current projects (click to view):
The Flying Moose
Little Kit’s Driftwood Adventure
The Smiling Blue Moose
The Apparatus
Projects
‘GOLD MEDAL WINNER’ at the 2024 Atlanta Children’s Film Festival
The Flying Moose is an award winning 17-minute animated film about an inventor Moose entering a flying machine contest so he can win enough money to save his bicycle shop from being foreclosed by his arch nemesis, the evil banker Grizzly Grimhart. As told through the narration of an old bird, Clyde P. Chickadee, it’s a whimsical story that encourages creativity and perseverance.
Click on image to watch first act.
Summary: Little Kit's Driftwood Adventure is the tale of a young raccoon who lives in the cottonwoods next to a river but is afraid of the water. When land developers start capturing animals, Little Kit escapes on a piece of driftwood that floats downriver to a bayou where he is befriended by a snake, alligator, and pelican. They teach him how to swim and help him to get back home, where he rescues all the animals and saves the cottonwoods from development.
To be released soon in an eBook version with a follow-on animated film.
The Smiling Blue Moose: A hunter bear meets a smiling blue moose who is looking for a new friend. The moose is so friendly that the bear stops hunting and instead hangs out with the moose — playing games, having fun, and enjoying nature. However, after the fall colors change, it's time for the hunter to go home, leaving the moose again all alone. The moose is sad because he hasn’t anyone to play with anymore, so he’s looking for a new playmate and invites whoever is reading the book to become his new friend.
Soon to be released in an eBook version.
In the time yet to come, after humans became subservient, dominated by a revolution of machines collectively called The Apparatus…
The year, 2072.
The parents of three teenagers are unjustly arrested by the mechanical overlords and sentenced to 20-year prison terms on Mars. The teens make a pact to free their parents and in the process, restore humanity.
A three-part middle grade series (book trilogy) followed by an animated/live-action film franchise.
About
MICHAEL SKY DANLEY was born in Peoria, Illinois — a town so ordinary that Hollywood producers would famously ask, “But how will it play in Peoria?”
During his childhood, Sky’s father worked as a computer programmer for the company that built Apollo‘s Onboard Guidance Computer, a technological marvel that enabled mankind's greatest flight dream, soaring to the moon and back.
This engineering feat motivated Sky’s lifelong passion for aviation. Sky even attempted, with his childhood friend, to build a rocket propelled flying bicycle.
Continuing this passion, Sky attended Purdue University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, majoring in aerodynamics and minoring in rocket propulsion.
After completing a NASA/GE contract for the computer modeling of jet turbine air flow, Sky entered and served as a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, earning his wings as a USAF Pilot.
Sky later flew as a Captain for the legendary Trans World Airlines (TWA), an airline once owned by the famed Howard Hughes and forever christened “The Airline of the Stars.”
Also drawn to the Stars, Sky dreamed of producing and directing Hollywood stories, and with that goal, he enrolled at Harvard University and earned dual Master’s Degrees in Film/Studio-Arts and Business Management.
Concentrating on the business of creating story, Sky wrote his thesis while at the Walt Disney Studio in Burbank, California, where he documented and catalogued the unique creation process of Walt’s original 1930s story department, which emphasized the visual over dialogue.
Sky continues this visual story interest today, writing two award-winning children’s picture books and producing a gold-medal-winning animated film about an inventor moose who overcomes adversity and builds the world’s first flying machine, a cartoon Sky hopes will encourage today’s children to become tomorrow’s innovators, thus continuing a future where dreams can soar…
StoryDocs
Preface: I have a vast collection of historical story documents that I accumulated while studying for a Master’s Degree in Film and Studio Arts. It is my intention, as time permits, to make these documents digitally available here so all may use for research, as I did. Personally, I found them invaluable in learning the essential elements of visual story construction.
Also, reading the documents is almost like becoming a “historical fly on the wall,” being in the room as masterpieces are created.
If you find any potential transcription errors, please report to info@skydanley.com, and I will cross check against the archives. (Disclaimer, I’ve tried to be faithful to the original, and many times, the grammatical errors are within the original document.)
I am starting with the Walt Disney Snow White collection, and I don’t believe you can read through these documents and not walk away understanding the absolute genius of Walt Disney and his story construction process. The attention to detail and drive for betterment is unprecedented in anything I’ve ever studied.
After Snow White, I will move on to other productions as time permits.
Click on the hyper links below to go to the individual production groupings.