We sat down with Sydney Bright and Taylor Grant, Animation Co-Heads at Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, discussing the exciting developments in animation.
Highlights
- The adaptation of “Lore Olympus” is expected to have a significant impact on further animated adaptations from Wattpad and WEBTOON due to the immense fanbase and global popularity of the title.
- Adapting “Lore Olympus” into animation allows for the exploration of the visually stunning world of Olympus and creates a level of suspended reality that captivates audiences.
- Wattpad WEBTOON is dedicated to diversity in storytelling and strives to showcase characters and voices that are often underrepresented in traditional media, such as LGBTQ+ characters and characters with disabilities.
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GameRant sat down with Sydney Bright and Taylor Grant, the Co-Heads of Global Animation at Wattpad WEBTOON Studios to talk about the state of animation in 2023, diversity of storytelling, and their exciting upcoming animated projects which include titles like Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus, and Mike Booth’s sci-fi webnovel HAWK.
With the various adaptations of titles boasting huge fandoms over the last few years, and announcements of various projects in western animation, there’s evidence of the industry’s growing recognition of animation as an important storytelling vehicle.
The following interview has been edited for brevity.
Q: How do you think the adaptation of Lore Olympus will impact the possibility of further animated adaptations of the catalogues of both Wattpad and WEBTOON?
Bright: We’re incredibly optimistic. Rachel’s fanbase is phenomenal, and the title has fans all over the world. I think what makes Wattpad WEBTOON Studios so truly exciting is the democratization of storytelling, and the ability for fans to tell us what types of stories they want to see. I think animation in the west has been a bit behind in terms of cinematic stories that are outside the traditional comedy-type titles like The Simpsons. It’s going to be really impactful and educate the marketplace that there is so much more room for expansion into shows that fall into the gray space that western animation hasn’t explored yet. I think Lore Olympus is a remarkable title to kick down the door and open up the possibilities for a lot more interesting things to happen in the animation space.
Q: What kind of advantages does adapting Lore Olympus into animation rather than live-action TV grant the production?
Bright: From a scope and scale perspective, it allows us to explore what Olympus looks like, and allows audiences to dive in. I think there’s a level of suspended reality that happens in animation that allows it to sweep people away, taking them to a different place. From a budgetary perspective, to really do Lore Olympus justice in live-action, it would have to be on the scale of something like Game of Thrones. Animation is so inclusive and Rachel has been really thoughtful with her characters. Even the colour palette allows for so much imagination and inclusivity in terms of who these characters are and the types of voices that we could cast for them. Obviously, I’m biased because I love animation (laughs), but I think animation is really the best space to explore all the possibilities that the world of Lore Olympus has to offer.
Grant: One of the really beautiful things about both of our platforms is, as Sydney mentioned, our democratization of storytelling. Lore Olympus specifically is a great case study in that our platform provides an opportunity for writers to create stories that wouldn’t ordinarily be seen by a mass audience. Historically speaking, the comics industry has from the beginning, at least particularly in the North American market, felt that women didn’t read comics – that was a common misinterpretation of the readership. Both WEBTOON and Wattpad have showcased just how massive an audience there is for women readership. Lore Olympus the comic has shattered that belief that women don’t read comics, and our goal is that it will also help herald a new opportunity for women creators in the animation space.
Q: What kinds of stories do you think Wattpad WEBTOON is particularly enthusiastic about when it comes to the aspiration for diversity in storytelling?
Bright: Such a good question, Taylor and I talk about this all the time! We are so proud of our animation slate and I know the live-action teams are equally proud, because the storytelling process is really a democratization of said story, so there’s no mandate from networks or studios that are influencing the types of stories that creators decide to put on either platform. What allows is for creators to write stories in the “gray space” – in the places where they don’t feel represented in publishing or in traditional media, and because of that, we do end up with characters on the spectrum, or characters representing LGBTQ+ communities. Not in a way where that is a focal point of their story, but in a way where they’re the protagonist, and we don’t have to explain it any further.
I’m sure you saw we announced HAWK, the project we’re doing on the Wattpad side with Chris Yost, which we’re so excited about, there’s such incredible diversity. One of the characters is an eight-year-old mechanical genius named Worm who speaks in Sign, and we’ve been so excited about, and hopefully, get it set up in a way where we can have a Sign Language consultant and have a character who communicates that way but not as a central part of the plot. It’s just what makes her who she is, and she can still kick butt, fight adventures in space, and do amazing sci-fi things. I think a lot of people feel seen on these two platforms. It’s a great responsibility for us to be able to identify the titles that allow representation in that way, and hopefully be able to take it to screen.
Q: What information can you give about the expected plans for the HAWK animated series, and what kind of timeline we’re looking at in terms of the production?
Grant: We’re still in the very early development phases with Chris, so it’d be hard to give any specific production timeline, but just know that it is one of our absolute top-priority projects. It’s going incredibly well with Chris, he’s such a joy to work with.
Q: Given Wattpad WEBTOONs commitment to diversity, what do you think the most important takeaway is in terms of the adaptation of titles like HAWK and Lore Olympus?
Bright: I think the most important thing is that we’re really dedicated to adapting titles that fans love. We have the slightly unfair advantage of having access to IP that fans are truly dedicated to, and we can showcase that from a data perspective to the market space. Hopefully we can have that be a very meaningful conversation, so that people are interested in doing original stories in a way I think has fallen by the wayside in the last few years, where people have just gone back to the well of IP that we’ve seen a thousand times. There have been fantastic reboots of things. I mean, the Ninja Turtles series has been wonderful, and I think everybody be lost without The Spiderverse! I think the reboots are fantastic, but allowing space for new, original content that has not yet been explored in the general zeitgeist is really an amazing opportunity.
Grant: We’ve seen such a tremendous renaissance in animation over the past 10, 15 years, in terms of the kinds of stories that would have never been told before; as we push the envelope on types of content in animation. Whether its Spiderverse, Bojack Horseman, Arcane, Undone or Invincible, part of our mission as an animation group is to continue pushing that momentum and driving the idea that all kinds of stories can be told beyond traditional Disney or Pixar-type of stories. We have the opportunity to dip into, probably the largest repository of IP in the world.
Q: Seeing that we’re talking about stories that people would generally not have had access to, and elevating them to epic proportions, is the modus operandi to adapt the top-performing titles, or are we going to have more opportunities for titles that don’t necessarily have an established fandom on either platform?
Bright: Truthfully, we’re servicing both sides. Titles like Lore Olympus, where there’s just an undeniable fanbase and IP, we’re obviously going to want to adapt those and hopefully bring them to the screen for millions of fans worldwide, even to those who haven’t read the comics before. We really don’t let the metrics rule our creative decision-making. There are so many phenomenal stories on the platform. For us, it’s just as much about finding titles that are a wonderful market fit, as it is finding titles that have an incredible story to tell, and have a really dedicated fanbase – even if that fanbase is young.
Lore Olympus has the advantage of having been on the platform for a really long time, so there’s been a lot of opportunity for fans to find it. There are titles that are much newer, maybe only a year old with one season out, so those numbers are smaller and growing fast. At the end of the day, we want to serve titles that we think make sense for adaptation for television, film, or animation; but also want to service the fans. If the fans love a title, and it isn’t as big as something like Lore Olympus, that’s not going to stop us from trying to bring it to screen and give that story its day in court (laughs).
Grant: We do our best to keep our finger on the pulse of what’s going on at any given time in the marketplace, through our network in conversations that we’re constantly having with studios, producers, production partners that we work with. We are very passionate about the stories that we add to our slate, and we will often track them from their embryonic stage. One of us will bring the others’ attention to a title they think is great or could be a market success, and we’ll track that story for a while to let it gain momentum so that we’ll see how it unfolds, while also watching as the metrics increase, so it becomes a much more commercially viable product to take to market.
Q: With the studio working on an animated adaptation of the horror webcomic GremoryLand, is there any intention to expand specifically into the niche of horror animation?
Grant: In terms of horror animation, we do have horror projects on our slate currently. We are fans of the genre – I’m certainly a fan of the genre. It’s a little bit more challenging because there haven’t been a tremendous amount of successes in horror animation in North America, but we are dedicated to it.
Q: What’s your opinion on the rise of African animation, especially something like the Disney+ Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire sci-fi anthology? Does Wattpad WEBTOON see the possibility of extending into the African market in terms of finding stories on either platform from African creators?
Bright: We have creators from all over the world that make up our 500 million creators collectively, but animation is a global industry and storytelling mechanism. People love stories at the end of the day, and it doesn’t matter where they come from. There’s specificity in universality, so when we find stories with a specific voice and characters; wherever that comes from, it becomes really relatable. People see themselves or their loved ones in characters, and I think both platforms always intend to continue to expand the types of creators we’re getting stories from, and finding new opportunities for adaptation onto the screen for those creators and those types of stories from all over the world.
About the interviewees:
Sydney Bright’s journey in the animation industry began with her role in primetime animation at Bento Box Entertainment. There, she skillfully managed in-house design and animation teams for acclaimed shows like FOX’s multi-Emmy Award-winning series Bob’s Burgers. Presently, as Co-Head of Global Animation at Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, Bright, as a passionate Latina storyteller, and a champion for diversity and inclusion, leads the charge in adapting titles from the Wattpad and WEBTOON platforms into compelling television shows and feature films. Her outstanding ability to leverage her extensive industry network, coupled with her unwavering dedication to supporting creatives and fostering seamless collaboration, has established her as a true trailblazer in the animation domain.
Award-winning screenwriter and two-time Bram Stoker Award nominee Taylor Grant got his start in the industry writing children’s entertainment for companies such as Saban Entertainment, the latter where he was hired to help develop the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. As Co-Head of Global Animation at Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, Grant oversees IP development on all animated film and television projects across the company’s across the studio’s growing slate of series adaptations from WEBTOON’s global IP catalog and Wattpad webnovels. Current projects include serving as Executive Producer on the upcoming animated series adaptations of Rachel Smythe’s 1.5 billion-viewed WEBTOON sensation Lore Olympus, co-produced by Wattpad WEBTOON Studios with The Jim Henson Company, as well as the recently-announced animated series “HAWK” with Marvel screenwriter Christopher Yost.
Read Lore Olympus on WEBTOON, while HAWK can be found on Amazon.
Fuente: successacademy.edu.vn
Categorías: Anime
