Welcome To My Life is a brand new short by Elizabeth Ito of Cartoon Network. It’s a beautiful film that offers a fresh take on kid’s animation. Animac sat down with Elizabeth Ito for an interview during Annecy International Animated Film Festival:
Animac Magazine: During the panel, you mentioned some of your goals for Welcome To My Life, like characters you could relate to, a calmer sensibility… If your short becomes a full-length show, are these some of the themes you hope to explore in a deeper way on it?
Elizabeth Ito: Yeah! I’m a really big fan of documentary stuff, so I would like it to have that same feeling. I used to say it should be like a reality show, but there’s some really trashy reality shows, so maybe not like that! (laughs) But yeah, I would really like kids to feel like they relate to this character who is different but likable. I think that would be really awesome.
Animac Magazine: You also mentioned during the panel that you tried to make Welcome To My Life for Disney before Cartoon Network. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Elizabeth Ito: It was so long ago, I’m trying to remember a lot of it, but it was different because it’s a different studio – there’s limitations on the freedom to do kinda different stuff… One of the things that people keep talking about – I think George [Gendi] mentioned it – is there’s this awesome freedom at Cartoon Network to make these shorts in a really unique and personal way, and it’s really hard to be able to do that at Disney, I think. It might be different for other people, but for me, if stuff is way too different it makes them a lot more nervous there… Luckily, at Cartoon Network, I really enjoyed working with the creative executives who’ve helped bring in people who have these different visions.