Lino DiSalvo, the head animator on “Frozen” and a longtime Disney veteran, created the coming-of-age story of an Italian teenager who teams up with a mythical beast to save his hometown from an evil curse. We are currently developing a full-length animation.
“Twisted,” written by Kissy Duggan and produced by Emmanuel Jacomet for Italy’s Palomar Animation and MediaOne Kids & Family, will be at Rome’s MIA Market from October 14th to 18th. This is one of the hottest projects going on sale this week.
Inspired by the tall tales DiSalvo heard growing up in an Italian-American family in Brooklyn, the story is based on holiday rituals in the Italian town of Andrista. There, villagers hold a hunting and trapping ritual once a year to commemorate the Feast of the Epiphany. A mythical beast known as the Badalisk.
Director DiSalvo described what he wanted to be a “fun, epic movie” as a “very silly movie with a lot of heart,” adding, “I’m just a fan of my wonderful, superstitious, loving life growing up as an Italian.” I just want to bring a great, rich history to a big movie.” screen. ”
“Twisted” begins in a small town in the Valcamonica valley in Lombardy. For centuries, villagers gathered there on the eve of Epiphany to hunt badalisks, mythical horned creatures that live in the forests of the Alps. Once captured, the beast is paraded through town, where it reveals secrets, gossip, and petty grievances. This is a ritual that brings the community back to peace and harmony for another year.
But DiSalvo says this tradition takes an unexpected turn. “Our movie is about this guy who gets fed up with him exposing everyone’s secrets every year and kicks him out of town,” he said. “You poor creature! He was the star of the show for hundreds of years… and they banished him from town.”
Badalisk’s only crime was doing what was right for him: telling the truth. “In his heart of hearts, all he wants is to be part of the community.”
Angelina is a smooth-talking teenage girl who works at her family’s pizzeria. “Her family has these expectations. [that] She’s going to be the next prime minister, and she’s going to be a fashion designer. That’s what your Italian family wants you to ‘succeed’ in,” DiSalvo said. “Ironically, all she wants to do is make pizza.”
Unlike the truth-telling Badalisks, Angelina proceeds on a “flawed philosophy” that “it’s just easier to tell people what they want to hear.” “She basically lies to everyone,” DiSalvo said. As the plot begins to set in motion, the young hero is ultimately called upon to save the people of Andrista, with the help of an exiled beast, and his quest provides the film’s central tension. . lie? Should we always be honest, even if it means hurting someone? ”
The Brooklyn native, now based in Montreal, drew heavily on his childhood memories when developing “Twisted.” “I grew up in a family that owned a pizzeria. All my life experiences happened in that pizzeria. It’s the lens through which I saw the world,” he said. “Being a first-generation Italian-American and coming from a family with traditional but interesting modern ideas, they had expectations for me. I was going to be the first DiSalvo not to make pizza. It was.”
Mr. DiSalvo was the lead animator on Disney’s Oscar-winning “Frozen.”
His success since then would make any Italian grandmother proud. Hired at the age of 20, DiSalvo spent 16 years at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he served as head of animation on the Academy Award-winning film “Frozen,” as well as “Rapunzel” and “Rapunzel.” He worked as a supervising animator on projects such as “Bolt.” ” After leaving Disney, he served as creative director at Paramount Animation and later as head of creative at ON Animation Studios in Paris. Most recently, he directed and produced the Emmy-nominated Christmas special “Reindeer in Here” for CBS Studios and Paramount+.
For ‘Twisted’ he will be working with Paris-based giant MediaOne Kids & Family. Media One Kids & Family has expanded its lineup of high-end animation over the past year.
“Ever since I mentioned this to producer Emmanuel Jacomet, he has been championing the project,” DiSalvo said. “He believes in that. The leaders there believe in that. Then they started getting me writers… and giving me the resources to make my wish list a reality.”
The early return is encouraging, with the animator and Media One partners presenting Twisted to industry audiences at Annecy and Cartoon Movies in Bordeaux earlier this year.
“After demonstrating this proof of concept, the response from the industry was amazing,” DiSalvo said. “It’s really heartwarming to see that theatrical distribution in Europe and South America still craves personal stories that feel fantastical, silly, comedic, and action-based, told from a very specific point of view. It will be.”
