The King was a very interesting character to design because of the rules of the world this film takes place in. In the weird, digital world of Defection, The King has complete and total control over every aspect he’s created, including his own appearance- meaning canonically, he designed himself. This presented an interesting challenge going into character design because I needed to think about which features he would include and which he would choose to omit.

I landed on a very abstract, shape-heavy design, which serves both narrative and production purposes. From an animation standpoint, his disjointed and simple design lends itself very well to rubber hose style animation, which is exactly what we wanted for this character who bends the rules of reality. His coloration of chromatic white line with black fill represents his altered digital state and his personality; he is a black hole who sucks in everything around him. His literal disjointed nature represents his mental state and disconnection from reality.

His features also represent his vulnerabilities- his lack of a neck reflects his intentional omission of that vulnerable spot. His gloves, while they add to his “iconic cartoon character-ness”, also reflect his fear of germs and being touched. And his ever so iconic smile, which he forces everyone to wear, reflects a masking technique. Even while speaking, his jaw never opens- he says it’s because he likes to smile, but in reality, he’s so stressed about maintaining control over his world that his jaw is constantly locked. He’s a fun character to supervise because of how much his mind has an impact over every element of himself!

The King is voiced by Ryan Eways and character supervised by me!