The Danish CEO and producer keeps creative decisions at home when working at the global animation scene.

Between productions, Irene Sparre will roll up her sleeves and take on every task imaginable, from sending out social media posts to being the office cleaning lady and the executive producer handling financing.

"If you have people on the payroll, you’re desperate to get projects greenlit…[but] when I am between productions, it is just me. I would love to have people on the payroll, but it’s too risky, far too risky,” she warns.

Sparre’s credits range from LEGO Ninjago® and LEGO Star Wars® franchises to recent hit animated series Team Nuggets. She also co-founded Nordic Technical Directors Forum (NTDF) in 2006.

How did you get into the animation business?

A group of people from my commune were doing local TV. I was making a teaser for their TV station just for the fun of it, storyboarding it out, using that as an entry ticket to getting interviews at the different animation studios in Copenhagen. Back then, there was no education system [for animation] as such. When they saw what they thought might be a potential talent, they would take people in and see if they could groom them into becoming artists. I got a job. I started working with A. Film, which at the time was (and still to this day is) the leading feature film studio in Denmark. That was in 1992.

Why did you move more toward managing and administration?

Usually production people had little to no knowledge of the actual creative process. They came up with all sorts of ideas, some of which would turn out counter-productive. I thought I could do it better.

At one particular time we had a production crisis on a 2D production partly being produced in Thailand. I had just returned from vacation there, and so the production management said: “Would you mind going back?” That was Jungle Jack 2 (Jungledyret 2 - den store filmhelt). I was there as director’s assistant, but basically I was production managing everything out there. I also realised that my creative skills were OK, but they weren’t original or outstanding, whereas my management skills, my semi-autistic compartmentalising, that was quite unique in that environment. I thought: ”OK, I probably have reached my max when it comes to creative stuff, but I can make a difference in the administrative area.” So I shifted.

How do you develop animation for young audiences, as you’ve done so successfully with Team Nuggets and other projects?

We do extensive target audience research. We engage with school classes, sports associations, after school clubs. We interact with the kids. We read up our scripts with them. We discuss our designs with them. We interview them on their opinions on this and that. In order to understand what is the common lingo among the kids, what is their interest, what is the favourite influence that this group is looking at; what is their taste is music and in TV shows. When we as professionals are sitting doing our work, we are not eight years old. We have no idea what an eight-year-old is interested in. So we’ve got to ask the real specialists – the kids.

So you conceive the project with the audience already closely in mind.

Yes. We already have a starting point, and then we would test it out with the audience and see how they react. We wouldn’t deviate from our initial intentions, but we would listen to the kids in terms of lingo, focus, and narrative processes. We also collaborate with children’s psychologists to make sure that when we deal with tough topics like bullying, exclusion, body shaming, divorce - things present in everyday life - we do it in a way that would involve and embrace the kids rather than alienate them even further.

Do you see a life for originals? You do your LEGO series, but do you manage to hold onto IP for other projects?

I definitely see a life for originals. You could say that what we currently have with Team Nuggets is an original. We co-own the IP with our French partner, Godo Films and DR. I definitely see it as very attractive - but if you are going to build your entire business on this, it is going to be shallow, because there will be a lot of downtime in between productions while struggling to get the next financing in place… I always have a split between foot work and heart work [done for the love]. I like to have that combination.

How did the LEGO work come to you?

It started off with Erik Wilstrup who had the company Wil Film. He was doing commercials for LEGO. At some point, LEGO wanted to venture into long format storytelling and were reaching out to Erik, asking if he’d be willing to do 4 x 11 minutes animation episodes. Someone advised him: ”OK, Erik, if you want to go down that route, you have to hire somebody who knows how to do these types of things.” He hired my company to run all the TV series, which added up to a total 3000 minutes over 8 years.

What are the pros and cons of 360 universes (film, TV, game, merchandising)?

On Team Nuggets, we’ve done different types of books. We’ve done an app game… We also have the original songs from the series on Spotify. There are elements that will hopefully co-feed into each other, but it’s all about getting the kids to click on the series and watch it.

Looking at your credits, you’ve done some major international projects, but you’ve always managed to keep your base in Denmark.

I have also been abroad on a couple of projects. It’s appealing when you’re free, you have no mortgages, no kids or other obligations. But once you start building on those things, you need to find a way to combine your work with the people you want to stay close to, your immediate family and friends. At the time I was engaged in A. Film, the Nordic animation scene was quite big, and A. Film was a significant player. We had quite a handful of projects on our slate, and all of those were co-productions. That meant we were working with people in France and Ireland and Germany, but we always kept a substantial amount of the work in Denmark, meaning we could stay in Denmark. When I created my own company and started working with Wil Film on the LEGO productions, we didn’t finance the projects ourselves. LEGO came up with the entire financing, but due to the experience I had in the Far East and with partners in other places than Denmark, we were distributing the work, keeping the most important creative decisions close to home. That means everything from modelling and concept artwork and design, storyboard and editing, [but] sending everything else out to Far East Asia.

How do you regard AI in animation? What are the pros and cons?

AI as a supplement to human brain thinking is interesting. I have been using AI when I’ve been doing workshops. Let’s say I have a writers’ workshop. I’ve got a project. I need to get X amount of creatives in the same room. We need to touch base on everything related to the initial talks and build a universe around this one piece, this IP or whatever. Then I would not use Chat GPT, as it is in my opinion biased and gender discriminating - I would use the AI called Claude if I were to draft an agenda on a specific topic - but I would always need to work over it again, because it doesn’t do the trick for you entirely. I know that the director and creators on Team Nuggets would also use Claude for instance when writing a statement in fluent, nicely phrased English, but it would always require an overhaul. There are always words here or there missing.

Can AI remove some of the repetitive drudgery of animation?

Those kinds of more repetitive tasks are not really on my table. What my company is doing is entirely developing and conceptualising in pre-production. There are no repetitive pieces of work in this process.

How do you work with Godo Films in France on Team Nuggets?

We are 50:50 co-producers. In Denmark we do pre-production, conceptualising, development, and Godo is focusing on post-production. We both do financing.

You’ve worked with some intriguing collaborators, for example Per Holst, the producer of live action Oscar winner Pelle The Conqueror (Pelle Erobreren).

He came to A. Film with Jungle Jack initially. He was the main producer on the three Jungle Jack films, and I was involved on all three. Per and I had a great collaboration. He is a legend from a whole different generation. I have so much respect for him. Per has a humungous international network from his 50+ years in the film business, so he can get to talk to anyone.

Is that the same for you? After your years in animation, you must be equally good at connecting and making things happen?

I have a huge network and also a big outreach to the technical side. Not that I understand everything on the technical side myself, but I have for 10 years organised the Nordic Technical Forum… I wouldn’t take credit for being up to date on anything on the technical side, but I know people who are, and who know what I stand for, and thus I can get the right people on board and aligned.

What would you say you stand for in animation?

I would say I stand for transparency, direct communication and no fuss. I always meet my deadlines, I always stay on budget, and I do not compromise the creative integrity.