Three from My Storyboard Graveyard

In the process of updating my personal website, I came across storyboards that never made it for three Illumination films: "The Grinch", "Minions",  and "Despicable Me 2".  I worked for months and months on versions of these films that were later abandoned.  Nothing I boarded for "The Grinch" made it onscreen, but here is a clip (without sound) showing the Grinch's "Aha!" moment - the plot to steal Christmas...

The Grinch Who Left an Easter Egg

In May of 2014, my wife Donna was a patient at Sloan Kettering Hospital in Manhattan, being treated for complications from the cancer she'd been fighting for 3 1/2 years.  The doctors were treating her aggressively.  They were the best in the country, so we were confident she would beat it.  As she rested, I sat next to her bed with my Cintiq, doing storyboards for Illumination on "The Grinch".

Christoffer Andersen reports from the front lines of Despicable Me 2

Christoffer Andersen studied animation at The Animation Workshop in Denmark. He recently landed an internship with Illumination Entertainment on Despicable Me 2, now in release in theatres worldwide. FLIP asked Christoffer to talk about how he engineered such a wonderful opportunity to kick-start his career in animation.

Universal Security and Why I Love Kristen Wiig

Donna at he DM2 premiere yellow carpet, under close scrutiny from security.  

I have worked for Illumination Entertainment from the get-go. When the first Despicable Me had its studio premiere, my wife, Donna, was in the throes of chemotherapy and we couldn't go.  On The Lorax, my Dad was ill and we couldn't go.  But on DM2, we made it.

Donna has heard my stories of Hollywood life, and was keen on experiencing a big time Hollywood movie premiere, walking the red carpet, meeting movie stars and being on the list to an exclusive event.  She was thrilled to get the official invitation in the mail.  

A month before the event, Donna said, "Do you think we'll meet Steve Carell?"

A week before the event, Donna said, "I hope we meet Steve Carell,"

The day before the event, Donna said, "We're going to meet Steve Carell!"

FLIP on FLIP - Steve reveals the secrets of Despicable Me 2

Steve Moore is not just the founder of FLIP, the web's finest animation blog (well, we think so), but also an Oscar-nominated director and a highly accomplished story board artist. Most recently he finished work on the just-released Despicable Me 2. In this exclusive interview, Steve reveals the secrets behind this most successful independent animated film franchise.

Look! Up in the sky! It's Despicablimp!

WHA?????!!!!!

Dave Rosenbaum, my super-cool boss at Illumination Entertainment, forwarded this announcement from Eddie Egan, President of Marketing:

"Yesterday morning, in Hollywood, California, a unique vessel took its maiden flight: the enormous Despicablimp. It was conceived, designed, and constructed in support of the summer opening of DESPICABLE ME 2!"

The Big Game - The Puppy Bowl!

It's on as I write this - the best alternative to the endless commercials and delays of a Super Bowl game: The Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet ,for all the adorable puppy playing action!  And this year's Puppy Bowl is sponsored by Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2.  They'll be showing plenty of clips from DM2, so check it out.   I am proud to say I storyboarded both DM features, and since I love the Puppy Bowl anyway, I plug away......

And if you miss it, you can still see it on-line:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/puppy-bowl/videos/despicably-cute-moments.htm
-Steve

Taking Care of Dad

Oscar H. Moore, a.k.a. Dad.

I spent the first 19 years of my professional career living in an industry Never Never Land, a place where my life could be all about animation.  My troubles were cartoon troubles.  I knew that heavy, grown-up problems existed in the world, but I had somehow dodged them for twenty years while pursuing  animation glory in Hollywood.

A Lorax Anecdote Not from the Publicity Dept

I started working for Illumination Entertainment four years ago, when they were just starting out.  I work from my studio in New Jersey, in my hometown of Port Norris.  I used to live in L.A., worked there for over 20 years.  What a hell-hole.  With my wife, Donna, I bought a 120 year old commercial building, which we renovated and set up shop.  I have a half-mile commute to work.  I do storyboards on a Cintiq, which are uploaded to Illumination HQ in Santa Monica.

I started on "Despicable Me", then rolled right over onto "The Lorax", and now "Despicable Me 2".  Some California colleagues have bad-mouthed Illumination for not giving Americans jobs.  Because America ends at the San Gabriel Valley.  

"The Lorax" director Chris Renaud and me near Mac Guff Studio in Paris.

A Pixar friend who's drunk on the company Kool-Ade accused Illumination of using sweatshop labor.   He's referring to Mac Guff, the CG studio stuck in that horrible third world city of Paris, a stone's throw from the slums of the Eiffel Tower.  I visited it with my family in 2010.  They pay their animators in cigarettes!  Well, they smoke a lot, anyway.  

Right after our Paris trip, my wife started having stomach pains.  She was running for local election (and won!) and figured it was a stress-related ulcer.  At the end of December, after a series of tests, she was diagnosed with colon cancer.  It was bad. 

In January 2011, she began chemotherapy at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Every other week, we would make the fifty mile trek northwest to the city .  At a cubicle-like infusion station, I would plug in my Cintiq and do Lorax storyboards while my wife sat in a recliner for six hours, having toxic chemicals fed into her bloodstream to save her life.

At first, nurses would stop in their tracks, fascinated by what I was doing.  "Are you drawing?"  they would ask.  "Amazing!" they would say.  My work never saved anyone's life.  After a few months, they got used to seeing me.  Now I'm just "that Despicable Me guy".  Donna has the same nurse each time, Annette.  I can't understate how incredibly kind she had been.  Beyond administering chemo, she will sit and chat and make a stressful experience not so stressful, all while getting her own work done.   That's a whole different kind of talent. 

Nurse Annette and me with my Cintiq at Infusion Studios.

We kept Donna's condition quiet for a long time, because some people FREAK OUT when you mention cancer.  But I did tell Illumination.  Dave Rosenbaum, the story supervisor, and Chris Renaud, the director, could not have been more understanding and supportive.  We were in the midst of production on "The Lorax". With all the production madness going on on THEIR end, they never had a problem with my wacky schedule.  That meant a lot to me.    

So when I see trailers for "The Lorax", I think of Jefferson Hospital.  Parts of every sequence I did were done during chemotherapy, in what I now call "Infusion Studios".  That big, sweeping shot when we first see the Truffala Valley? Infusion Studios.

The massive animal exodus?  Infusion Studios.

Ted's escape from Thneedville?  Infusion Studios.  

Ted visits Audrey and gets flipped?  Infusion Studios.

And so on.

Two major surgeries and a year of chemo later, Donna's doing great.  I couldn't board a better ending.
-Steve

Donna loves Paris.