When animator Jason Boose graduated from Oakville’s Sheridan College, he immediately went on to work on Don Bluth's 1997 film Anastasia.
From there, he jumped to the Mouse House where he animated scenes for Mulan, Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear. When Disney shut down their cel animation division in 2004, Boose went to work for Pixar, where he worked on Cars, Ratatouille and WALL-E, plus the short “Presto.” From there, he animated key scenes in Disney/Pixar's latest blockbuster, Up, which was written and directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc.).
In this exclusive interview, Suite 101 chatted with Jason about his contributions to the movie, and how Up is not just another animated film.
S101: How did you get involved with Up? Did you have a specific title?
Jason: “All the animators work on every film, so I transitioned right from WALL-E to Up. As an animator, you’re responsible for making the characters act, emote with a personality. The voice tracks are done first by the actors so we’ll get a voice track, take a 3-D model and make it perform, make it believable in the physics and the acting, all that kind of stuff.
“I didn’t have a specific title, I was just an animator.”
Were there any specific characters you worked on? Specific scenes?
“I did a lot of Carl. I worked a lot on the storm sequence, where Carl’s house is tumbling through the storm, and I did a lot of stuff where Dug the talking dog is introduced, plus a bunch of other scenes that I can’t really nail down.”
What were some of the challenges in the storm sequence?
“That was tough because you have this elderly man who’s in this action-oriented sequence. He’s running around the house and he’s trying to protect all these personal possessions as they’re crashing to the ground, he’s doing all this active stuff. But he’s an old guy, so he moves differently. It’s easier with a young guy, because you can have him sprinting around the kitchen, but Carl uses a walker or a cane to get around so you have to make it believable that there’s this 80-year-old man doing these things.”
What helped you overcome that?
“A lot of reference. We studied a lot of older actors, just watching the way elderly people move, study, study, study, basically.”
Was there anyone in particular you used as a body reference for Carl?
“We watched a lot of Ed Asner, of course. We watched Cocoon, a lot of the elderly actors in there. A big influence was the character of Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption, he was played by James Whitmore.”
What were you particularly proud of in Up when you show it to other animators? What do you think you accomplished in that film that a lot of other animated films haven’t done?
“Well, I think one of the big things is, how many films do you have where your star is an 80-year-old man? To put an elderly man in an action-type role, and even some of the heavier tones: his wife has passed away, she couldn’t have a baby. It’s pretty heavy stuff for an animated film. That’s pretty much what I’m most proud of: to be part of a film that’s willing to tackle things like that, you know?
“It seems there’s a standard recipe for success in animation, certain types of films and I think Up breaks a lot of those conventions.”
Also in having an Asian character as the 2nd lead actor. Whose idea was that?
“The character of Russell is actually inspired by an animator here: the director of “Partly Cloudy,” Peter Sohn, because he’s such a great personality and everybody loves him. Other people might say different, but that’s my opinion! (laughs)”
A large part of Up is the dialogue between Russell and Carl: someone who’s very energetic and naïve versus someone who’s very deliberate and set in their ways. How did you work that relationship?
“It’s tricky because it’s always a back-and-forth: you’re trying to play the opposites in the character, and they both grow because of their opposite nature. So, when you’re animating, it’s something you always have to be aware of, with each frame they’re going to be doing very different things, they’re always performing in a different way.
“Sometimes you’ll see them act similarly: there’s a sequence where you see Russell talking about his father, and he mentions Phyllis and Carl says, “You call your mother by her first name?” and Russell goes, “Phyllis isn’t my mother.” And you get this idea that Russell’s from a broken home, and doesn’t get much attention from his father. That’s when the characters start to relate to each other more, and their body positions become more similar.”
(In Part #2 of this interview, Jason discusses the problems he created while animating Up, and the differences between working in cel animation versus CGI)
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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