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Everyone's Hero
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Creative Producer Ron Tippe is a veteran of feature animation, having worked on Space Jam for Warner Bros. and Shrek at Dreamworks. For Everyone’s Hero, he had the task of keeping the story focused on the direction set by Christopher and Dana Reeve. “One of the things that appealed to Chris and Dana so much,” says Tippe, “was that this is a story of a little boy who is willing to go to the ends of the earth to help his father. What Chris loved about this was that it’s a father-son story, and it’s a direct reflection of Chris’s relationship with his three children. It was my job to stay on point and stay true to that vision.”
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Ron Tippe |
Throughout the making of the film, Kurtz would visit Reeve’s home several times a week as they shaped the story. “He came to be a friend that I really loved. He had a real work ethic – he was struggling to breathe, but we worked four, five hours a day. We would talk about the characters and ideas for how to lay the story out, and we would look at the artwork together. He really loved to collaborate.”
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Rob Kurtz |
Artistically, the film showcases a painterly style, reminiscent of Norman Rockwell’s Americana. Nonetheless, the overall feel of the film does have the stamp of an independent studio. “The film is already unique because we are trying a sort of independent filmmaker’s way of making a movie, with a lower budget but with a great story,” says IDT’s vice president of artistic development Frank Gladstone. “I’d like to see it succeed because I’d like to see more animation being done in this independent vein. I already know it’s a good movie, but I hope it works because it’ll help open up our industry to more types of pictures that don’t have to be gag-oriented laugh riots. They can be pictures with heart.”
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