Amin Abbas

DUBAI: ‘Amy & Frog’ is a short-animated feature that focuses on Amy, a young kindergarten girl who struggles to connect with the other kids and animals. One day, she meets a mysterious giant frog in the park, who leads Amy through a tree hole and into a forest full of mythical creatures. Here, Amy discovers that these mythical creatures actually have some kind of magical connection with her classmates. After a series of amazing adventures, Amy learns to accept her differences and face the real world bravely, thus unraveling the knot in her heart.

The project’s director, Paul Williams, is a British animator who started working on animation over 20 years ago and worked on major western animation projects such as ‘Klaus (2019)’, ‘The Illusionist (2010)’ and ‘The Red Turtle (2016)’ as well as Japanese animation projects such as ‘Atom: The Beginning (2017)’, ‘Pokémon: Twilight Wings (2020), and ‘Recovery of an MMO Junkie (2017).

Williams shared exclusively with Arab News Japan the story behind the short animated feature. “‘Amy & Frog’ is a short story I wrote based on the novel ‘Color the World’ by Congyun ‘Mu Ming’ Gu. I saw this as an origin story, where a young girl ventures into a mysterious world after befriending a large frog spirit. It’s a story of finding your friends and those little moments of joy in life.”

“Personally, I think the moment that sticks with me most was when I saw the final grading come together with the music by Laurent Perez del Mar at Imagica during postproduction. That really was a magical moment. I remember hearing Laurents’ music for the first time at a crew screening for the Red Turtle, by Studio Ghibli, that I had worked on, and it had always been a wish that I could work with him again,” he added.

About the challenges during the production of the project, Williams said: “This was my first job as a director, so it was both exhilarating and challenging to oversee so many elements of production. The storyboarding was great fun, but seeing the film evolve through each stage of production and having to manage the budget and ways in which we could get things done, whilst animating as well.”

“It was a struggle at times with the long hours, but I feel the years in animation helped me prepare for this and it was all worth it seeing the wonderful material all the artists were creating coming in week by week. In the end, when you challenge yourself, you really do learn more,” he added.

Williams mentioned that the response and feedback for ‘Amy & Frog’ have been very positive. “It’s been breathtaking, to be honest. I think as an animator or supervisor, you know your place is more a small cog in a large machine, and whilst you give it your all, it’s not always your voice that comes out on screen. For this film, I’ve felt the feedback strike me more at the core, and whether a child talks about a caterpillar or someone references Totoro, it’s wonderful to see people have personal reactions to an idea that you had once before it took shape on screen.”

About distinguishing ‘Amy & Frog’ from other animation projects, Williams said, “I guess for me, I have always admired the work of early Disney works, and of course Studio Ghibli films as well, be it by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata. For this film, I tried to trust in my intuition and tell a story that meant something personal to me, and I hope it connects with an audience once it’s out there. Certainly, I have a strong love for traditional hand-drawn animation, so stylistically, it was a huge motivation to bring that through visually. So, the artists we bought into this were ones who really know what hand-drawn animation is all about, and I think it comes through beautifully. As I mentioned earlier, with the music we have as well by Laurent, it’s a short that hopefully gives people some hope or a feeling of warmth.” 

Regarding his upcoming projects, Williams said, “I’m currently co-directing a short film with Woo Ming Jin called ‘Girl and Fish’ which will start its run in festivals sometime this year. Also, I’m in early development on a short film that I will be directing that is based on a short story I created whilst in a correspondence/mentorship with Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston many years back that is very personal to me.”

“I have also just wrapped up working on ‘The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol,’ directed by Sylvain Chomet, which will be coming out sometime this year as well,” he added.

About his recommendations for those who want to be animation artists or work on animation projects, Williams said: “For me, I would say study life drawing and sketching… whatever medium you decide to go into, or whichever style of animation, having these core skills will always stand you in good stead. That and love the work you do, and remember why you came into the industry.”