“Shrek” and “Shark Tale” Director
Speaks on Graphic Design
By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

Vicky Jensen has been an integral part of animation teams since cartoons evolved from paintings on cells to digital graphics, marking their progression into the computer age as from her lowly start as a background painter to her debut as a director of Dreamworks' “Shrek,” then “Shark Tale.”

This week the half-Costa Rican (through her mother) arrived in San José to impart some of her expertise to graphic design students and the general public at the private Universidad Veritas in the southeast district of Zapote.

She had a hand in some of the defining cartoons of the 1970s and 1980s, such as “The Smurfs” and “The Flintstones,” for which she painted the backgrounds – including those that looked like a single drawing on a conveyor belt when Fred chased Barney around their stone homes. She laughs about those, saying they are a sign of a low-budget animation called short repeat pans – a strip of background cells that are moved under the characters, shot twice with the camera, then moved again when new cells of the characters with limbs in different positions have been placed.

She drew the storyboards for the “He-Man” series in the 1980s, mapping each scene with a pencil drawing.

“He-Man taught me a lot about visualizing a story… and to save money,” she said.

She worked on “ Tasmania,” “Batman and Jem,” “Mighty Mouse” and “The New Adventures of Ren and Stimpy.”

“It's the most direct way to get into directing,” she said. “You look at the script and try to make it funnier.”

That fast track to directorship took her to “Shrek,” released in 2001, as the co-director, with Andrew Adamson.

“I was a bit of a ham, I was loud and I drew well, so they decided I should direct,” she said.

Originally, comedian Chris Farley was slated to play the role of Shrek, and had voiced-over a few scenes before his death in 1997 at age 33. Mike Myers then took the role, and many of the scenes were rewritten to accommodate his style, which changed almost as dramatically as the change of cast.

“Myers tried it with his own voice. Then he thought it would be funnier in a character,” Jensen said. So, he put on the famous Scottish accent that Shrek fans know, a decision that made him a little nervous, Jensen said, because he also used it for the Fat Bastard role of Austin Powers fame.

Jensen herself nearly had a voice part in the movie – originally, she voiced the old lady who tries to sell the donkey in the beginning, but co-director Adamson nixed the idea, saying she sounded too much like herself (though others thought it was funny).

“Shrek” and “Shark Tale” were both voiced in multiple languages for international distribution. Jensen helped find comedians in the destination countries to do the voices.

She is offering seminars to students and the public today at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the Veritas auditorium, and will give pointers to students in private sessions in the afternoon.

The students are among the first in the region to study graphic design in their home countries.

“Here, to learn this stuff you have to teach yourself or be from a wealthy family and study in the United States,” digital animation department director Adekoye Adams said.

Veritas is the first university in Central and South America to offer a graphic design degree. About 225 foreign students study at the university, 150 of whom are from the United States and take courses in Spanish, and Adams himself is a transplant from the United States .

Other famous names in graphic design will give seminars throughout this week. Juan Pablo Buscarini will speak Wednesday, José Luis Silva on Thursday, and Adams will speak Friday, all at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Entrance is free.