Pulling the strings

The former Penketh High School pupil was swept off to America with his business partner Peter Saunders to work with Tim Burton on Mars Attacks.

Ian and Peter caught the attention of the Edward Scissorhands director after being nominated for an Oscar for their short film, The Sandman.

This was the early 90s and the pair had just set up their own production company Mackinnon & Saunders.

But before they knew it the puppet makers and animators were designing aliens, based on 60s and 70s trading cards, in Los Angeles.

"We thought it was a joke," said Ian, who grew up in Rowan Close in Great Sankey.

"They phoned back several times and assured us it was real so two or three days later we went to New York and met up with Tim. Then about three weeks later we were over in Los Angeles working on this new feature film."

Mars Attacks blasted open the door for a partnership which has lasted more than two decades and made Mackinnon & Saunders renowned worldwide.

Ian has since worked with Tim on Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie.

He added: "We’ve worked with Tim on several projects over the last 20 years and it’s been a pleasure.

"He’s an incredible artist, he’s an amazing director, he’s got incredible vision and he really enjoys stop motion.

"So whenever he comes here he goes around the workshop and talks to everyone. He’s really keen to see people’s work and he’s very encouraging to the young artists.

"He’s constantly sketching so on all the films we’ve done together, his work is the initial inspiration for the project and his drawings are the key designs that we’ve worked to.

"I think The Corpse Bride is one of my favourite projects we were involved with. It still holds up and still gets as good a reaction from audiences.

"I was in Mexico City the other week and it was filmed to the kids out there.

"It’s a celebration of life and death so it has a real Day of the Dead connection to audiences out there.

"Tim’s films really work on all levels. They’re not dark at all. They’re full of humour and the stories that he tells are quite life affirming."

Ian may be just 47 but he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at Bradford Animation Festival in 2013 – and his journey actually began with the Warrington Guardian.

After being inspired by Bagpuss, Clangers, Thunderbirds and The Muppets, Ian decided to enter an art competition when he was 17.

His work appeared in the Guardian in 1985 and grabbed the attention of animators Cosgrove Hall Films.

After that Ian left college to work with Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson on a pilot show called Space Police.

He said: "It was supposed to be three or four weeks’ work experience and I ended up staying there the rest of the year."

Then Ian returned to the north west to work at Cosgrove Hall Films.

He added: "I never had any clue that animation was being produced here in the UK or even here in the north west.

"So it was quite a revelation when I found out that shows like The Wind in the Willows were being produced 20 miles away and I could potentially have the chance to work on them."

Since setting up Mackinnon and Saunders in 1992, Ian and Peter's team has grown from six people to between 40 and 80 depending on which projects are on the go.

In that time Ian has worked on iconic children's shows like Pingu and Postman Pat and has brought new programmes to the screen like Twirlywoos, created by Anne Wood, who was behind Teletubbies.

He has also worked alongside fellow Penketh High student Curtis Jobling on bringing Raa Raa the Noisy Lion and Frankenstein's Cat to the screen.

But one of Ian's most high profile clients was American filmmaker Wes Anderson.

The Mackinnon & Saunders team adapted techniques dating back to King Kong in order to cover most of the cast in fur when they worked on Fantastic Mr Fox.

Ian, who now lives and works in Altrincham, said: "A lot of what we do is still the same techniques used more than 100 years ago.

"But Wes Anderson was very keen for us to embrace all the peculiarities of stop motion animation. He wasn’t bothered that the fur crawled. He just made that part of the overall look of the film.

"His films are very distinctive in terms of their look. The animators would actually just breathe on the puppets so they had a gentle breeze blowing through their fur."

Ian said one of his strangest jobs was making demonic puppets for the League of Gentlemen film, Apocalypse.

"That’s the beauty of what we do – the diversity," he added.

"Whether it’s doing pink fluffy bunnies for the Duracell adverts or dead dogs for Tim Burton, we cover such a range.

"It’s very satisfying work and to be able to come into work in your mid life and play with Plasticine all day is a fun job to have.

"We’re pleased that people still want to see stop motion animation and are still interested in puppets in today’s digital world.

"Kids are still responding to Postman Pat 30 years on.

"There’s something about these characters that kids are drawn to and the magic of seeing them brought to life is still as important for me today as it was 30 odd years ago.

"We’re trying to produce the sort of shows we would have liked to have seen as children ourselves.

"Children are a tough audience because they won’t sit there and watch stuff if they don’t like it So we have to make sure the shows are entertaining and they’re visually stimulating to them."