Salesman Pete is the unlikely cartoon hero of a animated short of epic proportions. While their clumsy salesman was battling uber-villains, directors Marc Bouyer, Max Loubaresse and Anthony Vivien had their own dilemma to deal with – they ended up leaving school (the prestigious Supinfocom) in order to stay true to their vision. It’s a risk that was worth taking as the finished film bubbles over with manic inventiveness. Laura Swinton caught up with Marc Bouyer.

How did you come up with the character of Salesman Pete?
When we started thinking about making the short, our first idea was to make a cartoonish 2d stylish short, then we came up with the idea of a special agent who would be so stupid and “on the moon” that he would become awesome and courageous for the people around him. At that time, Pete was a monkey. A basic monkey hired by mistake by a government agency. The first version of the scenario was too long, and way too complicated, so we changed it all, and Pete became a clumsy salesman whose only talent was thoughtlessness.

How did you come up with the character of Salesman Pete?
The three of us were in the same school for 4 years, so we became friends, and with the time, we realized that we wanted to make the same short, it was very easy.

I detect a lot of old school comic book influences in the film – although I was also (bizarrely perhaps!) reminded of my all time favourite cartoon series, The Powerpuff Girls. What were your main sources of inspiration for the film?
We have many many inspirations for the short (but I have no idea what “powerpuff Girls” is !) : blogs (Aurore damant, Blacky,Polyminthe, A. Mielgo…) , random pictures found on the net, comics, and graphic designs. We were really inspired by a lot of stuff !

You mention that you left Supinfocom to have the freedom to do the film your way – would you be able to expand on that?
About Supinfocom, it’s kind of simple (but at the time it was really complicated): Anthony, Max and I were really happy with the subject and the style we wanted to achieve with the short, but, I don’t know exactly why, almost all the teachers refused it and they tried to split our little team and make us work on other projects, so in order to do Salesman Pete the wa we wanted, we had to leave ! I think it was the best decision, even if we don’t have any diploma, so it’s gonna be tough if someday we want to go to the States for example.

Where do you see yourselves in 10 years time?I really don’t know what I want to do in the future, but my main goal is to have a giant office where I’ll be able to ride a kart ! (But I really enjoy character design and animation so I guess I’d love to work with that as well…But I want a kart)