Peter Chung facts for kids

Peter Chung (born April 19, 1961) is a talented American animator and director. He is famous for his unique animation style. He is also known for creating and directing the show Æon Flux. Peter Chung also designed characters for Reign: The Conqueror (Alexander Senki).

Peter Chung's Early Life and Career

Peter Chung was born on April 19, 1961. Because his father worked for the Republic of Korea's foreign service, Peter lived in many different cities. These included Seoul, London, Nairobi, Washington, D.C., New York, and Tunis. Later, his parents moved to the United States, and they lived in McLean, Virginia.

Peter Chung studied animation at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). He was there from 1979 to 1981. He spent one year learning character animation and another year in experimental animation.

Starting His Animation Journey

Peter Chung began his animation career at 18. He worked at a small studio in Maryland for an animator named Salvador Bru. By age 19, he was already designing characters for Hanna-Barbera, a famous animation studio. Around this time, he also worked on the movie Fire and Ice with Ralph Bakshi. After that, Disney hired him to help develop new animated features.

Directing and Design Work

Peter Chung has directed many projects. He directed all three seasons of Æon Flux (1991, 1992, 1995). He also directed the "Matriculated" part of The Animatrix movie. Another project he directed was The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury.

Chung was also the main character designer for several animated TV series. These include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), C.O.P.S. (1988), Phantom 2040 (1994–1996), and Reign: The Conqueror (1999). His designs often feature thin, sharp-angled characters. This style was inspired by the art of Egon Schiele and became Peter Chung's special look.

He also helped design characters for the Nickelodeon series Rugrats. He worked with Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo on this. He even co-directed the pilot episode, "Tommy Pickles and The Great White Thing", and the show's opening. In 2007, he directed the first three episodes of Revisioned: Tomb Raider for GameTap.

Peter Chung has also directed TV commercials. One famous one was for Diet Pepsi, featuring Cindy Crawford and Malcolm McDowell. As of 2009, he was working on a full-length animated movie called Luvula. He also directed the TV movie Firebreather for Cartoon Network. Peter Chung has also said he would like to make a new Æon Flux movie for home video.

Peter Chung's Animation Style and Inspirations

Peter Chung gets his ideas from many places. He is influenced by Japanese animation, German expressionism, and European comics. He likes art that uses expressive drawings instead of lots of small details. He looks up to artists like expressionist Egon Schiele and comic artist Moebius.

For storytelling, he is inspired by many creators. These include Kazuo Umezu, Sanpei Shirato, Osamu Tezuka, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Schuiten, Peeters, Silvio Cadelo, Tatsuya Egawa, Geof Darrow, and Frank Miller. He also names filmmakers like David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais, Jean Cocteau, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Seijun Suzuki, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, and Yoshinori Kanada. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and artist Horst Janssen also inspire him.

Chung's animation, especially Æon Flux and Matriculated, often explores new artistic and thematic ideas. In animation, he admires Yoshinori Kanada, Koji Morimoto, and Igor Kovalyov. Ralph Bakshi, who first hired Chung, said that one of Chung's favorite artists is Toulouse-Lautrec.

Peter Chung also worked on the Underground role-playing game in 1993. The game's author, Shannon Appelcline, felt that Aeon Flux clearly influenced the game.

In an interview from April 2019, Diego Molano, the creator of Victor & Valentino, shared how much he admired Peter Chung's Aeon Flux. He was fascinated by how Chung used movement to tell a story, even without words. Molano even traced Chung's drawings and sold them at school, showing how much Chung's style influenced him. Later, Peter Chung became the animation director for Victor & Valentino, which Molano was very grateful for.

Peter Chung's Personal Life

Peter Chung has also talked with fans online. He has answered questions about his work and how he creates things. Since Spring 2013, Chung has been teaching a Master Class. He teaches at the Division of Animation and Digital Arts at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Peter Chung's Filmography

• Fire and Ice (1983) (film) - Animator, layout artist
• The Transformers (1984) (TV series) - Storyboard artist
• The Transformers: The Movie (1986) (film) - Storyboard artist
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) (TV series) - Art direction, opening title design
• C.O.P.S. (1988) (TV series) - Character design, opening title direction, overseas animation supervision
• Ring Raiders (1989) (TV series) - Character design
• Rugrats (1991) (TV series) - Animator: main title animation, pilot, character design
• Phantom 2040 (1994) (TV series) - Character design
• Æon Flux (1995) (TV series) - Creator, director, producer, scripts, character design
• The Rugrats Movie (1998) (film) - Storyboards
• Alexander Senki (1999) aka Alexander the Great (international) and Reign: The Conqueror (USA) (TV series) - Character design and original design
• Party 7 (2000) (film) - Animator: credit sequence
• The Animatrix (2003) (short) (Matriculated segment) - Director, script, design
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004) (OVA) - Director, character designer
• Revisioned: Tomb Raider (2007) (web series) (first episode which is split into 3 parts) - Director, script, design
• Firebreather (2010) (film) - Director
• Diablo III: Wrath (2012) (film) - Director
• Victor & Valentino (2019) (TV series) - Main title

See also

In Spanish: Peter Chung para niños