recently gotten to help them with their famous Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast while they were here in Dublin. I was even more delighted when Tom chose to talk about Animation Legend, Glen Keane. I can’t think of another artist today who’s soul speaks from their pencil. His legacy is vast, so Tom chose to talk about the rise of Glen Keane in Disney during the 80s and 90s.

These are a few of the things we talked about:

• The making of Mulan in Florida
• Glen Keane’s work on the Bear in The Fox and the Hound and Ratigan
• Why Glen is a fine artist disguised as an animator

& so much more!

I’m really excited to hear your thoughts after listening to us ramble on!