MANILA, Philippines — Disney has been churning out well-loved tales in animation for the past 100 years.
To celebrate such a milestone, the company gifts audiences around the world with another entertaining and engaging animated motion picture titled WISH.
WISH is described as an “animated musical fantasy film from the legendary studio,” that is Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Trailers available online tell one that the story takes place in a magical kingdom, also described as a city in a song, called Rosas. The main characters are Asha and King Magnifico (voiced by Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine, respectively).
She is a 17-year-old lass, while he has the ability to grant people’s wishes.
Asha aspires to be the ruler’s apprentice, and, as being suggested, is thrilled to fulfill everyone’s desire.
She learns more about this particular task of the king when the latter invites her to a particular place in the palace, where wishes await to become a reality.
WISH is a product of creatives who are passionate about telling a story that touches the heart and resonates with audiences, regardless of age and social status.
In WISH, Filipino talent and creativity are represented by artist-animator John Aquino, who is based in Burbank, California, and the film’s environment model supervisor.
A local team working with Disney shared that John also took on the same role in the film Raya and the Last Dragon, and was part of Frozen II and Zootopia.
John and most adults learned about the entertainment brand and studio when they were kids. It did play an important role in helping them appreciate the beauty of storytelling done in moving pictures and nurture their interest in the arts.
“I got inspired when I saw Sleeping Beauty,” said he in a virtual interview with The STAR. “Ever since then, you know, I’ve started drawing and you know, hopefully and wishing someday, I’d like to work for Disney. I was in the Philippines when I was a kid. I had big dreams back then and stuff.”
Finding his place eventually in the creative industry of animated film began when his mother brought the then-five-year-old John to the States.
“When I came to California, I took some art lessons in high school and then, went to college and had a degree in art, but I didn’t know what to do with it,” said he. “I wanted to look into my interest, I liked comic books and I liked animated films and stuff. I decided to go into comic books, tried out, didn’t make it quite, you know, it’s just a lot of work. But someone said, ‘Hey, you know, Disney is doing well right now. The animation industry is doing well.’ That was at that time when Beauty and the Beast was a big hit.”
So, John considered such a field and focused his efforts on it.
“That’s how I made a portfolio, you know, I sent that to all the studios and stuff and I was just lucky that Disney answered my portfolio,” shared he.
As a professional, John first became a 2D artist who made effects “with you know, pencil and paper, and effects, of course, like fire and water, anything that moved in the world,” said he.
John furthered understood the craft when an effects leader gave him the chance and offered him internship at Disney animation.
“In the past, I’ve been an environment lead. But on Wish, I was the environment modeling supervisor,” said he. “My job was to lead a team of modelers to build the Kingdom of Rosas.”
They would receive and take the art work from art directors, and interpret them on the computer. They also build them, like the Kingdom of Rosas on the computer for a film like WISH.
The work done by John’s team is among the vital parts, encompassing the visual, aural, narrative and experiential aspects of any production, to make WISH come to life on the big screen.
“Because (it’s) the 100-year celebration of Disney animation, they wanted to honor that legacy by going back to our roots,” said John about the watercolor animation or the film’s two-dimensional storybook look.
“So, it was decided that the look of the film would have this artistic stylization where, you know, it was kinda like 2D but also had the watercolor kinda look.”
Achieving it required a lot of testing and doing research, said John, adding, “Finally, we got to a place where, you know, we got the 2D storybook look of the film and again my team (members) were able to interpret all the structures.”
He was referring to the smallest and biggest places, including “the magnifical castle,” that constitute the kingdom’s landscape in WISH.
“You know it looks fantastic. I can’t wait for people to see it,” added he.
Since the film’s theme is about making wishes, John gave his two cents’ worth about it.
“You never give up on those wishes. Never give up, you know, on what you wish for, you know, for yourself,” said he. “Always believe in yourself. I think that everyone of us has a wish that, you know, is true to our heart(s). You just need to be true to that and just pursue it in any way you can.”
As a practitioner of animation art, where does John draw his inspiration from?
“I would have to say my main inspiration is my grandmother,” replied he. “I always admired her strength. I always admired her determination, and you know I draw strength from that. I also get inspired by my fellow artists here at Disney because everyone, you know, just wants to do a great job. Everyone wants to create art. That’s the bottom line for me; it’s like we love to create art and it’s great to be in a place, in a community that celebrates that.”
Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn and produced by Peter Del Vecho, Juan Pablo Reyes, and Lancaster Jones, WISH is now showing in cinemas nationwide.