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interview
by Bob Sexton
photo by Chris Hinton |
Chris Hinton
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Two-time
Oscar nominee, freelance animator, Sesame Street contributor
and fishing father.
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On
his inspiration for Nibbles, which earned an Academy
Award nomination in February for best animated short film
For the last couple of years, I’ve taken my two sons,
Max and Paul, to the Abitibi-Témiscaming region of Quebec
on a family fishing trip. I really enjoy the experience. After
the last trip, I had such a good time that I decided to document
it. Well, I’m an animator, so I decided to animate the
trip, and anyone who travels with children knows that a good
part of any travel experience is eating. So that’s what
I focused the film on. It’s all about eating—before
you leave the house, eating the minute you get on the road—then
you have all the toilet stops on the way, and when you get there
you get eaten by bugs, the fish eat your worm and then you go
back home and you eat the fish with the family. That’s
the general idea of the film.
On this year’s Oscars
It was a lot of fun. The first time I went [in 1991], I was
so nervous. Being in front of the cameras and microphones and
all that kind of stuff just terrified me. But this time, I just
went and decided to have fun at all costs. I was able to really
enjoy it. I wasn’t nervous and met all the stars and partied
and had a really good time.
On the fishing bug
I was never much of a fisherman as a kid. I never had the opportunity
to do it. It wasn’t until I had kids of my own that fishing
became interesting for me. We have a cottage at Magog [in Quebec],
and my boys always liked fishing—catching sunfish and
perch and things—so that’s when I got the idea that
it’d be fun to take them up north and catch some really
big fish. The first trip we went on, we didn’t catch a
single thing and it rained the whole time, but nobody wanted
to go back to the cabin or go home and it was an absolutely
marvellous time. That’s when I really got a sense of what
it was all about.
On the outdoors
I’ve always liked being outdoors and in the woods and,
really, fishing is a tremendous excuse just to be outside. It’s
a time when the phone isn’t ringing and you can let your
mind wander and relax, and I really enjoy that time. I find
it very valuable, especially in this day and age when a lot
of the work is done on the computer and you’ve got all
those electronic hums. It’s funny, a lot of the times
I’ll just go and sit on the side of the river before I
fish at all, just to enjoy it.
On fishing with his kids
It’s a good time just to talk and teach them all kinds
of little skills that you don’t really think about, like
tying knots and how to handle a boat and to look at the weather,
to look at the birds—just to look around and see what’s
going on. If you didn’t have the excuse of fishing, you
wouldn’t be there doing that.
On
luck and fishing
A neighbour of mine invited me up to his cottage for a day of
fishing and we spent the whole day trolling around the lake.
He’d been telling me how many fish were in the lake, but
we didn’t catch anything. So we went back to his cottage
and I was standing on the dock just casting blindly into the
lake. I had this one horrid cast and the line just plunked down
right at my feet and popped off the end of the dock. This 17-inch
speckled trout just flew to the surface, grabbed the lure and
I pulled it out. That was after 15 hours on the lake without
catching anything. That was the funniest moment I’ve had
in fishing. It was just amazing to work so hard all day and
then have one totally loopy cast and pull up a really nice-looking
fish.
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