Imaginext: Operation Space Rescue, 2009
In accordance with prophesy, I managed to be born during the space race of the 1960s. This made it my destiny to cross paths with an action figure by the name of Major Matt Mason. Rolled out by Mattel in 1966, he and his space friends had a wide range of accessories and vehicles perfectly designed to ignite the imagination of kids like me and get us thinking about how cool the future was going to be. It inspired the artists among us to start imagining that future on paper rather than wait for it to show up. I was one of them. (Learn more about the Major Matt Mason toys here.)
If I’d been born 30ish years later, that itch would have been scratched by the Fisher-Price toy company (a division of Mattel) when they released a toy line called Imaginext. Launched in 1998, it was made up of characters and playsets in multiple genres (medieval times, modern city, pirates, dinosaurs, etc.) that could be combined in dream-team crossovers. When they added a space genre, it became another path I was destined to cross.
My TV animation slate was pretty full in 2008 with Batman, the Brave and the Bold, Wolverine and the X-Men, and other things. But when my friends at Wildbrain animation studio rang me up for help, I never turned them down. The call for this project came in the fall of 2008, and all they had to say was “space adventure” to get me in the door.
I hadn’t heard of Imaginext yet, but that’s where the project came from. Wildbrain was producing a series of 12-minute CG animated films to promote the toy line, and this one was to be titled Operation Space Rescue. (Yes, please. I’ve worked on far fewer space shows than I wished for. Even a preschool one was welcome.)
Official synopsis:
Meet five exciting Imaginext super heroes from each of the Imaginext worlds! One of their team members, Doc, is in trouble with aliens — on the Moon! In Operation Space Rescue, Doc must summon the other heroes with the magical Imaginext amulet. With it, they become a team, ready to avert the problems and dangers lurking throughout every Imaginext world. Can the team come together in time to help Doc save the Space Shuttle…and the day?
I would be in familiar company for this adventure; I shared storyboard duties with Scooter Tidwell and our director was Alex Soto. We all got our start at Sony Animation Studio over ten years earlier and worked like a well-oiled machine. Alex gave us a 14-page script full of sketches and notes. Scooter took the first half and I took the second half. We’d worked on plenty of CG projects before, so we all knew the rules (everything is a ghost, nothing can actually touch). Storyboarding took place through the month of October, went smoothly from beginning to end, and we were on our merry way.
I didn’t preserve a copy of my finished storyboard for this one, but I still have my thumbnail. A round of revision notes came between the thumbnail and the board, and more revisions were done before the animation began, so you’ll see plenty of evolution between the start and finish lines.
Wildbrain would call me back for other animation projects in subsequent years, including Body By Jake and Monster High. Imaginext and I would meet again in 2010 for a DC Superfriends film called The Joker’s Playhouse (traditional 2D animation this time). The toy line would expand greatly over subsequent years to incorporate the DC universe, Toy Story, Power Rangers, and Jurassic World. I’m sure there’s more to come.
Operation Space Rescue was completed and released in 2009. Below are some of the materials it took to make it.
The Script
Model Sheet Gallery
My Thumbnail Boards
Finished Film
RELATED LINKS
Index of Imaginext animation works