|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Horror and animation are still a rare hybrid, especially outside the realms of anime. Having received its European premiere at London’s FrightFest back in August, Zach Passero’s The Weird Kidz only reinforces this, having been the lonesome ‘cartoon’ presented to the hordes of eager horror fans that attended the festival.
Eight years in the making, Passero’s film feels like a graffitied schoolbook brought to life — a crudely animated love letter to ’50s B-movies, coming-of-age adventures from the ’80s and ’90s slacker mentality. There is an inherent DIY sensibility at play here, reminiscent of EC Comics and MTV’s animated shows — Liquid Television, Beavis and Butt-Head, Daria — influences not so much worn but smeared across its juvenile sleeve … and all of this is part of its weird charm.
Strange Influences
Although Passero mentions his fondness for Sesame Street and Disney movies growing up, it’s no surprise that his tastes would align more with those animated movies that fall outside the mainstream. He adds: “At some point, I remember my mom buying Yellow Submarine when my sister and I were kids. This Beatles-inspired animation was a game-changer for me. I loved the aesthetic, the character and the background designs. It was an exposure to a whole other idea of what animation could be and how it could be used almost impressionistically to tell a story or convey an emotion.”
The inception of such strange and uncanny worlds was fueled all the more by discovering René Laloux’s 1972 oddity Fantastic Planet as a teenager, “It just totally grabbed me; took me to another universe and reality and left me in awe. I loved the textures and the animation, and I loved that it was telling a different type of story with animation. It felt alien as much as it was about aliens.” Other animators and directors who left a lasting impression were the inimitable Bill Plympton, Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass — The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn, in particular — as well as filmmakers Tod Browning, David Lynch, John Waters and Miranda July.
‘There’s the feeling of a world gone crazy … It’s such a pivotal and surreal time, but, as wild and bonkers as the events of the film become, it was really important for me to capture a sense of sincerity and empathy.’
— Director Zach Passero
When he became infatuated with stop-motion at an early age, Passero began to play with the technique using the family VHS player. “It only recorded one frame per second, at best, but it was better than nothing.” A few years later, he was inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas. This led to him relentlessly pursuing (and eventually securing) an internship at Skellington Productions — Henry Selick and Tim Burton’s Disney arm for stop-motion — working on Selick’s next feature James and the Giant Peach during the mid-’90s.
In light of such idiosyncratic influences, Passero’s “creative landscape” was fueled all the more by his film school education that infused a love of old-school creature features. “Many of those films were actually pretty innovative, progressive and subversive in their messages,” states Passero, who takes similar care with the weird world he has created; not only bringing to life the animated equivalent of hokey animatronics but also how a monster may become more relatable than the human characters.
A Gonzo Heart
The Weird Kidz came about when Passero and his wife, Hannah, found out they were expecting a child. “In the mental sea change that came with preparing for parenthood, I became really pensive about my life and growing up; all the things that made me, me,” he recalls. This put his life in perspective and reminded him of the things that had inspired his formative years; the films and stories that made him want to become a filmmaker and animator, as well as the reality of raising and protecting a child. This crucial nurturing element is at the heart of The Weird Kidz and contrasts the crude adult humor and gore, as we witness the central threat — dubbed the ‘Night Child’ — also carefully tending to its brood.
Having worked closely as an editor over the years for cult filmmaker Lucky McKee (who also served as a producer on The Weird Kidz), Passero always dreamt of making an animated feature inspired by a mix of real and imagined adventures; one that captured the “unruliness of puberty and the conflicting ideas and feelings that you should be one way or another to impress people.”
There is, therefore, a natural sense of rebellion and punk attitude at play in the film, which he describes as “the feeling of a world gone crazy.” “It’s such a pivotal and surreal time,” he adds. “but, as wild and bonkers as the events of the film become, as touched upon already, it was really important for me to capture a sense of sincerity and empathy. Especially when it came to the kids and the creatures.” Indeed, an important throughline of emotion ties it all together.
A sucker for folk horror, Passero also traverses that deeply disturbing underbelly of the Hollyweird, populating his animated feature with cult leaders and their rituals worshipping the Night Child. Disturbing as some of the scenes are, the mix of tone throughout remains surprisingly in tune, and, despite being a crudely animated feature, it still manages to provide an emotional journey in which the storytelling, editing and direction elevate the production. Ultimately, it’s a fun ride: a gonzo version of The Goonies vs. Them!
“The heart of ‘gonzo’ filmmaking has always appealed to me. One of the reasons that it took so long to produce was because of being so independent, while working the day job,” says Passero who edited nine features over the years as he worked on The Weird Kidz. “I’d work the day editing eight to 10 hours, go home to spend a little time with the family, and then when everyone was asleep, animate for six to eight hours.”
No matter how “thick the forest grew” he never questioned whether the film, which was partially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, would be finished. “One thing that helped keep me moving was culpability,” he admits. “Once Lucky McKee was encouraging me and came on as a producer, then these amazing actors followed who also believed in the project. Although it was a more drawn-out process, it eventually all came together when we received grants and a successful crowdfunding campaign.”
Animated in Toon Boom Harmony, the backgrounds were painted digitally by Hannah in Clip Studio Paint and then composited in After Effects. “I was very fortunate getting to collaborate with sound designer Andrew Smetek. He was on board from day one recording voice actors. Then, as I completed stretches of the production, he would start sketching in the sound design elements. I then took the film to my colorist friend Ryan Orozco at Cheeky Monkey Post for final finishing. After some conversations about how it should feel, he designed the overall ʻsheen’ of the final cut adding a beautiful vibe and texture of halation as well as a particular color that would have come with making film prints in the ’80s.”
So, what next for Passero? “It sounds demented, but I’m really jonesing to start something new. I miss animating as for almost eight years non-stop, it was a constant in my life. This became a daily escape, meditation, and obsession. No matter what, there will always be that part of me that has a personal project that I work on late at night and obsess about. It’s in my blood.”
The Weird Kidz recently screened at the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival and El Paso Film Festival, and will screen at the Dead of Night Film Festival in Southport, Merseyside, U.K. on Sunday, October 8.
Visit theweirdkidz.com for more information and to keep up to date about future screenings.
