The Costco Connection - December 2014

DECEMBER 2014 ;e Costco Connection 37

The Costco Connection

The Hero of Color City (Item

#948463) will be available 12/2 at all Costco locations.

arts & entertainment

In our digital editions

Click here to watch a trailer for the movie, a public-service ad for Crayon Collection and a shout-out from Christina Ricci.

(See page 11 for details.)

Outside the lines

The Hero of Color City draws a vivid tale

A FEW YEARS ago, Costco member Sheila Morovati and her young daughter noticed that the crayons supplied to kids to entertain them at certain restaurants were barely used and soon disposed of. When she learned that teachers at struggling public schools would annually spend an average of $750 of their own money to obtain necessary school supplies, an idea clicked: Why not find a way to get these restaurant chains to donate crayons to schools to benefit students in need? In 2010, Crayon Collection (crayon collection.org) began.

In a program that started small and has gone national, Morovati tries to pair restaurants with local, high-poverty schools to keep donations within a community and make it easier to obtain crayons and save on shipping.

“Now we’re trying more and more to push not just restaurants but families to do this with kids at home and get more affluent schools to do crayon drives,” says Morovati, who estimates that Crayon Collection has received several million crayon donations since it started.

“That’s what this is: redistribution, repurposing and finding ways to use things that we all have and not have them end up in a landfill.”—BR

Inside Crayon
Collection
Jessica Capshaw’s character, Duck, an
unfinished drawing in The Hero of Color City.

By Bryan Reesman

MANY ANIMATED FILMS come from the imaginations of creators embracing their inner child. It is to the credit of director Frank Gladstone and writers Jess Kedward, J.P. McCormick, Kirsty Peart and Rich Raczelowski that The Hero of Color City seems to have done just that: spring from the fertile mind of a young child.

The story concerns a group of crayons that are the property of a 6-year-old boy named Ben. At night they journey through their crayon box to Color City, where they unwind and are rejuvenated. But one night two of Ben’s unfinished drawings, the mouthless King Scrawl and his chatty flying associate Gnat, follow the timid crayon Yellow (Christina Ricci) into this magical land. The devious duo seeks to take over the crayons’ colorful waterfall to enrich and flesh themselves out with color. But clogging the waterfall means draining the crayons’ perpetual color source, so Yellow must become brave and lead her crayon friends to stop this calamity from happening.

The cast for the movie is impressive and includes Jessica Capshaw, Ricci, Owen Wilson, Craig Ferguson, Rosie Perez and Sean Astin.

Capshaw voices the role of Duck, one of three unfinished drawings living secretly near the waterfall that seek to help Yellow and her friends try to appease King Scrawl and Gnat. The Hero of Color City represents the first voiceover work for Capshaw, who boasts an impressive television résumé, including seven seasons on Grey’s Anatomy.

In terms of sculpting the vocal presence of
Duck, Capshaw says she felt lucky that Owen
Wilson, who plays Ricky the Dragon, recorded his
voice first so she could play off him.

“He has such an incredibly unique, rich and humorous voice, and it certainly inspired me to, especially as a first-timer, perhaps be a little more brave or to do different things,” she says.

As with many voice
parts, Capshaw recorded
her part solo. “Typically,
in these instances, you
come in your pajamas
and then you go by your-
self,” she says. “The dia-
logue is really between
you and the creators and
the producers, as opposed
to being between you and
the other actors.”
The mother of three
children, Capshaw liked
the script when she first
read it. “I thought it was
super cute,” she says. And,
“I think it is important that there is content out
there that is still innocent, pure of heart and is just
entertainment,” Capshaw tells The Connection. “I
don’t think all of the material out there for kids, at
least for me, is entirely appropriate. It’s nice to be
able to count on something that feels innocent and
is actually geared for kids.” C