From Billboard.com:
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/artic ... 1000485306
Paul McCartney has long wished to follow in Walt Disney's footsteps by making a beautiful feature-length animation film. A big step toward that goal comes tomorrow (April 13) with the release of the DVD "Paul McCartney: The Music and Animation Collection."
The DVD contains three exquisitely animated musical shorts made in collaboration with director Geoff Dunbar, along with interviews and behind-the-scenes looks at the painstaking craft, and fun, of creating a musical animation.
"My ambition in the '60s was to make a feature. I don't know why I wanted to but I just loved it so much. It is a passion," McCartney last week after a recording session in California. "I remember saying to the guys in the Beatles, 'I'd love to do it some day,' and them saying to me, 'Then do it."'
McCartney began pursuing the hobby more than 20 years ago and has been creating characters, writing the stories, consulting on the look, doing the voices, composing the music and, of course, singing the songs on the short animations done in the old Disney style of individual cell drawings.
"The big new thing that we want to do is to finally fulfill the ambition of making a feature," said McCartney, who is working on a story idea he hopes to turn into a children's book and then a full-length film.
The DVD features Rupert the Bear in "Rupert and the Frog Song," Wirral the Squirrel in "Tropic Island Hum," and a community of frogs in a fantastical frolic in "Tuesday," based on a book by David Wiesner. McCartney's Rupert animation was already a success in Britain as the top-selling video of 1985, accompanied by the chart hit "We All Stand Together."
Wirral, a squirrel with a Liverpool accent, escapes hunters and finds refuge on an animals' island paradise. Sir George Martin, the longtime Beatles producer, arranged the music for the short.
"Disney was a great infiltrator," said McCartney, a champion of animal rights. "He taught us against cruelty to animals. He made us sympathize so much with animals. He made us realize we've all got a mother. He gave us a compassion for animals. I credit him a lot."
McCartney says the hand-drawn animation process produces "a more artistic look, a soft look, a warmer look," although he would probably use a combination of techniques for his feature. "We'd use computer technology for other things, like coloring in. It's not the same old process, but won't get that sort of shiny, 3D, squeaky clean look."
Although he has spent as long as two years making a short animation, the former Beatle bristled when asked whether the labor-intensive hand-drawn process would prove too costly these days for a feature. "It's a complete fallacy about computers. They take longer than anything," he said. "Making a record, we used to make four tracks in a day with the Beatles. Now we've got equipment coming out of our ears and it takes us at least a week to make a track."
McCartney Gets Animated for DVD
Moderator: SMLCHNG