March 6, 2004 – The Animated Short Film Lorenzo Premieres at the Florida Film Festival
“The five-minute short possesses a look that’s strikingly original: a moving painting that digitally captures the loose, dry, rough texture of a brushstroke.” – Bill Desowitz, Animation World Network
On March 6, 2004, the animated short film Lorenzo premiered at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando, Florida. The short film would later be released alongside the live-action film Raising Helen, and would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject. The story was originally proposed by Disney Legend Joe Grant during the production of Fantasia; it was revived by Mike Gabriel, who was given the short to work on after being removed from the project that would become Home on the Range. A new software called Sable was created by Dan Teece to capture the brushstroke style Gabriel used when drawing the titular cat character. The plot of the short film follows the cat Lorenzo, whose tail is cursed by a black cat named Molly to dance several ballroom styles with its owner.
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