Squash McStretch celebrates his 11th birthday, September 5th

Happy Birthday Squash McStretch!

Eleven years ago today , Squash made his debut at the Disneyanna Convention in Orlando. I created him as an “educational character” for the Disney Institute. He was used in classes by Animation, Photography, TV, Culinary and Gardening around the Institute (now Saratoga Springs).

On September 5th, we decided to roll him out with his image on cels in our programs. One of our programs was a primer where participants would tour the four studios (preproduction, 2D animation, 3D animation and stop motion) while they learned about the animation process and then return to paint by hand a cel of Squash Mc Stretch. They went home with their cel, their paints and brushes.

Meanwhile at the Disneyanna convention, we taught versions of the animation classes and drew for the attendees.
A table was set up and I spent most of two days drawing Squash for folks - at times the lines were out the door.
Prior to the convention, Squash was run by the Legal department in Los Angeles and was deemed a “legal” Disney Character.

Squash, an Irish-American character, grew in stature. We placed him on our animation jackets, made pins, maquettes, three series of cels, used animation of him for special presentations, model sheets, handouts, named a conference room after him, had Squash images with room numbers on our offices and immortalized him in cement in a backstage area. In fact, a few months ago, someone drew a Squash cartoon on an open drawing pad in the activity room at Saratoga Springs (former site of the Institute’s animation studios).

As mentioned in an earlier post, Squash died off after I left the Institute.

At the moment, Squash is enjoying himself, living in a relaxed limbo on an island off the Georgia coast.

Happy Birthday Squash - you haven’t aged a day!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 6:10 am and is filed under daily sketch, art, animation stories, student. 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.