Preston Mutanga found fame as a teen prodigy whose creativity resulted in the ultimate show. While other teens flocked to theaters to watch “Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse” the 14-year-old was reveling in the fact that he started working on animation for the film, after catching attention thanks to a project he created as a fan.
mutanga said to CNN who from a young age was passionate about animation.
“Pixar movies were what inspired me the most because I watched them a lot and they were easily accessible to me,” he said. “I loved how Pixar really changed the animation game at that time.”
He also played with the Lego sets his parents bought him, and later taught himself CGI animation and started creating scenes using Lego. In January, he tweeted his Lego recreation of the “Through the Spider-Verse” trailer, which caused a sensation and caught the attention of the creative team behind the film.
Which resulted in an invitation to Mutanga to animate a Lego scene for the film.
“At first we didn’t know he was a 14-year-old boy. We just saw a fan who made an awesome trailer, and then we reached out and found out he was a 14-year-old boy, and we were like, ‘Well, is that cool?’” Kemp Powers, a co-director of the film, told CNN . “’Can we really find a way to hire this kid to do this?’
I recreated the entire Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse trailer in LEGO! @philiplord @chrizmillr @terry12539 @LEGO_Group @SpiderVerse #LEGO #SpiderManAcrossTheSpiderVerse #animation #Blender3d pic.twitter.com/kYY19go7Fc
— LegoMe_TheOG (@FG_Artist) January 3, 2023
It was a unique moment for Mutanga, who said he was six or seven years old when “The LEGO Movie” was released in 2014 and it inspired him to get into animation. The film was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who also worked on “Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse”.
“Hearing that from my idols was honestly surreal,” said Mutanga. “It was so amazing to hear that Phil Lord and Chris Miller wanted to work with me to create a Lego sequel.”
Now, the movie has grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and the young man couldn’t be happier.
“Honestly, it’s absolutely insane,” he said. “And seeing my name in the credits was also surreal, knowing and seeing that I finally got to this point. I worked on the best movie ever.”
The DVD for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” – the sequel to the 2018 Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” – will be released on September 5.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m Robert Neff, a professional writer and editor. I specialize in the entertainment section, providing up-to-date coverage on the latest developments in film, television and music. My work has been featured on World Stock Market and other prominent publications.
