Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538315
10 KEYFRAME 10 KEYFRAME Jacob Moffat's four young children are living the dream. Not many kids can say that their mom is Cinderella's singing voice for dolls, toys, and Disney attractions, while their dad writes cartoons and makes ice cream. "It sounds fake," Moffat says, but it's the truth. The animation writer is also a partner in an ice cream shop in Corona southeast of L.A. Moffat's path to writing for animation was not a direct one, and he wishes he'd gotten into it sooner. The first part of his career was spent bouncing around in post-production for animation, scripted and reality TV, and feature films. At the same time, he was writing and pitching TV dramas. When his good friend, Tony Hale, wrote a kids book that Moffat and writing partner Drew Champion thought would make a great animated show, they took a crack at a pilot. Archibald's Next Big Thing was sold to DreamWorks, and Moffat served as Head Writer and then Co-Executive Producer for later seasons. Kids animation is where he's been ever since. Although he may have stumbled into animation writing, making ice cream is a family tradition that goes back generations. Both his grandpa and dad made ice cream—it was the way their family celebrated. When Moffat got to college he started experimenting with his own flavors and ice cream base, and it became a fun pastime for him. Now that he has kids, he and his wife have created their own tradition: they make ice cream every Sunday and eat it while watching a slide show of the week's photos. WHETHER WRITING FOR ANIMATION OR CRAFTING ICE CREAM, JACOB MOFFAT SAYS SUCCESS ALL COMES DOWN TO STORYTELLING. this page: (from top): Moffat at WHITE LYON; WHITE LYON co-founders Christian White, Moffat, and Justin Lyon. opposite page: (from top) Moffat (center) and his brothers Mac (lef t) and Rich with their dad, Parker, receiving the gift of an ice cream maker; Moffat's dad scooping homemade ice cream; Moffat with his daughter Violet during the soft launch of WHITE LYON. K ping Cool A F T E R H O U R S