#Isak Akerlund

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Animation

This Wednesday we had a lecture with Kimmo Moykky, the animation laboratory technician and Isak Akerlund, a Central Saint Martins animation student. They talked about trends in animation, the software available in Saint Martins for us to use and showed some samples of their work.   But the most interesting part of the lecture in my opinion was Isak Akerlund’s account of his experience as a toy designer while working for BRIO, a Swedish wooden toy company in 1908. It was almost ironic that we had the opportunity to know more about Brio’s project to launch the push puppet Mickey and Minnie, a licensed product, after we had a lecture about standards.   Firstly, Isak showed some images of Mickey Mouse Club House, the actual character cartoon. The current 3D-ish version of Mickey appearance is very different from his previous versions. Here is a poster of the first Mickey’s film Steamboat Willie, of 1928, so you can check the long trajectory: from a black and white outlined mouse to the current glossy aspect.  

Mickey in Steamboat Willie

For kids today: Mickey Mouse Club House   Secondly, Isak told about working with licensed products, the difficulties of adapting a 3D character to a wood toy and the solutions found. Here is the final toy. It is impressive how the final toy is similar with the Disney’s cartoon. Standards, standards, standards…  

Push puppet Mickey