This feature film directed by Jacques Colombat received le Grand Prix in Annecy in 1992.
This work is is undoubtedly the last one which is trully traditional. The drawings were traced on cells - more than a thousand colours just for the tracing with a traditional pen, this type of colouration is different for each scene, thus resulting in harmonization which is very fine and subtile, concerning the the characters and back grounds.
The technic which is called “ rotoscope” permits very realistic staging of the characters’s movements. Thus before drawing the backgrounds I pinpointed the actual spot where the foot touched the ground (we physically took our actors to Fontainebleau forest where the country side is rich and varied with hills and dales;), which allowed me to create an imaginary setting where the characters moved with precision.
I specially designed the back grounds using India ink, and using my own technic of mixing water with the ink in order to obtain a barely visible trace of the distant back grounds.

In the sixties, the director Jacques Colombat made his first film in Paul Grimault’s personnal studio. Paul, always the perfect host, was a benevolent onlooker during the filming process. Also he gracefully offered all the material needed. The result was “Marcel ta mère t’appelle!” (Marcel your mother is calling you). This experience was consequently followed up by number of others, in particular Jean François Laguionie. These artists like also René Laloux who practically adopted this place brough back to life animation in France, one could say a “nouvelle vague”.
However the business gods didn’t smile on them. In fact this general public market was dried up and there remained only those who where part of this business or who visited all specialized artistic short feature films festivals, even though these films where prize-winners they just didn’t pull the general public.
However there was one exception: René Laloux who had true succes with the film “La planète sauvage” (the savage planet), Jurys’special prize, Cannes 1973.
This succes was in large part due to the great graphics done by Roland Topor and because the subject was made in cartoon form, taken from a science fiction novel (by Stefan Wul).
There was an other major exception which was Jean François Laguionie’s film called “La traversée de l’Atlantique à la rame” (Rowing across the Atlantic), 1978. This film is not widely known to the general public however it was hailed at the Cannes film festival won a prize, which is rare for an animated film.

Later this film helped him create a new studio located in a small village in the Cévennes region (Saint-Laurent-Le-Minier). It was precisely in this new studio that Jean François Laguionie made his first feature film. Started in 1979 and even though it was distributed by Gaumont, it was not backed by a promotional budget and therefore remained relatively unknown.
The same lack of promotional budget caused the failure of “Robinson and C°” vis-a-vis the general public however it was widely seen within the school network.
How does one explain clearly a commercial failure like this in France?
This general situation has only recently changed around the year 2000 (The film “Kirikou” succeeded through word of mouth, more than one million and half spectators in France. However it is interesting to note that within the professional world no one believed in it!
Also the second launching of “Robinson and C°” on screen permits us to day to find it on DVD and cassette.

We should best explain that this phenomonen was a result of weak scripts. Even today not enough importance is attached to scripts in France...
Also, competing with Disney monopoly is very difficult.
Also it seems in France that true producers of this type of film does not exist. Those who call themselves producers of animated films make principally TV programms which is a closed market, with a captive audience without true competition, and the quality of these programs is not given much importance.
In 2001 French producers placed on the market around 300 hours of programs (about 40% of the european production, that is to say the first in Europe and the 4th in the world). Therefore a large quantity of doubtful quality films are marketed, so we are talking about a system where commercial considerations are stronger than artistic considerations, which in fact ends up to be not commercial if one believes that the quality of a film or a serial cannot help but achieves success.
The small number of true artists who are willing to make innovative films refuse to work under these conditions whereby the market is tightly controlled by hard business rules.
In fact young people who are very aware recognize immediatly good quality films when they contain true ideas, feelings, and artistic value, and is therefore therefore a product which has real educationnal benefits.
However this public never has a chance to express their appreciation of quality because there are too many go betweens, eg. parents, teachers, adults and distributors who decide for them.
The best way would be to make films which would be appreciated by both, young people (from whom it is difficult to have their opinion) and to be appreciated also by adults.
Several times I have proved that with minimal means this can be done.