February '10     

"Pups of Liberty" is an animated short film that is hand drawn in full feature style. It tells the story of the Boston Tea Party with cats and dogs. It has been nominated for an Annie Award for Best Short. This is the third Best Short nomination for us, including "Chestnut Tree" in 2007 and "Boys Nite Out" in 2004.

Bert and I love making films - we met in high school at an animation class. We are always working on something. One year we were living overseas and I couldn't get a work visa, so I did a lot of writing, designing, and story for this film.

I am a big history buff, and I really like early American history because of all the social dynamics going on at the time. There were so many changes and events that were initiated by regular people just like us, and the stories that come from that time period feel very relatable. Plus, I confess, I love those tri-corner hats.

I also really like fables. The first Disney film I had at home was "Robin Hood", so I've always been into the idea of telling stories in an allegorical fashion with animals. When it came down to trying to clarify what side the characters were on it was simpler to just do cats and dogs, and it just seemed funny to me, picturing these very serious cats walking around in uniform (by the way, I happen to be a cat lover). Also turning everyone into animals brings lightness to heavy concepts like taxes and representation. In the US, kids begin studying US History about 4th grade so originally I had that age group in mind, but I hope that it can appeal beyond that.

When we came back to the US and got this project off the ground, it happened right when 2D animation had died, so all of these extremely talented artists we had worked with for years were available. The greater part of the film was done by a core group: James Lopez (Art director, Layout, Backgrounds), Mark Henn (Supervising Animator), Hyun-min Lee (Assistant Director), Dan Larsen (Ink & Paint), Jody Kooistra (Lead Cleanup), Robert Tyler (Lead Cleanup), and Bert and I (directors). Over 50 other artists worked on the film on and off when they had the time. Some of the artists were out of state or overseas and worked by sending files online. 

  I wrote and boarded the film, and cut a story reel with an editor, Jason Tucker. Bert and I did all of the x-sheets for the dialogue. James Lopez, Bert, and I work-booked the film, planning out mechanics and details for all 370 scenes. Each scene went to James for rough layout, then we would give the animator a folder with a rough bg layout, character layout, story panels, and x-sheet.
The animator would bring the scene in for pencil testing, and Hyun-min would cut it into the work reel. Then the scene went to one of our cleanup artists like Jody Kooistra or Bob Tyler, possibly to an effects animator if called for, and finally to Dan Larsen where he scanned, painted, and composited the shot with camera moves and final color. He'd send us files to cut into the reel, and that's how it worked.

James Lopez creating a layout.

When we began this film, we knew we'd have to consider the practical sides of production to get it done.  Less lines means everything goes faster.  It is, fortunately, my personal design style.  When we were putting together development art, the simpler designs looked much clearer in front of the complicated pen and ink style backgrounds we wanted to use. 

When Mark Henn animated the character Anne, he did a fantastic job of adapting her simple design so the animators could move her more dimensionally. He came up with some really smart solutions and set the style for everyone. I love the way he handled Anne's ears - she doesn't have much overlap, so he would really use the ears to loosen things up and it was very effective. Mark's animation is very direct and also deceptively simple, which fit the designs well.

clockwise, from top: Bert Klein, Jennifer Klein, Dan Larsen, and James Lopez.

storyboard by Jennifer Klein

Stills from "Pups of Liberty"

We worked on weekends and after hours, and production lasted about 2 years. Post takes almost as long! Everything was self financed and done with the goodwill and generosity of our artists. I did bake a lot, though. We would have evenings where Mark would be over pencil testing, Bert would be handing stuff out to animators, cleanup people would bring in scenes, I'd be working on model drawings, our A.D., Hyun-min, would be cutting scenes into the reel - and we would all be eating pie and having a great time. It was such an uplifting atmosphere during a very dire time in the industry.  I can't say how much of a pleasure it was to see all of these great artists doing their very best work in front of my eyes, and pushing themselves to do the best they were capable of just because they really love to do it. 

I would love to see these characters in a series, because I miss working with them already. We did the film because we loved the story and knew that no one else would make something like this (with historical content) so I am happy with what we have done... but who wouldn't love to do a feature? Every film we make, Bert and I learn a tremendous amount. We have made lots and lots of mistakes that just add to our knowledge of what to do next time. I have started on some new short ideas, and we have some longer form ideas too. We are going to be working hard to get Pups into festivals all year long, and we have a live-action documentary feature premiering at the Slamdance Film Festival January 24th (www.candymanfilm.com). It's about Bert's father David, the man who invented JellyBelly jellybeans, and his rise and fall.

We have just began our festival year so check our website for festival screenings at www.pupsofliberty.com.

Images for this article are the property of Picnic Productions