More years ago than a human mind could remember or a decent man dare to admit, I bumped into a featurette of the then-upcoming The Lion King—it was on the VHS of Cinderella, videotape times. Despite its understandably commercial nature, it had some sort of a eureka effect on me—Ha! so this is how animated films are made. Among the artists interviewed, there was this handsome man with Fred Mercury moustache and German accent who beautifully described how he had tried to infuse suaveness and ferocity into the same character or something down the line. It wasn’t what he said that impressed me, but how he moved, how he gestured, how he modulated the tone of his voice while talking about the creation of the Machiavellian Scar. The secret bond between animator and character—that is what he was making me aware of for the first time, and that is still what mostly attracts me to animation.
Skip forward to the present day, I am lucky enough to have been extended an invitation to a screening of the long-gestated directorial debut of Andreas Deja. Mushka may not be flawless, but it’s an act of love that couldn’t be truer to its author. Watching it in the company of old friends, fellow animators, and then having the pleasure to meet and chat with Andreas, threw me back to a particularly exciting moment in my life, the memory of which had gone neglected for a very long time.