A Monster in Paris

Bibo Bergeron’s newest animated feature, A Monster in Paris, scooped the Best Feature Film Award at the Los Angeles Animation Festival (7-11 March). The fest called the film one of the highlights of its programme. Monster had already been nominated twice for the French Oscar equivalents, the Césars. Flanders partner in the film is Brussels-based animation studio Walking The Dog.

Part musical, part action, all comedy, A Monster in Paris is a fun animated feature written by director Bergeron and Stephane Kazandjian. The plot follows the excitable Raoul, the unconfident Emile and the courageous Lucille, along with their monkey friend, Charles, as they attempt to protect the monster from the police, all while exposing him to song and dance.

Brussels-based production company Walking the Dog started working on The Congress, the new feature by Walz With Bashir-director Ari Folman. Walking The Dog is also co-producer of Bibo Bergeron’s 3D Animation pic A Monster in Paris which was recently nominated for two Césars (Best Animation, Best Original Score), the most prestigious Film Awards in France.

The Congress, based on the short story "The Futurological Congress" by Stanislaw Lem, follows an aging, out-of-work actress (Robin Wright) who accepts one last job so she can make ends meet to care for her disabled son (Kodi Smit-McPhee). In the end, her decision affect her in ways she didn't see coming. The film will be part live action (70 minutes), part animation (50 minutes).

Eric Goossens and Anton Roebben go back a long way. The two principals of Walking The Dog, now one of Belgium’s leading animation companies, grew up in the same region and both got their start in the film business more than 20 years ago. And now, 20 years on, they’ve racked up an impressive list of credits, working as line producers and co-producers on hits such as EuropaCorp’s smash, A Monster In Paris. At Walking The Dog, business savvy, innovation and creativity go hand in hand.

In the early 1990s, Little Big One was a fertile breeding ground for top Belgian animation talent. As Roebben recalls, one of his colleagues at the company was Ben Stassen (Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage) with whom Roebben made the the first CGI 3D ‘thrill ride’ movie, The Devil’s Mine, which became a huge success in theme parks all over the world as well as winning numerous awards at animation festivals.

At Trix (owned by D&D), they worked on more simulation ride movies, commercials and visual effects for feature films. Goossens however eventually grew tired of the repetitive nature of the work and left to set up his own documentary company, Off World. A short time later, he bumped into Roebben and together they founded a brand new animation company, Walking The Dog. ‘The main reason we started together on our own was that we’d be able to select our own projects and to embark on new challenges,’ says Roebben.