READERSVOICE.COM: Do you watch a lot of animation and if so which cartoons do you like?

FELIX HARVEY: I wouldn’t say that I watch a lot of animations, but when I was about 10 to 12, I did. I remember that I discovered stick animations on an old website that still exists called SFDT.com  (for Stick Figure Death Theatre).
Ten years later, sometimes I still find some really good stuff on YouTube like the ASDF short movie series from Tom Ridgewell (TomSka), or pretty much all the work from Yotam Perel (LazyPillow). But apart from the web, I’ve always been a big fan of The Simpsons. And I really liked the movie Persepolis (which is also a good comic book series), in part because of the beautiful animation. I’ve also always been a fan of the band Gorillaz as much as for the music as for the animations, and I think one of their last clips, Stylo, is awesome.
 
RV: What advice would you give for writing gags and stories like the ones in your animations?

FH: Hmmm.
 It’s animation. Use the fact that you can do anything to … well, do anything! Especially for stick figures animation. Seeing a baby stickman being thrown from the top of a cliff, is far less shocking to see than if it had been a more complex and life-like animation, and it would just have been terribly shocking and violent if it had been something filmed with a camera somewhere on earth.
You have the liberty to show things that would normally shock people, but just makes them laugh because it’s an animation. It may be this concept that made my Tha Cliff videos way more popular than I would have imagined.   
 
RV: Where do you live in Canada, and what’s your daily routine?

FH: I live in Montreal (Qc) in Canada. I am a student in software Engineering at L’École Polytechnique de Montréal, and am currently finishing an internship in an internet mobility company.
I live with three friends in an apartment, and until Christmas well… I go to work every day! I love music, and I play guitar and piano at home when I have time, and I am trying the violin when I feel I’m patient enough. I also like to play drums on occasions.
I feel lucky to live in a city where there are so many bars, pubs and concert rooms where you can see live music. I have a semi-active band called Krash Lama which performs maybe one show a year. I also like from time to time to buy a new video game to play with friends.

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-copyright Simon Sandall.