4. The Donn Of Tiki: Enhancing Tiki Culture's Origin with Stop-Motion and 2D Animation
The indisputable founder of American tiki, Donn Beach, replicated the cultural iconography of tropical islands in the South Pacific in a far different and more genuine style than what we're used to seeing these days. He was also well known for constantly changing who he was, frequently at the expense of the whole truth.
Filmmakers Alex Lamb and Max Well go through the man's numerous, occasionally contradictory life tales in their new documentary The Donn of Tiki, which has its premiere at the Florida Film Festival on April 13. Their goal is to learn more about the true Donn Beach. Nevertheless, no matter how absurd the story seems, the two never pass up a tasty narrative in their pursuit of the truth.
To create a captivating narrative about such a complex person, Lamb and Well commissioned stop-motion and two-dimensional animated sequences in addition to using interviews and archive material. Mystery Meat Media developed the stop-motion portions of the movie, while Venturia Animation, a Colombian company, handled the 2D animation.
Mystery Meat used a complete character drawing by Kevin Kidney, who drew the Donn puppet based on precise measurements given by the production company. Kidney then used wood to create the legs, arms, and head.
The Donn of Tiki is a two-dimensional animated sequence that spans several decades of the 20th century and was created to resemble popular art forms from the eras it depicts. A large number of the manually drawn places and figures were redrawn from historical sources. But in the absence of reference sources, Venturia's artists were forced to use their imaginations and copy the styles of that eras' animators, which occasionally presented new difficulties.
“We only appealed to the creative license whenever we encountered absolutely no reference from the archives or the internet, and in such cases, our thought process was, “Okay, how would they have designed this type of character back in the day?” which of course proved problematic for the character of “Pops Julian,” Donn’s loyal and most skilled bartender who was of Filipino origin. Co-directors Alex and Max really wanted to steer away from anything in his design that could be considered racist, which was particularly difficult because the time period for the animation (especially the 1930s and 40s) was filled with all kinds of negative depictions. In the end, I think we did a good job creating an appealing design without compromising the cheeky authenticity of the rubber-hose era.”
The final edit of The Donn of Tiki shows how much thought and effort went into it. In telling Donn Beachcomber's narrative, the filmmakers chose to use a wide range of genres and aesthetics, which makes sense given his passion for reinvention and the mystery that still encircles the guy.
