ANIMATING THE ROBINSONS:
THE CHARACTERS COME TO LIFE IN THE COMPUTER

            In 2005, Walt Disney Feature Animation added its first fully computer-animated feature film to its long list of technological achievements with the release of “Chicken Little.”  For the first time, that film put computer tools in the hands of some of the industry’s top artistic talents.  They, in turn, adapted such classic Disney animation principles as “squash and stretch” – a technique that lends a rounded quality and vibrant, fluid motion to characters – to the CG world with endearingly zany results. 
            But the characters of MEET THE ROBINSONS would stretch Disney’s animators even further and in entirely new directions by presenting them with a species they’d never animated in a computer before:  human beings.  The filmmakers knew it wouldn’t be a simple transition.  After all, digitally animating humans in life-like ways has proven fraught with complications in its very brief history. For all the amazing progress computers have made over the last few years, they still haven’t quite matched up to the incredible variability of human characteristics. That means compromises have to be made – but for Steve Anderson, the key was making sure, no matter the technical difficulties, that the Robinsons would come off as far more than “cartoon cutouts” and become people the audience actually care about.
            Animation supervisor Michael Belzer also began his career in the traditional animation world on such films as “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach,” but then did a stint at Pixar where he dove headfirst into the cutting-edge of digital technology.  For Belzer, MEET THE ROBINSONS was a chance to combine the classical artistry of Disney with the thrilling new future of digital animation that can go where even animation never went before. 
            “I think is a really fun time to be an animator,” says Belzer, “because we’re applying all the history of the past to these new forms, and we had a great opportunity to do that in MEET THE ROBINSONS.  We all loved the story so much, it really inspired us.” 
            Belzer oversaw a team of some 66 animators and assistant animators for a period of close to three years.  From the beginning, he was keenly aware of the outsized proportions of the mission.  “The biggest challenge was going to be animating human beings,” he explains.  “Because we already live in a 3D world, and our brains are very in tune with that, an audience will notice even the littlest things that are off when it comes to human characters, whether it is their articulation or the way their hair moves or the way their clothing wrinkles.  We used the same technology as on ‘Chicken Little’ but to create a very different type of animated world.  And of course with every new digital film, the artists are always looking to improve the techniques.” 
            For Belzer, that meant delving into the tiniest of textural details.  “For example, we spent a lot of time adding wrinkles and a more tactile feeling to all of the clothing in the film, which makes the world feel that more palpably real,” he says.  “One really tough area was Bowler Hat Guy’s cape, which created a visual challenge because you have to pay very close mind to any silhouette. For the first time, we actually gave the animators some digital tools to do initial cloth simulations themselves so they could work out a lot of the kinks before we sent it on to the cloth department.” 
            Belzer notes that an area where, even in the digital era, Disney still does things in a distinctive way is in assigning all the main charactershis or her own supervising animator.  “It’s really an exciting way of working and was key to MEET THE ROBINSONS because there are so many unique characters that you can put a lot of personality into,” he comments.  “This way we have animators who really understand who the characters are and their most subtle nuances, and who will get really passionate about every aspect of how they move and exist.  You get that extra emotional quality in the animation because the animators are living and breathing these guys.  The audience finds the characters so entertaining because we take them so seriously.”
            In addition to serving as overall animation supervisor, Belzer also was the supervising animator for the character of Carl the Robot, who employs (Please remove one of the film’s most complex arrays of controls, over 600 controls for his vast catalogue of movements. “Oh, I loved working with Carl,” Belzer admits. “He’s a great character for an animator because he allows you to think in a very unlimited fashion. The thing that’s so fun about him was that if I needed him to suddenly have another arm to hold something, we could just make another arm pop out of his chest!  There was just a smorgasbord of ideas to play with at every turn.” 
            Steve Anderson thinks one of the most challenging characters for his team to pull off was Bowler Hat Guy.  “He’s so extreme and the whole design of him is so pushed that there was a lot of debate over just how far to go with him,” Anderson explains.  “This was also true of Wilbur, who zips around in that Looney Tunes way with lots of smears and blurs – but we wanted to make sure it was something the audience would feel instead of see.”
            Even as he worked on the minutiae of character textures and motions, Mike Belzer remained devoted to one over-riding goal – evoking not just movements but real personalities and emotions from the way the characters look and feel.  “What sets this film apart, I think, is the interaction between the characters,” he says.  “It’s not just the usual situational comedy.  There’s such heart to it and there are so many emotional connections to each character.  Even Bowler Hat Guy, might look like a classic villain but he has his own unique story.  I just hope audiences will be as moved as we were by all these characters.” 

            After fully committing himself 100% to all the foibles and futuristic dreams of the characters in MEET THE ROBINSONS, Steve Anderson echoes that sentiment.  “I never wavered from that one idea that these characters have a story to tell,” he says.  “There were a lot of obstacles, technicalities and struggles along the way, but, whatever was happening, we all just kept muttering that one fantastic phrase to ourselves – keep moving forward – and it kept us going all the way.”