Star Wars' Kilkenny connection: 'It's culturally important to us to use the word ‘arse’'
Paul Young of Cartoon Saloon - one of the animation studios enlisted to work on Disney's Star Wars: Visions
As Lucasfilm and Disney+ planned a second series of animated short films for their hugely successful Star Wars: Visions project, they knew that the Force was with an Irish animation studio.
Cartoon Saloon - the Kilkenny outfit behind such acclaimed films as The Secret of Kells and Wolfwalkers - was among a number of studios worldwide on Lucasfilm’s radar.
For Cartoon Saloon’s Paul Young, who had been contemplating directing his first animated short, the timing couldn’t have been better. A big science-fiction fan, the award-winning producer was seeking a project that could marry his two great storytelling passions.
Many years after establishing Cartoon Saloon with Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey in Kilkenny - and producing some of our most-loved animated films - working with the creators of Star Wars offered a remarkable opportunity.
“I've mainly focused on producing even though it maybe wasn't the intention from the outset that I would always do that,” says Young. “I kind of grew into the producer role - I often joke because I was the one that sat beside the phone when we moved into the studio I became the producer.
“Nora and Tomm had been encouraging me over the last year or two to step into the director's shoes. I was trying to figure out what would be an interesting Cartoon Saloon science fiction film? I thought it might be interesting for us to do something mad different. Then one of the producers' team at Lucasfilm got in touch and said, would you like to do a Star Wars?”
The result is Screecher’s Reach, an exceptional animated short that focuses on a young girl who discovers a haunted cave which changes the trajectory of her life.
It’s the second animated anthology series of Star Wars: Visions, following the hugely successful Japanese anime series a couple of years ago. This series reaches out to animation studios around the world.
“They wanted us to bring a little bit of our own culture to it, the opportunity to say, oh, we can have Irish actors in there, the accents can be Irish,” said Young, who added that getting to work in post-production on the legendary Skywalker Ranch was a huge bonus.
Screecher’s Reach brings a sense of Irish culture and then some. Star Wars fans worldwide are getting acquainted with the phrase: “Kick her up the arse” which is spoken by one of the characters in the film. Having initially expressed queries about the use of the word “arse”, the studios went on to embrace it. “They accepted the argument that it's kind of culturally important to us to use the word ‘arse’,” laughs Young. “They were good spirits about it!”
The genius of animation requires painstakingly detailed work and the film, running at over ten minutes, took a year to create. “We had 51 crew on it just in Cartoon Saloon alone,” observes Young. “Other crew that were in post-production as well and sound design. The animation is the most time-consuming. On a good week, an animator might get six to seven seconds a week done.
“Basically you’re talking about 12 frames a second, so you’re drawing 12 new drawings. We tried some different techniques in this film to get some different effects. We had a very pen and inky line style. We let the characters sit a bit longer, we were trying something new here with the animation style.”
Ireland has become a global giant in animation, with several studios based here telling stories that resonate with audiences throughout the world. The creative form of storytelling has been growing rapidly in recent years. Young feels there are a number of reasons for Ireland’s success.
“A big factor was Sullivan Bluth setting up here in the early 80s. They did The Land Before Time here and An American Tail. It was a massive studio that came in and they had big investment. They brought some American animators over and then they basically hired lots of Irish people to fill the ranks of their crews.
“But when they shut down, when something like that happens, a lot of Irish animators went over (to the US) and a lot of Irish animators stayed. Then there was Jim Murakami, he had a studio here, there's an award named after him in the Dingle Animation Festival, which is nice.
“The section 401 tax relief for film helps because animation is so labour intensive, it's the perfect vehicle for it. You have full time employees for over four years on a movie, it's the best use of that in a way.
“It gives back a lot to the local economy, because you've got people living permanently and paying taxes where they are.”
Young adds that Irish animators, coming from a small country and having collaborated with storytelling giants, realised early on that they had to look over the hill to achieve success.
“We had to think internationally. Myself and others who started companies here all went to the markets and the festivals and travelled a lot. It was a necessity out of the economics of animation that to get a budget, you have to sell to the likes of people in the States and in around Europe. So we did European co-productions, Canadian co-productions.
“Also I think there is an advantage in that we’re between Europe and the US. We have this nice touchstone with European culture and filmmaking and the US. Our storytelling sensibilities are not alien to people in the US or in Europe.”
- Star Wars: Visions 2 is now available on Disney+
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