The Animation Revolution w/ Tom Bancroft of Pencilish

In this episode of the Press Play Podcast, Derek Gerber talks with someone who played a significant role in shaping the childhood of Derek’s generation. Tom Bancroft spent over a decade with Disney as a Supervising Character Animator before founding multiple production companies, including Pencilish Animation Studios, where he currently acts as the Chief Executive Officer.  

Whether you realize it or not, you are likely already familiar with Tom’s work. His time at Disney later became known as the Second Golden Era for Disney animation. He animated characters for several well-known Disney movies, including The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, Mulan, Atlantis, Brother Bear, and Pocahontas. He also created Mushu, a dragon character in Mulan.  

Shownotes

(0:38) Introducing Tom Bancroft

(8:37) Crowdfunding in animation

(16:48) Bjorn the Last Unicorn and Mind Over Murphy

(21:38) What sets Pencilish apart?

(26:23) NFTs

(32:05) Closing thoughts

Links

Derek Gerber

Tom Bancroft 

Pencilish

Pencilish YouTube

Bankrupt Brothers Animation Podcast   

Quotes

“How many movies can you think of from when you were a kid that are still around today and people know about them? It’s a very rare occurrence, and so for me to say I have five or six movies that people still really remember is kind of amazing at my age.” (4:26) - Tom Bancroft

“We also now have an army.  We not only got them to invest and help us get going, but we have this army of shareholders that hopefully are not only fans of me or animation, but of this company that they now co-own with us, and so they want it to succeed.” (14:27) - Tom Bancroft

“That’s what we’re talking about is cutting out middlemen nowadays and going direct to our audience.  And we can do that now because guess what.  We all have a distribution system in our hands, and it’s in our pockets all day long.” (30:50) - Tom Bancroft