The omission of “My Father’s Dragon” from the 2023 Oscar nominations record for greatest animated characteristic sparked murmurings of disapproval from inside the trade. The Netflix movie — directed by Nora Twomey and a gorgeously hand-drawn adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s beloved kids’s fantasy novel — had been lapped up by critics, a lot of whom assumed it will simply make the minimize.
But the disquiet solely served to showcase the astonishing observe document of “My Father’s Dragon’s” Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, which had earned an unimaginable 4 Oscar nominations from its first 4 options, beginning with “The Secret of Kells” in 2009 and adopted by “Song of the Sea,” “The Breadwinner” and “Wolfwalkers.”
For Tomm Moore (who directed “The Secret of Kells,” “Song of the Sea” and “Wolfwalkers”), the dearth of a nomination for “My Father’s Dragon” additionally highlighted simply how far animation had come since he co-founded Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny alongside Twomey and Paul Young again in 1999.
“It showed that something amazing had happened in the industry that there were so many gorgeous films that year,” he tells Variety. “We kind of came out of nowhere and seemed like a breath of fresh air. But by the time of ‘My Father’s Dragon,’ Netflix also had its ‘Pinocchio’ stop-motion movie and there were so many other great films. So it’s a positive thing for the industry, even if it was a bit of a disappointment for us.”
Cartoon Saloon — which celebrates its 25th anniversary this 12 months — definitely felt like a breath of recent air when it got here bursting out of the animation blocks with its first characteristic. Set in 9th century Ireland and primarily based on native folklore, “The Secret of Kells,” was met with common popularity of its visually-stunning use of beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, with many saying it hearkened again to the golden age of animation whereas others have been turning en masse to CGI. It turned the primary animation to be given a theatrical launch by GKIDS Films.
The preliminary concept for what would turn out to be “The Secret of Kells” was already there in 1999 when a group of about 10 folks working loosely below the Cartoon Saloon banner first arrange store in what Moore describes as a “freezing cold former orphanage,” an area they got rent-free as a part of Kilkenny’s Young Irish Film Makers initiative. At the time, he says they have been “just a gang of animation graduates” who weren’t but prepared for the true world. “We just wanted to keep doing what we’d been doing in college, to keep it going for a while before we got real jobs.”
It would take six years earlier than the financing for “The Secret of Kells” clicked into place, time they spent creating the script and designs, whereas additionally doing no matter was wanted to pay the payments. They additionally launched their first challenge, the children animated TV sequence “Skunk Fu!,” created by Aidan Harte (now a sculptor). Full time manufacturing on the movie solely kicked off in 2005.
The response — and the Oscar nomination — to their first characteristic didn’t simply put Cartoon Saloon on the map, however earned them a stamp of approval and loud nods of appreciation from their friends within the trade, comparable to Pete Doctor and John Lassiter. It additionally led to high-powered followers, together with Salma Hayek, who requested them to make her animated adaptation of “The Prophet,” and later Angelina Jolie, who exec-produced “The Breadwinner,” directed by Twomey.
“It’s like reputational armour, so people think, ‘OK, these guys are resilient, they’re not going to disappear tomorrow,’” Moore says.
In late 2014, “The Book of Kells” additionally took Moore — by now an Academy member and prepping for the discharge of his second characteristic “Song of the Sea” — to L.A. to the Governor’s Awards, the place Hayao Miyazaki was being offered with a lifetime honor. Having been launched to the animation legend by Lassiter, he then admits he adopted him out to the smoking space to attempt to cling along with his “hero” some extra (having borrowed a cigarette from Young as he didn’t smoke himself). Speaking by way of a translator, the chat could not have precisely flowed, however Miyazaki did share his ashtray with Moore. “It was funny. I kind of followed this poor old Japanese man outside for a cigarette,” he says. “But it was a big moment for a me, as a geek.”
“Song of the Sea” would land Cartoon Saloon one other Oscar nomination in 2015, as would “The Breadwinner” in 2018 and “Wolfwalkers” (which, with “The Secret of Kells” and “Song of the Sea,” make up Moore’s “Irish Folklore Trilogy”) in 2021. By this stage, very like the work of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, the Cartoon Saloon feel and appear was already well-established and adored — all their movies sharing a typical aesthetic thread. This occurred organically, claims Moore, coming from “the shared tastes within the studio,” however he says they’d turn out to be acutely aware of its significance through the years.
“I think we realized that our strength was being hand-drawn and celebrating the fact that it’s hand-drawn,” he says.
The model has continued into Cartoon Saloon’s different work exterior of TV, together with its pre-school present “Puffin Rock” (which final 12 months received the characteristic movie spin-off “Puffin Rock and the New Friends”), and even “Screechers Reech,” the 2023 episode of Disney+’s anthology sequence “Star Wars: Visions” that Young directed.
Cartoon Saloon’s distinctive model has additionally attracted up-and-coming animators into its orbit, one thing which is main its subsequent cinematic section. The studio is at the moment creating its sixth characteristic, “Julián,” primarily based on Jessica Love’s guide “Julián is a Mermaid,” a couple of boy who needs to turn out to be a mermaid. This time it’s being directed by Irish animator Louise Bagnall (her debut characteristic after being Oscar-nominated for her 2017 brief “Late Afternoon”), marking the primary Cartoon Saloon movie not being helmed by one of many founders.
“It’s a big change for the studio,” admits Moore, who provides that, in an age the place AI is the new subject, Cartoon Saloon is eager as ever to champion the craft of hand-drawn animation. “But it’s going to be lovely.”