Disney’s Paperman: John Kahrs and Kristina Reed Interview
Released amongst a flurry of excitement and anticipation from animation fans and artists worldwide Paperman is the short animation everyone is talking about. And at the Annecy animation festival 2012 we were lucky enough to talk to both the director John Kahrs and the producer Kristina Reed in the first every Skwigly video interview.
We first interviewed John last year when he came to the festival to talk about his work on Tangled and when I asked him what he was creating at that moment he revealed that he was directing a short, but could not go into anymore detail. Well it has been twelve months and finally we can get all the detail we want!
Paperman tells the story of George, a pretty down to earth guy who briefly meets Meg by chance on a breezy subway platform in New York. With only a lipstick smudge memento and a glance from Meg the train sets off and George is left standing on the platform. Later at work George sees Meg across the road in a neighbouring office atop one of the city’s huge skyscrapers and begins getting her attention by throwing paper planes across the street to her. Unfortunately they all miss, and it takes a little courage from George and a huge stroke of chance before we see if fate, luck and paper planes will ever bring the two together to reconcile their first meeting.
The technique behind Paperman is what initially stands out from this film. Unlike anything we have seen before from Disney we are presented with a mixture of 2D and CGI attributes, taking the best elements from both and combining them with Disney’s well established look to present a seamless blend of animated enjoyment.
Paperman is a marvel in both storytelling and technique that proves that there is still plenty of talent and stories left to be told by the new generation at Disney for the appreciation and enjoyment of audience’s of both animation fans and film fans.