At 41, Pierre Perifel becomes the first Frenchman to be entrusted with the production of an American animated film. The Bad Guys from the DreamWorks Animation studio was released this week on French screens (before the United States), a consecration for the Lyonnais who, in fifteen years, has climbed all the ranks of the Californian studio, getting his hands on blockbusters like Kung Fu Panda: “It’s inconceivable, it’s very far from what I could imagine! I realize now actually, I’m going to show my baby, let him out. Here it is, please take care“.
A 2005 Gobelins graduate, Pierre Perifel stood out with his graduation film, and finally signed in 2008 with DreamWorks, one of the most prestigious animation studios in the world, fond of the “French touch”. But it all started in Lyon, at the Emile-Cohl art school: “Emile Cohl is the school that made me deepen my drawing, sharpen my hand, sharpen my eye“, says the director, from Los Angeles.
A journey that is the pride of the establishment. A great source of motivation for the young generation, as Antoine Rivière, the director of the Emile-Cohl school, points out: “It puts glitter in the eyes of the students. And I think that for Lyon, even for France, it’s a point of pride. Today, we have Pierre Perifel who has a huge budget, teams to manage, and a real artistic and graphic touch, it gives ideas“.
While waiting to follow the same path, Emile-Cohl’s drawing students can discover the Perifel touch on the screens. The director uses the codes of Tarantino’s heist films: “A little Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill for children” he confides to France 3. The Bad Guys came out this week. On screen, a band of animals with a reputation for wickedness (a wolf, a snake, a shark, a tarantula and a piranha), united in crime and sought after by all the police officers in the city. Arrested after having tried too many, the gang makes a deal with the authorities: to become “nice” to avoid prison. Or at least pretend.
The film is a tribute to American cinema and to Los Angeles, a city I fell in love with.