The Holy Mushroom (2014) #

In the early stages of my animation career, I was focused on illustration and storytelling. The Holy Mushroom was a concept for a project that never made it out of the development stage. It mostly lived in my imagination, and now only vaguely in my memory.

The story is about a young stowaway who winds up on an archipelago where industry, nature, and mysticism collide. He meets unique characters, from a well-known explorer to the gangster kingpin, who also happens to be an anthropomorphic frog. The plot thickens when they would soon find themselves embroiled in the illegal trade of the coveted holy mushrooms. My lofty ambitions were to create something of a web series, with each short episode continuing the story in a serialized manner. The drama centers on the protagonist's attempts to flee the island, escaping their troubles, past mistakes, and the mess they've got themselves into. Essentially, an animated/fantasy take on the Coen Brothers fiasco-drama template.

The design drew significant inspiration from contemporary works, notably Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack, while also paying homage to classic influences such as Yuri Norstein's Hedgehog in the Fog.

Painting this concept for the island was fun and rewarding. I wanted to capture the essence of a place that was wondrous but also had a hint of danger and a seedy-underbelly.

I wanted to embrace a paper-puppet approach to character design, to set the look apart from other animated series at the time. Creating digital characters that would embody the hand-made aesthetic, while also being able to animate them in a believable and dramatic way was an interesting puzzle, and a fun part of the design process.