Former Disney animators pitching hand-drawn steampunk movie

A group of former Disney animators with credits including Frozen, The Lion King and Who Framed Roger Rabbit — among many others — has launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a feature-length Steampunk movie.

They are raising money through the Indiegogo website to create a series of shorts to help them find investors for a full-length movie, “Hullabaloo.”

“Hullabaloo” begins when the young scientist Veronica Daring finds her inventor father missing. She sets out to find her father and discover the secrets of his work.

The campaign already has raised nearly $200,000 from about 4,600 contributors, well over the initial goal of $80,000. With this amount of funding, the animators have committed to making two animated shorts. Here’s how they describe them:

• The Great Race: 10 years after Veronica Daring and her father design the first hybrid steam/combustion engine vehicle of its kind, Veronica challenges her Dieselpunk friend to a race that takes them through epic, winding canyons and below ground into illuminated caverns. How far will each of them go to win and at what cost? 

• Curse of the Cheshire Cat: There has been a rash of burglaries in the city and Veronica’s alter ego, Hullabaloo, is called upon to investigate. Through deduction and her intuitive sense, she is able to track down and encounters the elusive Cheshire Cat who puts Veronica under her spell! Can she possibly survive? 

If they make it to $240,000, they promise to make a third:

• The Mysterious Island: J.D. Snickerbottom claims to have pin-pointed the whereabouts of Veronica’s father and convinces her, against her better judgment, to come along on the voyage. During an anomly of a storm they are marooned on a tropical island inhabited with fantastic mechanical creatures. Who is behind these creations and who will get off the island alive?

Here’s a look at some of the initial art as well as some of the artists involved in the project:

The project is spearheaded by James Lopez, a veteran Disney animator who now teaches animation at CalArts. His credits include The Lion King, The Princess and the Frog, Pocahontas, Flushed Away, Hercules, The Emperor’s New Groove and the Oscar-winning short film Paperman.

People who fund the project will receive a variety of gifts, depending on their level of contribution. Some of the perks include a signed print by James Lopez, Steampunk sunglasses, a skeleton key bottle opener necklace, a T-shirt and hand-drawn drawings used in the movie. For more on the perks, and the project, visit the Indiegogo Hullabaloo site.