Of mice and men Canon-McMillan alumnus writes cartoons
From left, producer Paul Rudish, writer Derek Dressler and storyboard artist Alonso Ramirez Ramos are shown at the 2014 Creative Arts Emmy Awards in August 2014 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
Canon-McMillan graduate Derek Dressler won an Emmy for writing “O Sole Minnie,” a short cartoon in which Mickey Mouse is an Italian gondolier trying to woo Minnie Mouse.
A scene from “O Sole Minnie”
A scene from “O Sole Minnie”
Cecil native Derek Dressler won an Emmy for his work on “O Sole Minnie.”
A scene from “O Sole Minnie”
At 6 feet, 9 inches, Derek Dressler regularly towers above his peers.
In high school, Dressler’s stature earned him some good-natured ribbing, but the 2001 Canon-McMillan graduate managed to endure those notoriously angst-ridden years.
“I was a weirdo because I really liked theater. I was a nerd, but I managed to get through it,” said Dressler, noting his classmates either thought of him as a gentle giant, or – because of his size and predilection for teen pop star T-shirts – a menacing eccentric.
“I loved my high school. I have nothing but good things to say about it. I didn’t have a bad experience.”
Friend and fellow Canon-Mac graduate Greg Thompson credits Dressler’s sense of humor for his survival.
“His self-defense mechanism is very, very quick. I’ve never seen anyone come up with a joke quicker,” said the Cecil resident. “He was super skinny and super tall, so he would get picked on. He developed a very comedic personality that he used to survive.”
That comedic personality led to a successful career for Dressler, who has written for numerous animated productions, including the Disney show, “Kick Buttowski,” and the Mattel movie, “Team Hot Wheels: The Origin of Awesome.”
The pinnacle of his career thus far came in 2014, when Dressler won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for writing the Disney Channel Mickey Mouse short, “‘O Sole Minnie.”
When he was hired to write for the iconic rodent, Dressler didn’t quite grasp the significance of the opportunity. After a meeting with famed animator and producer John Lasseter, it started to sink in. Then Dressler won the Emmy.
“The award was wonderful and a complete shock – a complete mind-melter,” he said. “But the most exciting part was being in a room with people, coming up with ideas. That’s the space I want to be in.”
After the win, Dressler prolonged his exposure to that “space” as head writer and co-executive producer for a new Nickelodeon series, “Get Blake,” televised in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Russia and Germany, and premiering soon in the United States.
Blake is a 13-year-old destined to protect the earth against evil alien squirrels – who travel to earth via a spaceship tree in his back yard.
“It’s a really crazy cartoon that’s super funny and silly,” Dressler said. “It’s ‘The Terminator’ with squirrels.”
Dressler’s success is not a surprise to Thompson.
“Derek is truly a very gifted person. He’s somebody that always seemed to have it together and always seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do,” he said. “That’s kind of rare, to see someone from an early age know what they want to do and work up to that goal.”
Dressler remembers being an 8-year-old kid, seriously typing away on his grandmother’s “giant, green IBM” typewriter.
“I was the kind of kid who wanted to make movies. I wanted to be a director, then realized I wanted to be a writer. If I knew where writers are on the totem pole, I might have chosen differently,” he said with a laugh.
A former teacher recalled Dressler’s zeal for creativity.
“After Derek graduated … he would return home from college in the summer and show up at my school with a musical that he had written. He would ask me to be the accompanist and would always manage to get former students to perform it. I felt honored to work with these fantastic former students,” said Cheri McIlvaine, Canon-McMillan Middle School chorus director and music teacher. “Derek always had a way of making people feel happy when giving of their time for a great cause.”
Before producing three fundraising stage productions, Dressler and Thompson had their sights set on the screen. Weekends were spent hanging out at coffee shops and critiquing movies they had snuck into, and school time was spent creating a show for the school TV station that “was like Seinfeld with kids,” said Thompson. “A lot of it was about nothing. It was funny as hell. Our classmates seemed to love it.”
While a senior in high school, Dressler wrote a play called “Stagecoach to Nowhere,” a one-act production based on an infamous Canonsburg heist in the 1800s. At the recommendation of a friend, Dressler used the show as a fundraiser for the Canonsburg Library. For the next two years, his productions continued to raise money for the benefit of the library, the Arthritis Foundation and a school scholarship fund.
After high school, he headed off to Philadelphia, where he majored in writing for film and television and minored in filmmaking. With a degree from The University of the Arts under his belt, Dressler and his illustrator wife packed up and headed to California.
“We trekked out here with no prospects,” Dressler said. “I had zero prospects for weeks. It was depressing: no job, new place, and it turns out, incredibly expensive. It was scary.”
Dressler decided it was not the time to be discerning and took a job in a shoe store. Soon after, a film studio called, offering a production assistant position for a reality show.
“Between reality TV and shoes, you pick reality TV,” he said.
Working for the “somewhat scripted” show provided great insight into the world of television. Dressler then did “punch-ups,” in which a finished script is sent to a writer to enhance and edit, and “coverage,” reading scripts for agents.
He worked on Mickey Mouse shorts for a year, then “Kick Buttowski” called, giving Dressler the opportunity to rewrite and update scripts.
“Because I have a big mouth, I would make suggestions,” Dressler said. “It was the first time I was ever involved in writing and getting to know everybody’s role. I really loved that show.”
Though now enmeshed in animation, Dressler was not a big cartoon fan growing up.
“But all the movies I love are very cartoony,” he said. “They’re a little more over-the-top. There’s a place for that in live action.”
Among his favorites are “The Love Bug,” a 1969 Disney movie about an anthropomorphic Volkswagen, and “Airplane,” a 1980 slapstick comedy.
In the future, Dressler and his wife, Miranda, hope to create something together.
“Our tastes are very much aligned,” Dressler said. “I think that would be wonderful.”
As for his concrete plans, he said, “We’ll see what’s going to happen.”