No Barriers Youth

When we set out to make a short film involving fictitious go-karts that ran on mud, we had no idea the issues that would arise. After realizing the local racing clubs and tracks would want to steer clear of the project, we decided to pursue the piece as a combination of live action and CG race cars. While shooting on green screen and animating all the race cars and track added a ton of time to the production, it allowed us to create shots that were highly stylized in a way that felt more like a storybook than reality.

Crafting the story of Mudkarts required full team collaboration. With most projects, this usually consists of us sitting around and talking about ideas and waving our hands to help the others picture what we’re talking about. Mudkarts was a complex storyline; we needed a way to be able to plot the arc of the story and tweak immediately. We jotted all the plot points down on note cards and spread them out on the conference room table — eliminating the ones that didn’t work and trimming it down to a concise narrative.

When Global Explorers (now No Barriers Youth) asked Madhouse to create a PSA that would help bring awareness to the disappearing night sky—an issue that their in person programing was focused on in partnership with The National Park Services—we took the opportunity to tell a story that would appeal to the hearts of people of all ages. By writing a storybook script, and creating painterly night sky scenes, we delivered a simple message about the value of the cosmos for inspiring wonder in dreamers everywhere.