Not usually one at a loss for words, Adam Elliot is wondering how he is going to sustain a magazine interview about his latest venture: a book that is only 26 sentences long. “Films are easier for me to talk about,” he says. “They are deeper; there are a lot of themes and important messages that I am trying to convey. But this is a bit of fluff!”
While his first book might be a lightweight compared with his highly acclaimed claymation films, it’s just as poignant and funny and, Elliot is quickly realising, was much easier to complete. For someone who makes just two films per decade, the prospect of a project that only required a pencil and paper – as opposed to $8 million and 120 staff to help get off the ground – was a lot more attractive.
Drawing has always been a hobby and Elliot creates detailed pencil drawings of his characters for each film before handing them over to the sculptors to get made into “little, expensive puppets”. An animal lover since childhood, Elliot loves drawing dogs but says the idea for his book, The A–Z of Unfortunate Dogs, started last Christmas as a distraction from writing his latest feature film script.
Starting with his two pugs Barry and Kevin, Elliot quickly found the book idea that he had been looking for for 30 years. As the quirky pair of pugs scamper up and down the frame-covered hallway during our interview, it’s clear they have the run of Elliot’s Windsor home that he shares with his partner Dan.
“It was all a bit of an accident really and I knew nothing about publishing,” Elliot admits. “I rang Penguin and apparently you are meant to have a literary agent first, which I didn’t know. And apparently you aren’t meant to just cold call which is what we did. But they said because you already have a profile, send it in and we will have a look.”
Elliot wrote the poems for his book first and tried to include a cross-section of breeds. He was conscious not to create a book just about unfortunate breeds, which ironically is the case in some instances, as Elliot discovered earlier this year.
“I saw a really good documentary just when I was drawing all the dogs,” he says. “It was about pure-bred dogs in England and how they don’t live as long because they are basically inbred. As a result pugs have a lot of genetic problems … 100 years ago pugs had longer snouts and they have been bred aesthetically to have flatter faces. What’s actually happening is that their nasal passages are caving in. A lot of the famous breeds are in a lot of trouble and may not be around for much longer because they are just too inbred. The book itself is a bit of light entertainment but behind it all I do have some serious views.”
Now that the book has hit the book stores, Elliot is focusing his attention on his new feature film, which is in the funding stage. He hopes to have a completed film by the end of 2012. While he is reluctant to reveal too many details, Elliot is excited about some big-name stars and an even bigger budget, which is currently looking like $18 million.
It’s been six years since his biggest triumph, an Academy Award for best short animation for his film Harvie Krumpet, but Elliot says the tag never wears off – not that he wants it to. He admits the Oscar has lived up to its reputation as a golden crowbar, opening many doors for him and the Australian animation industry. But he realises the audience will never appreciate how much work goes into each film or book.
“I get emails from parents saying, my son wants to do claymation, how do you do it?” he laughs. “I mean, would you ring a brain surgeon and ask them how to do brain surgery? It takes years. It’s so complex and I still don’t know how it all works!
“But I have stopped worrying about that because [the audience’s] job is to look at the end result and enjoy it. For me the process of making the film or writing the book should be just as enjoyable as the end result. If it’s seamless, you know that you have done your job.”
The A-Z of Unfortunate Dogs is available now through Penguin Books.
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