Emmy-winning animator, director and producer Rodrigo Blaas, whose long list of impressive credits include such animated hits as “Ice Age,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille” and “Wall-E”, wowed attendees at a Málaga Film Festival talk on his career and the art of visual storytelling.
The event, part of the festival’s Golden Talk series, was organized by the newly launched San Diego Comic-Con Málaga, which is set to take place in the Spanish city in September, marking the first such event ever outside San Diego, California.
Blaas, who grew up nearby Granada, spent several years in the U.S. during his eventful career before returning to Spain and establishing El Guiri Studios in Madrid. The company is collaborating with San Diego Comic-Con Málaga, having produced the animated intro for the upcoming first edition.
Blaas has in recent years also partnered with creator Guillermo del Toro serving on the acclaimed series “Trollhunters,” which earned six Emmy awards. More recently, Blaas wrote and directed “Sith,” an original Star Wars short film for the “Star Wars: Visions” series.
Recounting a childhood experience that left an indelible mark, Blaas said: “My cinematic birth was at a summer cinema. … For me, that was my childhood. And of course nobody really checked what kind of films they showed there. I saw the two films that really marked me, “The Princes Bride” and “Alien” – and I wasn’t totally terrified.”
With El Guiri Studios, Blaas is developing projects, both original and linked to major U.S. IPs or from other sources.
After working in the industry and in very large studios, with teams in the several hundreds, Blaas decided to scale down. “One of the ideas was to get rid of that big studio aspect and go back to the garage.”
Having worked for years in California, Blaas was inspired by “the melting pot of many talents,” the idea behind El Guiri, which translates to “the foreigner” or “the tourist” – a nickname that followed Blaas as a blond-haired child. “You find that we all come from somewhere. And of course, that was the name.”
Discussing the art of visual storytelling, Blaas recalled working on “Ratatouille” and composing a visual feast.
He was initially facing difficulties while working on the pic. “I couldn’t figure out how to make it all work emotionally, how to create something memorable, and above all, I just couldn’t find the right formula because ratatouille, which I’ve always called pisto manchego, is visually awful, but also good, depending on who makes it.”
Indeed, pisto manchego, like most versions of its French counterpart, is a simple vegetable stew. So the animators sought out renowned California chef Thomas Keller and were presented with a more refined and aesthetically pleasing confit byaldi variation, which they chose as the film’s visual template.
“In the end, it’s just about presenting this kind of visual feast, because you can’t provide smells or tastes, so you have to do it all through the emotion of that visual avalanche, always touching those emotional nerves. It’s part of everything that your story and your emotions carry.”
The most important thing is making the ratatouille, even if it’s just for a moment, so visually appealing that the viewer wants to eat it himself. “So the basic idea is, ‘Hey, you’re going to see a really cool movie with ratatouille,’ but in the end it’s just a plate of pisto manchego.” That wouldn’t have worked.
Visual storytelling in live-action films has long inspired animation, Blaas noted as he presented memorable scenes from classic films, such as the chicken chase that opens “City of God,” the arrival of Indiana Jones at Marion’s tavern in Nepal in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and the neighbor who sets a table for two and enacts a dinner date while being all alone in “Rear Window.”
An episode of “Trollhunters” similarly depicts an evil troll stalking the young protagonist, watching him from afar through a window as he argues with his mother.
A longtime fan of another classic film franchise, Blaas jumped at the chance to explore the world of “Star Wars” with “Sith.”
“To make an original ‘Star Wars’ story – for me that call was tremendous, it was epic. Suddenly I’ve grown up — I’ve been a ‘Star Wars’ fan since I was little. They’ve had a huge impact on our generation.”
Blaas embraced the idea of creating characters from scratch, not having to worry about canon. “We wanted to do something brave because, well, you don’t get to do that every day.”
Blaas didn’t have to go far to find inspiration. The tale of a rebellious apprentice who decides to leave her master came to him after his young daughter defied him for the first time.
English (US) ·