A team of Irish animation professionals, led by director Paul J. Bolger, worked on the feature length 3D animation ‘Happily N’Ever After’, released across Ireland this weekend. The family comedy features the vocal artistry of Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Andy Dick (Employee of the Month) and Freddie Prince Jr. (Scooby Doo).
Offering a twist on the traditional Cinderella fairy tale, ‘Happily N’Ever After’ sees an alliance of evil-doers, led by Cinderella’s wicked stepmother Frieda (Weaver), who attempt to take control of Fairy Tale Land, let the bad guys win and turn the end of all stories to ‘Happily N’Ever After’. But when Cinderella (Gellar) realises her stepmother is out to ruin her storybook existence, she leads a band of unlikely heroes in a resistance effort.
Paul J. Bolger |
The director of ‘Happily N’Ever After’ is Waterford native Paul J. Bolger. A Design (Communications) graduate of WIT, Bolger has been working in the international animation and film business since 1987. His previous credits include the Irish/Danish/German co-production ‘Help I’m a Fish’ as Sequence Director and ‘Carnivale’ as Animation Supervisor. In 2001 Bolger provided conceptual art to Rob Moreland’s script that was to eventually grow into ‘Happily N’Ever After’. His involvement in the development of the film led to his taking the reins in early 2002.
From there Paul signed up the talents of animation heavyweights Deane Taylor (Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas) and Dino Athanassiou (DreamWorks’ Sinbad and Spirit, and Warner Bros. Space Jam, etc.) to bring the film and the animation to new heights.
Happily N'Ever After |
Paul also enlisted the expertise of other Irish ex-pats including Andy Kelly, who worked as head Storyboard Artist and Character Design, and Anthony Power, who came on board as Sequence Director. Both Kelly and Power began their careers at the Murakami Wolf Studios in Dublin and worked on the very first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project.
Speaking to IFTN Bolger said “I am not sure if this is a well known fact but the film was driven creatively by Irish talent. Much of the world's top animation artists and film-makers are from Ireland and this film enjoyed the contributions of key creatives like myself, bringing over 20 years experience of international feature film production, and that of the like so Storyboard artist Andy Kelly and Sequence Director Anthony Power.”
Bolger and his animation team were faced with the daunting task of designing over a hundred different characters, twenty of which were human.
“The most important thing for me was the personality of the characters, not just the look,” says Bolger. “What do they think about, how do they react, how do they walk, how do they talk? Sometimes we turned to real life figures. For instance, we wanted Ella to have short hair and an appealing set of mannerisms, so we used Audrey Hepburn as a model.”
Happily N'Ever After |
With the help of production designer Deane Taylor, Bolger and his animation team worked hard to develop a unique and cohesive look for the animation. Citing the Art Nouveau/Modernist architect Antoni Gaudi as one of many sources of inspiration, Bolger decided there would be no straight lines in the movie. “Deane and I decided that the feel of the world would be like a theme park. There’s a handmade quality about this world, in the lighting, the staging, everything,” he says. “The same for the characters. They're slightly caricatured. It's very organic and very rooted in classic fairy tale book illustration.”
The finished product opened in the US earlier this year and will be released across the UK and Ireland this weekend. Director Paul J. Bolger, who owned and operated Dagda Film Ltd during the 1990’s has since returned to Waterford to develop his new Irish company PillarStone Productions. Andy Kelly is working for Nickelodean in Athens as a storyboard supervisor and Anthony Power is based in Berlin as a director with Hahn Film.
'Happily N'Ever After' is released across Ireland through Lionsgate Films.
