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The new stop-motion Looney Tunes short, Daffy in Wackyland, was the toast of the town when it premiered at Annecy last June. This month, the clever project is also one of the titles competing at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. We were lucky enough to chat with the director Max Winston, who is best known for his award-winning 2008 short I Live in the Woods. The talented stop-motion wizard has also worked on a wide variety of shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Uncle Grandpa, Tumble Leaf and Ask the StoryBots as well as Henry Selick’s latest movie, Wendell & Wild.
Here’s what Winston told us about crafting this new adventure featuring the popular waterfowl (created by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett back in 1937):
Animation Magazine: First of all, congrats on your brand-new Looney Tunes baby. Can you tell us how you got involved with this project?
Max Winston: Pete Browngardt (the showrunner of Looney Tunes Cartoons) and I are old friends. We met years ago as storyboard partners on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack at Cartoon Network. He has gone on to make his own cartoon shows, like Uncle Grandpa, which I have been lucky enough to sometimes be involved in. I made a stop-motion short for an episode of Uncle Grandpa that was well received, so Pete kept me in mind when they were starting up the Looney Tunes Cartoons, and eventually approached me about making my own stop-motion Looney Tunes short, which was an absolute dream-come-true!
When did you start working on it?
Funny question, actually! I started storyboarding it a couple months before COVID exploded. So, this ended up being my … “pandemic project.”
Was it always going to be in stop-motion and involve Daffy and The Dodo?
Yes, it was always going to be stop-motion from the start. That’s become my “specialty.” Pete wanted a few of the shorts to be in a different style, so they approached me to make one of them. I had some ideas for characters I’d like to work with, but when Pete suggested “How about Daffy? How about The Dodo? How about Daffy in Wackyland?” It was basically like every word that came out of his mouth was better than the last. Porky in Wackyland (1938) is one of my favorite cartoons, so revisiting that wacked-out world in my own way just totally clicked for the both of us.
What did you love about working in stop-motion with these classic characters?
To me, the original Looney Tunes is some of the best American art ever made, in any genre. So, to have the opportunity to give my own take on the look and approach to these characters was an honor. This is actually the first stop-motion Looney Tunes short ever made. Being the first one was kind of a high bar for me to attempt to set. Looney Tunes is a big inspiration for my art already, so to convert these characters into stop-motion was an opportunity that I jumped at since I had been wanting to do such a thing for quite some time.
Did anything change drastically in the development process?
Certain things did change drastically; mostly the time I thought it would take me to finish it, haha! Story-wise, not too much changed from my initial storyboards. With projects like these, where I’m given pretty much total freedom, I don’t exactly plan out everything beforehand. By that I mean, I don’t design all the settings, environments, etc., at the start. I come up with them as I go along in the production, which keeps things fun and interesting to me and leaves room to explore and experiment. So, many parts of the short, I didn’t know what they were going to look like until I was starting to set up those shots for the first time.
What was the toughest part of your Daffy venture?
The biggest challenge was trying to really get that Looney Tunes “feel,” in terms of the look, the acting and the overall vibe. Although I was given complete freedom, I wanted it to exist as a classic Looney Tunes short, rather than something I’ve created completely out of left-field and just plopped Looney Tunes characters into. So, just really trying to make the short feel like a classic Looney Tunes short come to life in the third-dimension; that was tricky.
How many people worked on it? Can you give us details about the puppets and the sets?
At my studio, RatBat Studios, there were (at most) a few people who worked on it. Not trying to sound like a psychotic auteur, but I did most of it. The writing, storyboarding, puppet and set fabrication, animation, lighting and photography was all me. A friend of mine, Brent Johnson, sculpted and 3D-printed Daffy’s beaks based on designs we came up with. That was a big undertaking, as Daffy has about 44 different beaks for this short. Josiah Clements helped with some fabrication and even animated a couple shots. Clay-animation maestro Rich Zim did a fun clay-animation shot that I think people will really enjoy. The team at Warner Bros. handled the sound effects and music on the short and did an amazing job.
Early on, I had a few meetings with the Looney Tunes Cartoons story team, to come up with gags and brainstorm. Besides that, it was basically me in my studio poking-away at this short for quite some time. So many materials were used, it’s hard to list. Foams, clays, resins, vinyl, furs … every other thing under the sun. If a material looked interesting, I used it somewhere. The puppets were around 12 inches tall, and we only had one puppet of each main character. I actually had to re-fur Daffy halfway through production, because he was starting to look kind of gnarly, after being touched thousands of times.
What is your favorite Looney Tunes short of all time (besides yours)?
I’m a big Bob Clampett fan, so, I’d probably have to go with The Great Piggy Bank Robbery. That one has been a huge inspiration for me throughout the years. The animation, design, humor, frantic pacing … it’s hard to beat!
What are you working on next?
My company, RatBat Studios, did an animated sequence for the Apple TV+ show The Afterparty, which should be airing soon. Besides that, a couple other projects that must remain top secret for now! I’m also looking forward to making the time to develop and pitch our own original concept for a stop-motion miniseries; a haunted erotic thriller for adults!
What kind of advice would you give your younger self now that you are much wiser?
Oh boy. I feel like I could use some advice from old-man me now, ha! I guess I’d tell my younger self that people aren’t likely to pursue you to make something great for them. You have to pursue them and create these opportunities. No one’s going to do it for you. Waiting around, wondering why people aren’t knocking on your door goes nowhere fast. If you want something, you have to vocalize it! Tell people! Scream it atop a mountain!
The sixth and final season of Looney Tunes Cartoons is currently streaming on Max. Daffy in Wackyland is screening at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September.
