Moonstruck

Dreamworks Animation’s latest short Marooned sails to Annecy.

Dreamworks Animation’s latest short Marooned sails to Annecy.

Last June, DreamWorks animation unveiled is first two short films (Bird Karma and Bilby) at the Annecy Festival. This year, the studio is using the event once again as the perfect launching pad for its newest short, Marooned, written and directed by Andy Erekson and produced by Jeff Hermann.

Erekson, a storyboard artist on features such as Captain Underpants, How to Train Your Dragon 3 and the upcoming Abominable, says he started to think about the idea behind the short about seven years ago.“First, I wanted to tell a story about a character stranded on a desert island, but not a traditional island with sand, a palm tree and coconuts,” he explains. “I wanted to have a setting that, perhaps, we haven’t seen before. This is where the idea of having it take place on an abandoned moon base came from. The second thing that intrigued me was the notion of a character ultimately sacrificing their greatest desire so someone else could experience it. Which is a theme I think most people can relate to!”

Hermann also believes that the short’s heart and emotion are what really makes it stand out. “Marooned is a redemptive story about what it means to be selfless,” he says.

“The philosophies and character traits in the short were baked in from Andy’s very first pitch and were what attracted everyone to this project. Transposing this human condition onto robots who can only communicate through movement and sound effects added charm and a sense of timelessness.”

The producer also mentions that in telling a futuristic story, Erekson was keen to treat the visuals as a more romanticized version of what the future could be. Hermann says, “Our production designer Raymond Zibach, gravitated towards the same visual inspirations as Andy — a more vintage and illustrative representation of space exploration. In putting this look on screen, we were able to advance our own pipeline for integrating CG assets into more graphically painted backgrounds and set extensions.”

Telling an Engaging Tale

For Erkeson, telling an engaging and emotional story with characters that the audience cares about and roots for is always the biggest challenge. “As a first-time director, the difference between understanding the pipeline and experiencing the pipeline was new and educational,” he adds.“I was fortunate, however, to work with some very talented people who were very patient with me as I asked a lot of questions, and even more patient when I didn’t have the answers to the questions they had for me. In the end, they made everything look as good, if not better, than what I imagined.”

Erekson points out a wide range of eclectic influences in his work, ranging from comics like Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side to the films of Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock and the Coen Brothers, to illustrators like Robert McGinnis and J.C. Leyendecker, to Walt Disney shorts and features, Warner Bros. Cartoons and The Simpsons, to name a few. “They’re all very different in form and function, but what they share in common is visual storytelling, which has always been the most interesting thing to me.”

The producer says approximately 120 artists worked on the film in total — most were only on it for a span of eight to 15 weeks each). Marooned was produced in tandem with a couple of the studio’s other short films, and that’s why much of the crew was shared and rotated across these projects.

Now that Annecy audiences will view the completed short this month, the director hopes they will enjoy the time they spend with his moonstruck robots. “I hope they can relate and feel something for a couple of robots that don’t talk for seven and a half minutes,” says Erekson. “I hope they see something visually that looks a little different than what they’ve seen in the past and that they also enjoy the fantastic score by our composer, Amie Doherty. For those who worked on the project, I hope they enjoyed the experience and are ultimately proud of the finished product.” ◆

“I hope audiences can relate and feel something for a couple of robots that don’t talk for seven and a half minutes. I hope they see something visually that looks a little different than what they’ve seen in the past.” — Director Andy Erekson