The Outside

Ever since I jumped into the Hollywood animation biz back in the 70's, I found there to be 3 different camps: Disney, Warners, and the "Outside"(or independents). That's where I fell in, the outside, and still remain until further notice. Although the industry has expanded substantially since back then, there are still different camps that tend to flock together, like in any business, or high school quad.

A few of the iconoclasts that I have worked with over the years can be seen here. I worked with Ralph Bakshi in 1991 on "Cool World" doing effects animation. Here's a trailer from what I think is one of his most interesting films, "Heavy Traffic".



Also surfing on the outside line up, was former Duck Soup animator Arnie Wong, who made quite a few trippy surf cartoons for Hal Jepsen's classic surf features. Here's a clip of "Karma" from Hal Jepsen's best surf film SUPER SESSIONS.



Also in the 80's I had the plesure of working with Wes Archer during the pre-Bevis and Butthead, Simpsons, King of the Hill era. We animated on a couple Taco Bell commercials at Dream Quest and a Howard Jones animated video called "You know I love you". Here's his seminal 80's student film "Jack Mac and Rad boy go" that started the whole edgy late 80's, early 90's animation that we all know.



Not to be forgotten are independent classic properties like "The Peanuts' by Bill Melendez Productions. Over the years I've animated on five of the classic animated specials, the last being "I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown" in 2003. It was great experience working with Bill who animated on two of my favorite Bob Clampett Looney Tunes of all time, "Wabbit Twouble" and "Book Revue". This underground homage popped up on the net a couple of years ago using found Peanuts dance footage sunk to the Outkasts "Hey Ya". Another outside classic! We also referenced some of these moves for the first Flash feature, "Lil Pimp" in 2003, very outside.