''The Dam Keeper'' is a 2014 American
animated short
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
film directed by
Robert Kondo and
Daisuke Tsutsumi. It tells the story of Pig, an introverted youth who lives in a windmill and keeps a dark fog from engulfing his town. Although socially rejected by his peers, he is befriended by the artistic Fox.
Kondo and Tsutsumi began developing the film while working as
art directors
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of what ...
on ''
Monsters University
''Monsters University'' is a 2013 American computer-animated monster comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Dan Scanlon (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Kori ...
'' and produced it through a co-op program at
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...
. This is Tsutsumi's second short film, after 2011's ''Sketchtravel'', and Kondo's first directorial effort. Producers Megan Bartel and Duncan Ramsay were also employees at Pixar. The film received an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nomination for
Best Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...
.
Plot
Pig lives alone in a
windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications, in some ...
on the outskirts of town. The windmill sits atop a massive wall and continually blows away a dark fog that perpetually looms outside the wall. Every day, Pig winds the windmill to keep it turning, just like his father before him.
However, in town and at school, nobody likes Pig. Even though he protects the town, the other animal children make fun of him and bully him.
Soon, a new student, Fox, arrives at the school carrying a sketchbook and quickly becomes rather popular. One day, she mistakingly drops the sketchbook while leaving the classroom, and Pig discovers that Fox draws mocking
caricature
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...
s of classmates and teachers. Fox shows up the next day upset about losing the sketchbook, but she is quickly relieved to see that Pig has it with him.
That day at school, bullies drag Pig into the restroom and harass him. Fox discovers Pig in the restroom, and consoles him and teaches him to use art as an emotional outlet for his daily hardships. The two become good friends. After school one day, Pig notices Fox surrounded by several other students looking at one of her drawings and laughing. Emboldened, Pig approaches the group. Through the crowd, Pig barely sees a mean-looking caricature of himself, with "Dirty P-" written at the top. Devastated, Pig rips the drawing out of Fox's sketchbook and runs away in tears.
As evening continues, the fog draws near - Pig should be returning to his home to wind the windmill. Instead, sitting in sorrow, he puts on his gas mask and waits as the fog envelops the town while the other animals flee in terror. Eventually, Pig looks down at the drawing and discovers that he is not the only one caricatured—Fox is next to him, and the title is actually "Dirty Pals". Jolted back to his senses, Pig realizes what horrible risk the town is in. He makes his way to the windmill and manages to rid the town of the fog, losing and damaging one of the mill's propellers in the process.
Pig gazes out the window of the windmill as the fog clears and the citizens begin cleaning up. Pig remembers the drawing and begins to leave. Upon opening the door, Fox is waiting for him. Pig acknowledges his misunderstanding, and she extends forgiveness to him. The two then play together inside the windmill.
Cast
*
Lars Mikkelsen
Lars Dittmann Mikkelsen (born 6 May 1964) is a Danish actor. He has played Copenhagen mayoral election candidate Troels Hartmann in the drama series '' The Killing'', Charles Augustus Magnussen in the third series of '' Sherlock'', the Russian ...
as Narrator
Production
Development
![Pixaranimationstudios](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Pixaranimationstudios.jpg)
''The Dam Keeper'' was produced as part of a
co-op
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
program at
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...
, under which employees are allowed to develop their own films without the use of studio resources.
Directors
Robert Kondo and
Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi were both
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...
s at Pixar. They had worked together on ''
Toy Story 3
''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to '' Toy Story 2'' (1999). It wa ...
'' and ''
Monsters University
''Monsters University'' is a 2013 American computer-animated monster comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Dan Scanlon (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Kori ...
''.
Partially facilitated by having their offices located next to one another's, a friendship quickly formed between the two of them. While Kondo's first job was at Pixar, Tsutsumi had previously been employed at
Blue Sky Studios
Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 22, 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their e ...
and is married to a niece of famed Japanese animator
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...
. Kondo recalls having been "fascinated by
sutsumi'soutside experience" and recognized at the time that his co-worker's "vision always seemed to be greater than the box
four responsibility."
In 2011, Tsutsumi released his first directorial effort - an animated short film called ''Sketchtravel''. He was aided on the film by Kondo, who worked on it as an animator.
Kondo has described the film as having "very limited animation...like a children's book come to life."
Shortly after the completion of ''Sketchtravel'', Tsutsumi turned to Kondo with the idea of collaborating on a new short film.
This was during the "heat of production" for ''Monsters University'', a time after which, as Kondo explained, most animators normally consider taking time off.
Kondo noted, "Dice wanted to take time off, but in that time, he wanted to make a film."
The two were tantalized by the potential, recognizing how much Tsutsumi had been able to achieve as a solo-director, and considering how much more they would be able to achieve together. For the following year, they developed story ideas before and after work,
sharing
treatments with each other through
Google Docs
Google Docs is an online word processor included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google, which also includes: Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. Go ...
. Unable to use their Pixar offices for the task, they wrote in their home studios, cafes - anywhere that "encouraged
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offic ...
creativity" and had
internet access
Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Interne ...
.
They then got together on weekends to discuss story ideas.
Pre-production
Once their duties on ''Monsters University'' were complete, Kondo and Tsutsumi took a three-month sabbatical to begin production on their project. They began without any clear intentions - the film would simply be an experiment to see "how far
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title ...
could go".
The two co-directors rented a windowless studio right across the street from Pixar.
At first, they were unsure of how to approach production. "There was no real formula or no real path as to what was right", Kondo said.
"We didn't know - should we be writing a script, should we be drawing moments, should we be talking about character design?"
Not until their editor, Bradley Furnish,
became involved, did all of the individual elements synthesize into what the directors recognized as a potential film.
The two directors refused to pressure themselves into striving for perfection; they just wanted to get the film done. Recognizing the process as a "learning experience", and choosing to extend this opportunity to the rest of the crew, they hired animators who were predominantly young and had just graduated from school.
"Growth was a big part of...who we selected to bring on", Kondo said.
"We kept asking, what can you gain by working on this project?"
Rounding out the crew were fellow Pixar employees,
such as Duncan Ramsay, who worked as a
production assistant
A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget ...
at the studio. Ramsay's co-workers gave him the chance to come onto ''The Dam Keeper'' in an even more distinguished position than production assistant - producer. However, Ramsay feared that balancing a project like this, on the side of his regular Pixar duties, would prove an unmanageable workload. So initially, he turned the offer down. All the same, he found himself gradually being drawn into the project, and once he committed full-scale, he convinced his friend, Megan Bartel, to come onto the film as a producer with him. Bartel characterized Ramsay as "the perfect strategist"; someone who holds an ideal mixture of warmth and intelligence.
Ramsay would hold "daily progress check-ins" throughout the film's production and found a "creative outlet" in writing the film's narration.
The crew in its entirety consisted of about seventy people, though there was a "core group" of about twenty to twenty-five.
Everyone worked on a volunteer basis.
For guidance, Kondo and Tsutsumi turned to
Erick Oh, one of their Pixar co-workers, who already held experience as an independent filmmaker.
Oh was happy to oblige. As he grew more involved with the film, he moved beyond his mere advisory role to become the film's supervising animator.
Although he had never worked in this position before, he found it to be like a "bridge" between animating (which he had done at Pixar) and directing (which he had done on his own films).
Official production began in early 2013.
Although Kondo and Tsutsumi had planned to carry out most of the film's production within the three months that they took off from Pixar, this schedule was developed around an early version of the film that only ran for eight minutes.
As the film's length expanded, eventually reaching eighteen minutes, the production period stretched into a total of nine months.
"We just couldn't foresee the length of the story we wanted to tell in the beginning", Tsutsumi reflected.
"
ut if you look at the math, three months of eight minutes to nine months of 18 minutes is not too bad."
Commenting on the film's burgeoning run time, Kondo explained that eight minutes seemed insufficient to convey the kind of story that he and Tsutsumi wanted to tell - one in which a character's perception of life significantly changes. However, Kondo hopes that in the future, they will be able to make films with "just as much emotion in a shorter format."
Story development
![The Little Dutch Boy - The Dam Keeper - Cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/The_Little_Dutch_Boy_-_The_Dam_Keeper_-_Cropped.jpg)
Primarily interested in the opportunity of collaborating, Kondo and Tsutsumi did not have any specific story in mind when they commenced.
They enjoy similar types of films, but did not immediately settle into the writing process - it took them some time to "find a way to do it together", Tsutsumi said.
Their first idea centered on an old
miner
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting ...
and his dog.
This then evolved through four or five different iterations, before manifesting in its final form.
Drawing inspiration from ''
The Little Dutch Boy
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', a folktale about a young boy who saves his town by placing his finger in a
dike, Kondo and Tsutsumi devised a character who would hold similar responsibility, except on a day-to-day basis.
Thematically, the duo sought to craft a story that would be true to familiar ordeals - they wanted anyone to be able to relate to the story.
The dark fog that encroaches upon the town serves two purposes: it comments on the "contemporary reality" of pollution, while also symbolizing Pig's struggle with internal demons.
Kondo explained that both he and Tsutsumi desired to create a world that feels "impermanent", in which things "don't seem like they can last forever."
Both directors enjoy films that are "slow-paced, poetic,
ndvery quiet."
Although they tried to capture this aesthetic in ''The Dam Keeper'', they were also concerned about the film lagging,
and so they worked with their editor, Bradley Furnish, to make sure that the film has a balanced pace.
Tsutsumi has named
Frédéric Back as his prime influence as an animator. "He
ackalways had something to say. For him, figuring out what was happening in society came first, before his craft", Tsutsumi said.
Although the two directors did not seek to make a "social statement" with their film, commentary on world issues flowed naturally into their story. "
tried hard to stay true to who we are", Tsutsumi said.
are very conscious of what is happening today."
Kondo has named
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including '' The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), '' An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...
as one of his influences, and both have named
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...
(Tsutsumi's uncle through marriage), as well as the films of
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
- in particular, ''
Pinocchio
Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
'', ''
Dumbo
''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, ...
'', and ''
One Hundred and One Dalmatians''.
Many people have asked Kondo if Pig was based on him, and if Fox was based on Tsutsumi. However, each character was actually based on both filmmakers. "I think Pig might be who we are, but Fox is who we want to be", Tsutsumi explained.
He described himself and Kondo as both being "somewhat introverted".
Although he supposes that they are not quite as introverted as Pig, he feels that many artists are.
A
test screening
A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or ...
of the first
story reel was organized for a group of Kondo and Tsutsumi's friends who had more writing experience than the two former art directors. As described by Kondo, the screening was "a disaster."
The two directors recognized for themselves that the story was not working as they had wanted it to. "That was devastating", Tsutsumi said.
The story was coming across as overly "heady" and did not connect emotionally.
Although Kondo and Tsutsumi had wanted to finalize the story before starting production, they now had to revise it, while concurrently working on other aspects of the film. Otherwise, they would not have stayed on schedule.
Looking forward, Kondo has noted that difficulties like this are unavoidable. He has said that he only hopes to be "more nimble" in dealing with them in the future.
One scene was cut from the finished film. It was halfway through animation at the time and was removed since the directors thought that it "distracted from the emotional arc" of the story.
In the scene, Pig loses track of the time, crying alone in a classroom after school. As he rushes home to the windmill, the fog nearly rolls into the town.
Animation
As art directors at Pixar, Kondo and Tsutsumi were primarily responsible for creating concept paintings.
Carrying little experience with them in the actual process of animating a film,
the duo developed a visual style for ''The Dam Keeper'' that utilized their painting abilities.
After creating the film's animation in
TVPaint, a French
digital animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images ( moving images), while computer animation refe ...
program,
brush-stroke effects were added to each frame in
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...
.
Although Tsutsumi described this approach as "time-consuming", he felt that it "paid off in the end."
Going into the project, Kondo and Tsutsumi already had similar painting styles.
However, they decided to learn even more from each other
and then trained their animating team to work within these styles.
During their sabbatical from Pixar, the directors took their team outside to paint together and did
still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, bo ...
s with them as well. At first, the animators made little progress. "We went from at least the two of us painting every day and producing things for the film, to none of us", Kondo remarked on the situation. Not a single frame of the film was produced during the first month. The directors later described this moment as "terrifying".
They began to worry that the film would never see completion. However, in a sudden turn, the animators began accomplishing more than their directors had ever anticipated of them. "Literally in a day...we went from zero to exceeding output for a week...expectations for what our production could be just exploded", Kondo said.
The animators learned certain techniques even faster than Kondo and Tsutsumi had. When given a task, they often returned work of a higher quality than their directors had initially asked for.
About 8,000 frames were created for the film.
Even though
3D animation
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
is not used in the finished version of the film,
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
and other
3D software
3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for t ...
programs were used for
previsualization.
The directors felt that this "allowed
orthe greatest exploration of scene layout in the shortest amount of time."
Tsutsumi has said that many people have mistaken the film's animation for
CGI "with a painterly texture over it".
He actually considers this misconception to be complimentary, and he credits it to his and Kondo's painting style, which emphasizes light and "how the characters interact with
t On Photoshop, the animators used "
adjustment layers to paint lighting on characters."
This helped frames remain consistent between animators.
To further aid in consistency, frames were compared in
AfterEffects.
After creating scenes for the film, animators would upload them to the
file sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...
service
Box, tagging the directors to indicate that the scenes "were ready for review."
Kondo and Tsutsumi would then leave notes on the animators' work and do a
paint-over. Because Box is able to save each version of a file, no one had to "worry about losing anything", Kondo explained.
This helped him and Tsutsumi keep track of everything that was going on in the production. Kondo noted that without the ease of "communication, information organization and collaboration" provided by new technology, the film "would have had to have changed in scope, complexity and quality to be able to be done" on schedule."
He feels that this would have been impossible to accomplish a decade earlier.
Music
The film's score was composed by Zach Johnston and Matteo Roberts.
Johnston had previously collaborated with the directors on Tsutsumi's ''Sketchtravel'', as a composer and co-writer.
The four would often converse over
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, debi ...
. Kondo and Tsutsumi have no musical background, but felt that they were "in great hands" with their composers.
They were upfront about their lack of expertise in this area. When making suggestions for the score, they would acknowledge that their ideas might not be worth using. However, Johnston and Roberts both feel that the directors made valuable musical contributions. Johnston remarked that the directors made the score "more elegant and subtle" than it would have been otherwise.
Noting the importance of this point, Roberts said that because Pig's pain has become normalized in his life, the score should only reflect "a tinge of sadness" and not be "overly dramatic".
Both composers greatly enjoyed their time on the film. They felt a considerable amount of freedom in crafting the score and found that there was no pressure to mimic the sound of other composers. After completing the film, Johnston joked that his and Roberts' careers would be "all down hill from here...unless Dice and Robert ask us to do another one."
The
demo score was created and recorded on
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...
's
GarageBand
GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife softwar ...
.
Minna Choi then conducted MagicMagic Orchestra in performing the score live. They recorded at Fantasy Studios in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
. The studio room contained a screen that would show corresponding scenes. Many of the instrumentalists found that they could not watch this without being overcome with emotion. As such, they had to avert their eyes. Tsutsumi related a moment when Choi was explaining the film's story to the orchestra, and he found her moved to tears. For his part, Kondo found it "mesmerizing" to watch Choi conduct.
"There's something about watching someone who's incredible at their craft", he said.
Commenting on Johnston and Roberts' score, Choi called it "tender", "sweet", and "innocent".
Post-production
When Kondo and Tsutsumi completed production on ''The Dam Keeper'', they found themselves restless at Pixar. "Of course they were great to us", Kondo said of his friends at the studio.
"They're our family still, but...if we didn't go back to
ndependent filmmakingand challenge ourselves...in the end not only would we suffer but Pixar would suffer as well."
He and Tsutsumi made the difficult decision of leaving their employment behind. Tsutsumi was a new father at the time. Kondo was soon to be married.
Friends and family questioned them. However, the duo had grown deeply enamored with the experience of making films on their own. When they had first set out to direct ''The Dam Keeper'', they had been looking for something that could mirror the early days of Pixar. "Creating something from scratch is what 'creating' means", Tsutsumi explained.
"We didn't experience that beginning and, if we stayed at Pixar, we never would."
The two of them felt they had learned more in the nine months that it took to produce ''The Dam Keeper'' than in all of their previous years as art directors. They did not want this rewarding period of their lives to only last for a short while.
Recognizing that it would only become harder with the passing years to go out on their own, Kondo and Tsutsumi resigned from Pixar in July 2014.
From there, they founded their own studio,
Tonko House.
Although they would eventually move locations to
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
, at first Tonko House was situated within the same windowless studio that ''The Dam Keeper'' was produced in - right across the street from Pixar. Kondo and Tsutsumi invited their former boss and mentor,
Ed Catmull, over for a visit. He gave the duo his blessing, saying, "This is the moment you'll remember no matter what it turns into, no matter how big it becomes...that first moment, when you create something from nothing, is the best time."
Tonko House derives its name from the Japanese words for pig (ton) and fox (ko).
It was not the first name that Kondo and Tsutsumi considered, but all of their other ideas were already taken. To ensure that they came up with something unused, they settled on using a "nonsensical" word, but one that would still carry an "indirect" connection to their identity and work.
Ko is an old-fashioned word and is not commonly used in the modern Japanese language.
Release
The film was produced without clear intentions for its release. "
didn’t make ''The Dam Keeper'' to enter festivals, we just wanted to make a film. But once it was done we wanted to share it", Tsutsumi said.
The film was rejected by the first few festivals that it was submitted to.
In February 2014, it was accepted at the
64th Berlin International Film Festival
The 64th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 6 to 16 February 2014. Wes Anderson's film '' The Grand Budapest Hotel'' opened the festival. British film director Ken Loach was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...
, where it had its world premiere.
The US premiere followed in March, at the 17th
New York International Children's Film Festival New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) Established in 1997, NYICFF’s mission is rooted in the belief of film as a path for young people to understand themselves and others. All programs are designed to celebrate the beauty and po ...
.
In all, over ninety festivals have screened the film.
The first public screening was held in December 2014 at a small cinema in Berkeley, California. At this screening, Kondo and Tsutsumi auctioned off original works of art.
With the film's Oscar nomination, it was picked up for theatrical distribution by
Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment.
Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Ma ...
and
Shorts HD
ShortsTV is a worldwide network dedicated to short films. ShortsTV has over 13,000 titles in its catalog and has been a presenter of the Oscar Nominated Short Film releases since 2006.
The channel is available in over 100 million homes across th ...
. Premiering on January 30, 2015, in a compilation with the other 2014 Oscar-nominated, animated short films, it was screened in 350 theaters across North America, as well as several dozen in Europe and Latin America.
Critical reception
Collin Souter of
Rogerebert.com
''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...
called ''The Dam Keeper'' "a beautiful piece of work" and speculated that it may win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Justin Chang of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' compared the film to
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's dark novel ''
Carrie''.
He complimented its "moody, muted" visual style, which he thought resembled both paint and
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. C ...
.
Noting that the "ever-shifting images perfectly capture a fragile community that could easily vanish into the ether", he considered the film "emotionally harrowing."
In an article for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Charles Solomon wrote that the film's design "suggests a canvas in motion."
In a separate article for ''The New York Times'', A.O. Scott called the film "complex and rewarding."
He praised its commentary on both the environment and emotional struggles, while finding the character designs to be "charming, without being especially cute."
Carolyn Giardina of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' called the film's story "moving" and its visual design "beautiful."
Freelance critic, activist, and published author Richard Propes wrote on his website, ''The Independent Critic'', that the film was one of the best shorts at 2014's
Heartland Film Festival
The Heartland International Film Festival is a film festival held each October in Indianapolis, Indiana. The festival was first held in 1992, its goal is to "inspire filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion pictu ...
. Although he was unsure why it had impacted him so greatly, he declared that the film would long linger with him after seeing it. Acknowledging it as less "designed for mass consumption" than most mainstream American animation, he nonetheless wrote that it should be considered equal in entertainment value.
He gave the film an A- and praised its quiet, emotionally involving nature.
According to the ''New York Times'', most professional animators considered ''The Dam Keeper'' the best of 2014's Oscar-nominated, animated short films.
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
producer
Don Hahn praised the film saying, "There is a sameness to much animation, so when a film like ''The Dam Keeper'' comes along, it reminds us that the boundaries of animation have barely been explored."
One of ''
How to Train Your Dragon 2
''How to Train Your Dragon 2'' is a 2014 American computer-animated action fantasy film loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the sequ ...
s writers and directors,
Dean DeBlois
Dean DeBlois ( ; born 7 June 1970) is a Canadian film director, film producer, screenwriter, and animator. He is best known for writing and directing the Oscar-nominated animated films ''Lilo & Stitch'' for Walt Disney Animation Studios (with Chr ...
, said that the animation style of ''The Dam Keeper'' resembles development artwork that has been given "life and poetry and movement."
Accolades
The film received an Oscar nomination for
Best Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...
at the
87th Academy Awards
The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30  ...
,
but lost to Disney's ''
Feast
A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...
''. Unable to finance an Oscar campaign, Kondo and Tsutsumi formed a
grassroots strategy that relied on
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
platforms. They had given little consideration to the possibility of an Oscar-nomination while making the film, and Tsutsumi called the revelation "a little bit overwhelming."
It wasn't a part of Tonko House's plan", he said.
To them, the true significance of the honor is that it shows their place within the animation community.
Other projects
Graphic novels
First Second Books
First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It al ...
announced a collaboration with Tonko House to publish a trilogy of graphic novels that would expand Pig and Fox's adventures 5 years after the events of the short. In the graphic novels, the poisonous fog recedes for the first time, leading Pig and Fox to explore the beyond with the unlikely help of one of Pig's bullies, Hippo. Along the way, the questions raised from the short on the whereabouts of Pig's parents and the poisonous fog engulfing the other side of the dam to begin with, will be answered.
Robert Kondo, one of the directors and artists of The Dam Keeper, remarked that the continuation is "inspired by a personal anecdote of Tstusumi’s,
aying
Aying is a municipality in the district of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It is known for the Ayinger Brewery
Ayinger Brewery ( ; german: Brauerei Aying) is in Aying, Bavaria, Germany, about 25 km south of Munich. Ayinger beers are exported ...
that they’re interested in exploring how friendship evolves as
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title ...
mature." They were "eight or ten" when "the kind of friends is different than when
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title ...
grow up and start to learn about the world and who
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title ...
are in the world.” The first graphic novel was scheduled to be published in 2016, but was delayed to September 26, 2017, while the second installment, "''The Dam Keeper: World Without Darkness'' was published on July 10, 2018 and the third and final graphic novel titled "''The Dam Keeper: Return from the Shadows''" was published on July 2, 2019.
Feature film
There is also a feature film sequel to the short that is in development with Kondo and Tsutsumi returning as directors. Produced by former
Blue Sky Studios
Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 22, 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their e ...
producer Kane Lee, it is meant to also expand the adventures of Pig and Fox just like the trilogy of graphic novels.
Originally, when the feature film was announced, it was in collaboration with
20th Century Fox Animation
20th Century Animation, Inc. (originally known as Fox Family Films, Fox Animation Studios, and 20th Century Fox Animation and sometimes referred to as Fox Animation) is an American animation studio located in Century City, Los Angeles. Formed i ...
during development. However, following
The Walt Disney Company's acquisition with 21st Century Fox as of March 20, 2019, the film is currently being developed independently at Tonko House, looking for other movie studios to collaborate with.
Television series
Tonko House produced an animated television series based on the short titled ''Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems''. It premiered on
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
in Japan.
References
External links
*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dam Keeper, The
2014 films
2014 drama films
2014 animated films
2014 short films
2010s animated short films
American drama films
American animated short films
American independent films
2014 independent films
Environmental films
Films set in schools
Animated films about animals
Animated films about foxes
Films about bullying
First Second Books books
2010s English-language films
2010s American films