Disney's Paperman plays in London

The London chapter of the Visual Effects Society hosted a screening for Paperman today. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the director John Kars, the animation supervisor Patrick Osborne and the art director Jeffrey Turley.

The word from those who've seen it has been full of praise and wonder:

David Stripinis - @WaltDisneyAnim has something truly special on their hands with #Paperman. Wonderful short from @PatrickTOsborne @john_kahrs @GennieRim

Catherine Hicks - I saw Disney's new short "Paperman" yesterday. I have never seen anything like it before. Absolutely incredible. Hard to describe.

Brad Bird - Just had the great pleasure of watching John Kahrs innovative & wonderful hand-drawn/CG mash up "PAPERMAN". Annecy, you're gonna love it.

One thing that has caught my attention in all of the adulation is the overwhelming description of something new. Coming from the those who are on the cutting edge of the fields, I'm excited to read about a melding of animation and CG that was born from the work done on Tangled.

John Kars describes it this way in an Indiewire article from June 6:

"When I was on 'Tangled,' it just seemed a shame that we had to leave those drawings behind [...] And I thought about a way for the drawings to track along the foundation layer of CG. I wanted to see that expressive line back up front on the screen. And I thought there was a new way we could do this. But it came about technologically in a way I wasn't expecting, by people who are smarter than me"

I'm excited to learn what Disney has uncovered. With their well founded history in advancing the craft of storytelling, I'm not going to be surprised at how wonderful it will be.