Merriam-Webster may have declared “polarization” as the word of the year, but that’s just a fancy way of recognizing that 2024’s defining term is anger.
Surging tides of rage drive electoral politics and crackle through culture war disputes, deforming civic discourse and family ties. Erica Milsom, an award-winning Richmond filmmaker who spent years at Pixar, has been thinking about and researching the toll that anger takes for a long time, and she believes animation is an ideal vehicle for sparking dialogue and change.
Angriest song karaoke night
WHAT: Karaoke night film fundraiser
WHEN: Tue., Dec. 17, 6 p.m.-11 p.m.
WHERE: The Factory Bar, 12517 San Pablo Ave.
A co-founder of Ryzo Studios, an animation house launched in 2022 with fellow Pixar veteran Todd Shaiman, she’s the writer and director of Release the Beast, a 10-minute animated film about a shy kid named Aaron targeted by a bully at school. In the midst of creating an avatar for an online game, the 14-year-old finds that angry voices come to life in his defense, taking on different versions of the character he’s working on. Rather than being consumed by rage, Aaron learns to navigate his emotions, discovering how his anger alternately gets in the way or helps fuel his online goals via a series of gaming tropes.
The work-in-progress is designed to illustrate ways to transform anger into positive action, rather than letting it fester, “when anger and hatred can turn internal, and that’s so dangerous,” said Milson in an interview with Richmondside.
An avid gamer herself, she’s not interested in portraying the online world as a nefarious realm. Release the Beast is “very positive about gaming, and telling the story in the context of gaming makes it relatable,” she said. “It can be a place of friendship and shared passion, but you’re away from your adult navigating this realm.”
The film is close to completion, and Ryzo is in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to raise finishing money. Part of the final push includes a karaoke fundraiser Tue., Dec. 17 at The Factory Bar, where everyone is encouraged to “belt out your angriest songs,” Milson said.
Animated films exploring the messy emotional terrain of adolescence aren’t exactly a leap for Pixar veterans. The recent hit Inside Out 2 charted the treacherous world of puberty for females, but Milsom has felt that the plight of boys and young men hasn’t received the same kind of attention, despite the steep societal costs to anger gone awry.
“I loved Inside Out so much. It’s a beautiful movie that creates a framework to consider girls’ emotional lives,” she said. “Wouldn’t it be incredible if we were telling this story to boys? When I left Pixar and Todd and I started really talking about Ryzo, we thought about, ‘What can we do that other studies wouldn’t have?’ Taking on boys and their emotional life is a hard sell. Boys have different ways of living in the world. The culture and norms they have can be hard and dangerous to navigate, and to have some healthy emotional models is so essential.”
Release the Beast is just the starting point for Ryzo. Reversing Pixar’s model of releasing derivative shorts with characters from feature films, Shaiman and Milsom plan to parlay Release the Beast into a feature, Decimator, that expands Aaron’s story arc.
Along with the short, they’re working on several related initiatives, including a Fortnite immersive experience with interactive tools for emotional growth. They see Ryzo as a beachhead opening up a pipeline for animated film production using cutting-edge animation technology (the Release the Beast team includes animators working remotely around the country).
Milsom is no stranger to breaking new topical ground. She’s best known for directing the 2020 Pixar animated short Loop, which explores the budding friendship between a non-verbal autistic girl and a chatty boy (the character with whom she identified). Released as part of Pixar’s SparkShorts series, the film elicited powerful reactions from neurodivergent people and their families, “and Todd and I realized there was a superpower in animated films,” Milsom said.
“If you want to tell stories that cross boundaries, animation hits differently and stays in the brain. It gives access to stuff people might otherwise turn away from. What if we built a studio that can do that? We’re on the cusp of a revolution.”
Before Loop, Milsom wrote and directed the 2017 live action film short So Much Yellow, a film about a family institutionalizing their child with Down syndrome that was largely shot in Richmond’s historic Atchison Village. It was a hat-tip to her adopted hometown, where she and her husband settled almost two decades ago.
While now living in Marina Bay, they first lived in the Panhandle Annex, where Milsom started a short-lived newsletter The Handle, “doing profiles on neighbors with all these amazing stories,” she said. Her parents also moved to Richmond, and her husband, Ben Choi, served one term on the City Council, from 2017 to 2021.
A founding member of the now-dormant Richmond Film Collective, which was active before the pandemic, Milsom sought community with other women directors such as BK Williams and Christie Chan. With Ryzo Studios she’s building a new team and looking to “take on the big questions of our time,” Milsom said. “This culture is shifting. How do we talk to men who feel disenfranchised? I’ve spent a lot of time looking for answers.”
Perhaps she’ll find some in the wild imaginings of a 14-year-old named Aaron.
