The Ballad of Nessie begins with bagpipes, a thick Scottish narration in rhyme, voiced by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, and a storybook opening, a hallmark of classic Disney animation.
It’s a legend that continues to be told over and over. And while few people claim to have seen Scotland’s mysterious Loch Ness Monster, the tall tales that describe it pop up just about everywhere. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ version of the story depicts Nessie as a lake-dwelling dragon who plays hide and seek with a rubber duck named MacQuack. And it’s a fun way to explain why you can never find her. She’s hiding! A country darling of the Scottish highlands, Disney’s Nessie has a lovely quality to her that immediately captures your heart. Big on feelings — not on monsters! — The Ballad of Nessie glides into theaters with Winnie the Pooh on July 15. But if you can’t wait until summer to see her for yourself, D23 has the photos and inside scoop on all her latest sightings.
While the myth of the Loch Ness Monster comes from across the Atlantic, Disney’s version was born out of a student film project in California. “It started as one of Stevie’s [Wermers-Skelton] student films while she was at Cal Arts,” says Kevin Deters, who, with Stevie, co-directed The Ballad of Nessie. The Emmy® Award-winning team are at the helm of the recent rebirth of animated shorts from Walt Disney Animation Studios, including How to Hook Up Your Home Theater and the Prep and Landing holiday television specials. “I held on to the short with the hope of one day pitching it to Disney, but I never thought it would actually happen,” Stevie says. After she graduated from Cal Arts, Stevie was hired by Disney as a clean-up in-betweener on Pocahontas in 1994. As her career progressed, she focused on full-length film projects and her story of Nessie sat undiscovered.
"It started as one of Stevie's [Wermers-Skelton] student films while she was at Cal Arts," says Kevin Deters, who, with Stevie, co-directed The Ballad of Nessie. The Emmy® Award-winning team are at the helm of the recent rebirth of animated shorts from Walt Disney Animation Studios, including How to Hook Up Your Home Theater and the Prep and Landing holiday television specials.
Then, when Disney purchased Pixar Animation Studios in 2006, Walt Disney Animation Studios was put under the guidance of Pixar’s John Lasseter and Ed Catmull. The new leadership announced that they would bring back the shorts program and they asked the staff for ideas. Back on the drawing table, Stevie made a few adjustments to her Nessie film and made the pitch. “You had to go in to a room in front of John, Ed, and a bunch of other directors and talk through your story,” she remembers. The tale of lady Loch Ness turned out to be one of their favorite ideas.
One of the hopes for reviving the shorts program was to dabble in different styles of animation and technology. “It gives you the chance to try things out from a technical standpoint,” Kevin says. “But with any story, whether it’s five minutes or an hour and a half, there are certain things you have to go through. So it can be just as challenging as producing a full-length film.” After the two directors completed their first assignment in the new shorts program — 2007′s How to Hook Up Your Home Theater — Stevie and Kevin began working on The Ballad of Nessie as the rest of the studio began pre-production for The Princess and the Frog.
"When I was a kid I grew up on Bill Peat books," Stevie Wermers-Skelton says. "I didn't even know that he worked for Disney. I just knew I liked his books and I would go to the library and check out all his books and they all sort of have that rhyme. That's one of the reasons we did the short in rhyme."
The Ballad of Nessie begins with bagpipes, a thick Scottish narration in rhyme, voiced by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, and a storybook opening, a hallmark of classic Disney animation. “We went back and looked at some of the old shorts,” Stevie says. “The style of Johnny Appleseed and Sleepy Hollow inspired the look of this piece. The idea is that if someone watches it, they say, ‘Did this come out recently?’” The intention was to deliberately make it feel like it fell off the shelf of the Disney’s animation library. If you listen closely, you’ll even hear a shout out to the animation great, Glen Keane. “But it definitely has a Ward Kimball look to it,” adds Kevin. “Animator Dale Baer did most of the character art and we asked him to look back at some of Ward’s designs.”
For the music, Stevie and Kevin looked to long-time partner and friend, Academy® Award-winning Michael Giacchino. “When we asked Michael to do it, he came back a week later and said, ‘How about this?’” Stevie says. “He played a piece of music and I immediately thought it was beautiful. He told us that it was a piece of music that, much like Nessie, had been sitting on the shelf for a while. I think he wrote this and he couldn’t find a home for it and then this project came along and it was a perfect fit.”
Setting the adventure into motion is a greedy land developer named MacFroogle, who decides to build a mini-golf empire on top of Nessie's home.
Nessie’s got a bit of Elliot, a touch of Figment and a hint of Mushu. But what she has that is unique to all the other Disney dragons is her feminine appeal. “It’s a new addition to Disney’s tall tales and we hope that you walk away thinking it’s charming,” Kevin says. And with big, beautiful batting eyelashes like Nessie’s, there’s no doubt she’ll steal our hearts.
By D23′s Billy Stanek
