This the story of the creation of Squash McStretch, the Disney Institute’s signature animated character.

The creation of a Disney animated character can be a daunting task.- If not a bit of a sticky wicket… especially, if the character is not created at Walt Disney Feature Animation or Walt Disney Consumer Products. But, it happened!

The genesis of the character evolved not from the creation of the Disney Institute. In actuality, like the other 54 million plus Irish Americans, we must go back to the Emerald Isle to discover the roots of this somewhat normal character with the somewhat bulbous nose.

In the fall of 1994, while coordinator and third year animation instructor at Senior College Ballyfermot in Dublin, I was beginning my fifth year in Europe, my fourth year at Senior College. During my tenure, Senior College had developed into one of the top animation schools in the world - that was according folks to Disney, Warner Brothers, Don Bluth Ireland and others.

At the time, I knew this would be my last year in Ireland. My dad had just passed away, my children had one year to go before high school and I was talking to a major studio in the U.S. about working for them in the training and recruiting areas - that studio was… Warner Brothers Feature Animation. But, Warner folks weren’t talking about a job in the States - they wanted me to train and recruit in Europe - for a studio set up in Ireland or the United Kingdom.

As always, I had a full slate of projects to occupy my time. Our North/South ANIMAGIC project had just gotten under way. I had some freelance animation work. And a friend of mine who was head of the Computer Animation program, Steve Macken, and I wanted to develop an interactive CD ROM for teaching animation.

Our brilliant idea was to make the CD… character based. The character I created and developed for that task was none other than SQUASH McSTRETCH. The reason for the name was obvious (or at least it was to us). The animation principles of SQUASH and STRETCH are some of the initial elements learned during the first animation lesson for ALL animators - the Bouncing Rubber Ball. SQUASH has to do with contact and weight. STRETCH has to do with exaggeration and speed. The “Mc” part was in homage to Ireland.

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So, SQUASH McSTRETCH was born - the first time! (See the original SQUASH drawing.)

Notice SQUASH sports a baseball cap, a letter jacket and tennis shoes much as he appeared at the Disney Institute - almost a year later. Even the somewhat huge nose is as plain as the…well, you know. Ironically enough, years later, we even had green letter jackets with cream sleeves made for the animation staff and others at the Disney Institute.

Steve and I continued to play with the concept for the CD ROM, but with both our busy schedules we never made it past the “drawing board” stage. For me and my wife, Tricia, The ANIMAGIC project was in full swing - which meant weekend trips up to Belfast every two or three weeks. Between the project and the school and the courting by Warners - my slate was very full.

At some point in the negotiations with WB it seemed we were at an impasse. So one day, I called up a friend at Disney Feature Animation in Orlando and asked the question, “Does Disney need anyone?” (Meaning me). The reply stunned me – “Where do you want to work…in L.A., Orlando or Paris?” After I regained my composure - I thought quickly…um… L.A. = bad schools… Paris is great but the kids needed to complete high school in the U.S. - that left Orlando! After a moment, I was informed that Disney was putting together a brand new concept called the Disney Institute and they wanted someone with my skills (who could animate and teach and manage) to head up the animation programs.

The phone call set in motion a series of events, which resulted in my being flown over to Orlando (a 12 hour flight counting the plane switch at Heathrow in London). Then, for the next three days, I faced a battery of interviews and by the time I left Orlando to return to Dublin - I all but had the job! In June of 1995, I became an employee of the Walt Disney Company and Managing Instructor of Animation at the Disney Institute.

The DISNEY INSTITUTE was slated to open on February 9^th, 1996. Animation programs (we didn’t do classes- we did programs) were to begin live testing in November 1995 – five months away.

My job at Disney was a piece of cake - I had six months to hire a staff, write programs, oversee the build out and decoration of four animation studios (which at the moment, were just studded walls), buy equipment, furniture, materials, props - be careful when you wish upon a star - your dreams may just come true!

Amazingly enough, the staff and studios and program came together in the allotted time. We began testing programs in November 1995 and even had a few days of testing with the Disney executive branch. No pressure, right?

In working with the classes there was always the need for class materials. We found it much more “convenient” to develop our own materials. The first character we used at the Institute was a RABBIT, which I designed. We put him on cels for guests to paint in one of the classes. But the marketing folks made comments about the use of a rabbit. Seems some folks thought a rabbit was inappropriate species since another studio has a main character that is a rabbit. Holy Ozwald!

It was one of those times when inspiration grabs hold. We did want to have a character whose disposition was toward “learning” – that’s what the Institute was all about. At the time there was no Disney character that was geared toward education. Then, the idea of using Squash came. After all, Squash was created as a “learning” character. He was perfect for the Disney Institute and it purpose. A design of Squash McSTRETCH was passed along to Legal – it was approved and the Institute’s character was born. I still have the official email proclaiming Squash a Disney character.

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I list Squash’s birthday as September 5th, 1996 - which coincides with his debut at the Disneyana Convention. He is a young adult who loves to learn and tries his best to get it right - and things do go right for him - though, at times, the results do not follow the path he planned.

The first application of Squash was on the animation cels for guests to paint. Over the next couple of years, Squash went through a series of three cels.

Our ideas about marketing Squash were very grassroots. Next, we had some money left over from the year’s budget so we had Squash pins created and offered for sale at the Institute’s store. The pins sold really well - we offered discounts for the Squash pins to participants in the animation classes.

We made up jackets for our animation crew.

We were allowed to draw the Disney characters for guests and Squash was among them. Once in a while, I would draw Mickey and Squash together - they were ALWAYS the best of pals.

Based on the success of the pins, we contracted a local company to sculpt and cast 24 Squash McStretch maquettes. (See picture of a maquette) These miniature likenesses were each hand signed by yours truly and numbered. It was the first time an artist name had appeared on merchandise. The idea was to make a 250 limited edition Squashes. We never made more than 24.

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The clouds of change were on the horizon.

(….to be continued)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 6:42 pm and is filed under animation stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.