Strange characters, a fictional hell in the sky and mob mentalities.
These are the words that encompass “Wacky Towns,” an animated cartoon created and directed entirely by San Jose State students.
Animation has never been more creative.
Jonathan Dorais, radio, television and film senior and creator of the show, wanted to produce cartoon-style animation that touches on real-world fears and anxieties.
“I think if you can show characters that people can see [themselves in] just by looking at a cartoon character and realizing that they have struggles,” Dorais said. “Suddenly they are no longer seeing drawings on paper, they’re seeing a person . . . they’re seeing themselves.”
“Wacky Towns,” which can be found on YouTube under the same channel name, is a city Dorais created based on the idea that everyone has to be the best person they can be at all times.
This is something he says seems easy but causes conflict for its characters who struggle with holding their morals and values to a higher standard.
If characters aren’t “the best” Dorais said they fear being sent to “the ground,” a punishment city high up in the trees.
He said the world questions why people are afraid of failure.
“I wanted to take the anxiety I had and make something funny out of it to show everyone how ridiculous it is,” said Dorais. “It just shows we’re all going through life.”
Dorais began curating “Wacky Towns” after a bad experience during his first year of college.
Looking to channel his feelings, Dorais said he whipped out old comic book strips to create the next big thing.
He began taking an interest in cartoons when he was in middle school, where he started drawing comics as an outlet to escape bullying.
It wasn’t until Dorais was soon to graduate high school where he was a member of a student-run “YouTube club” and began creating his first animation, “Chocolate Apocalypse”.
By episode three, Dorais had already applied to the SJSU Animation/Illustration Program and had been rejected. Still, Dorais didn’t give up on his passion.
At age 19, Dorais said he had an accident which resulted in a head injury, landing him in the hospital after falling 10 feet.
Dorais remembers waking up in the ambulance and thinking he was going to die, but instead of thinking about family he wondered who was going to tell his stories.
“It sounds pretentious but when you have stories to tell, it gives you drive and when you’re not able to do that suddenly you failed,” Dorais said.
Dorais said he began teaming up with other students who were willing to voice act, design and direct the vision he had for “Wacky Towns.”
“So [Dorais] was the one that started ‘Wacky Towns,’ which started out as a comic strip for his French class in high school,” animation senior Emerson Chan said. “ I joined his project as a storyboard artist for episode one, and then [Dorais] and I wrote episode two together, and I started directing it.”
Chan said they wanted to have a happy look to the show, but would gradually introduce darker themes to contrast the animation.
“I saw it as a show that would get darker as more of this happy looking ‘Wacky Towns’ world starts to reveal more of how it functions,” Chan said.
Despite their small, college-student budget, Dorais and his team decided to use their limited access to their advantage and created a distinct combination of 2D and 3D animation.
They entered into SJSU’s film festival, where the first episode won Best Picture.
Despite the win, Dorais said his team went through a post-production depression, a time where their purpose was lost after the completion of the first episode.
“When you’re directing, you put a piece of yourself [in your creative work] and suddenly feel ashamed but at the same time you feel confident in it,” Dorais said.
Regardless of doubts, Dorais and his team were still set on finishing something bigger than themselves.
“The feel of the world was given to me by [Dorais], which is a cartoon world. But I was given freedom in deciding how I would draw that,” Ashley Chung, animation senior and collaborative artist for the project, said.
Chung said collaboration and bouncing ideas off of one another helps her grow as an artist and a teammate.
“Even though this wasn’t my story, [Dorais] and I just like creating, so I’m super glad he reached out to me so we could work together,” Chung said.
Dorais said he wants his content to mean something bigger.
“I think a lot of the stuff I write showcases that people can be pretty shitty, but that doesn’t mean [the characters] should be given up on,” Dorais said.
His stories seek to question the way things are and the way people choose to think for themselves.
Through the project, he wants to make a positive difference in the world and wants to be known for making the world a better place.
“After you finish something, you think about why you did it and say ‘that was actually an outlet for me going through depression,’” Dorais said. “Then when you face that issue again it’s almost like, ‘oh wait,’ and you realize that the storytelling is a very complex and expensive journal entry.”
