POLK, Wis. (ABP) — Tom Hignite has a mission: To save two-dimensional movie animation from possible demise. And with help from some ex-Disney and Warner Brothers animators, he thinks he can do it.
Hignite, a homebuilder by trade, has created Miracle Studios, an art studio specializing in print illustration and classic 2D animation. Located in a town of 4,000, the studio consists of roughly 14 full-time animators who spend their time creating commercials, brochures and, most recently, a children's book about a mouse who believes in miracles. The book hits stores in July.
The real goal of Miracle Mouse: Cranky's Miracle — and most of the studio's other printing work — is to pave the way for a full-length, 2D feature film. Hignite said he thinks two-dimensional work has been pushed to the side by recent 3D hits like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, and he said he wants to help keep the art of cartoon drawing alive.
“We had 2D for a very long time, and then with Toy Story, the 3Ds started coming out,” Hignite said, adding that several failed 2D cartoons prompted major studios to produce more 3D work. “As with oil painting or water color, [2D and 3D films] are both valid. You don't have to pick one or the other. Unfortunately, Hollywood did.”
Hignite first sensed that shift on a family vacation in 2003. One day, while visiting a Disney animation studio that had recently finished work on the 2003 movie Brother Bear, Hignite was struck by how few artists were in the studio. When asked, Hignite told Associated Baptist Press, Disney executives told him the artists were “on vacation.” He later found out that after the movie failed at the box office, most of the studio animators lost their jobs.
Founded in 1923, Disney produced the first-ever animated full-length feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. Disney currently maintains a 700-person 2D operation in Burbank, Calif., but that doesn't compare to the number the company used to employ, Hignite said. Disney representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
“There were more than 1,000 artists in America who had nowhere to go,” Hignite said. “These were six-figure people. Now I'm a businessman, and I saw an opportunity there.”
Hignite has always thought big — and from scratch. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he started his home-building business on a single lot owned by his father. In 2004, his business sold 220 houses for a profit of more than $42 million.
Although he became an established businessman — his business uses the tagline “We are Miracle Homes, a Christian-based company” — Hignite has always loved art, animation and Disney. Before his homebuilder gig, he even dabbled in drawing political cartoons for local news outlets. So after he realized the job-deficit for two-dimensional animators, Hignite put an ad in the paper and set off on a new enterprise.
Tim O'Donnell was one of the workers Hignite recruited. He worked as a production manager at Disney for 28 years.
O'Donnell, who started working for Disney in Burbank, Calif., began his career as a mail runner at the studio. He gradually worked his way through the ranks and ended up working on movies like Beauty and the Beast and Oliver and Company.
“They were good times,” he said of working at the Burbank studio — at least until Disney opened in Florida. O'Donnell and his wife moved to Florida but soon found themselves looking for more prospects when the feature animation studio closed in 2004.
“My plan was to make a fortune drawing my own artwork,” O'Donnell told ABP. “That didn't quite happen.”
Instead, O'Donnell met with Hignite, who eventually convinced him to join the new studio in Wisconsin. The cold winter was a definite shock when O'Donnell moved there in January, but he believed in his craft enough to take a risk. His wife and two children are still in Florida waiting until the family decides whether to sell or lease their home there.
Now, O'Donnell joins fellow animators in drawing a mouse originally used to promote Miracle Homes.
Known as Miracle Mouse, the book's protagonist leads children through a woodland area filled with friendly animals and their conventionally constructed homes. Hignite said it's no coincidence that the front façade of a beaver's dam, for instance, would bear a striking resemblance to a house for humans.
“I'm a homebuilder, and I always felt the way I got into homebuilding was miraculous,” Hignite said, adding he felt the attitude should follow in his production endeavor as well. Hignite and his wife, Jacquie, run the business. In their early years, they were refused a home loan 15 different times, so to “be building people's houses is quite phenomenal,” he said.
“It sounds corny, but it was God's idea [to start work on the story],” Hignite said. “I look at this and say we're trusting God to make this feature a reality.”
Indeed, more than rejuvenating 2D animation, Hignite wants to infuse children's stories with moral relevance, something he said has disappeared from recent Disney movies.
Instead of preaching, though, Hignite prefers a more subtle method, saying he wants to “bridge the gap between Veggie Tales and Beauty and the Beast.”
“If you look at the way the animals behave, Miracle Mouse is sort of a Christian character, doing good. He's a positive force,” Hignite said. “Miracle Mouse stresses patience … but we don't go so far as to say that [in the book]. The Bible-theme is there, but it's not overpowering.”
The moral undertones to the Miracle Mouse storyline are what first attracted author Stacy Kannenberg to the project. A mother of two who realized that no “curriculum-based books” existed to prepare children for kindergarten, Kannenberg took it upon herself to write her own. She wrote Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten! and Let's Get Ready for First Grade!, and she first saw Hignite's book on a local TV news program.
“Tom is amazing,” Kannenberg told ABP. “When I saw his story on TV, I was so excited that I went, ‘I gotta call this guy.' I've got a huge network of moms across the country. It seemed like a no-brainer for me.”
Kannenberg sees herself as a guide for Hignite, leading him through the complicated process of producing and marketing a book. Plus, she said, her expertise in relating to moms will help the book get a base following.
“It has been a God-thing,” she said of working with Hignite. “I learned how to do it the right way, and I was able to share from the mistakes I made.”
One thing Kannenberg learned from her writing experience, however, involved staying aware of potential legal issues. While Hignite has said he feels certain about the originality of the Miracle Mouse character, promoting a mouse with big black ears and white gloves, drawn by ex-Disney animators, could present problems, Kannenberg said.
In the Journal Sentinel article, Hignite said the character is unique, especially in the shape of the animals' ears and what the characters wear. Miracle Mouse is pending copyright protection, he said.
At any rate, Hignite said it'll take “$22-$25 million” and five to 10 years to actually produce the film, which receives funds from book proceeds. Larger animation studios usually employ more than 200 people for one film, and it takes roughly five years to develop the finished product.
Despite the current lack of funds to produce a complete movie, animators have started the march toward a feature film. Workers at Miracle Studios have written a script-like “treatment” for the movie, and professionals in Los Angeles have already performed several songs and character voices. The songs sound like the old classics from the first Disney cartoons, Hignite said. The book, which is available for presale online, will come with a CD of the song “Do You Believe in Miracles,” written and orchestrated specifically for the Miracle Mouse film.
In the end, Hignite said he hopes that once the funds are raised or an investor comes along, his film will have the same “Disney” quality known world-over.
“Our artists have some great talent, and they were instrumental in making the book look like a top-drawer production,” Hignite said. “Disney tries to go for splash, they have a reputation for a high-quality product, and we hope to accomplish that as well.”
O'Donnell said Hignite's natural inquisitiveness and capacity for learning distinguish him from other animation bosses — something that might help produce the “high-quality product” Hignite wants.
“Tom's more involved in areas that he's curious about,” O'Donnell said. “Whereas I'm used to working with directors who stay within their own niche, Tom's still learning. I think it's a good thing.”
And when it comes to O'Donnell's opinion about the future of 2D animation, he said it's all about the story. “If you have a good story, it doesn't matter how you tell it,” he said.
Kannenberg agreed. While she'll be happy if the book and film make money, for her, “it's more about the mission,” she said.
“All of these guys that lost their jobs have an amazing talent,” Kannenberg said. “Everything is hand-drawn. When everything is said and done, there are more than one million drawings. To think that kind of talent wouldn't be used anymore is really sad.”
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