When we left the protective wing of Mother Vinton's there was a lot of tension in the air. The animators who were loyal to us weren't sure whether further contact would harm them in the studio's eyes because at the time many valuable personnel were leaving for greener pastures. Doug Aberle, a long time Vinton loyalist and lead animator, was particularly uncertain
because he was truly our friend but he was also comfortable in his career at "Will Vinton Studios."

One day Doug came to me with a script he wanted to do with us (meaning I paid for it and provided the animators), and he wanted to keep it secret in case there were any Vinton ramifications. The script was of a lovable, but very troubled dog. If I hadn't have known Doug for so long, and respected his twisted sense of humor and timing, I would have nixed the project, but to know Doug and his odd proclivities is to trust his creative judgment. Let me point out that all the animation work was done at Hash by Hash employees.

Doug normally has his sound work done at Vinton's, but for secrecy he sent the print to Jon Newton in Los Angeles. Jon is associated with the producers of "MAD TV," and while he was working on "Fluffy" someone suggested that the "look" was perfect for "Spy vs. Spy."

"Who did this?" they asked.

"Doug Aberle at Will Vinton Studios," Jon replied, not aware that he was supposed to be circumspect about the project.

The MAD TV people immediately flew up to Oregon. They met with David Altschul, president of Vinton's, showed him "Fluffy."

"We want this!" they exclaimed.

David was surprised. "Yes. This is nice. Who did it?"

The MAD TV people looked at David questioningly, "We thought you did it?"

"Us?"

"Doug Aberle."

David's eyes went wide. "Yes. Yes. Doug did this. It's great isn't it."

After the meeting David called an unsuspecting Doug into his office. Lucy, David's secretary said, "Go right on in Doug, David's expecting you." Doug walks in: he's almost floored. Playing on a monitor is the only copy in the whole world of the secret "Fluffy" and standing beside it was his unsmiling boss. "I guess it's time for a career change," thought Doug. Then David smiled. "You're a genius, Doug," he said, putting his arm around Doug's shoulder. David then preceded to sweet talk Doug into a happy stupor.

Fast forward to the SIGGRAPH film show. Doug had told us he had submitted "Fluffy." He gave us "Fluffy" badges and "Contributor" ribbons. He hung around our booth all show with a big grin on his face. We didn't have tickets to the show until the third day but we'd heard "Fluffy" was the BIG hit. More and more top players in the industry came by our booth to congratulate Doug on his great work. Finally, the day arrived for us to see it. We waited with baited anticipation for "Fluffy" to come on. I could hear the buzz of excitement around us as others talked about what their friends had said about "Fluffy." Finally, it came on: "Fluffy" said the opening credits ... "Will Vinton Studios." I didn't notice much more after that - I was so stunned that the uproarious laughter from the audience didn't even sink in. The rest of the film show was a blur.

Vinton's went on to make "Fluffy" a showcase event. The awesome Vinton publicity machine kicked in and everybody in the nation heard of "Fluffy," talked about "Fluffy," admired "Fluffy." Vinton's even sent out their Christmas cards with "Fluffy" on the cover. We didn't get one of those Christmas cards.

man, that sucks!

It's the business. First time is the toughest though. Now we're immune. Doug was mad I wrote this and he never spoke with me again. I guess the self-righteous indignation only goes one way.

I agree - that is so sad. I've always loved the Fluffy movie. Now it makes me sad.

It sounds like a cut-throat business.

Pardon my naivety, but if Doug Aberle wrote the script and Hash Inc did all the animation what business was it of Vinton Studios? Surely a studio cannot own a person's freedom to do their own work in their own time! I guess it could be written into his contract but then what was Doug Aberle planning to do had the movie not fallen into the hands of Vinton's manager? Would it have been released as a Hash production without any mention of Doug Aberle? I mean Vinton Studios would have found out sooner or later that their man had been moonlighting, if that's what it was, so what was he thinking? Also if you paid for the script and did the animation who held the copyright?

Makes me want to stick to one man, one vision.
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I hope you were reimbursed for your skills, time and investment, at the very least.

You know, I am trained to know the answer to all those questions. Doug wrote the script - he owned the copyright to the story. Hash was just happy to have a hit, and if you watch "Fluffy" on A:M Films, you'll see that we replaced "Will Vinton Studios" with "Hash" in the credits as producer. Doug, of course, is credited, but there's nothing in the law that says anyone MUST be credited. That would be in the contractual language - it's not statutory.

wow.. I had no idea! It was however one of my initial pointers for finding animation master and learning it could be used to animate so well, so i'm glad for that. Still.. ouch, that's a killer.

-Ethan

The animation is pretty good. I wonder where Tracy Larson and Galen Beals are now. The mans voice reminds me of Tom Hanks performance as Woody in the Toy Story movies.

I remember when first viewing fluffy I thought it was outrageously good in a lot of ways, from the modeling, to the story, to timing, to whatever.

Siggraph has added some additional credits online.
http://www.siggraph.org/s95/S95_V2/CAF_ET/FLUFFY/FLUFFY.HTL

Every time I see a dog now I just say "bark, bark" ....like Fluffy. He inspired me.