Joe Mateo Talks Blush

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Speaker(s):
Joe Mateo, Skydance Animation, United States of America

Talk Description: The writer and director of Skydance Animation’s Blush, an Apple Original short film, discusses the story behind his charming, touching, and heartwarming CG film that follows the journey of a stranded horticulturist-astronaut, struggling to survive after he crash lands on a desolate dwarf planet. The film shares the director’s deeply personal journey of healing, hope, and the undeniably human moments of being rescued by love.

Speaker(s) Bio: About the Director: Emmy Award winner Joe Mateo’s career in animation has spanned three decades. In 2019, Mateo was recruited as a storyboard artist for Skydance Animation and, in 2021 Blush became the studio’s very first release. A proud Filipino-American who immigrated to the United States in 1992, Mateo got his first big break on Pocahontas, and his 25 years at Walt Disney Feature Animation took him from in-between work on beloved classics from Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan —as well as The Emperor’s New Groove and Treasure Planet—to his role as story artist on such hits as Bolt, Tangled, Zootopia and Wreck-It Ralph. In addition to receiving an Emmy for his work as storyboard artist of the short Prep & Landing, Mateo served as head of story on Disney’s Big Hero 6 and co-wrote the studio’s Meet the Robinsons. The most unexpected highlight of his career was acting as the voice of the film’s character, T-Rex. He will forever be associated with the quote: “I have a big head and little arms. I’m just not sure how well this plan was thought through.” Before his move to the States, the filmmaker majored in Advertising in Fine Arts at the oldest university in Asia, the Philippines’ University of Santo Tomas (UST). Mateo lives with daughters Joey Ann and Mina, girlfriend Hazel and their mischievous dog, Coco, in Northridge, California.