Released on July 30, Billie Eilish’s new album, Happier Than Ever has already hit the top of the charts. In the upcoming musical special Happier than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles, premiering on Disney+ on Sept. 3, viewers will be taken on a dreamlike journey through Eilish’s hometown of L.A. and its iconic landmarks. The project’s live-action footage is directed by Robert Rodriguez, best known for features such as From Dusk Till Dawn, Sin City, Spy Kids.
Patrick Osborne who directed the animation elements says “Our plan was to construct this modern version of a classic animated character, which ended up being a noir animated femme fatale version of Billie against live-action backdrops of L.A.” Osborne says he was very excited to work with Eilish. “I’ve been using her music as temp music for some projects, so it was a dream to work with her, when my friends at Nexus Studios talked about this collaboration, I was thrilled and told them to sign me up!”
The animation was produced at Nexxus in London, with the aid of Digital Frontier and Zoic Studios, a combination of CG with drawn-over motion-capture footage. “We did about 90-minutes of motion capture of Billie, but what we got was iconic, she has this way of moving and interacting with the camera as well as breaking the fourth wall. We only had about 12 weeks, so we had to do everything very quickly.”
Osborne, who has worked on Disney features such as Tangled, Big Hero 6 and Wreck-It Ralph, says “it was fun to learn about Eilish’s own personal take on classic animation,I hope younger audiences will be inspired to look up Roger Rabbit and other great works by Richard Williams and Ralph Bakshi after seeing this special.”
You’ve never experienced a concert like this. #HappierThanEver: A Love Letter to Los Angeles is streaming September 3 on #DisneyPlus. #BillieEilishOnDisneyPlus