Tomm Moore in "The Thief and the Shoemaker"

When we started Cartoon Saloon, we were so nerdy that we would have Thief watching the holidays: we drink and analyze the scenes frame by frame. The film is not structured in a classic way, or focused on the character like the Pixar films coming out at the time. History is more a hook for a series of elaborate pieces, like The jungle book o Yellow Submarine.

The film felt like an elaborate version of some of the more artistic films I loved from Eastern Europe, like the Hungarian folk tales, who had a similar (if less elaborate) approach to the use of popular art and all the weird stylistic idiosyncrasies of those styles in animation. I was struck by the design and approach to cinematic language as well as animation. I loved the way he played with the rules of perspective and Dick's approach that anything that could be drawn could be animated.

Roy Naisbitt was also a big influence there. It actually created the incredible art direction and movements of the camera - a huge part of what struck me.

To me, the film felt like a clear direction for hand-drawn animation in front of the CGI - a way to play around with the strengths of the natural 2D look and make it a feature, not a bug. I wish Dick had finished it rather than continuing to work on it to an insanely high standard. Had it been released before cgi became commonplace, I would have liked to see how it would change the history of animation.

I loved the way Dick turned his studio into a kind of school, a kind of repository of knowledge from Golden Age animators like Art Babbitt and Ken Harris. Her fearless and persistent pursuit of excellence has been a great source of inspiration to my younger self. Over the years, I've heard stories of a dark side that I suppose was inevitable with someone so motivated. I hope to avoid the mistakes that maybe have been made as he worked hard and his team. The production was also a sad lesson in knowing when to compromise to get something done.