ip design: Owl Scouts by Todd Baxter

joi, 25 septembrie 2014

Owl Scouts by Todd Baxter

‘Owl Scouts is very linear. The kids have several challenges and they fail every single one. It’s funny, because I started this series a few months after my divorce. It wasn’t like I thought, I’m going to make a piece about the divorce. I just started with these kids lost in the woods. I like the idea that it’s about two kids trying to navigate through the world and getting their asses kicked. The world is much more powerful. It’s a good parallel to having relationship troubles. – ‘Todd Baxter interviewed by Creative Babble

‘In the first challenge, they try to retrieve a flashlight from the owl burrow. They are unable to get the flashlight and the owl bites the kid. They try to cross a river, but he falls in and almost drowns. Shortly after, she gets sucked away by a tornado. He loses his partner, and he’s on his own. Later, the boy finds a bear. I like the idea that they could be friends. Because, in children stories, you’re sometimes friends with animals. It turns out that bears do what bears do.’

‘The bear thing is interesting. I see it two ways; first, it’s the awfulness that goes with the end of a relationship, but also in a more buddhist way, it’s letting go. I wanted to make that scene as beautiful as possible — not gross. Even though it’s such a horrible thing, it seemed cathartic for me, saying goodbye, letting go, moving on. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning of the next phase.’