Not every Disney film gets an animated short, but when you see Wreck-It Ralph in theaters over the next few weeks, you get the added bonus of viewing Paperman — a beautiful combination of hand-drawn and CG animation set to a score that’s both moving and telling. Paperman is a simple, yet elegant, story of two people who meet by chance on a train platform in New York City. While the takeaway may be different for every viewer, I felt Paperman was a story of fate, destiny, and how against all odds, love is possible — as long as you follow your heart, that little voice inside of you, or in the case of Paperman … dozens of paper airplanes 😉
While I was out in L.A. for the Wreck-It Ralph press event, I had the exclusive opportunity to interview Kristina Reed, producer of Paperman. Take a look behind-the-scenes:
How long did it take to make Paperman?
It was about 14 months in all. One of the things about making a short at Disney Animation is has to fit in the cracks between our big features. So for most of the project, there were never more than 10 people on it.
Will Disney do more of this technique?
We want to play with it some more. We feel honestly like it’s somewhat our responsibility as one of the premiere in animation houses and certainly the house that invented this art. We’re hoping that this sort of inspires other folks to come in and play with looks. There’s a vast frontier out there that is not just sort of hyper real CG, which is sort of where a lot of animation’s going right now.
What does the CG contribute to what we’re seeing in Paperman?
Well, what CG has that hand drawn struggles with is a feeling of depth. Like you feel like you can step into the world. You feel like they’re running on real sidewalks and down real streets. And, you know, the– the way the light hits them. And you feel like there’s actually volume to those characters. They don’t just feel like, um, two-dimensional paper. So, uh, I feel like we’re very much sort of pulling the best out of both art forms.
And one extra little tid-bit from Paperman: though they aren’t named in the short, the characters were named “George” and “Meg” by the animators 🙂
Paperman is in theaters now, showing before Wreck-It Ralph — Make sure to get to your seat early so you don’t miss it!Â
Special thanks to Walt Disney Pictures for providing me the opportunity to attend the Wreck-It Ralph press day. All opinions are my own.
