Mar 26, 2019

Passion Pictures Partners with Disney for "101 Dalmatian Street"

Passion Pictures produces some of the best animation in the UK, and Disney knows it. The London-based studio grew out of Disney's 1987 production of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and has already produced several shorts for Disney, including an episode of "Rocket & Groot." So when Disney was looking for a studio to produce the largest animation production ever in the country, Passion was the obvious choice for a heritage series based on the "101 Doggies" series.

"101 Dalmatian Street," which premiered on the Disney Channel in the UK on March 18, actually grew out of another aborted project. Disney and Passion Animation Studios (Passion's animation division) had been working together on a pilot for a show based on the art of James Jarvis, "Green Park Coaches Stars. When that fell through, Disney proposed this show instead. The idea of recreating the original Dalmatian in 2D really appealed to us. We said yes."

Of course, the series is not a straight remake. It takes place in Camden (an area of London within walking distance of Passion Studios), but in the present day, where 101 dogs (many of them descendants of the doggies in the original film) live unsupervised at the titular address, hang out there, have jobs, and generally lead a more dynamic than their ancestors' living a more dynamic life.

The concept was developed by Helsinki-based Gigglebug Entertainment in collaboration with Disney. By the time it reached Passion, design had begun and Maria O'Loughlin was on board as screenwriter. The studio had never worked on a full series before and needed a production partner. It then solicited the best entries from Vancouver's Atomic Cartoons, Inc.

"We always wanted to do all the front-end creative work here," Speller explains. "We send Atomic a locked animatic [example below], which is an edited storyboard with final dialogue and placeholder sound effects. We also send them launch notes on the animation and effects. They are responsible for the animation and compositing of "Harmony" and we and Disney see their work at various stages. We then complete post-production, including music, sound design, and final colors." Passion uses Photoshop for design and Harmony for storyboarding (with some editing in Premiere). About 50 people work on the project, with another 65 at Atomic. Disney itself does not do the animation, but is closely involved in every stage of the production.

Atomic's animators have responded very well to Passion's guidance, says series director Miklos Weigert. 'We were keen to keep the style relevant to the film. Of course, the platform and the type of storytelling are completely different. The film is more cartoonish and driven by comedy, so we wanted the animation to be more squishy, stretchy, and flexible. Still, the team adheres to the basic rules of canine behavior. They bring their own pet dogs (though no Dalmatians) into the office to study their whines and movements. Anything that breaks the rules, such as a character that gestures while moving, is excluded.

When "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" was released in 1961, it looked different from Disney's previous films. The reason for this was xerography, a technical process developed (with Xerox) by animator and all-around innovator Ub Iwerks. This allowed the animator's drawings to be printed directly on the cell, eliminating the inking process and preserving the sketch-like lines of the original drawing 101 Dalmatian Avenue references this aesthetic.

"The original was one of the first films where you could see the artist's hand," says Jez Hall, one of the episode directors. Prior to that, everything was hand-drawn by a team of several people, so it was pretty standard ink lines." This is a 2D kit show, but if you look at the kits, they all have little lines in them.

Xerography also made it possible for Disney artists to copy-paste all the spots on the dogs, which would have been a nightmare to redraw each one. Today, digital technology makes similar shortcuts possible. On the other hand, "101 Dogs" differentiates the dogs even more than the film. Because setting limits triggers creativity," he said. I had a lot of fun playing with black and white, or with proportions. Incorporating new assets and little accessories and ......."

. Hall explains, "It's all about staging and composition. The dogs are basically white shapes with black spots. Composition is something that breaks down as soon as something moves. So we talked over and over again about poses, lines of movement, and the rule of thirds." Still, the team fudged it from time to time: some shots featured more than 101 Dalmatians.

Not every dog had a speaking role (yet), but the team designed 450 characters, 900 locations, and 730 props. The first series will consist of 40 11-minute episodes, 10 two-minute shorts (produced by Gigglebug), and five 22-minute specials. Overall, the production will last two and a half years.

"The volume, scale, and our ambitions for this series were very high. Our team met that challenge with great energy. They need to keep that energy going: Passion's next project is its first feature film, an animated/live-action hybrid in development with DNA Films and TriStar Pictures. Meanwhile, 101 Dalmatian Street will be released in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in the spring, with the rest of the world to follow later this year.