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This is Part One of our Interview with Jeff Wilson, a
Key Animator on The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin. This was
conducted
in 1999. A 2nd installment with Jeff was conducted in 2006, and you
can see that by Clicking Here.
JOSH:
Jeff, thanks
for doing this! All the Teddy Ruxpin fans will really appreciate it,
this is our first conversation on the record with anyone involved
with production!
JEFF WILSON:
I am
flattered you asked me to do the interview, and I will try to answer
questions as well as I can for your site visitors! "The Adventures
Of Teddy Ruxpin" was an international co-production under the
umbrella of Alchemy II, the creators of the Teddy Ruxpin toy, and
DIC Animation. I was employed by one of the key sub-contractors,
"Atkinson Film Arts" of Ottawa, Canada. After finished backgrounds
and pre-production (key animation movement) was complete in Ottawa,
the scenes were shipped to Korea, where a huge team of animators
completed our pencilled scenes.
JOSH:
What was a
regular work week like working on the show?
JEFF WILSON:
A regular
work week was heavy on the whole staff. Often I would work 50 to 60
hours in the posing department, and then 10 more in the model design
dept. After a sluggish start, we worked at an unbelievable rate of 2
and a half episodes a week. Some weeks we completed three! For our
first few shows, there were two rooms of key animators, but
production was falling behind schedule. The idea came along to
divide the group into two "teams". I was in the group headed by Marc
Sevier, and the other group was headed by Drew Edwards, both very
experienced animators. We became friendly competitors, and
production sped up dramatically.
JOSH:
What Character did you like to draw the
most?
JEFF
WILSON:
Grubby was the most fun. Something about drawing
all those circles was easy!
JOSH:
I know this may be a little bit off the
subject, but did you ever get to meet Phil Baron? Was his *real*
voice anything like Teddy's?
JEFF
WILSON:
Not off topic at all. Actually, Phil Baron made it to
Ottawa for a "meet the cast" party sponsored by Atkinson. Phil Baron
looked nothing like we expected, but there was a haunting similarity
in his voice! Also, Will Ryan (Grubby's voice) and Canadian actor,
John Stocker (Gimmick's voice) put in appearances. Same thing. Right
voice - different look than their on-screen persona.
JOSH:
Are you still in
contact with anybody you worked with on the show?
JEFF WILSON:
Actually,
the last I had to do with anyone I worked on Teddy with, was at a
party introducing Disney to Toronto. I saw John Williamson, a member
of my posing team, in the crowd, but it was so crowded, I couldn't
edge my way to him! I would have liked to say "hi", but it didn't
happen.
JOSH:
Do you remember the
date (Month/Year) That production began on episode 1?
JEFF WILSON
Yes. I should mention that before the
animated series, DIC produced a live action two-part episode, using
puppets and actors in full costume. The people at Alchemy II didn't
like the "static" feel of the shows, so they chose to go the
animation route. I believe the original live action show later went
to air, anyway. In any case, the preproduction of the opening five
episodes was set to begin after Labour Day, 1986. I was one of the
team of animators who were called to report to Atkinson's Fairmont
Street studio (Ottawa) at that time, but we found the work would not
begin for another month! I had packed up my family to move to Ottawa
for the job, so there were a few scary moments during this time! So,
we moved office furniture and doodled at our desks to keep busy most
days. If you got lucky, you got to help storyboard artists complete
their work in the first five episodes. At this point the key
animation was actually done in Korea. This was so these particular
episodes could air in Sept. '86.
JOSH:
Was it expected or a suprise when production
was over? Do you know the date (Month/Year) when production ceased?
And do you know if new episodes were planned or made?
JEFF WILSON
No, it was
not a surprise. In television syndication, 65 episodes is the normal
length of a series, so we knew when things were winding down. For us
in preproduction at Atkinson, the contract was completed in May 1987
- right on schedule! There are always rumours and murmurs of a new
series, but I have yet to hear of any concrete plans.
JOSH:
Did your kids
ever watch the show? Did they like it?
JEFF WILSON:
Yes. They
loved the show. Particularly, when Dad's name showed up in the
credits!
JOSH:
What particular scenes did you enjoy
working on the most?
JEFF
WILSON:
I became known as the "love scene" expert. The
episode where Grubby fell in love with Karen the caterpillar
contained some of my better work. In fact, one of the scenes appears
on the videocassette packaging. I also did the love scene, where
L.B. proposes to Buffy Bounder. It was funny how some people seemed
to be better equipped to do certain scenes better than others, and
the team leaders knew who these people were.
JOSH:
Did you or the cast ever listen to
music, or do anything else for inspiration before you went
"animatin"?
JEFF
WILSON:
There was a rule. Nobody inflicted their music on
others without unanimous consent. Most times, "Walkmans" were the
medium of choice. One of the neatest things about music was in Feb
of '97, when we worked on the Grunge beach party episode. In Canada,
February is a harsh month because of the wintery weather. Anyway,
somebody in our dept. had this idea of having a "Beach Day", and
everybody got into it! The cassette players played actual songs from
this episode and people would get up from their desks and just
boogie on the studio floor. This guy came and stood at the doorway
with his eyes bulging out of his head. Someone said "Lighten up, we
are just enjoying ourselves". The man said. "It's not that. It's
just that I wrote that song, and never thought I would see anyone
actually dance to it!" Turns out he had been in another department
and recognized his tune, and came to investigate! Needless to say,
he joined in on the celebrations. It was a special moment!
JOSH:
What specific task(s) did
you work on?
JEFF WILSON:
My title
was "intermediate poser". My task was to draw the key movements of a
scene in black pencil. I would often complete 10 - 15 scenes a day.
I was later added to the model design department - doing model
sheets for the characters, and ofter designing new characters.
JOSH:
A lot of the cast/crew are
from Canada. Is this just coincidence?
JEFF WILSON:
Not coincidental at
all! As I said earlier, Atkinson Film Arts was a key sub-contractor
in the partnership. Besides doing the backgrounds and preproduction,
we had a crack technical team in post-production (sound / voice and
mixing tracks). There is also a wealth of acting talent in the
Toronto and Ottawa areas, who supplied most of the character's
voices.
Thanks, Josh for this opportunity. I hope my answers
are informative and helpful. Let me know if I can ever help out
again!
Thank You, Jeff. It's been
a pleasure!
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