The Tiger at the Zoo
A tiger-obsessed little boy goes to the zoo on a class field trip, only to discover that the tiger is off exhibit. His imagination soon transforms his disappointing day into an unforgettable one — for everyone.
Written and Directed by Matthew Kalinauskas
Produced by Bellzon Studio
Award Winner!
We’re thrilled to announce that The Tiger at the Zoo took home GOLD in the pre-school category at the inaugural Collision Awards.
Thanks to our small-but-mighty — and, in some cases, very young — team for seeing this passion project through, and to the Collision Awards jury members for this incredible honour.
The Tiger at the Zoo is an ode to childhood imagination that acknowledges the disappointments — and celebrates the ultimate triumphs — of being yourself, no matter what.
“I wanted to eat your film!” is undoubtedly the best review we’ve ever received, as our goal was to create a living storybook so sweetly consumable and visually delightful that viewers would want to live inside our character’s world. (The enthusiastic response also called to mind our favourite story about Maurice Sendak.)
Character
We started with character. In fact, Matthew’s first sketch — the first seed of an idea that even suggested that there might BE a film at all — was of a little kid in a tiger costume hugging a tiger.
The story went through a few variations, but our main ‘lil kid, Sully, remained pretty consistent.
The Tiger
Designing our tiger was a challenge. (As far as design tasks go, it was probably near the top.)
We wanted his shape to be simple and streamlined, but that still felt solid and powerful. The tiger had to fit into Sully’s world and yet feel slightly more…dominant? Most importantly, it had to be animatable.
The Zoo
This is where nostalgia kicked in, with the final palette inspired by old zoo posters on Matthew’s bedroom wall when he was a kid.
For our zoo, the tones and colours needed to feel warm and welcoming, inviting the viewer to recall their own fun memories of field trips to the zoo.
Credits
A Bellzon Studio Film
Director: Matthew Kalinauskas
Producer: Nadine Kalinauskas
Art Direction: Matthew Kalinauskas
Storyboard: Matthew Kalinauskas
Layout & Design: Matthew Kalinauskas
Animation: Matthew Kalinauskas
Animation Cleanup & Colour: Julia Deakin, Matthew Kalinauskas
3D Modeling: Chris Crozier
Editing and Compositing: Matthew Kalinauskas
Children’s Voices: Gilbert Kalinauskas, Ursula Kalinauskas
Additional Voices: Matthew Kalinauskas, Nadine Kalinauskas, Ferdinand Wilhelm
Sound Design: Eric Hulme, Ben Swarbrick
Audio Engineer: Brian Bernard
Audio Producer: Kelly McCluskey
Original Score: Andrew Austin
Audio House: Grayson Music Group
