We’re in for a treat as we dive into the world of Sony’s new feature, GOAT with director Tyree Dilihay. 

This film - this was fun. I really enjoyed it. And I know there are a bunch of kids out there who did too. And that’s great to see and to hear of kids who are wanting to go to the theaters to see an original film. 

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sports fan, so I was fascinated by this project and have been for a long time. It’s a project that came to Sony from producers Fonda Snyder and Rick Mischel - who you may have heard as they are two former podcast guests and Fonda is someone I developed a project for a few years with. So I’ve known about this one for a number of years. Whats great about this is also what is challenging - it was in development - active development at Sony for 4 years before being green lit. And it is an original - pretty much. The reason I say that’s challenging is that it gives hope to the many people out there developing original projects - but given that we’re shouting from the rooftops about an original animated movies success amidst a sea of negative news, its going to take not only an incredible idea, but people with incredible tenacity and a long term vision to see those originals to the screen. 

We get into so much in this conversation - including some of Tyree’s back story, GOAT’s story, production and character design, production challenges, world building and more. 

Enjoy!

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Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

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From Robot Chicken to Buddy Thunderstruck to quirky shorts and highly polished commercials, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios is a powerhouse of ideas and creativity. We sat down with Eric Towner to talk through his career, and the creative process and idea machine at stop motion house Stoopid Buddy. 

The hand made feel and aesthetic of top motion is one part of the industry that is not going to be replicated by AI so it was great to get Eric's thoughts there too.

Check out their work online and stay tuned for more episodes coming in 2026

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios website

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Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

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Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

If you’re interested in animation and haven’t seen The Unloved, a Christmas film for French supermarket Intermarché, then you probably haven’t been online in the past couple of weeks. Love for this piece has spread far and wide, way beyond its intended French audience. With hundreds of millions of views across various platforms, it’s a remarkable achievement. 

What fascinated me is that the ads that are not only garnering a lot of negativity, but are generally not good this holiday season, are AI-generated. While the 2 ads that have received the most love and attention are arguably this one, The Unloved, and Apple’s stop-motion piece shot on iPhone. They both have a lot in common - they were crafted by human storytellers and artists who love their craft. 

So, after seeing The Unloved and absolutely loving it, I reached out to Amanda Stubbs, the producer at Wizz, a Paris-based production company, to chat about this extraordinary piece of work. 

If you haven’t seen it, please go check it out here, and be inspired. 

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

DreamWorks is back with another dose of action packed non stop animated fun and we're back with director Pierre Perifel to talk all things Bad Guys 2. With only 3 short years between releases, this chat dives into everything from concept to scope to rhythm and pacing to lensing and more!

We hope you enjoy this one. If you didn't hear my conversation with Pierre after the first Bad Guys, go check it out as we diver more into his backstory in that one. 

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

On a recent trip to Kidscreen I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss distribution with Alison Taylor from Aardman and Ed Galton from Cake. With our industry undergoing so much change, I wanted to hear what it was like on the distribution side of the business, and how these two companies, with very different beginnings and operations were navigating the change. 

I also added some thoughts on the conference in general and the vibe I got while on the trip. 

Enjoy!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

This episode is a must-listen for anyone developing an original series and wondering how they'll get it off the ground. A combination of passion, perseverance, and a great partnership of the right people made the special sauce to get Stan & Gran into production. Based on an idea Jon Mason had a whopping 12 years ago, perseverance looms large here. His partnership with Natalie Llewellyn was pivotal as you'll hear in this conversation.
This is the third in a sporadic series looking at the anatomy of a project and rounds out the trio looking at an original series.
I hope you find it as informative as I did. Super interesting.

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

The Wild Robot is here - a film I and a lot of the industry have been looking forward to getting their eyes on since we first saw the teaser. 

Most of the major animated feature hits of late have been sequels and spin-offs, so when I got a glimpse of The Wild Robot from DreamWorks, I was very excited. First of all, I love robots of course. But there is something about the fish-out-of-water scenario of putting a robot into the wilderness that is immediately striking. Even the name of the film depicts so much and immediately you want answers to some questions that pop into your head. 

And no, it's technically not an original because it's based on existing IP, a book - but it feels fresh and new - and Dreamworks seems to do that a lot with book source material. Not only does it feel fresh visually - and stunning - but I was really curious about the process of adapting the source material. So in this chat with Director Chris Sanders, we talk about that in detail, as well as many other things. 

Just to let you know, there are some spoilers in this one - nothing devastating, but also because of the breakdown in the story and writing process, this one is best listened to after you've seen the movie. If you're a writer, I'd also recommend reading the book so you can better see the adaptation process.

Chris was super generous with his time, and we got to cover a lot of things, so I hope you enjoy it.

The Creators Society is a professional community uniting all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to foster meaningful connections, encourage collaboration, and deepen the understanding of every role involved in bringing animated stories to life. Through networking, mentorships, education, and industry events, we celebrate the creativity and passion that drive animation forward, supporting the talented creators who make it all possible.

Send us Fan Mail

Survive til 25 is a term thrown about a lot lately, but it got me thinking that it's August, and perhaps we need to think more about longer-term survival. So this is the first in a series of Survive Beyond '25 episodes looking at various parts of that equation, from business to innovation to mental health and creativity.

In this episode, Rick Mischel returns to chat about the general state of the industry and where we're headed. Rick recently bought a studio, so he has some optimism there! It's a fascinating conversation and I encourage you to engage in the ongoing conversation with us - we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Also, head back to episode 30 for a longer chat about Rick's career.

Enjoy!

Please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

How low can you go with a CG feature budget to create a very entertaining, high-quality-looking animated film? Listen in to this one to find out as I dive into the deal-making and production of The Amazing Maurice with Producer Andrew Baker.

Based on a Terry Pratchett book, The Amazing Maurice looks like it came out of a much bigger studio environment. It has a great voice cast, quality effects, and animation and is a great case study.

Andrew was very generous not only with his time, but the detail he delved into, and he has some great insight into the industry from his work as a lawyer before his role as a producer.

Hope you enjoy it!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

'The old shool house', 'speeider' and 'the sun is warming up' were just some of the memorable lines quoted by my kids for years from the original Megamind movie originally released back in 2010 - a very different animation and media landscape than exists today. The movie was fresh and fairly successful, but gained a cult following in the years after its release. Fast forward to this year and original writers Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, after selling the original screenplay as a spec, had the chance to revisit the iconic character with a direct to streaming feature and limited series with Peacock.
I got to chat with them along with Exec producer and showrunner Eric Fogel about the past and the present of all things Megamind, along with their backstories leading into these projects.

Hope you enjoy it!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to our second annual Kidscreen Conversations episode. I headed to San Diego, not Miami this year for the first west coast Kidscreen. As always, it was a great event, although the sun decided to skip it this year!

Our guests this year are Rob Doherty, a consultant with great insight into the industry and founder of Festivus, an animation org that parallels the Creators Society in some ways in the UK, Sueann Rochester, Managing Director of Wild Child Animation in Scotland, and Lucy Murphy, director of kids content at Sky in the UK.

There are some great thoughts and insight here so I know you'll get something from these conversations.  Please excuse the on-location audio, a little rougher than usual, along with my voice.

Enjoy!

And if you do, please like, rate, and comment on your favorite podcasting platform and share the episode on social media.

If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch.

If you'd like to hear about new episodes in your inbox, please subscribe here.

Host & Producer: Michael Wakelam

Executive Producer: Eric M. Miller

Music by: Rich Dickerson

Audio Engineering: Mike Rocha

Edited by: Jonathan Wakelam

The Creators Society is a professional society for all disciplines of the animation industry. Our mission is to bring the animation community together to build strong relationships, provide education, and form a better understanding of the different roles we all play in creating animated stories. We celebrate and promote the love of animation and all the talented Creators who breathe life and imagination into their work.

Learn more about the Creators Society, and how to become a member at creatorssociety.net

Send us Fan Mail