Lackadaisy Premieres Their Half-Hour Animated Pilot


Lackadaisy premiered their pilot film today on YouTube, three years after their very successful Kickstarter campaign ended in 2020. The 27-minute traditionally animated movie is rated PG-13 due to the drinking and the violence, but without the swearing.

Lackadaisy began as a webcomic in 2006 by Tracy J. Butler, who became inspired after researching the history of her century-old Saint Louis home and of her love of jazz music and the 1920s aesthetics. Her love of animation also inspired her, having grown up with Disney animated films, Looney Tunes and Don Bluth animations. When she first created Lackadaisy, she was imagining it as an animated film. She had dreams of having her story to someday become animated in a way that would resemble similar animation styles and music quality that she had grown up with. With her background as a game developer, graphic designer, and illustrator, Tracy was well aware of how complicated and expensive this dream would be.

Before going forward with a Kickstarter campaign, creator Tracy Butler and director Fable Siegel approached several studios with the concept of an adult animated series that follows booze drinking anthropomorphic cats as they indulged in crime during the 1920’s Missouri era. However, according to producers, studios thought the project would be too risky to finance, even if it did sound like an interesting idea. Hollywood studios in general have this idea that when it comes to adult animation, only the sitcom format appeal to adults.

After the failed attempts at pitching to several networks, Tracy and Fable decided to turn to the fans. They launched the Lackadaisy: The Animated Short Film Kickstarter campaign on March 16th 2020 to a fund a proof-of-concept short animated film. If this was successful, it would show the studios that adults are interested in far more than just sitcom-type of animated content. The campaign had reached it’s $85,000 goal 6 hours after it launched. At the end of the Kickstarter on April 17th, it had reached up to $330,256 with 5,957 supporters.

The animated Short was originally planned for a 2021 release, but then the world went through a shut down, so most of the production and creation was done remotely from around the world.

The style of animation was specifically chosen to resemble a slightly rough animation style seen in classic animated films created before animation creation was replaced with something called CAPS, which is an early computer-based program that was developed by Pixar. Up until the 1980s, Xerography was the method of choice. This technique involves transferring pencil line art directly to animation cells that creates a textured appearance. You can see this inking and photocopying type of animation having been used in film’s such as Disney’s 101 Dalmations (1961) and Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH (1982).

You can watch this video here to see what it was like to animate this Short from someone who worked on the animation project:

Because of the choice to create the animated Short independently, Lackadaisy had more control over the art, animation, music, and voice cast. Every decision was made for a reason that they felt made a difference in the quality that they were looking for in a story that is beloved by fans around the world.

When Lackadaisy premiered at 2 pm EST today on March 29th, the highest live-view count it had was around 12 thousand. Since it finished airing it’s premiere on YouTube, it has remained trending on Twitter at #4 as of this publishing several hours later.

The movie description is: It’s 1927 and the Prohibition is the law of the land. For Rocky, Freckle, and Ivy, the night shift are never dull.

There is an extra scene after the credits, so look out for that!
Watch the 27-minute short film here:

Eight software programs were used to create this animation. Which includes Toon Boom Harmony, Clip Studio Ex, Storyboard Pro, Blender, and a few Adobe programs, among other software programs.

Cast credits include Belsheber Rusape as Freckle, Michael Kovach as Rocky, Lisa Reimold as Ivy, and Benni Latham as Serafine, Malcolm Ray as Nicodeme, J.J. and Carnival Barker, SungWon Cho (also known as ProZD) as Mordecai, Valentine Stokes as Zib, Ashe Wagner as Mitzi, Bradley Garett as Wick, Jason Marnocha as Viktor and Asa Sweet, and Walter Tomas Viola as Horatio.

So what do you think of this indie animated film? Would you like to see more of this? Do you agree with Hollywood studios in their perception of what adults prefer to see in the type of animated format, that being sitcoms? We would love to hear your thoughts so feel free to share them!

Source: Toon Boom

Share this content!


ClownfishTV.com strives to be an apolitical, balanced and based pop culture news outlet. However, our contributors are entitled to their individual opinions. Author opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of our video hosts, other site contributors, site editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. This website contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. We disclaim products or services we have received for review purposes, as well as sponsored posts.

Sarah Leone

An independent artist who loves to mix things up between traditional and digital art. She has a love for all things anime, animation, and manga. Oh, and cats. Can't forget the cats.

View all posts

Shop Now!

Final Fantasy VII Tifa Lockhart Bring Arts Action Figure

Support Us!

Categories

Close Subscribe Card