Elizabeth Ito considers her next story.
What stories resonate with your life?
"Despite the name, City of Ghosts isn't scary or alienating. In fact, it's the opposite: Warm, inviting and illuminating. It gives viewers — both kids and adults — a better idea of the world around us, without sacrificing our capacity for imagination,” offers Jesse Thorn on City of of Ghosts, Elizabeth Ito’s first animated series series.
Elizabeth Ito has been working as a creator, writer, director, and storyboard artist in the animation industry since 2004. She’s worked on TV, feature, and commercial projects. Ito is also the creator of the award-winning short, Welcome to My Life, the second-most viewed short in Cartoon Network history. She also received an Emmy for her directing work on Adventure Time. Her first series, City of Ghosts for Netflix premiered in 2021 and won a Peabody Award, and two Emmys for directing and best animated children’s show in 2022. She also directed a music video for The Linda Linda's and is on an overall deal with Apple TV.
Goldie Chan: What has your career path been?
Elizabeth Ito: After high school, I attended UCLA for 3 years, Cal Arts for 4, and my first job in animation was an unpaid internship at Cartoon Network, working on the Billy & Mandy / Evil Con Carne show for 20 hrs a week. My first paid regular job in the animation industry after I graduated from Cal Arts was a storyboard trainee position at Dreamworks Animation. After that I developed a show at Disney TV for prime time for a little while (this was around 2004/05), went on to work on various features and TV shows at big and little studios. Eventually I ended up working on Adventure Time, the first time as a board artist/ writer, and the second time I was hired as a director. After that a lot of doors opened up, and I was able to develop a short at Cartoon Network called Welcome to My Life. It was a mockumentary about my younger brother, Doug, that I originally made as a student film at CalArts, and was the first thing I ever tried to develop into a show at Disney TV (it failed). After my time at CN, I moved on to Netflix, where I made City of Ghosts. I was part of a group of creators who started the short lived series animation department they have there. It probably still exists but is probably not structurally or philosophically the same as the place that I originally worked at.
Chan: What has been your favorite project or show that you’ve worked on?: It’s hard to decide. I’ve had so many good experiences working on some of the most random projects. I’d say I had the most fun working on City of Ghosts, but it was also the most stress I’ve ever experienced in my life, I think. It had the wildest ups and downs. I really enjoyed working on Adventure Time as a board artist and writer. I get a big thrill out of writing strange, simple jokes, that make my friends laugh.
Ito: How has your personal background shaped your current creative projects?: My background, and interests are always intertwined with everything I create, for better or worse. My favorite video game of all time is Katamari Damacy, and I think it’s relevant to how I create my work. Like everything that interests me, or that I love or enjoy, is constantly being rolled up into these large collections and launched into the universe. A lot of the work that people have been the most drawn to that I’ve done all centers people or places that I love and care about. I did a short for Cartoon Network about my brother, called Welcome to My Life, and it made me feel so good to see how many people could relate to him, and loved his character. The same with City of Ghosts, in a way. I was born in Santa Monica, and have lived in Los Angeles my entire life. I love it, and I wanted to reflect the truth of what is here vs the way people assume Los Angeles is based on the Hollywood we see in every other movie and TV show. The Los Angeles I know was because it was what my parents showed me about it, so I wanted to show other people about it. They planted the seeds of a lot that I was able to explore and expand my knowledge about by making City of Ghosts. I’m glad other people feel nourished by the show, it was nourishing for me to make it.
Chan: What are you currently working on?
Ito: I’ve been trying to get some projects started at Apple TV, but none I can really say yet. Besides that, I’m hoping to get more opportunities to experiment in VR eventually, it was really fun to make the Mall Stories short with Chromosphere and Unreal / Epic. I would love to create a VR mall for people to chill in.
Chan: What is a life lesson you’d like to share with a younger version of yourself?
Ito: It’s hard to pick one. There’s a lot of warnings of certain types of people to avoid that come to mind, haha. Maybe something like, “You don’t have to do everything yourself or even be good at every job. It’s ok to admit you don’t know the answer to something. Learn to find helpful people who are better than you at certain things, people who you can trust, and who will believe in what you’re doing.”
Chan: What change would you like to see in your industry?
Ito: I’d like to see more projects that feel like someone took a chance on something that isn’t the same as everything else. I’d like to see more art and weird stuff, and less of the kinds of writing and shows that feel like we’re making products. I would love for smaller projects to have better chances at getting made, and have more indie animation shorts and work being produced. I don’t know how to make that happen, but maybe just speaking up about it will help somehow.
Chan: What is the most important element to a great story?
Ito: The first thing that came to mind was “magic.” I think that’s the only word I can think of to describe all the things that come together to make a great story. It’s a balancing act of grabbing someone’s interest, then using humor, framing, tension, and playing with people’s emotions and expectations. It also depends on the person telling the story sometimes, and the way they tell it. For films and TV, I guess that’s the director– every director has a very specific style of storytelling.
Chan: Any branding or career advice for this new year?
Ito: I hope everyone is taking care of themselves, it’s a bonkers time in this industry / in every industry. We’re in a constant pandemic, and there’s new folks burning out every week. I know it’ll get better, don’t lose hope.
