We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robb Pratt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Robb, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’ve been so lucky and so determined and so hard-working that I have many projects that I feel are super-meaningful, so it’s a tricky question to answer. I guess I’d have to say ‘Superman Classic’ because it came at a time where I was feeling low, it lifted my spirits, and a lot of positivity in my career came as a direct result. It showed me that when cynicism is doing its best to creep into your life, you can super-punch it in the face! I’ve made valuable friendships over the years because of it, hopefully have spread the positivity, and even now, when I feel down, acts as a reminder of what one can do to break out of a rut.

Robb, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am fortunate enough that I knew what I wanted to do from a very early age – ANIMATION! I loved drawing, but animation is more than just drawing – it’s voice performance, motion performance, color, timing, storytelling, music, sound FX! So many disciplines brought together! It’s very exciting! In life, we all have good luck and bad. I was born poor, with a single mother. It was just the two of us, and she unfortunately suffered from mental illness and couldn’t work, so I was raised on government assistance – food stamps. This was extremely challenging – bad luck. But the good luck was that I lived in North Hollywood, just a few miles from the Walt Disney Studio. Maybe this challenging childhood drove my passion for animation and drawing, and the Studio provided a HUGE bull’s-eye for me to aim for. To add to this good luck, right around the time I was entering the workforce, Disney had several hit movies in a row with ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Aladdin’, and ‘The Lion King’ – things were busy and there was opportunity. I worked hard and was able to get an entry level job on ‘Pocahontas’. Because of my upbringing, I was hungry, and driven! During the early part of my career, I practically lived at the Studio – it was better than my apartment! I worked all day to fulfill my production expectations, and then worked all night to advance my animation skills. It’s been a constant re-invention along the way, with evolving techniques in the field, which is both thrilling and frustrating!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Absolutely, without a doubt, it has been connecting with other artists. Making dear friends and even wonderful working relationships with people that share the same passion for this art form. Posting art on social media, I’ve connected with artists from all over the world, and it’s led to exciting artistic collaborations. When I socialize with friends locally, I have to remind myself sometimes that we know each other because of animation. As I mentioned – there are many disciplines to animation, which is why I love it so much, and it’s a team sport – you can’t really make these things on your own. We all need each other to get things done, and the end results have always been so satisfying and accomplishments that I’m very proud of.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

It’s a funny thing. As a kid, I always was surrounded by friends that LOVED movies as I do! We’d ride our bikes to the movie theater all of the time, watch movies, discuss movies – it was great fun! And then when my animation career started, I was REALLY surrounded by like-minded friends, all sharing the love for all things imagination. Sometimes I’d see what I thought were cheesy stories about the importance of imagination. I just assumed that EVERYONE had an imagination. Then as an adult, I’d find myself in situations where I was surrounded by people that didn’t have it! It kind of threw me! It was more difficult to express ideas, because the person that I would talk to couldn’t picture things in their heads! They couldn’t envision things! There are practical setbacks to this. How would you describe to a contractor working on your house what you would like them to do? Using your imagination is not limited to being creative – it helps to problem solve, to see what complications may arise from everything that’s happening around the world, from everything that you do. My advice to non-creatives is to try their hardest to tap into that type of thinking – not just to be creative, but to be able to guess the outcome of things by imagining the consequences of any action – to predict the future! I think a lot of non-creatives try to do this very practically – thinking of what has been successful in the past, and then applying that same logic over and over, hoping for the same results, but the visionaries are the ones that can imagine what new things will be impactful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: robb_pratt
• Facebook: robb pratt
• Linkedin: robbpratt
• Twitter: robb_pratt
• Youtube: Robb Pratt – Where 2d Animation is NOT Dead!
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