Series 2, Episode 10: Ben Bocquelet

Pegbar and Grill

***PLEASE NOTE THIS PODCAST WAS RECORDED IN LATE 2016. PLEASE ACCEPT OUR APOLOGIES FOR OUR RIDICULOUS LATENESS IN RELEASING IT.*** Ben Bocquelet is an animator, director, writer, and producer. He is best known as the creator of the multi award-winning and hilarious kids animated series, ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’ (2011-onwards). We sat down with Ben to discuss his rapid rise to success, starting with the fact that he was a latecomer to drawing. He tells us that his graduation film, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ (2003), which helped him get a junior position at Studio AKA in London. After a few years there he found himself at Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe, where he helped develop other people's series proposals. Ben describes what it was like to find out that his own series concept, ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’ was the first to be commissioned at the development hub. We discuss the distinct aesthetic of the series, which partly comes from the use of layered animation techniques and photographed backgrounds, as well as assembling dozens of distinct characters, many of whom started as discarded elements from old unsuccessful commercial pitches. Ben Bocquelet links: Twitter https://twitter.com/benbocquelet Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ben_bocquelet/ ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ (2003) Dir. Ben Bocquelet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot5fVxvwmlo Gumball Wikia Page: http://theamazingworldofgumball.wikia.com/wiki/The_Amazing_World_of_Gumball Studio AKA: http://www.studioaka.co.uk/ ‘Hells Kitchen’ (Future Shorts film) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot5fVxvwmlo EMCA school http://www.angouleme-emca.fr/fr/index.asp City Hunter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Hunter Fist of the North Star https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fist_of_the_North_Star JCBC (Production company) http://www.jsbc.fr/en/ Philippe Andre http://www.independ.net/directors/philippe-andre/ Spike Jonze https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Jonze Chris Cunningham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cunningham Pictoplasma http://pictoplasma.com/ Up The Resolution http://www.uptheresolution.co.uk/ Saschka Unseld http://www.saschkaunseld.com/ Pinky Malinky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_Malinky Cartoon Network http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/ Powerpuff Girl Movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Powerpuff_Girls_Movie Bob Camp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Camp Pixar https://www.pixar.com/#incredibles-2-home Daniel Lennard http://theamazingworldofgumball.wikia.com/wiki/Daniel_Lennard Mr Bean https://www.youtube.com/user/MrBean Antoine Perez http://theamazingworldofgumball.wikia.com/wiki/Antoine_Perez Adventure Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Time CRCR http://www.crcr.fr Studio 4c http://www.studio4c.co.jp/english/ Tyler the Creator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler,_the_Creator Becky and Joe http://beckyandjoes.com/ Spaced https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187664/