Robert Valley (Aeon Flux, Tron:Uprising, Gorillaz videos) has been a quiet force as an artist in the animation industry for decades, but more recently he has emerged on the directorial front too.
His directing skills came to the forefront with the self-produced autobiographical short Pear Cider and Cigarettes which earned him an Academy award nomination in 2017. Since then, he’s helmed the “Zima Blue” segment of the Netflix anthology series Love, Death & Robots, and now, the animated segments in Belushi, a documentary that explores the influential and tragic career of ’70s comedy rebel John Belushi.
Valley spoke with Cartoon Brew about the design and production of the Belushi documentary, as well as why he finds documentary work attractive and what impact the Oscar nomination has had on his career.