SLEEPLESS IN ANNECY

June 17, 2021

SLEEPLESS IN ANNECY

It's been exacly 5 years since the short Inner Workings Premiere at Annecy. I drew these a while back but never had a chance to post it. enjoy!

Fancy dinner at the airplane. Fancy lady seating next to me.

Her only problem is not knowing how to operate the recliner chair.

She tries adjusting her seat and ends up causing a terrible mess.

I kindly offer my help.

Not knowing what button to press, I choose the blue one.

The lady immediately folds like an accordion whe cursong me in French. I pretend I am sleeping.

We finally arrive in France.

It is my first time in Annecy. What a lovely little town! Many tourists from all over the world mingling and drinking wine at Annecy's lovely restaurants surrounded by the most adorable lakes.

From the shape of my nose, one can tell I am not genetically advantaged for the craft of wine-tasting.

So i stuck with the Raclette, which are these delicious melted cheese.

At another restaurant, Me and Kate saw this: Little french girl sees an adorable yorkie terrier and comes running to pet it.

Yorkie is nasty and bites little girl good in her fat fingers.

Little girl cries loudly. All the ladies at the table ignore the girl and continue smoking non-chillantly. The mother comes and apologizes to the ladies.

After a long day, it is time to go to bed. Kate is passed out. I am wide-awake, completely jet-lagged. The premiere of the short is happening next morning.

No matter what i try, i could not fall asleep.

I pop 1 melatonin. then 2, then 10. still could not go to sleep.

Next morning i find out my producer Sean and John Musker are sleepless also. Except for Ron Clements who slept like a baby.

premier happens. paper airplanes everywhere.

Me and Sean pretending we were fine after a sleepless night. to add to that, I was also completely drugged from Melatonin.

French kid comes running in the crowd wanting an autograph.

I signed his Inner workings poster but he keeps staring at me. Now he wants an advice.

I then give an advice: “Just be yourself”. Still not satisfying enough.

I don’t want to disappoint this earnest French kid. I do my best but no words of wisdom come from my zombie-sleep deprived brain. Marketing Team gives a warning. “You are 10 minutes behind schedule, Leo”.

I give the kid another advice: “Be original” He’s still not satisfied.

Marketing Lady furiously take me out of there.

French kid is left unsatisfied. I failed him.

I feel remorse for not giving descent advice to the kid but visiting the Louvre makes everything feel better again… despite my sleepless.

I learned the whole history of a The statue of the Victory of Samothrace that was heroically rescue from shambles.

Despite of being completely fragmented, its head and wings missing, it survived!

A nintendo DS show us all the details and also serve as a GPS. We get to hear all the details of the reconstruction of that epic monument.

It was a miracle of recreation. A undeniable proof of men’s indomitable creativity. There I was all philosophical about life.

After going through un unsurmountable crowd, we were finally able to see Leonardo Da’Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa. It was a bit smaller than i expected.

Got to carefully study the compositions of Gericoux’s painting, “The raft of Medusa”.

Look at all these people in the bottom perishing and only the victorious one on top. So profound.

This one is dead. So dramatic!

But more dramatic than the Gericoux’s masterpiece are a few miserable children tired of standing in their feet.

Learned about Napoleon’s wife Josephine and the story behind the painting “The Coronation”.

Napoleon’s mother disapproved of the wife so she refused to show up at her Coronation. Napoleon was a bit upset his mother bailed out but he had a genius plan in mind.