Pierre Perifel

Last updated

Pierre Perifel
Born
Lyon, France
Occupations
  • Film director
  • animator
Years active2005–present
Employer DreamWorks Animation (2008–present)

Pierre Perifel is a French animator and filmmaker, best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation. He has directed the feature film The Bad Guys (2022) and the award-winning short films Le Building (2005) and Bilby (2018).

Contents

Early life and education

Perifel was born in Lyon, France. [1] His passion for animation began in high school. In his third year of attending École Émile-Cohl art school, he applied to Gobelins, l'École de l'image and was accepted. [2]

In 2004, Perifel created the short student film A Swell Plan, [3] and collaborated with classmates Xavier Ramonède, Jun Frederic Violet, and Rémi Zaarour on a second short film, Festival Qualité. [4] [5] He graduated from Gobelins in 2005. [1] [6] For his thesis film, Le Building , he reteamed with Ramonède and Zaarour, and also worked with Marco Nguyen and Olivier Staphylas. The film uses a combination of 2D and 3D animation. [7] Le Building screened at numerous international film festivals and won several awards, [6] [8] [9] [10] [11] including Best Undergraduate Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. [10]

Career

The earliest films of Perifel's career include Curious George, Nocturna, Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure  [ fr ] and The Illusionist . [2] The same year as his graduation from Gobelins (2005), Perifel served as a supervising animator on the French short film Imago, which was directed by Cédric Babouche. Imago afforded Perifel the opportunity to work with Ramonède again. [12]

Perifel moved to the United States in 2008 [1] [6] and began his career at DreamWorks Animation doing character animation on the 2D short film, Secrets of the Furious Five , for which he won an Annie Award. [1] [13] [14] Following that, Perifel transitioned to CGI, working on Monsters vs. Aliens for about two months. He then joined onto Shrek Forever After . [2] He returned to 2D animation with a few sequences in Kung Fu Panda 2 . [2] [15] On that film, he also served as lead animator for the character Lord Shen. Perifel has said that he "was in charge of [the character]", even though he "didn't have a team of animators". [2]

Perifel was officially promoted to supervising animator on Rise of the Guardians [2] leading the team responsible for the character North. [16] Both Kung Fu Panda 2 and Rise of the Guardians earned Perifel Annie Award nominations. [1] [13] [17]

Perifel's subsequently was appointed Head of Animation on several films including Monkeys of Mumbai and Larrikins that never got to see the light of day for various reasons.

In November 2017, it was announced that Perifel has been developing an untitled short film with Liron Topaz and JP Sans. The film was selected through the DreamWorks Shorts program, which was set up by Chris DeFaria, after he became president of the DreamWorks Animation Film Group in January 2017. Bilby opened at the closing ceremony of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2018. It screened in many festivals and won the Jury Choice Award at Siggraph 2018.

Perifel made his feature directorial debut, directing the animated feature film adaptation of the original Aaron Blabey/Scholastic book series, The Bad Guys . It was released theatrically on April 22, 2022. He will also return to direct the upcoming sequel to The Bad Guys, set to released on August 1, 2025.

Filmography

Feature films

Director

Short films

Director

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gobelins, l'école de l'image</span> School of visual communication and arts in Paris, France

Gobelins, l'école de l'image is a school of visual communication and arts in Paris, France, with its main location near the Latin Quarter. A consular school funded by the Parisian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it provides several programs at a range of fees.

<i>Kung Fu Panda</i> (film) 2008 DreamWorks Animation film

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, it was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, from a screenplay and story respectively written by the writing teams of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, and Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. The film stars the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan and Jackie Chan. The film, set in a version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, centers on a bumbling panda bear named Po (Black), a kung-fu enthusiast living in the Valley of Peace. When the savage snow leopard Tai Lung (McShane) is foretold to escape imprisonment and attack the Valley, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior", a prophesied hero worthy of reading a scroll that has been intended to grant its reader limitless power.

James Baxter is a British character animator. He was first known for his work on several Walt Disney Animation Studios films, including various characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Rafiki in The Lion King, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Osborne (filmmaker)</span> American film director, writer, producer and animator

Mark Randolph Osborne is an American film director, writer, producer and animator.

The 36th Annual Annie Awards, honoring the best in animation for 2008, were held on January 30, 2009, at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California. Below is a list of announced nominees. Kung Fu Panda received the most awards with 10, winning nearly all of its nominations, albeit amid controversy.

<i>Kung Fu Panda 2</i> 2011 DreamWorks Animation film

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a 2011 American animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and written by the writing team of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, the film is the sequel to Kung Fu Panda (2008), and the second installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise. It stars Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong and Jackie Chan reprising their roles from the first film, with Gary Oldman, Michelle Yeoh, Danny McBride, Dennis Haysbert, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Victor Garber voicing new characters. In the film, Po and his Furious Five allies travel to Gongmen City to stop the evil peacock Lord Shen from conquering China, while also rediscovering Po's forgotten past.

<i>Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness</i> American animated television series

Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness is an American animated comedy spin-off television series co-produced by DreamWorks Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Studio based on DreamWorks's Kung Fu Panda films. It serves as a bridge between the first and second films, showing Po's training to becoming a successful Dragon Warrior, whereas the second film is, according to the series' developer Peter Hastings, "not unlike a very long, super-deluxe 3-D version of one of our episodes".

Kung Fu Panda is an American martial arts comedy media franchise that originally started in 2008 with the release of the animated film of the same name produced by DreamWorks Animation. Following the adventures of the titular Po Ping, a giant panda who is improbably chosen as the prophesied Dragon Warrior and becomes a master of kung fu, the franchise is set in a fantasy wuxia genre version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals. Although everyone initially doubts him, including Po himself, he proves himself worthy as he strives to fulfill his destiny.

The 38th Annual Annie Awards honoring the best in animation of 2010 was held February 5, 2011, at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California. DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon was the big winner winning 10 out of its 15 nominations, sparking a big controversy over Disney and Pixar's boycott.

The 39th Annual Annie Awards honoring the best in animation of 2011 were held on February 4, 2012, at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California.

<i>Le Building</i> 2005 French film

Le Building is a 2005 French animated short film directed by a team of final year students at Gobelins, l'École de l'image. The story depicts a series of slapstick accidents that cause destruction to a three-story apartment complex. Le Building's team of five directors is composed of Pierre Perifel and Olivier Staphylas, both of whom went on to become Annie Award-recognized animators at DreamWorks, Xavier Ramonède and Annie award-nominated Marco Nguyen, who have continued their careers with animation credits on various high-profile French productions, and Rémi Zaarour, who has since become a comic book artist, published under the pseudonym Pozla.

Marco Nguyen is a French animator, known for his work on French feature films, as well as for his short film Lisa, which served as the pilot for an unproduced television series, and for his award-winning student film Le Building. He directed the music video for Tryo's song "Greenwashing", served as an animation director on the 2011 French film The Rabbi's Cat, and served as an assistant director on the 2019 French film The Swallows of Kabul. In 2017, he received an Annie Award nomination in the Character Animation category for The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales. Nguyen also developed cutscenes for the 2018 video game Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom.

Olivier Staphylas is a French animator, best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation and for his award-winning student film, Le Building. He joined DreamWorks in 2006 and, within a few years, attained the role of supervising animator on How to Train Your Dragon. His work on 2011's Puss in Boots, supervising the titular character's animation, earned him nominations for an Annie Award and a Visual Effects Society Award. He then served as head of character animation on Penguins of Madagascar. Starting in 2014, he served in that position at Oriental DreamWorks. Staphylas has since left DreamWorks and worked on 2021's Wish Dragon alongside Base FX and Sony Pictures Animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pozla</span> French comics artist

Rémi Zaarour, known by the pseudonym Pozla is a French cartoonist and animator. He is best known for his graphic novels and for his award-winning student film Le Building.

Xavier Ramonède is a French animator and artist, best known for his work on various French films and international co-productions, such as Nocturna and The Illusionist, the French webseries Les Kassos, and his award-winning student film Le Building. Ramonède's artwork has also been featured in multiple publications.

<i>Bilby</i> (film) DreamWorks animated short

Bilby is a 2018 American animated short film written and directed by Liron Topaz, Pierre Perifel and JP Sans in their directorial debuts, and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It centers on a bilby trying to protect an albatross chick from the dangers of the Australian Outback.

The Annie Award for Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production is an Annie Award first presented in 1994. Since then, it is annually awarded to the animation industry's best or excellent work performed in the areas of overall production design and art direction for sets of animated feature films.

<i>The Bad Guys</i> (film) 2022 film by Pierre Perifel

The Bad Guys is a 2022 American animated heist comedy film loosely based on the children's book series of the same name by Aaron Blabey, produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film was directed by Pierre Perifel from a screenplay by Etan Cohen, and stars the voices of Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Alex Borstein, and Lilly Singh. It tells the story of a criminal group of anthropomorphic animals who, upon being caught, pretend to attempt to reform themselves as model citizens, only for their leader to find himself genuinely drawn to changing his ways for good as a new villain has his own plans.

<i>The Bad Guys</i> (book series) Comic book series

The Bad Guys is an illustrated children's graphic novel series written by Australian author Aaron Blabey. It revolves around a gang of anthropomorphic animals known as the “Bad Guys”, who attempt to perform good deeds to change society's perception of them as criminals.

<i>The Bad Guys</i> (franchise)

The Bad Guys is a media franchise made by DreamWorks Animation, loosely based on the children's book series of the same name by Aaron Blabey. The franchise began with the 2022 film The Bad Guys and a holiday special was released on Netflix in 2023, with a sequel set for release in 2025.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 UQAC staff (13 March 2012). "David Hubert and Pierre Perifel (DreamWorks) are guest masters for ELITE 2012". nad.ca. Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pierre Perifel (27 November 2012). "Rise of an animator: Pierre Perifel reveals secrets of the Guardians". Animated Views (Online). Interviewed by Jérémie Noyer. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "Anima Mundi 2005" (Press release) (in Portuguese and English). São Paulo: Anima Mundi. p. 80. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Aguesse, Marc. "Festival qualité (2004)". Catsuka. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  5. ↑ Ramonède, Xavier (15 April 2009). "Le Building and Festival Qualité". Sushixav.blogspot.com. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 "Chilemonos" (Press release) (in Spanish). Santiago: Chilemonos International Animation Festival. p. 9. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  7. ↑ Stash staff (4 December 2005). ""Le Building" – Student Film". Stash DVD Magazine. No. 15. San Antonio, Texas: Stash Media. Archived from the original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  8. ↑ Nguyen, Marco; Perifel, Pierre; Ramonède, Xavier; Staphylas, Olivier; Zaarour, Rémi. "Le Building – News, pg. 1". le-building.com. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Barraclough, Leo (26 July 2006). "Toons Catch Continental Drift". Variety . Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  10. 1 2 Homan, Eric (26 September 2006). "Talk to the Snail: OIAF Category E – Student Animation Competition". Frederator Studios . Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  11. ↑ Staphylas, Olivier. "Olivier Staphylas – Bio". staphylas.com. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  12. ↑ Imago – Credits. Sacrebleu Productions and La Boîte Productions. 2005.
  13. 1 2 David Hubert, Jason Ryan, Pierre Perifel (3 March 2013). iAnimate interview Pierre Périfel – part 3 (video). iAnimate. Event occurs at 2:09-2:23. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  14. ↑ Debruge, Peter (30 January 2009). "'Kung Fu Panda' rules Annie Awards". Variety. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  15. ↑ David Hubert, Jason Ryan, Pierre Perifel (3 March 2013). iAnimate interview Pierre Périfel – part 3 (video). iAnimate. Event occurs at 2:02-2:11. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  16. ↑ David Hubert, Jason Ryan, Pierre Perifel (3 March 2013). iAnimate interview Pierre Périfel – part 2 (video). iAnimate. Event occurs at 0:59-1:14. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  17. ↑ Giardina, Carolyn (2 February 2013). "'Wreck-It Ralph' Wins Five Annie Awards Including Best Animated Feature". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 10 July 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.