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‘I NEVER IMAGINED I<br />
COULD BE KOBE BRYANT’<br />
Two men in transition — a 38-year Disney animator who’d worked on <strong>The</strong> Little Mermaid and<br />
Beauty and the Beast and an NBA great — found common ground and a shared new purpose<br />
with animated short nominee Dear Basketball By Glen Keane, as told to Mia Galuppo<br />
Ihad left Disney after nearly<br />
40 years there, and since<br />
then I had been focusing on<br />
personal, expressive films.<br />
Kobe had seen this film I did for<br />
Google, Duet, and he contacted one<br />
of the executive producers, and she<br />
set up a meeting. He came in to<br />
our tiny studio in West <strong>Hollywood</strong>,<br />
which is just in a duplex, and it<br />
was so surreal. He drives up in a<br />
big black Suburban, and he is just<br />
in our neighborhood. Kobe Bryant!<br />
Kobe loves animation; he is an<br />
animation geek. So he walked<br />
in and was standing in our little<br />
dining room — but it is actually<br />
our story room — and he looked<br />
around at the drawings<br />
and storyboards<br />
and little things<br />
on the wall, and I’m<br />
Keane thinking, “Oh boy,<br />
here it comes.” And<br />
he says, “This is perfect. This<br />
is what I want.” We crowded into<br />
my little office in the back and<br />
connected over things we had in<br />
common. For me, it was leaving<br />
a career at Disney, which was so<br />
much a part of me, and for Kobe it<br />
was leaving behind the Lakers.<br />
We talked about doing something<br />
together but didn’t know<br />
exactly what it would be. Before<br />
Kobe retired, he wrote this<br />
letter, “Dear Basketball,” and he<br />
called me and asked me if I<br />
would be interested in animating<br />
it. He goes, “I have my friend John<br />
Williams who is going to do the<br />
music.” And I go, “Oh, that would<br />
be really wonderful.”<br />
Right after his last game [in<br />
2016], where he scored 60 points<br />
and my son and I were in our little<br />
studio screaming our heads off,<br />
he texted and said, “Let’s do this.”<br />
I told Kobe, “You’ve got the worst<br />
basketball player on earth animating<br />
you.” He said that it was<br />
OK because everything I would<br />
learn about basketball was going<br />
to come through studying him. So<br />
Kobe came over, and we downloaded<br />
YouTube’s “Top 20 Kobe<br />
Bryant Plays” and stop-framed<br />
through every one while Kobe<br />
talked about what was happening<br />
on the court. My mentor — one<br />
of Disney’s Nine Old Men — Ollie<br />
Johnston told me, “Glen, don’t<br />
animate what the character is<br />
doing — animate what the character<br />
is thinking.” So we talked<br />
Toon Contenders<br />
GARDEN PARTY<br />
A gang of frogs<br />
at a luxurious<br />
villa uncover the<br />
human owner’s<br />
whereabouts.<br />
NEGATIVE SPACE<br />
An often-away<br />
father bonds<br />
with his son by<br />
teaching him<br />
how to pack.<br />
LOU<br />
In this Pixar short,<br />
a creature made<br />
of lost-and-found<br />
items attempts<br />
to mentor a bully.<br />
REVOLTING RHYMES<br />
Roald Dahl’s<br />
darker take on<br />
Snow White, Red<br />
Riding Hood and<br />
more fairy tales.<br />
about what was going on on the<br />
inside. Kobe has an incredible<br />
emotional memory of how he was<br />
feeling during the plays. Any time<br />
you are animating, you are living<br />
in the skin of your character.<br />
For me, I’ve been a mermaid<br />
and a beast, but I never imagined<br />
I could be Kobe Bryant.<br />
DEAR: COURTESY OF GUNPOWDER & SKY. KEANE: THEO WARGO/GETTY IMAGES FOR TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL. GARDEN: COURTESY OF MOPA. LOU: DISNEY/PIXAR. NEGATIVE: COURTESY OF IKKI FILMS &<br />
MANUEL CAM STUDIO. RHYMES: COURTESY OF GKIDS. DEKALB: COURTESY OF REED VAN DYK. ELEVEN: COURTESY OF FINCH COMPANY. NEPHEW: COURTESY OF JOE ZAKKO. HOUSTON: AP PHOTO/GEORGE<br />
BRICH. ERLAND: VALERIE MACON/GETTY IMAGES. LORD: PIERRE VINET/NEW LINE CINEMA/PHOTOFEST. LETTERI: DIA DIPASUPIL/GETTY IMAGES FOR SCAD. SILENT, WATU: COURTESY OF LONDON FLAIR PR.<br />
Real-Life<br />
Action<br />
Several of this<br />
year’s live-action<br />
short nominees<br />
were inspired by true<br />
events, while others<br />
tackle complicated<br />
relationships<br />
By Rebecca Ford<br />
DEKALB ELEMENTARY<br />
Inspired by a real 911 call during a school shooting<br />
in Atlanta, the film follows a man who enters an<br />
elementary school with a semiautomatic rifle.<br />
THE ELEVEN O’CLOCK<br />
This Australian short is set during a session<br />
between a psychiatrist and a patient (who is<br />
convinced he is the doctor).<br />
MY NEPHEW EMMETT<br />
A 64-year-old African-American man tries to<br />
protect his 14-year-old nephew, Emmett Till, from<br />
two white men who invade his home.<br />
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER<br />
72<br />
FEBRUARY 7, <strong>2018</strong>
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