I am happy and honored to announce that “Thom Cat” has been an official selection of Fire Island Golden Wagon July 18-20, 2008 http://www.goldenwagonfilmfest.com/main.asp?id=Festival-2008! The screening will be on Sunday, July 20th at approx. 11am as part of the Red Wagon Family Festival portion of the program. –Mike Gray
Above (Creators in attendance: left to right): Thy Than, Mike Gray, Kelly Shon, Tom Eaton.
My wife Melissa and I were greatly honored to attend the Brooklyn 4th Annual KidsFilmFest this past Sunday (June 01), where “Thom Cat” was shown two times: at the 1pm and the 2:30pm showings (the “world premiere”/ first time seen by kids outside of Nickelodeon and Frederator Studios)! After each showing, kids were sent upstairs to “meet the creators” of the cartoons, ask us questions, etc, which was a fabulous time for me! It was great to hear which parts of “Thom Cat” was their personal favorites, and I was very grateful to have the opportunity to do drawings of favorite Thom Cat characters for the kids (and give them free copies of my comic where he first appeared)! The festival, run by the terrific Lisa King, was extremely gracious to provide us with wonderful accomodations at the Hotel [Read more…]
I am extremely excited that my “Random Cartoon” short, “Thom Cat,” has been selected for the Brooklyn International Film Festival’s Fourth Annual kidsfilmfest! This year’s competition is scheduled for June 1, from 1-4pm at the Brooklyn Lyceum Theatre. KFF received over 100 submissions from more than 10 countries, you can read about the festival here: http://www.kidsfilmfest.org/news/ –Mike Gray
I was given the go ahead to put up some clips from Thom Cat!
I hope you enjoy them, I am really happy with how this cartoon turned out!
–Mike
Thom Cat (or his evil twin) featured in a terrific comic by Sebastian Villarreal (Age 11)!
The comic is supposed to be read as follows (as told to me by the artist):
Thom’s Evil Twin: “I just zapped my mother to smithereens!”
Thom’s Mother: “How dare you zap me with your raygun!
Thom’s Evil Twin: “Now to get some ice cream”
Thom’s Mother: “Don’t you leave me hear [sic]”
Thom’s Evil Twin: “Did I hear a voice?”
Thom Cat finally has a voice provided by the fantastically talented Jim Meskimen ! Jim’s performance as Thom is both hilarious and charismatic! I was lucky to also have the incredible Annie Mumolo, who provided the voices of both Rusty and Melissa, bringing to them the quality of real kid voices I wanted, but with hilarious timing and delivery! I am so fortunate to have found them both (thank you Meredith Layne, our Casting Supervisor at Nickelodeon!) It is such an amazing experience hearing characters you love come to life! Ginny McSwain was again my voice director, and she was fantastic as usual, there is so much to learn from watching her work!
Left to right: Jim Meskimen (Thom Cat, neighbor John), Ginny McSwain, Annie Mumolo (Rusty, Melissa)
Above are some rough designs for I did for Thom Cat, I am working on Larry Huber’s notes to this and the early turnarounds I turned in.
On this cartoon, I have the fantastic help with directing by the fantastic Jeff DeGrandis of “Finster Finster” fame! I also have the expert help of storyboard artist, Luther McLoren! (Here is an example of his rough boards, I love the way he draws Thom in these):
Last Friday I re-pitched Thom Cat to gather notes before beginning the production board stage. The pitch review team from left to right: Larry Huber, Therese Trujillo, Jack Kinman, Eric Homan, Melissa Wolfe, and Kim Keith (Goliath producer Kevin Kolde was of course also there, but managed to swiftly avoid the camera). See how happy everyone is before the pitch!
The pitch begins and I jump right into Thom Cat’s theme song, which is sure to be a crowd pleaser!
