French director Girerd delivers key message for Chinese students

Girerd is an artistic individual. He embraces creativeness in its natural form. He delivers a unique message to students when giving talks in schools. During his speech at Peking University, the message stays the same.

"Stop trying to copy the Americans," Girerd says.

His distaste for American influences on the world is apparent even in Girerd's personal life, where his own children are falling victim to American consumerism.

"My kids, when they buy a shirt, they always look for a certain brand. The US is the dominating culture, and the top US officials of marketing have financed it," he says.

Girerd says this impacts the art illustration industry too.

"I remember being in China when Shrek first came out. Everyone wanted to do animations like Shrek. I don't think that's the best way to approach it. Sure, those types of animations do well at the box office. But if there's a message here for the Chinese students, it's to be diverse while preserving the Chinese culture. Don't copy the Americans or don't copy the Japanese, find your own way."

When it comes to global pop-culture in illustrated movies, Pixar takes the cake. But when it comes to hand-drawn, unique 2D animations, Girerd is a driving force. His Folimage studio might be small compared to Pixar; the message is just as big. And Girerd uses the freedom of 2D illustrations to gain an advantage on those machine heavy animations.

"Creating 2D animated films gives us more freedom because it doesn't involve the hand of the machine. The machine is programmed with software that gives us all the tools that are popular for today's animation. But it leaves out a lot of important tools. We think we have more freedom with 2D because for one, it costs less money. Second, a drawing done by a pencil can be done quickly. We don't run into lags from the software."

Last week, La prophetite des grenouilles brought about 1.2 million viewers to 200 theatres in France. Despite its success, Girerd says we might have seen the end for Folimage.

"While more and more people enter the industry, the finances are becoming slimmer and slimmer. It becomes very complicated. Our last film (Prophetite des grenouilles) is probably the final film that will come out from Folimage," he says.