For all you animation producers, artists, who love jazz, I'd like you to know about my latest project about the great Duke Ellington--an animated feature to encourage a love for jazz in persons--young & old, and to also oppose racism. Information about it is in the following pitch proposal--enjoy!
RIDING ON DUKE’S TRAIN is a mingling of fact and fiction. Told in flash-back, it is about eleven-year-old Danny Bolden, an African-American boy living in the backwoods of Georgia with his beloved Granny, in the mid 1930s. Danny loves music and is learning to play the trumpet. His life is suddenly and dramatically changed when his Granny dies, and he is left an orphan.
Facing an uncertain future Danny decides to take his chances; he leaves his home and heads north to seek a new life. On his way, he has a harrowing experience with the KKK and miraculously saves a young man’s life. Then, one moonlit night, he comes upon a beautiful silver train. Entranced by this almost ethereal vision he sneaks aboard. Danny soon discovers he’s on Duke Ellington’s private train carrying the legendary jazz composer and his famous orchestra. Ellington and his talented musicians take Danny under their wing and make him part of their touring family, with Ellington’s lead vocalist, Ivie Anderson, who acts like a big sister to Danny, and who he has a crush on.
Through Danny’s wondrous eyes, we meet Ellington up close and learn about Duke’s passion for music, his care for knowledge, his generous nature and his undying, creative energy. Duke shows Danny how to copy music for the band and he learns to play on the great Cootie William’s old trumpet. Danny travels across the U.S. with the orchestra, playing small and large venues, such as the Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, and the Apollo in New York. The boy is bowled over by the sights and sounds he encounters.
When Duke’s orchestra travels down south, Danny finds himself in a hair-raising racial situation from which he is narrowly saved. On his first ocean voyage Danny accompanies the orchestra on their triumphant 1939 European tour. While Duke and his musicians are hailed in Paris, Danny falls head-over-heels for a young Parisian girl and marvels at the sights of the city from the back of her scooter. On their way to Scandinavia, Duke and the orchestra are detained in Nazi Germany, where Danny and the band members are pursued by the Gestapo through the streets of Hamburg and are miraculously rescued by young German jazz enthusiasts. The European tour winds up with Duke’s majestic concert in Sweden celebrating his 40th birthday. Book-ending the story is a flash-forward to Danny, now on in his years, and living, playing and teaching music in Ireland.
There is artwork and a screenplay available.
Ken Kimmelman I read the pitch proposal and it is really cool. Is this a feature film? I assume so, but I could see it working as a series. Who is your target audience?
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Ken Kimmelman this looks like a great project with some cool visual possibilities. Animation and jazz have a long and intertwined history. they are two great things that go great together!
Great concept for an animated story. What is the target demo?
This sounds like a fantastic project Ken Kimmelman
Brian, I do believe I have the next animation hit, my story from my clothespins children's book. Think Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, now think Clothespins. The Adventure Of MRS CORA'S CLOTHESPINS, TABLE PINS RESCUE. Loved, happy, lost, troubled, danger, found and united. Real life Peyton, Mrs Cora's grandson, who have love for playing with her clothespins takes the table pins Carl and Ed to school with him one day, but they do not return home with Peyton. Carl's brother Kena , a soccer player has a championship game coming up but has to set out on a mission with other pins to find Carl and Ed, and must hurry back in time to play in the championship game. The trek through other yards where treacherous clothespins reside will be changeling for Mrs Cora' s Clothespins. Think Warriors.