TIM BJÖRKLUND (Director) makes his feature film directorial debut with “Disney’s Teacher’s Pet,” where he is reteamed with the cast of characters he got to know so well from his stint as director of the popular series.
“Directing an animated feature is a million times better than directing a series for the simple arithmetic of this – on a series, you have 13 to 21 episodes to do in a year,” Björklund says. “And on a movie, you do an hour and a half over about two years. So you’ve got more money, more time and more opportunities to really get it right and do what you actually set out to do.”
Born in San Francisco, Björklund has built a reputation for his irreverent vision and exceptional artistry. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Graphics/Experimental Animation from CalArts in 1982 and, two years later, graduated from the same renowned institution with a Master of Fine Arts degree.
He began his professional career as an animator/director for Colossal Pictures and Industrial Light & Magic, where he worked for nine years before becoming the writer/director on the first three seasons of “Rocko’s Modern Life” for Nickelodeon. From 1994-1996, Björklund scored the creative hat trick as producer/writer/director first season of CBS’ “The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat.”
Following that, he served a three-year stint as director of development for Ink Biscuits Studios, during which time he designed and directed the titles and bumpers for Cartoon Network’s “Late Night Black and White” series, which earned an Annie Award in 1998.
Björklund arrived at Walt Disney Television Animation in 1999 to begin his affiliation with “Disney’s Teacher’s Pet” as the director on the series and, in 2001, the feature film.
“Tim really is Felix the Cat,” Cheri Steinkellner says. “He has a huge bag of tricks, and he just reaches in and pulls out something. You think you’ve seen it all, and then he has 10 more things to show you.”
“I looked at my job as pushing the story out there in front of everything else, but backing it up with as much vigorous design and art as possible – and to make it as funny as hell,” Björklund says. “That’s why I think of this film as a feature length cartoon – our main goal is to tell a story, but we tell the story with as much slapstick and visual humor as possible.”
Movie Database
In Theaters
(3 votes)