Sequential illustration work by Michel Breton.
Michel Breton is a Canadian conceptual artist, production designer, art director and animation director. He worked for various U.S., Canadian and French animation studios over the years, co-founding his own studio Fourmi Rouge Animation in 1993. Among his notable credits are the animated film 'Les Triplettes de Belleville' (2003) and the stop-motion film 'The Boxtrolls' (2014). He also produced a documentary about the French language in Canada and France, 'La Langue à Terre' (2013). In the early 1980s, Breton was an assistant for Turk and De Groot on their gag comics 'Robin Dubois' and 'Léonard', as well as their reboot of the humorous detective series 'Clifton'. Breton was additionally an editorial cartoonist for Québec-Presse (1972) and Safarir (2001-2005). He should not be confused with French pastel painter Michel Breton (1948-2021).
Early life and education
Michel Breton was born in Québec, Canada. He enjoyed scribbling in his school books, much to the chagrin of his teachers. In 1972, he was editorial cartoonist for the local newspaper Le Journal Québec-Presse. Between 1975 and 1976, he was illustrator and set designer for Radio-Québec, working for various TV shows, including 'Téléservices'. Decades later, Breton obtained a masters in audio-visual media and multimedia (2008-2009) at the University of Toulouse-Le-Mirail. He was active as a multimedia teacher at the University of Québec at Rouyn-Noranda (2005-2010).
Background art by Michel Breton for Léonard #10: 'La Guerre des Génies'.
Comic career
In the second half of the 1970s, Breton published comics and cartoons in the countercultural monthly Mainmise and in Jean-Marc Côté's comic magazine Prisme. In the early 1980s, he traveled to Belgium, where he visited the offices of the Belgian comic magazines Spirou and Tintin, meeting various of their legendary comic artists. In 1982-1983, he worked as an inker and background artist for the Robin Hood parody gag comic 'Robin Dubois' by Turk and De Groot, serialized in Tintin magazine. For the same authors, he assisted on two stories of the detective series 'Clifton', namely 'Week-end à Tuer' (1982) and 'Kidnapping' (1983). He also contributed artwork on Turk and Bob de Groot's gag series 'Léonard', serialized in the Dutch comic magazine Eppo and French magazine Pif Gadget. Between 2001 and 2005, Breton drew comics and cartoons for the Canadian comic magazine Safarir.
Background art by Michel Breton for the Clifton story 'Week-End à Tuer' (1982).
Animation career
Breton's animation career started out as background and lay-out designer for the children's TV series 'Hobbledehoy' (1977) on CBC and 'Les Films du Train Secret' (broadcast in English under the title 'The Secret Railroad', 1977). In the early 1980s, Breton worked on the segment 'Captain Sternn' (based on Bernie Wrightson's comic strip) in the adult animated feature 'Heavy Metal' (1981) by Gerald Potterton. Another animator working on 'Heavy Metal' was Börge Ring. For Atkinson Film Arts and MTR Productions, Breton was lay-out designer on 'Babar and Father Christmas' (1986), a Christmas special based on Jean de Brunhoff's children's book series 'Babar'. He also contributed lay-outs to the children's TV series 'The Raccoons' (1985-1992). Breton made lay-outs and models for Hanna-Barbera for about a year, working on children's TV series like 'The Smurfs' (based on Peyo's comic series), 'The Snorks' (based on the Belgian sea creatures created by Nic Broca), 'Jonny Quest' and 'Foofur'. He spent the same amount of time at CINAR Animation on the TV series 'The Smoggies' (1988-1991).
Michel Breton had his first experience with animated features while working on 'The Nutcracker Prince' (1992), directed by Paul Schibli, produced by Hintin Animation and Lacewood Animation. For Crayon Animation Inc., he worked on 'A Bunch of Munsch' (1991), based on Robert N. Munsch's children's books, while for Animation Ciné-Groupe J.P. Inc., he directed the educational TV series 'L'Aventure de l'Écriture'. He also served as a storyboard artist for the animated TV series 'Iron Man' (1994) and 'The Fantastic Four' (1994), based on the Marvel comic series of the same name.
Concept art for 'Les Triplettes de Belleville'.
In 1993, Breton co-founded the animation studio Fourmi Rouge Animation. Until 1998, he served as its president, art director and producer for a period of five years, working on TV commercials and animated films and series. He was management consultant and art director for the animated feature 'Beavis and Butt-Head Do America' (1996), based on the cult success of Mike Judge's TV series 'Beavis & Butt-Head'. Two animators who also worked on this film were Doug Crane and Ted Stearn. Breton spent two years working for one of his biggest idols Chuck Jones, at Chuck Jones Film Productions, serving as art director on 'Another Froggy Evening' (1995), a sequel to Jones' classic Looney Tunes short 'One Froggy Evening' (1955), and the 'Daffy Duck' short 'Superior Duck' (1996). In 2000, and again between 2002 and 2003, Breton worked as art director for the National Film Board of Canada. Breton was a freelance background artist and designer for Studio Pascal Blais (2005-2006).
Concept art for 'The Boxtrolls' (2014).
His most acclaimed work during the early 2000s was done as art director for Sylvain Chomet's classic animated feature 'Les Triplettes de Belleville' (distributed in English as 'Belleville-Rendez-Vous', 2002). The picture won various awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Animated Feature”, but lost to 'Finding Nemo' by Pixar Studios. Another classic animated film Breton contributed illustrations and designs to was Henry Selick's and Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline' (2008), produced by Laika Entertainment. The stop-motion picture was also nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to the Disney/Pixar feature 'Up'. For Laika Entertainment, Breton also worked on their stop-motion film 'The Boxtrolls' (2014). Since 2014, Breton has been active as a production designer for Cinesite and, since 2015, as conceptual artist for Zanuck Entertainment. Since 2016, he also has worked as a freelance conceptual artist.
Documentary
In 2013, Breton co-produced the documentary film 'La Langue à Terre', about the status of the French language in Montréal, Québec and France. He worked three years on the project through Les Films du Cheval de Trois.
'Les Grands Mots de l'Humanité' ("Fables & Foibles of Humanity"), cartoon series created by Michel Breton, AKA Bédé.