Tom Gidman
Creator, Kiddyzuzaa Land WildBrain
If you’d like to get a career in animation, you may consider brushing up your live comedy skills. Just ask Tom Gidman, creator of WildBrain’s online animated series Kiddyzuzaa Land. The Oxford, U.K.-born artist was fresh out of university and had no production experience — “But I saw an ad in the newspaper, so I went to their offices, handed them my CV, and it all went from there,” he recalls. “I I have a background in performing comedy, which definitely helped!”
Gidman started out working on live-action shorts for the studio. “It was my first job out of uni and all I really knew at the time was that I wanted to make fun, funny and entertaining videos with good, strong stories,” he says. “It wasn’t until we were tasked with making an animated version of the live-action show Kiddyzuzaa that I suddenly realized how much animation combined so many of my creative interests: writing, voiceover, story and comedy. So, that was the starting point, and I’ve massively enjoyed working on animated shows as a writer/director/ occasional voiceover ever since.”
The talented 24-year old counts The Simpsons as one of his major influences. “The show’s humor, at its peak, is just so strong, and the same goes for the voice acting,” he states. “Futurama and Family Guy are right up there, as well as Wallace & Gromit, Woody Woodpecker, SpongeBob, Looney Tunes, Dennis the Menace — the list goes on. In terms of films, the ones I have the closest attachment to are probably the old Disney classics — The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Peter Pan.”
For Gidman, there are many positive aspects of creating animated content for YouTube and VOD platforms. “We deal with lower budgets and faster turnarounds, but there are lots of awesome things about it as well: Stuff gets made (you don’t need years of development time!).
You can learn a lot by trial and error and throwing yourself into new challenges. You have creative freedom. Whilst you’re limited by certain things, there really is a sense that you can try things out. The teams are small, so you can do a bit of everything.”
Looking at current trends, Gidman has the following insights: “The media landscape is constantly changing so much, so be prepared to adapt and be savvy about what’s popular, be it animation styles, format, length. At the same time, obviously try to be original and tell fresh and unique stories. You should also know your world and your characters inside out before jumping into a project. Finally, be collaborative! The best stuff comes out of people working together, and it’s infinitely more rewarding to share in a show’s success (or indeed, failure)!”