August 16th, 2023 
Jackson Murphy 
Emmy-winner Robin Budd (director of the Beetlejuice animated series and Disney’s 2002 Peter Pan sequel Return to Never Land) presents a new animated short film that recently premiered at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Budd gives me the 411 on the Nelvana Produced Jelly in this Animation Scoop Q&A. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: Molly is unhappy with her job. She’s inspired to take chances and enjoy her life and be a rebel. Where did [your] inspiration for “Jelly” come from?
Robin Budd: Well… (laughs) the actual inspiration came when I was cleaning out a bathtub drain. I was pulling out all this guck and hair, and it was disgusting. As I pulled it out I thought, “What if this stuff I pulled out became a monster?” I’ve always loved monsters who are a surprise… in that they’re sympathetic characters. In this case, it grew into, “What if this ugly-looking monster was quite beautiful inside and had insight into Molly’s personality?” Developed the character with setting-up a structure where she was very unhappy with her job. She was doing repetitive work that was just a pale imitation of what she’s capable of. She was trapped in this pattern. For me, that’s being trapped in rigid thinking. It’s repetitive. It’s not creative. The opposite of that would be fluid and expressive and unbridled thought and creativity. And that’s what I wanted for her. Jelly is Molly. Each of us has that voice inside that wants us to break free and be expressive… be ourselves.
JM: Usually cleaning out a drain is a terrible experience but look what it’s given you and us!
RB: (laughs) Humble beginnings!
JM: That’s right! You give us this gray-brown cityscape. Tell me about creating this dreary vibe.
RB: The darkness… the bleakness of the city is all about how Molly is feeling. I tried to have everything in the film reflect her point of view. She is living in a grimy, grungy, dark place, which is how she’s thinking. I’m also a big fan of animation in the dark. I think all animation should be in the dark. But you can’t always do that, but I do it as much as I can. In this case, it worked really well with the story because that atmosphere helped reflect who she was.
JM: I remember when I was younger and my cousin was freaked out by mannequins going to the malls. Do mannequins freak you out?
RB: (laughs) Yeah! But it’s funny, I got the idea of Molly’s job being painting hollow mannequin heads from an actual person. In art school there was a fellow student and she made her living painting the irises on mannequins. And I thought, “Oh God. That’s the most boring job!” And she agreed. It’s incredibly boring. It seemed to match as a good fit to say what Molly was feeling. And the choices she had made were boring and bleak and poor. That’s why she had to break free.
Robin Budd
JM: And speaking of freedom, there’s so much freedom of movement to this jelly-like creature. What went into the movement and fluid nature, and allowing this creature to form into anything at any time?
RB: From a story point of view, it relates to creativity and not being bound by rules. That fluidity is the character — is the statement of creativity. But I personally love fluid movement. I love the old animation of our last century. When it’s done really well there’s secondary action and such beautiful movement to watch.
JM: It’s really cool. I also think the music adds intensity to key moments. How was the collaboration with Daniel Lanois?
RB: Daniel Lanois was kind of a dream to work with and work with his music. We approached him quite a while ago. At first he was hesitant. “I don’t know if I’m the right guy.” And we thought, “We’ll make a demo for you. We’ll collage together some of your music and play it for you against our story reels.” He looked at it, and he really liked it. Time went on and budgets shrunk a bit. We couldn’t really afford Daniel to write from scratch. So he said, “Why don’t you use what you’ve got right now as a base and work on it some more, and then I’ll come in and marry sections that aren’t working together with live music.” That’s what we did. It was such a joy to go over his long career working with all the greats and pick, pretty much, what I felt like. We collaged it together in editing and then played it for him. And then the lawyers looked at it and said, “You can’t use this but you can use that.” (laughs) It was quite a process, but it worked out great. And afterwards he said to me, “I don’t think I could’ve written a score as nice as what you’ve pieced together.” He was really happy with it.
JM: That’s nice. I bet if you took somebody’s work and put it together in a “This Is Your Life” way and had them listen to it, I bet the reaction would be, “Whoa!”
RB: Yeah. It was interesting. And it really worked with what I was going for with the film. His ethereal music — we deliberately chose music without vocals. It allows the audience to have their own interpretation. We don’t need to hammer over the head what they’re supposed to be feeling.
JM: Subtlety is always better, allowing the audience to discover something for themselves. Do you really think, in order to be successful and thrive in the animation industry, you have to be a rebel, kind of like Molly in this short?
RB: It’s a funny business because you’re working with people, and usually somebody else holds the purse strings. So it’s a bit of a balancing act. But yes, you do have to be a rebel. Yes, you do have to stand up for what you think is the right creative way to go and, at the same time, understand the limitations that you’re working within. It’s tricky. But the really interesting shows, shorts and feature films always have somebody who’s got a strong vision. And that’s a little bit of a theme of “Jelly”. I kept referring to the phrase, “Fortune Favors the Brave”. If you’re brave enough to stand up for yourself or put something forward, you have much better success doing something that’s satisfying and meaningful to others.
JM: I completely agree. You won an Emmy for the “Beetlejuice” animated series. Are you looking forward to the live-action sequel, with Michael Keaton returning?
RB: Yeah. I’m amazed they’ve gotten so many of the original [people] back. It’s so cool. I’m very much looking forward to that.
JM: And you also directed 2002’s “Return to Never Land”. At the time… I remember seeing commercials and toys coming out. Having a long-awaited sequel to one of the most iconic animated movies of all-time come out in theaters at that time was rare. Now, it’s commonplace to have sequels 30 years later. At that time were you really feeling that this was unique?
RB: Yeah, and it is iconic. That film came out in ’53. It’s truly one of my favorite Disney features. It’s not my favorite, but it’s one of my favorites. (laughs) And it’s so beautiful. The art direction is so rich and full. You’ll never match the quality of the original “Peter Pan”, and we certainly didn’t, but we certainly had fun trying. I learned a lot during that process, especially studying the art direction. That was such a joy. It was great being able to go down to the Disney Vaults and look at whatever we wanted. We xeroxed magnificent scenes of animation. We looked at the roughs and backgrounds, always wearing the white gloves. It was so cool.
JM: I guess my last question has to be, “What’s your favorite kind of jelly?”
RB: (laughs) Crabapple Jelly.
JM: Ok. I like grape jelly and strawberry jelly.
RB: All jellies are good.
JM: Are you never going to look at jelly the same way again when you go to a supermarket?
RB: (laughs) Actually, Jelly was named after a cat my son had. I thought it was the coolest name. And Jelly fits the storyline too — liquidy, fluid and free.
JM: Wow. You have such great stories. You think the story’s gonna go one way, and you take it in a completely different direction.
RB: (laughs) Oh good!
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