Meet Courtney: 1986

A mini-movie introducing the 1980's American Girl historical doll, Courtney Moore.
This 22-minute film combines both stop motion and pixel animation, which was a really fun challenge! I had never worked in pixel art before, let alone directed it, but our pixel team was fantastic and made the process so seamless that I am a full pixel art convert. I was delighted to be able to design the pixel art characters, and work with the pixel art team to render them in a true pixel art final design.

This film meant a lot to me because of the emotions we explored. In the film, Courtney and her classmates witness the Challenger Shuttle disaster and have to deal with the emotional fallout of witnessing a national tragedy on live TV. As a millennial who remembers watching the 9/11 attacks on TV, I could definitely relate to Courtney, and was very interested in communicating the reality-shaking emotions that come with an experience like that. I was also very interested in the storyline of Courtney learning to live in a blended family in the wake of her parent's divorce.