Paul McCartney has a wish to follow in Walt Disney's footsteps by making a beautiful feature-length animation film.
McCartney, who has had the dream since his days with the Beatles, takes what he hopes will be a big step toward his goal with Paul McCartney: The Music and Animation Collection, which was released on DVD yesterday.
PHOTO:REUTERS
The DVD contains three exquisitely animated musical shorts made in collaboration with director Geoff Dunbar, along with interviews and behind-the-scenes looks at the painstaking craft, and fun, of creating a musical
animation.
"My ambition in the '60s was to make a feature. I don't know why I wanted to but I just loved it so much. It is a passion," McCartney said in a telephone interview last week after a studio recording session in California.
"I remember saying to the guys in the Beatles, `I'd love to do it some day,' and them saying to me, `Then do it.'"
McCartney began pursuing the hobby more than 20 years ago and has been creating characters, writing the stories, consulting on the look, doing the voices, composing the music and, of course, singing the songs on the short animations done in the old Disney style of individual cell drawings.
"The big new thing that we want to do is to finally fulfil the ambition of making a feature," said McCartney, who is working on a story idea he hopes to turn into a children's book and then a full-length film.
McCartney and the other three Beatles, of course, were featured in Yellow Submarine, the animated film that was a hit during their heyday. They provided the music but were not the designers of that psychedelic-era movie.
McCartney, 61, said he came to love animation growing up in Liverpool, England, where he immersed himself in the animated feature films of Disney.
"You could lose yourself in it, it's a magical world, really," he said. "I just always loved that stuff as a kid."
The DVD features Rupert the Bear in Rupert and the Frog Song, Wirral the Squirrel in Tropic Island Hum, and a community of frogs in a fantastical frolic in Tuesday, based on a book by David Wiesner.
McCartney's Rupert animation was already a success in Britain as the top-selling video of 1985, accompanied by the chart hit We All Stand Together.
Wirral, a squirrel with a Liverpool accent, escapes hunters and finds refuge on an animals' island paradise. Sir George Martin, the long-time Beatles producer, arranged the music for the short.
"Disney was a great infiltrator," said McCartney, a champion of animal rights. "He taught us against cruelty to animals. He made us sympathize so much with animals. He made us realize we've all got a mother. He gave us a compassion for animals. I credit him a lot."
He cited Bambi, Dumbo, The Fox and the Hound, and The Jungle Book as consciousness raisers, but named Lady and the Tramp as his all-time Disney favorite.
McCartney said he is not "retro", but sees the benefit of some "old fashioned" ways.
"Everybody's into CGI (computer generated images)," he said of the technology that has yielded such modern hit films as Toy Story and Shrek. But he added, "I don't love that as much as the old Disneys."
McCartney says the hand-drawn process produces "a more artistic look, a soft look, a warmer look," although he would probably use a combination of techniques for his feature.
"We'd use computer technology for other things, like coloring in. It's not the same old process, but won't get that sort of shiny, 3D, squeaky clean look."
Although he has spent as long as two years making a short animation, the former Beatle bristled when asked whether the labor-intensive hand-drawn process would prove too costly these days for a feature.
"It's a complete fallacy about computers. They take longer than anything," he said. "Making a record, we used to make four tracks in a day with the Beatles. Now we've got equipment coming out of our ears and it takes us at least a week to make a track.
"It's just our modern world. It's a wonderful world. I'm not retro, but there are an awful lot of people getting away from synthesizers and going back to creating sounds with instruments."
Now McCartney is looking forward to a new adventure.
"Releasing this DVD is a first step. Then we'll see how the book does and then the film," he said.
McCartney is certainly accustomed to successful ventures. A British tabloid published a list last month that put Sir Paul's fortune at US$1.3 billion -- more than the combined wealth of fellow-rockers Elton John, Mick Jagger and Madonna.
"People say, `Why do you do it? Why are you still working?'" McCartney said.
"For me, it's playing."
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