Storyboard - "Episode 1" 2nd draft

4/1/10

A more thought-out, fleshed out storyboard for the main story which I'm now calling "Episode 1" (to set it apart from the "Intro" which would run before every episode if this were a series).

Storyboard - "Intro" 1st draft

11/13/09

Clyde the Wonderduck (here called Flip) now has the ability to transform into helpful objects, which makes him an invaluable partner to Baxter (and Baxter can speak and has opposable thumbs so he's an invaluable partner to Clyde).  I also wrote this back-story to show how Baxter and Clyde met, why they are friends and where they live, which will precede the main story.

Storyboard, 1st draft

4/6/09

My niece, Kate, is a theater actress in NYC and was interested in learning voice acting. She's very versatile so I decided I'd write a short animated film and have her do all the voices. I'd been doodling a large-headed boy with a duck on his head for years, and I figured that this was an opportune time to write a story around it. I'd written a few stories before but the boy was always annoyed by the duck, as if he was required to wear it on his head for punishment (see above), and I wanted to find a way to lighten up the idea and make it more fun for me to invest time in. So like some writers do when they have a block I inverted things, and made them best of friends. I also literally inverted things by putting the boy on top of the duck, and now the duck was giving him a ride. Once I did that it was easy to see them as a problem solving duo, like Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred, Rocky & Bullwinkle, or the Save-Ums, going to someone's rescue.

For the main character I picked the name "Baxter" as an homage to Percival Proctor Baxter, Maine's 53rd Governor, who set aside the land in central Maine now known as Baxter State Park where this story takes place, and his father James Phinney Baxter, a wealthy Maine philanthropist. Even though most Mainers don't know about these 2 people, their last name is familiar to us all because of beloved places like Baxter State Park and, in Portland, Baxter Boulevard, Baxter School for the Deaf, and Baxter Woods.

For the duck I went through dozens of names, including Garry, the name of Gov. Baxter's dog. One of my neighbors' first name is Clyde. I happened to have his name in my mind one day, and "Baxter & Clyde" just sounded right. Its similarity to "Bonnie and Clyde" bothered me enough to use the name "Flip" in this storyboard. But I decided afterwards that Clyde sounds better.

So, this first story came about when I was trying to think of an absurd crisis for the duo to tackle, and I heard someone say "I'm so hungry I could eat the moon." Done! For the monster's name I went with the Gov's middle name, Percival, because it's another homage and it seems like a perfect name for a giant toddler on a rampage.