Robert Valley On Directing Animation For ‘Belushi’ Documentary

Robert Valley (Aeon Flux, Tron:Uprising, Gorillaz videos) has been a quiet force as an artist in the animation industry for decades, but more recently he has emerged on the directorial front too.

His directing skills came to the forefront with the self-produced autobiographical short Pear Cider and Cigarettes which earned him an Academy award nomination in 2017. Since then, he’s helmed the “Zima Blue” segment of the Netflix anthology series Love, Death & Robots, and now, the animated segments in Belushi, a documentary that explores the influential and tragic career of ’70s comedy rebel John Belushi.

Valley spoke with Cartoon Brew about the design and production of the Belushi documentary, as well as why he finds documentary work attractive and what impact the Oscar nomination has had on his career.

Belushi is directed by R.J. Cutler and produced by Passion Pictures. It debuts on Showtime today at 9pm ET/PT. It will air in the UK on Sky Documentaries on Friday, November 27, at 9pm GMT.

Animation credits (Passion Pictures)
Animation director: Robert Valley
2d animation: Daryl Graham, Andy McPherson
Assistant animator: Eleonora Quario
After Effects animation: Martial Coulon
Animation compositor: Johnny Still
Additional animation compositing: John Taylor
Animation assistant editors: Kingsley Bailey, Tim King
Animation producer: Ellen Collins
Animation coordinator: Sade Tah
Animation executive producer: Debbie Crosscup