Tennessee Reid Norton

Tennessee became fascinated with stop-motion animation at an early age watching Rankin & Bass Holiday specials like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Saturday Creature Feature showing the monsters of Ray Harryhausen., so when his father brought home an 8mm Bell & Howell camera, Tennessee began using the single frame "Animation" button to create rudimentary stop-motion films featuring action figures, flying neighborhood kids, and unwitting family members. He later discovered Kit Laybourne's The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking, which inspired him to move west and study Film Production at The City College of San Francisco then work as a Panavision Camera Technician at the famed Cine Rent West. His first job in animation was as a character fabricator on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, where Tennessee painted the complex series of replacement heads for Sally and the Mayor, and was also responsible for the painting of iconic characters Zero, & Oogie Boogie (black light version). His professional career as a stop-motion animator began on ABC's Bump in the Night, while also producing and directing several of his own films-including the award-winning stop-motion shorts, The Lizard Whomper & If I Had a Hammer. Tennessee returned to his roots in live action as the Producer for F. Scott Fitzgerald's - The Sensible Thing (Empathy Films), shot in 35mm Panavision, it was nationally televised on PBS' American Storytellers series and featured in the publication Entertainment Weekly. Soon thereafter, he was Producer and Motion Capture Performer on Squeezils: The Movie! (Protozoa Inc.), which won a Best CD ROM Animation Award at the 1997 World Animation Celebration. In an amazing twist of fate, Tennessee had the pleasure of being included in the updated edition of The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking-the same book that inspired him to pursue his craft. Tennessee headed to the Pacific Northwest to the famed Will Vinton Studios (which would eventually morph into Laika Studios) where he worked on all three seasons of Eddie Murphy's The PJ's (Fox Television) and as a Lead Animator on Gary & Mike for Bahr & Small (UPN then Comedy Central). Between seasons he wrote, directed, and produced another short film entitled The Answer. In a heart-wrenching twist, the negative was accidentally tossed with tests for a commercial project also shooting at the studio. The project was abandoned . A few years later a digital transfer of the shots was discovered in a studio reorganization which kicked off a flurry of re-engineering. Effects, audio and music were completed in September of 2003. Following the path of Tennessee's two previous films, The Answer toured with Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation. At the dawn of the new millennium all paths led to Hollywood. Tennessee's first gig in Tinsel Town was animating for his pal, director Roy T. Wood on his pilot for MTV - The Statistics Show as well as the first "R" rated stop-motion animated feature film - Disaster! - The Movie, which had a stunningly brief theatrical release at theaters throughout the US. Tennessee then joined many of his past stop-motion brethren from prior years of production to work at ShadowMachine Animation on Dino Stamatopoulos' Moral Orel & Mary Shelley's - Frankenhole as well as Seth Green & Matt Senreich's Robot Chicken (Cartoon Network Adult Swim). Tennessee would continue to work on Robot Chicken for eight seasons and six specials, receiving Academy of Television Primetime Emmy Award honors for contributions to Robot Chicken as both Character Animator and Director of Character Fabrication. During his tenure at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, Tennessee directed two episodes of the prehistoric work place comedy Dinosaur Office (College Humor) and five episodes of the iconic Spy Vs Spy for MAD (Cartoon Network). He also wrote, produced, and directed a live action & animatronic puppet hybrid series pilot San Fransisco 411 (Cartoon Network Adult Swim). Venturing out on his own Tennessee formed the production company Axolotl Films, then produced and directed three episodes of The Greatest Party Stories (MTV). Each episode combined elements of stop-motion animation, animatronic puppets, and composited live action facial features & backgrounds, to create an eye catching & mind bending visual. This aesthetic would become a signature style for Tennessee and Axolotl Films in subsequently produced content. Tennessee joined the guys at Screen Novelties to help make the stop-motion animated Halloween Special, SpongeBob SquarePants The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom (Nickelodeon) serving as both Puppet Fabrication Supervisor and Stop-Motion Animator. Subsequently a group of industry veterans at Big Stuff Productions contracted to create a stop-motion animated kids series for Mattel - Hot Wheels City (YouTube). Tennessee joined the team serving first as Character Fabrication Supervisor, then as a Stop-Motion Animator for each of its first three seasons as well as its spin off show Monster Truck Island (YouTube). Living the life of a gypsy filmmaker Tennessee returned to Portland, OR on a plethora of commercials including; four seasons of Happy Honda Days (SoCal Honda Dealers) commercials at ShadowMachine, as well as at Weiden + Kennedy animating on Old Spice:Tonga Breeze (Procter & Gamble) & puppeteering the SneakerCon (Instagram) series of commercials. He also was a Stop-Motion Animator for season 2 of The Shivering Truth (Cartoon Network Adult Swim) which was produced at House Special studio. Returning to Los Angeles he began work as a Stop-Motion Animator on the feature film - Marcel the Shell. Two weeks into shooting the Covid 19 virus halted production, but three months later animation resumed under strict health & safety guidelines, including weekly brain tickling nose swab testing. Teaming with wife and high school French teacher Sarah Beth Norton, the two created a new edu-tainment cartoon: Monsieur Filou's Voyage: Carnaval. This short program combined live action puppets, cut-out animation, and real audio interviews to educate the viewer on the history of the Carnaval celebration in France, along with a companion lesson plan for teachers. The project was successfully crowdsource funded via Kickstarter, and made available free of charge for educational use. In 2021 Tennessee produced the stop-motion animation for the pilot to Lindsey Gilbert's- Galactic Misfits, in his home studio. Due to the restrictions of COVID, Tennessee acted not only as the animator but also the cinematographer to light, frame, and shoot the entire episode. Tennessee resides in Los Angeles and has a number of live-action and animated projects in development with Axolotl Films and production partners, Heady Notions LLC, & Joint! Entertainment.