"Board Flipper" ("Surf's Up")
I couldn't decide what to do for this movie. Sure, I drew a picture of Erik riding a surfboard wearing a penguin costume but the whole thing took two minutes as I sat there at the Larson's kitchen table drawing with the darling Kaitlin who was 10 years old at the time. She thought the drawing was cool, but I disagreed. It was too basic and didn't have that certain something. So instead of working on it more, I drew her a picture of Homer Simpson as the Silver Surfer riding the cosmic wave to a donut planet instead.
That night as Tony and Katie were driving me home, Kaitlin tapped me on the shoulder and handed me her own penciled version of my penguin drawing. I thanked her and smiled while deep down I was thinking, "That little rugrat did a better job than I did!" It was only until I got home the wheels started to rotate in my mind. I had another drawing she did for me with a tropical beach line. And the surfboard design she penciled was similar to yet another drawing she did for me of a flower. What if I combined all those things together and finished her picture?
The result is a collaboration which has more of Kaitlin in it than it does me. Her wide-eyed wonder, her unique style, Tony's talented genes, her innocent dialogue, her wildly creative mind and her uncle's thanks for bailing him out. - Jake