Aug 9, 2023

Mexico's Pixelatl Releases Trailer for "2023" from Colombia's Lucy Animation Studio

Mexico's premier animation festival, Pixelatl, will open next month in Guadalajara.

The festival has traditionally tapped Mexico's leading studios and artists to produce trailers. This year, the festival changed things up and commissioned Colombia's Lucy Animation Studio to produce the film.

Festival director José Inesta says that the decision to seek studios outside of Mexico this year is an indication of the great need for community and connection in the animation world. According to him [we live in uncertain times. Managers are focused on making money in the short term, and technology is replacing actors and writers. But we are in an industry that tells stories and connects people. We cannot replace stories with profits, nor can we replace human interaction with artificial intelligence. In this world of uncertainty, I wanted to shout that we need to reconnect, trust each other, and focus on what this industry is about: people and stories.

The theme of this year's event is "Dare to believe." According to organizers, that belief must include ourselves and others, for "only through others can we grow and truly heal." This mantra is delivered with the understanding that Latin America and the world are highly polarized and that in order to move forward, it is important for communities to find and lean on what unites them.

It seems unfair to call the annual Pixela promos trailers. They are always conceived, developed, and produced as stand-alone shorts that address a specific theme that the festival wishes to embody that year, and this is no different. The animation in this year's trailer is top-notch and manages to tell a coherent story about the importance of teamwork and community in a fairly short amount of time.

The 2023 Pixelatl trailer was written by Lucy founders Silvia Prietov and Dario Perez, directed by Prietov, and produced by Karina Forero. Prietov also served as art director for the film, along with concept artist and character designer Pacoto. Animatics were done by Mario Carrascal, and background art was done by Sofia Prieto.

As is customary, we interviewed this year's trailer director, Cartoon Brew's most notable Latino director, to discuss her studio's collaboration with Pixelator, the need for collaboration among Latino animators, Lucy Animation's spoke with her about what else her staff is working on.

Cartoon Brew: How did you come to be asked to produce this video? Were you approached by them, were you sold on it, or was it more of a mutual thing...

Prietov: My collaboration with Pixelatl started about 4 years ago. I went to the festival for the first time in 2019 and immediately fell in love with the environment, the atmosphere, and the community that characterizes the festival. There I received valuable feedback on my projects and met some great people in the animation industry. I came to understand the importance of such an event in Latin America. Since then, I have continued to share my admiration and love for the festival with the organizers, and as my studio and our projects have grown, we have gradually built a stronger relationship. This year, Pixelatl was looking for a studio represented by a woman in Latin America outside of Mexico. Thus, Lucy became our creative partner for this year's trailer, and we embraced it wholeheartedly and with all the love in the world. It was always clear to me and to the entire team that we shared a vision and a very important mission with Pixelatl.

Jose and Jordi Iniesta gave us a starting point in the universe we were building to address issues of trust, resilience, and healing. At first, I was afraid to do something clichéd and cheesy, and it was difficult to come up with an idea of how to do it. Eventually I let myself go, trusted myself and our team, and began to create this universe of genderless beings who could be animals, microbes, or even little humans, working in harmony and as a team. We succeeded in building a universe that we could trust, including life lessons about letting go, trusting others, and being there for those around us who need us to be there for them while healing their wounds. I feel that this idea has not only become a concept very relevant to me, Lucy's team, and Pixelator, but also very relevant to the historical moment in which we are living, especially in Latin America. We must somehow heal our wounds and use our strength and resilience as Latin Americans to step forward and work as a team to create a new world with the best we have to offer, just as happened in the film. In the world of animation, we are a great collective of amazing artists who share a mission and a responsibility to make history with the learning and memory of our respective countries and our own lives.

How long was the production period? And was this work something you had to focus on completely, or was it something you did in the background while working on other projects? In order to finance the studio, we had to work in between other projects. It was hard work, but like the universe of magical beings called Bamba, we had to work as a team, be patient, strong, and work together to reach the end result. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful projects in the history of Lucy Animation Studios. Because this project was based on trust, cooperation, and the boundless love we all have for animation.

What other work have you done at Lucy -

In addition to this beautiful project, we have worked on five other Adult Swim IDs throughout the year. Two of them have already been announced, one for Genndy Tartakovsky's Unicorn Warriors, which will air on the station soon, and a tribute to our studio's owner, Lucy the kitten. The third has its own story and worldview, and the other two are surprises that we are very excited to reveal in the coming months. We also offer animation, character design, and layout services for a Marvel series I can't talk about yet.

As for original productions, we have a feature film in development called "Halloween Triqui Triqui," a short film in development called "Mitomorfosis," and a short film in development called "Crunchy Human." Besides our production work, we are very excited to have been involved for almost a year in a 100% Spanish-language animation school for Latin American students. Sharing our experience and knowledge is part of our studio's DNA and an important part of our role. Now, we are infinitely grateful to Pixelator for this wonderful opportunity, and we are delighted to be able to tell our story in such a medium and raise our voice in front of the world.