The Cats of Mars Meet the Toy Car

Video of the Day: The Cats of Mars Meet the Toy Car (complete short) from Jacob Stålhammar on Vimeo.

I wrote the Cats on Mars in 2004. Later I recorded the Swedish singer Freddie Wadling reading the story (with no clear plan as to make a children's book or maybe a film). I started playing around with public domain music found in old commercials at the Prelinger archives.

After testing polished (and wider) looks, I instead aimed for an old school 4:3 ratio, to match the Dr Seuss inspired rhyming, adding grain and noises.
I tried learning gouache on cardboard from http://johnkstuff.blogspot.se/search/label/BG%20Painting , in parallel I started character design http://jacobstalhammar.blogspot.se/2009/10/marskatterna-tidiga-skisser.html .
Looping old (as old as from the 1930's) sounds, and making snippets that moved together with Freddie's wonderful reading provided energy to continue.

After the Swedish version opened at Göteborg International Film Festival 2010, I translated everything and contacted my friend Jeff Crackower with discussions of the rhyming. He provided great help – and later dubbed the English version in a wonderful session.

Both versions played in festivals, and the Swedish version played in cinemas distributed by Folket’s Bio. The Swedish version still plays in cinemas and a DVD for libraries is released this fall.

More information about the film, links to hi-rez still etc can be found here:
http://www.catsofmars.com/om/index.html

Follow @movwx