Dia De Los Malos

El Tigre Happy Meal Toys at McDonnald's!

Check em out:

http://www.happymeal.com/en_US/standalone.html?s=ElTigreIntro&swfW=772&ID=&swf=/en_US/swf3/sections/toys/elTigreIntro.swf&bgc=%23000000&swfH=450&bs=ElTigreToys#ElTigreIntro

Here's the TV ad if you missed it:

http://www.happymeal.com/en_US/index.html#Video_PageELTIG

Sadly there's no Frida, but a prototype was made. She's a little thick in the middle to accomodate a walking mechanism:

There was also a Chipotle Jr - which was totally awesome. I don't know why he wasn't made.

Get 'em while you can!

La Tigressa

La Tigressa is a Frida driven story - so direction wise, I didn't want it to feel like a Manny driven episode. Frida's personality is a bit more aggressive than Manny's, so I attempted to reflect that in the pacing and shot choices of the cartoon.

A big inspiration was Paul Greengrass, director of the Bourne Identity and the Bourne Supremacy. He created a sort of impressionistic style of editing action sequences. They move so quickly you can't tell exactly what's going on - so what you're left with is a feeling.

That's what I was attempting to do in the montage sequence of La Tigressa. Not just simply, literally, illustrating what she did with her new found powers - but trying to convey her feeling of exhilaration through the editing.

Wether it was successful, I don't know. But that was the theory anyway! And it was an awful lot of fun.

Bride of Puma Loco

The script for The Bride Of Puma Loco was terrific: fun premise, personality driven humor, and settings and situations that lent themselves to lots of visual contrast.

The opening sequence was the first storyboarding assignment for Animator and Animatic Editor Sean Szeles. His first board pitch blew everyone away, and he's become even better since!

Happy New Year

People Magazine published it's list of the ten best television shows of 2007, and El Tigre made the list. What a great way to start the new year!