Yangtze Evening News (reporter Zhang Yi) It is the graduation season, and major colleges and universities can be seen everywhere wearing bachelor's uniforms. On June 21, director Tony Bancroft, who won the Best Director Award at the Annie Award, the highest honor in the animation industry, for co-directing Disney's animation "Mulan", also appeared at the college graduation ceremony with his latest animation work "Animal Biscuits of the Magical Circus", telling the story of his pursuit of animation dreams and the production of the movie "Magical Circus" to the graduates, encouraging students to bravely pursue their dreams. The cute little hamster in the film instantly captured the hearts of the students, triggering a wave of group photos.
The movie "Magical Circus" tells the story of the male protagonist Owen's family of three, after the death of their uncle Bob, determined to revive the former glory of the circus they left behind, and then with the help of magical animal biscuits, they staged a series of wonderful circus again. In addition to director Tony Bancroft, Carter Goodrich, the image designer of "Dream Quest", also took on the image design of the film. During the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival, director Tony was invited to China, and he appeared at the graduation ceremony of the university in a surprise way, sharing the story of his unremitting pursuit of his dreams and the final realization of his dreams for the students who are about to enter the society.
At the scene, Director Tony also gave a speech on the theme of "How to Make an Independent Animated Film" and shared valuable experience with the students on the spot. He said that he loved painting since he was a child and dreamed of bringing joy to people around the world, so he joined Disney and participated in the production of classic films such as "Mulan" and "The Lion King", and at the same time, he also shared with everyone the production process of "Magical Circus" for the first time with Chinese filmmakers. At the scene, director Tony told the process of characters in the film from pencil drawing to coloring and modeling, he said that in the early stage of production, the micro-expressions of each character have been modeled, even if some images are not used, they will be prepared in advance; in terms of scene design, the circus tents in the 60s, the bonfires in the film, the pink container trucks of the clowns, and the house set furnishings, etc., all follow the background of the times and are close to the personality of the characters, even if some scenes only appear for ten seconds, the production team will be meticulously produced. Such a rigorous attitude is enough to see that the quality of "Magic Circus" is excellent, worthy of the most watched cartoons this summer. Director Tony's unremitting insistence on the animation career also infected the students on the scene, and some people said that they wanted to devote themselves to the animation career like Tony, which triggered a round of applause.
In addition, in addition to director Tony to congratulate the students, the popular character in the film, The Little Hamster, also appeared to sell cuteness. The round and rolling shape with a confused expression made many students shout "super cute", and they came forward to touch and take photos, and the seconds became a campus star, and the ability to absorb powder was evident.
At present, "Magic Circus" has been shortlisted for the animation unit of the Golden Jubilee Award at the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival, and has been called a must-see animation film in this summer by many audiences, which is highly anticipated. The 3D and Chinese giant screen versions of the film will officially land in theaters nationwide on July 27.