Simon Otto
Director, LOCKSMITH ANIMATION
Simon Otto is an award-winning animation director currently at Locksmith Animation who recently wrapped That Christmas, set to premiere on Netflix later this year.
Simon previously served as Head of Character on How to Train your Dragon trilogy, designing beloved characters such as Toothless. He also directed episodes for series such as Love, Death & Robots and Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia.
When did you become interested in animation?
As a kid in Switzerland, I had to get treatment for a minor illness, so my mom and I would go to the city and she’d take me to see a movie afterwards. The theatre mostly played Disney movies on a loop and I remember it being mind-blowing — sitting in that dark theatre and watching those old films.
That experienced fuelled a desire in me, along with comic books, like Tintin and Asterix, to draw, paint, and find a way to recreate those incredible images. I had always loved to draw - I wasn’t particularly amazing at it - but I was better than most of my friends. So, in a way, that was kind of my thing — “the guy who draws”. I started doing funny drawings for them, and for some reason I developed this irrational dream of working on an animated movie. And so, after a few detours in a banking apprenticeship and doing snow sculptures for hotels and ski resorts, I went to art school. And during that time, I finally got some real leads on how to become an animator.
How did you make the transition into directing?
If you’re experienced animator and a story artist, you’re naturally putting yourself on the path of directing because the core skills of directing are centered around character and staging. In other words, the performance and psychology of the characters and how to communicate that to the audience in a compelling way. The ability to do that with a few drawings is a huge part of the job.
I realized on this film that being a director is really a two-part job. On the one side, it’s helping your crew and giving notes and feedback. But on the other side, 50% of making a film is pitching the film verbally — it’s selling to people how you imagine the film would be told.
What is the most challenging part about directing?
The most challenging thing is finding the balance between dictating a vision and letting people participate in your vision. Your vision is not something where you know exactly what the film will look like, it’s setting guidelines which everybody can follow and then interpret themselves.
There are so many people who bring such great things to the table, but sometimes it's not exactly right. Or it sort of contradicts something that you really think is important, and then you have to guide them. But if from the beginning you say I wanted it exactly like this or that, you'd never actually give the crew a chance to make your vision better.
What’s been the most rewarding part of That Christmas?
The most rewarding part of directing That Christmas has been working with Richard Curtis. You're collaborating with someone who has been in the industry for 40-50 years, and has made some of the most successful films in the UK, if not the world. And so, getting that kind of insight into the way he approaches things was extremely rewarding.
What are your hopes for the future of animation?
I think in terms of big budget films, the limitation is that animation is so expensive that you have to make a four-quadrant family film. In certain parts of the world, if an animated movie doesn’t include talking animals, people just don’t go see it with their kids. There are some facts that are shifting, but that’s certainly still there.
Fortunately, there are a lot of possibilities right now. If you look at the first Spider-Verse, it wasn’t as successful as it should have been given its quality, but ultimately it got legs, and they made a second one. And now everyone loves it and it’s a gate-opener for other films like that to follow. Take Nimona (2023) for example - a film like that benefitted from the success of Spider-Verse, I’m convinced. Same goes for the TMNT: Mutant Mayhem film or the upcoming Ultraman: Rising. All films that without the success of the first Spider-Verse probably wouldn’t have been made or certainly wouldn’t have the look that they have.
So, my hope is that there’s a continued expansion of what types of films we can make. It’d be so great to do a feature film that is a crime thriller or something that appeals to different kind of audience and is still hugely successful. That would be amazing, but I think we still have a little ways to go.