Have you ever noticed something peculiar about the way babies are portrayed in Renaissance paintings? Instead of the round cheeks and wide eyes we associate with infants, these strange cherubs often resemble adults with shrunken faces plastered onto baby bodies. In 2020, the National Gallery of Canada even hosted a virtual tour showcasing the curious Renaissance babies in its collection.
The concept for the 2024 ACMI X + Ludo Studio Residents’ animated micro-series, Il Cattivo Bambino, was born during an Italian holiday when Miles Colubriale and Vince Belcheff found themselves wandering through galleries flanked by walls of these odd little Italian man-babies.
“We were seeing these weird, odd, grafted faces onto tiny, chubby bodies, and thinking ‘that’s an evil little man who, one, knows what a tax is, two, is going around as a menace to society… that is not an angel’,” Belcheff laughs.
Colubriale and Belcheff teamed up with Yana Fidan and Eugenia Liony Cynthiaputri to develop Il Cattivo Bambino. The series follows Stumpy, a gay man in his twenties, whose life is turned upside down by a baby that wreaks havoc on his meticulous 99-step skincare routine. As the 2024 Ludo + ACMI X Residents, the team, dubbed ‘Bambini’, will create a concept trailer and pitch book for the project.
“When we started putting it together, we were really excited by the idea of it being very playful and very experimental,” Colubriale says. “Just having the chance to do something that’s very free – I think that’s also what the show’s concept is about, the idea that the world doesn’t really have rules, and you can kind of be anything.”
Each member of the Bambini team brings a unique career background, united by their passion for animation. While Fidan and Cynthiaputri studied animation, Colubriale studied ancient history and Belcheff has a background in art history, fine arts, and language.
“In all areas of practice and life, everything is quite intersectional and interdisciplinary… We’re all coming from different backgrounds and putting it together to reflect this world,” Belcheff says. “But also, the world it’s reflecting is already a world that’s quite engaged with all these differences anyway. The screen is a mirror. What you see on TV and movies is just reflecting what’s already out there. And I think that’s kind of what we’re doing, but it’s just stupid. It’s just fun.”
“We’re using actual sets for the background, and we’re gonna add the animation on top of that,” says Cynthiaputri, who has been working on set building, storyboarding, and will eventually animate.
Belcheff and Colubriale are acting as the showrunners, with Belcheff focusing on story and art direction, and Colubriale serving as animation director. Fidan is also deeply involved in set design, which she says is her favourite part of the process, alongside visual art development.
The team hopes their approach – combining 2D animation with real sets – will allow for more dynamic and innovative shots. “In more recent, serialised, typically Western animation, you tend to try to limit how much you move the camera around, because it’s a challenge then not just for the animator but also for the backgrounds, because you have to draw more background,” Colubriale says. “So, in theory, if you then have a real set, that’s kind of one whole job gone. You have a bit more freedom in being able to start the camera far away and then sweep in, and then move it in really dynamic ways.”
During their three-month residency, the team will have access to ACMI’s coworking space, ACMI X, and will be mentored by Claire Renton and Rhiannon Steffensen of Ludo Studio, the award-winning creators of Bluey, Robbie Hood and The Strange Chores. Renton, the animation director for the Emmy-winning Bluey, brings extensive experience from Disney, the BBC, CollegeHumor, Halfbrick and GOMA. Steffensen, Ludo’s production manager, has a decade of experience producing projects such as Bluey, animated feature film The Wishmas Tree and web series Two Weeks.
“Il Cattivo Bambino is such a wild concept,” Renton says. “It felt like something you’d see late at night on SBS and then spend years trying to find out if it was real or just a fever dream.”
“The team are incredibly dedicated and determined to push their creative vision further at each stage of the process, so it’s wonderful working with them. We’ve been really excited to bring some of the structures, experience and insight that we’ve gained over the years to help bring this bombastic baby to life!” she says.
Steffensen shares similar enthusiasm, noting the tough competition for the residency. “We had a really tough decision to make based on the calibre of applicants that came through when the initiative was first advertised, but there was something about Il Cattivo Bambino that we just kept coming back to. It's so unique and funny and we felt like the initiative would give the team a headstart and access to resources that they normally wouldn't be afforded with such a non-traditional animation project as early career filmmakers.”
Renton and Steffensen say they were blown away by the quality of applications they received for the residency from local animation talent.
“There is so much talent and passion in the animation industry in Australia, both in emerging and established artists,” Renton says. “We’re really humbled by the interest in the program and hope to continue supporting our awesome animators.”
– Sabrina Caires